Favorite Terrain to Hunt Upland Birds

Multiflora said:

Forgive the shift...
...worst terrain w/cover to hunt(with a birddog that points):
flat-ish w/cattails, pre-freeze

ok...now I feel better.

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I'd say cattails any time of the year. I refuse to wade into those blasted things!

Pine Creek/Dave said:

upland dan,
We do not actually have high mountain forests in Pa, however they are not low land either. I checked high mountain forests because our Pa forest are extremely old and about 3000 plus feet high of rugged terrain. Great Grouse & woodcock habitat.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

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I guess the experts call Pennsylvania forests temperate forests. I just did a brief read. Kind of interesting.

Pine Creek/Dave said:

upland dan,
We do not actually have high mountain forests in Pa, however they are not low land either. I checked high mountain forests because our Pa forest are extremely old and about 3000 plus feet high of rugged terrain. Great Grouse & woodcock habitat.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

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Dave, if you felt inclined, I'd like to see some more pics of the forest up in your country.

Pine Creek/Dave said:

...I checked high mountain forests because our Pa forest are extremely old...

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Small point David, but I suspect you meant that the Appalachian mountains are old....the forests certainly are not, the forests are thankfully comparably young and diverse, which is why the ruffed grouse population booms and, to a degree, busts.

Having the spine of the Apps slicing thru the Commonwealth has served PA bird hunters well...you are lucky.

My favorite is something up to about knee high in which I can see the dogs run and slam on point. I have taken the vast majority of the birds mentioned in the other thread in such cover.

My absolute favorite cover to watch the dogs is a cut wheat or barley field in Hun and sharptail country. It's tough to get inside 60 yards of the birds in such places but one can see every movement of the dogs in the ankle high stubble.

I just remembered this is my second favorite cover. It is beat out by an alfalfa field that had "seeding strips" left up. The cut part was ankle high but the strips were maybe half way up the shin anda foot thick. The sharpies and Huns held pretty well if tucked up to the taller grass. There was only one field like that in the area and it was plowed over a couple years later as the alfalfa did not take well.

Wherever the birds are.

Another shift...39-40 degrees, bit of a breeze, damp enough to smell the cover, overcast, 10:15 or 4:10, October or December, breakfast was bacon you could tie into a knot and gas station coffee.
Whatever and wherever the cover...there was a history of dogs and birds, friends, hits and misses, there was a sense of change and a sense of continuance, there was a recognition of being there.

uplanddan said:

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Here's a few snippets from the forest where we live.

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Very nice! Where is that view?

oneounceload said:

Very nice! Where is that view?

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Western Wyoming

doggiecareman said:

Wherever the birds are.

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You might change your mind if it’s below freezing, a foot of snow and you are breaking trails though cattail marshes and occasionally breaking through the ice and getting wet chasing late season pheasants. Done that and will still do it, but it’s my least favorite. Give me that easy upland early season grass all day.

My favorite area to Upland hunt is about 30 minutes due north of Emmett, Idaho. Depending on the terrain, you can find Pheasants, Hungarian Partridge, California Quail and if you get in some elevation you can find Chukar too.

*

CRP for pheasants with a good bird dog is amazing.


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Pine Creek/Dave said:

UplandDan,
We usually do not take a lot of pictures of our Grouse hunting areas, so we do not give away their locations.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Here are some for ya. Many of the steeper mountains we hunt we do not take pictures of to keep our coverts from being known.

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Looks beautiful