My Dog Hunts - Upland Birds

By Randy ShepardSociety & Culture Sports Leisure Places & Travel Wilderness

My Dog Hunts - Upland Birds episodes

September 18, 2025 More South Dakota Pheasants, Grouse & Huns 2024
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Chaos & Mayhem Opening week of South Dakota's pheasant season.
MY DOG HUNTS - Upland Birds
The personal and online chronicle of your bird dog's hunting career.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

41 min
February 08, 2025 South Dakota Huns, Sharptails & Pheasants
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MY DOG HUNTS - Upland Birds
The personal and online chronicle of your bird dog's hunting career.

Chaos & Mayhem in South Dakota. Lots of grouse, huns, pheasants and hunters too! Several day hunts from five weeks spent in South Dakota last season.
"One morning I left the truck at 11:00 with Mayhem and was back before noon with the three bird limit. A clean triple of sharptails. A couple hunters stopped to chat as I was stowing birds. They said their pointers had moved about 80 birds that morning and they got one. I didn’t tell them that Mayhem flushed one covey of 7 and I shot three."
A few days having fun with my buddy Russ. A 3 species day with Chaos and a combo limit of sharps and pheasants. More South Dakota hunts in the next episode.
58 min
January 02, 2025 Chukar, Huns & Quail in Oregon & Nevada
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MY DOG HUNTS - Upland Birds
The personal and online chronicle of your bird dog's hunting career.
Spent 8 days chasing chukar, Huns and valley quail in Oregon and Nevada. Lots of birds but not so great dog work. Still had a good time and can't wait to return next year. The quail saved the trip. Lots and lots of quail. No dual limits in this episode, but still a lot of fun.
MY DOG HUNTS - Upland Birds
The personal and online chronicle of your bird dog's hunting career.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

46 min
December 09, 2024 Ruffed Grouse & Woodcock Combo Limit
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MY DOG HUNTS - Upland Birds
The personal and online chronicle of your bird dog's hunting career.

This was in the "good ol' days" of ruffed grouse hunting in southeast Minnesota. Back when the daily bag limit for woodcock was 5 birds. Hunting with a buddy Russ and his lab Char, we shot 19 ruffs and 14 woodcock in two days of hunting.
I had tried for several years for this combination limit. It was tough because it was a lucky day for me to even see five woodcock in a long day of hunting. I've been told that was because the majority of migraters funneled down the Mississippi River bottomlands, rather than dispersed across the landscape as they are further north. Another case of me trying to shoot birds where they weren't.
I've had good luck, sometimes underserved, that's allowed me to take a few of my dual limits, but this was exceptional luck.
31 min
February 27, 2024 Iowa Pheasants
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MY DOG HUNTS - Upland Birds
The personal and online chronicle of your bird dog's hunting career.

Several 2023 pheasant hunts in Iowa. Chaos and Maybe both got limits. Lots of birds! We even shot a few sharptails in Montana.
52 min
January 30, 2024 Pheasant & Sharptails South Dakota 2023
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MY DOG HUNTS - Upland Birds
The personal and online chronicle of your bird dog's hunting career.
Seven days hunting pheasants and sharptails in South Dakota with Maybe and Chaos. The dogs were too clownish to compliment, but with my expectations, they did just fine. We even took a couple of combo limits of grouse and pheasants.

I threw in a short story about a ruffed grouse hunting mishap that I hope won't cause you to question my sanity.
48 min
November 08, 2023 Idaho 2023 Huns & Sharp Tails
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MY DOG HUNTS - Upland Birds
The personal and online chronicle of your bird dog's hunting career.
Chaos & Maybe Exploring Idaho for next trip from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Took a couple of newbies on sharp tail hunts (lots of birds!) and looked for better partridge hills than I've hunted in the past.

Both dogs earned Story Bands for 1st Idaho Sharptail and 1st Daily Bag Limit of Idaho Sharptails.

Spent most of this fall in South Dakota for pheasants and sharptails (Maybe earned 4 new Story Bands) and Iowa for pheasants (Maybe earned two more new Story Bands). South Dakota was very good and Iowa continues to be very good. I'm sure South Dakota will be very good again, if I can make it back.

These stories will be in upcoming episodes.

46 min
May 06, 2023 Critter's Double Limit of Pheasants, N&S Dakotas
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MY DOG HUNTS - Upland Birds
The personal and online chronicle of your bird dog's hunting career.
I can't say too much good about "Critter". She hunted the tail end of the southern Minnesota/Iowa ruffed grouse years, the best Kansas and Nebraska pheasant years, and a half dozen Dakota years.

This hunt was a seat of my pants exploration into northern South Dakota. I was looking for a new area for pheasants and sharptails, and we found it. The strange thing is, in the following days, I found an even better area that I've spoken of in several other episodes. If you like pheasants and sharptails, you'll enjoy this talk. If you like springer spaniels, you'll love this hunt.

24 min
April 23, 2023 Miss Bodet and Pheasants - Iowa, Minnesota & South Dakota
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MY DOG HUNTS - Upland Birds
The personal and online chronicle of your bird dog's hunting career.
Miss Bodet, took 3-roosters in Iowa & 2 in Minnesota in the same day on public land. Then on another trip I knocked on doors in South Dakota and shot limits of pheasants for 6 days, without paying a fee.

Bo was only a couple years old on these hunts.
37 min
April 10, 2023 RUFFED GROUSE & PHEASANTS - Minnesota Combination Limit
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MY DOG HUNTS - Upland Birds
The personal and online chronicle of your bird dog's hunting career.
Yeah, I was a whole lot younger back then, and those two pups were pretty special dogs.

Critter & Woogs as pups, hunting ruffed grouse in southeast Minnesota and pheasants in southcentral Minnesota. This was the first time that I tried to take this combination limit, instead of just hoping it would happen. There were several days over those years, that I took the 5-bird limit of ruffs, but only got one pheasant, while grouse hunting. I finally accepted that if I was ever going to take this combination limit, I would have to drive to pheasants.

Just a few days after this hunt, I tried to duplicate the same combination limit in Iowa, with the pups. We took the 3-bird limit of ruffed grouse in Iowa in less than an hour. Shot a Hun in the first pheasant field. Had two pheasants an hour later, then chased a partial albino pheasant the rest of the day. We flushed that albino three times within 40 yards, but I never could be certain it was a rooster. I should have just shot one of the several normal roosters the pups flushed. But that's me, always trying to make a normal hunting day into a special one and a special day into a never before heard of day.

Well if that wasn't my nature, I wouldn't have had the special days that I talk about, and wouldn't feel like I had anything to offer on podcasts, that all the other guys aren't doing.
26 min

About My Dog Hunts - Upland Birds

From the publisher's feed

Where-to, how-to and when-to bird hunting advice on pheasant, partridge, ruffed grouse, sharptails, prairie chickens and quail, Host Randy Shepard has bird hunted from Oregon to Wisconsin to New…

Mexico and Arizona. He's taken 15 different combination limits and four different double limits of upland birds across the mid-west. He's never hired a guide, leased land, hunted as a guest or engaged in a swap hunt, while in pursuit of dual limits. All self-made, self-planned hunts, on public (and a little bit of private) land.

My Dog Hunts, isn’t your typical upland bird hunting podcast. You won’t find 20, or even one minute of advertising in my episodes. I’m not trying to convince you that if you buy this gun and that ammunition you’ll become a better shot. That if your dog comes from this line and travels in that crate, he’ll be a better hunter. And if you “Friend” me, you’ll be hunting all these wonderful covers and shooting birds in numbers you’ve only dreamed of. Nope, that ain’t My Dog Hunts.

My goal in presenting the My Dog Hunts podcast, is to encourage each of you to hunt - more birds - in more states – more often. And to buy more hunting licenses! I believe that the most important investment that each of us can make for the future of bird hunting, is in the purchase of multiple, bird hunting licenses. Lots and lots of licenses.
Hopefully, my stories will convince you to do just that. After listening to my successes, you’ll realize that taking a daily bag limit of birds, even as a non-resident, can be a realistic goal for you.

I’m as close to a trophy hunter as an upland bird hunter can be. I’ve been pursuing combination and double limits of upland birds for more than 40 years. My hunts have never been about amassing large numbers of birds in a season. I believe that season numbers are more a reflection of time, access and money. Enablers that I’ve never had in abundance.

In the beginning, my interest in taking dual limits was a private matter. Dual limits have never been a recognized activity, and there’s no one out there keeping score. In fact, I don’t even have pictures of many of the dual limits I’ve taken. Those hunts were always between myself and my dogs.

Then my intent changed. I continued in protest of the commercialization of upland bird hunting. All of the attempts to convince recreational hunters, that they have to spend thousands of dollars on gear, guns, dogs and access, to be successful. My stories will convince you that you don’t need to buy expensive crap to be successful. Dollars don’t make you a better hunter. Planning and practice are what it takes to be successful.

You’ll find that I adhere to very strict rules in pursuing dual limits. All of my bird hunts are self-made, self-planned hunts on public and a little bit of private land. Every trip and hunt that I share is available to any of you willing to travel and walk the miles I have.

Give My Dog Hunts a listen, and start planning for your best bird season ever.