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Favored terrain to chase birds

  • Prairie/Grasslands

    Votes: 19 44.2%
  • High elevation shrublands

    Votes: 1 2.3%
  • Desert

    Votes: 5 11.6%
  • High elevation forest

    Votes: 1 2.3%
  • Lowland forest

    Votes: 4 9.3%
  • Ag/CRP

    Votes: 9 20.9%
  • Wetlands/bogs

    Votes: 1 2.3%
  • Sagebrush-steppe

    Votes: 2 4.7%
  • Tundra

    Votes: 1 2.3%

Favorite Terrain to Hunt Upland Birds

1876 Views 47 Replies 21 Participants Last post by  MissSkeeterRetriever
I haven't hunted everywhere, but have hunted allot of places, and was just curious as to where your favorite place to chase birds was.
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A fairly popular missing option in the poll…. :)

Wiregrass country it appears to me - is that S.GA or N. FL by chance?
Wiregrass country it appears to me - is that S.GA or N. FL by chance?
You know the neighborhood…. :p South Georgia; a pretty popular area for quail and upland hunting. Hunters pour into the area from all over the country during our Nov-Feb wild bird season…..

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You know the neighborhood…. :p South Georgia; a pretty popular area for quail and upland hunting. Hunters pour into the area from all over the country during our Nov-Feb wild bird season…..

Who, besides the private plantations has wild birds, especially with no limits? (I live about 10 minutes from Southwind in Attapulgus)
Who, besides the private plantations has wild birds, especially with no limits? (I live about 10 minutes from Southwind in Attapulgus)
You will not find any locations in the State of Georgia that have no bag limits on wild birds. In Georgia, as in every other State, the wildlife is technically owned and regulated by State and federal laws, as compared to some foreign countries, such as England and South Africa, where the landowner owns the game. Most hunting preserves where pen-raised quail are released before the hunters begin their pursuit, are a completely different structure. Since the birds are not wild and were raised privately, the normal hunting regulations do not apply. FWIW, for wild birds the normal State hunting regulations require a small game hunting license, there's a bag limit, and the season runs from the 3rd Saturday of Nov- thru the end of Feb. On preserves, the season runs from 10/1-3/31 and there are no bag bag limits beyond something that the preserve, by chance, happens to set.

In general, and this is more of a philosophical one, you'll rarely see quail hunters take anywhere close to a daily bag limit. Aside from the difficulty of doing so (those buggars are fast!), the respect of the highly limited resource causes most wild bird hunters to severely moderate such a heavy pursuit of quail that they may get anywhere near an individual daily limit, even should they be hunting at a place that has such a large wild bird population. Again, I'd characterize that as just a personal philosophy.

Georgia does have some fairly good public land hunting. I know several people that have had a really good season hunting them. That said, remember that most wild bird quail hunters do not measure their success based on how many birds they kill.
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Gentlemen,
I agree with springhill 100%, never measure a good hunt by the number of birds you kill, you can be assured that most all Grouse & Woodcock hunters never use bird kill numbers to judge whether they had a good hunt to not. Most ethical Quail hunters are the same way. In fact as traditional Grouse hunters we judge our great Grouse & Woodcock hunting days, on bird contact numbers, whether we have a chance to gun the birds or not.

There is a lot more to bird hunting than just killing birds. In fact most Grouse & Woodcock hunters would not even hunt if the beautiful dog work were taken away from the hunt. The actual gunning of the wild birds is only part of a great hunt. In fact many young Grouse & Woodcock hunters go several seasons before they are good enough in the woods to kill a wild Grouse. Even when hunting released Pheasant and Chukar, the number of birds killed should never be how the hunt is judged.

IMO an ethical sportsman should never worry about shooting his limit, unfortunately some young sportsman seem to be afflicted with this aspect of hunting, with experience most upland hunters grow out it, and some never do.

In our family as young boys the ethics of hunting was a big part of learning how to respect Gods gifts to us as human beings, and we were taught never to abuse the Lords gifts. Our incredible mountains, the wild life in them and the dogs we are granted ownership of, are all part of our traditional Grouse & Woodcock hunting, and all part of our upland shooting life.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

A good book for learning some of the Upland Shooting Life, by GBE
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Gentlemen,
I agree with springhill 100%, never measure a good hunt by the number of birds you kill, you can be assured that most all Grouse & Woodcock hunters never use bird kill numbers to judge whether they had a good hunt to not. Most ethical Quail hunters are the same way. In fact as traditional Grouse hunters we judge our great Grouse & Woodcock hunting days, on bird contact numbers, whether we have a chance to gun the birds or not.

There is a lot more to bird hunting than just killing birds. In fact most Grouse & Woodcock hunters would not even hunt if the beautiful dog work were taken away from the hunt. The actual gunning of the wild birds is only part of a great hunt. In fact many young Grouse & Woodcock hunters go several seasons before they are good enough in the woods to kill a wild Grouse. Even when hunting released Pheasant and Chukar, the number of birds killed should never be how the hunt is judged.

IMO an ethical sportsman should never worry about shooting his limit, unfortunately some young sportsman seem to be afflicted with this aspect of hunting, with experience most upland hunters grow out it, and some never do.

In our family as young boys the ethics of hunting was a big part of learning how to respect Gods gifts to us as human beings, and we were taught never to abuse the Lords gifts. Our incredible mountains, the wild life in them and the dogs we are granted ownership of, are all part of our traditional Grouse & Woodcock hunting, and all part of our upland shooting life.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

A good book for learning some of the Upland Shooting Life, by GBE
Read a lot of GBE but my favorite is Havilah Babcock...1cas
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