On The Wing Podcast

This is the second episode of Pheasants Forever’s 15th annual Rooster Road Trip. Host Bob St.Pierre is joined for the conversation by PF’s Vice President of Marketing Andrew Vavra, PF’s North Dakota State Coordinator Emily Spolyar, and North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s Upland Game Supervisor Jesse Kolar.

Episode Highlights:

• Kolar provides status reports for North Dakota’s pheasant, sharp-tailed grouse, Hungarian partridge, sage grouse, and prairie chicken populations, along with an overview of current habitat conditions.

• Spolyar and Kolar also provide excellent tips for selecting hunting spots from the road with specific examples of the types of attributes they look for in cover to find upland birds.

• Check out the companion video accompanying this podcast episode at www.RoosterRoadTrip.org. While there, enter to win a Browning Citori 825 shotgun and join/renew/extend your Pheasants Forever or Quail Forever membership featuring the new Browning Bird & Buck knife.

And special thanks to our Rooster Road Trip 2024 sponsors

• Browning

• Orvis

• SoundGear

• Ruff Land Kennels

• Federal Ammunition

• Garmin

• YETI

• Irish Setter

onX Hunt is a proud supporter of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever and they want to thank everyone who gives back to the birds we all love to hunt and the places they call home. Click this link to get a free month of onX Hunt and then use code PFQF to get 20% off, and a portion will go back to supporting Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s wildlife habitat mission.

This is the first episode of Pheasants Forever’s 15th annual Rooster Road Trip. True to Rooster Road Trip’s foundation since its creation in 2010, this year’s hunting occurs exclusively on publicly accessible lands. In this first podcast installment, host Bob St.Pierre is joined by PF’s Vice President of Marketing Andrew Vavra, PF’s North Dakota State Coordinator Emily Spolyar, and PF’s Social Media Coordinator Nate Akey to set the stage for this year’s trip and to recap the crew’s first day hunt.

Episode Highlights:

• Vavra, the only person to ever participate in all fifteen Rooster Road Trip events, explains the genesis behind the idea and talks about formulating this year’s plan to hunt across North Dakota.

• The crew take turns recapping the play-by-play from the first day’s hunt, while also offering thoughts about their favorite moment.

• Check out the companion video accompanying this podcast episode at www.RoosterRoadTrip.org. While there, enter to win a Browning Citori 825 shotgun and join/renew/extend your Pheasants Forever or Quail Forever membership featuring the new Browning Bird & Buck knife.

And special thanks to our Rooster Road Trip 2023 sponsors

• Browning

• Orvis

• SoundGear

• Ruff Land Kennels

• Federal Ammunition

• Garmin

• YETI

• Irish Setter

onX Hunt is a proud supporter of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever and they want to thank everyone who gives back to the birds we all love to hunt and the places they call home. Click this link to get a free month of onX Hunt and then use code PFQF to get 20% off, and a portion will go back to supporting Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s wildlife habitat mission.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Federal Ammunition’s Global Shotgun Shell Director Dan Compton and PF & QF’s Vice President of Corporate Partnership’s Chris Kalis for a conversation about shotshell ballistics, patterning a shotgun, and new ammunition innovations on the horizon.

Episode Highlights:

• Compton provides step-by-step guidance on how to pattern a shotgun with different distances, chokes, and shotshells.

• The guys also discuss Federal Ammunition’s creation of Prairie Storm in 2011 and how it almost got named “Ringneck Rocket.”

• Additionally, Compton reveals that Federal Ammunition will be releasing a bismuth and steel blend of Prairie Storm featuring the Pheasants Forever logo next year.

• Finally, Compton explains how Quail Forever members can help get more QF shotshells on store shelves.

onX Hunt is a proud supporter of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever and they want to thank everyone who gives back to the birds we all love to hunt and the places they call home. Click www.onxmaps.com/hunt/r/p56q9fg to get a free month of onX Hunt and then use code PFQF to get 20% off, and a portion will go back to supporting Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s wildlife habitat mission.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by “The Captain” Billy Hildebrand and his sons Erik and Chad Hildebrand for a discussion about the ingredients making opening day of a bird hunting season so special. The guys also recap the original PF & QF film, Opening Day, featuring the Hildebrand family’s Minnesota pheasant opener traditions.

Episode Highlights:

• “The Captain” Billy Hildebrand recounts the hilarious story of how he became the host of FAN Outdoors radio on KFAN more than 33 years ago.

• The guys share their favorite memories of bird dogs, hits, misses, mixed bags, wild game meals, and practical jokes. They also talk about their own reactions to watching the film for the first time.

• Thanks to SoundGear and SportDOG BRAND for sponsoring our first installment of our annual Opening Day film and podcast.

onX Hunt is a proud supporter of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever and they want to thank everyone who gives back to the birds we all love to hunt and the places they call home. Click this link to get a free month of onX Hunt and then use code PFQF to get 20% off, and a portion will go back to supporting Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s wildlife habitat mission.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by veterinarians Dr. RuthAnn Lobos and Dr. Seth Bynum for the second podcast installment of our “Ask a Vet” video series being presented by Purina Pro Plan to recap video episodes 7 through 12.

Episode Highlights:

Ask a Vet Episode 7 – How can I prevent bad breath? tinyurl.com/4uc5mpn4

Ask a Vet Episode 8 – How much should I feed my bird dog? tinyurl.com/56vv9dsf

Ask a Vet Episode 9 – How do I keep my bird dog fit year-round? tinyurl.com/yy43chb3

Ask a Vet Episode 10 – How do I keep my bird dog hydrated? tinyurl.com/5h463aut

Ask a Vet Episode 11 – How do you deal with heat stress in hunting dogs? tinyurl.com/yc835ce3

Ask a Vet Episode 12 – Should I give my dog the rattlesnake vaccine? tinyurl.com/33ns4c4c

onX Hunt is a proud supporter of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever and they want to thank everyone who gives back to the birds we all love to hunt and the places they call home. Click www.onxmaps.com/hunt/r/p56q9fg to get a free month of onX Hunt and then use code PFQF to get 20% off, and a portion will go back to supporting Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s wildlife habitat mission.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Quail Forever Journal Editor Ryan Sparks, QF Program Manager Andy Edwards, and Gun Dog Editor and host of Wild Upland on Outdoor Channel Kali Parmley to preview the 2024 quail hunting season. Each participant also offers their top four quail hunting tips for hunting any of America’s six species of quail during the inaugural game of Quail Hunting Battleship.

Episode Highlights:

• Ryan Sparks kicks off the conversation with an overview of Quail Forever’s 2024 Quail Hunting Forecast based upon input from 28 different states. Edwards follows up with the anecdotal reports he’s heard during conversation with biologists and QF chapter members across the country.

• Parmley talks about how she fell head over heels for bird hunting as an adult through the love of her first bird dog. She also discusses starting with a flushing breed and moving to pointers, and what she enjoys about both styles of bird dogs.

• The group covers a wide array of quail hunting tips, but Sparks steals the episode with his “smoke a cigarette” suggestion. How do lung darts and quail hunting go together? You’re just going to have to listen to this one for it to all make sense.

onX Hunt is a proud supporter of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever and they want to thank everyone who gives back to the birds we all love to hunt and the places they call home. Click this link to get a free month of onX Hunt and then use code PFQF to get 20% off, and a portion will go back to supporting Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s wildlife habitat mission.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Pheasants Forever Journal Editor Tom Carpenter, PF & QF Director of Communications Jared Wiklund, and Quail Forever Journal Editor Ryan Sparks to preview the 2024 pheasant hunting season. Each individual also offers their top four pheasant hunting tips during the inaugural game of Pheasant Hunting Battleship.

Episode Highlights:

• Tom Carpenter kicks off the conversation with an overview of Pheasants Forever’s 2024 Pheasant Hunting Forecast based upon biologist input from 22 different states. Wiklund follows up with the “word on the street” based upon anecdotal reports he’s heard in conversations with PF members, landowners, and partners across the country.

• The group covers a wide array of pheasant hunting tips from using the wind and being stealthy quiet to the best days of the week and times of the day to chase roosters.

• This also marks Purina Pro Plan’s inaugural episode as the presenting sponsor of On the Wing podcast. Thanks to Purina Pro Plan’s longtime commitment to PF & QF and our wildlife habitat conservation mission.

onX Hunt is a proud supporter of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever and they want to thank everyone who gives back to the birds we all love to hunt and the places they call home. Click this link to get a free month of onX Hunt and then use code PFQF to get 20% off, and a portion will go back to supporting Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s wildlife habitat mission.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Quail Forever Journal Editor Ryan Sparks for a visit with Danielle Prewett about her brand new book, “MeatEater’s Wild + Whole, Seasonal Recipes for the Conscious Cook.” Prewett also discusses her love affair with North Dakota, grasslands, and sharp-tailed grouse.

Episode Highlights:

• One of Prewett’s signature philosophies is that every meal tells a story. She writes about that philosophy in the new Fall 2024 edition of the Quail Forever Journal and explains how a meal is the final chapter to a story connecting people to birds to habitat. This philosophy also mirror’s Sparks’ vision for the Quail Forever Journal’s new recurring feature, “The Hunter’s Table.”

• Prewett also tells a hilarious story of ice fishing on Devil’s Lake during a brutally cold and windy North Dakota winter’s day.

onX Hunt is a proud supporter of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever and they want to thank everyone who gives back to the birds we all love to hunt and the places they call home. Click this link to get a free month of onX Hunt and then use code PFQF to get 20% off, and a portion will go back to supporting Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s wildlife habitat mission.

Host Bob St.Pierre visits with Matt Holland, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s vice president of grant development and a wildlife biologist, about the organization’s public land creation efforts in celebration of Build a Wildlife Area Week. The organization first created a public wildlife area in 1986. Since that time, PF & QF has worked on 1,810 different land acquisitions covering 229,846 acres of permanently protected habitat for wildlife. Those acres are now open to public recreation, including hunting.

Episode Highlights:

• St.Pierre approximates that Holland has played a role in the creation of 100,000 acres of public wildlife areas during his 28-year career with “The Habitat Organization.” In an oddly funny comparison, St.Pierre goes on to equate Holland to being a Swiss Army Knife and how sometimes he must be the blade and other times the toothpick to help facilitate a land acquisition.

• Holland shares news of $300,000 in matching contributions to help incentivize donations from listeners interested in becoming “Public Land Creators.”

• To learn more about PF & QF’s Build a Wildlife Area program and to get your hands on a new limited edition coffee mug, please go to www.PheasantsForever.org/BAWA or www.QuailForever.org/BAWA to learn more.

onX Hunt is a proud supporter of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever and they want to thank everyone who gives back to the birds we all love to hunt and the places they call home. Click this link to get a free month of onX Hunt and then use code PFQF to get 20% off, and a portion will go back to supporting Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s wildlife habitat mission.

Host Bob St.Pierre is joined by Quail Forever Editor Ryan Sparks for a discussion with professional upland photographers Brian Grossenbacher and Aaron Black-Schmidt. The conversation starts with Sparks sharing his vision for a photo essay to capture a quail hunt from the very beginning to the final meal. The final result of that concept appears in the current edition of the Quail Forever Journal and features multiple images from Grossenbacher and Black-Schmidt.

Episode Highlights:

• Grossenbacher kicks things off with the funny story behind the essay’s lead photo featuring a pair of legs wearing brush pants sticking out from under a jacked-up truck with a flat tire.

• Black-Schmidt, who is also PF & QF’s video production coordinator, talks about his philosophical approach to capturing film and still photography, while also offering practical tips for using the camera phone in everyone’s pocket.

onX Hunt is a proud supporter of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever and they want to thank everyone who gives back to the birds we all love to hunt and the places they call home. Click this link to get a free month of onX Hunt and then use code PFQF to get 20% off, and a portion will go back to supporting Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s wildlife habitat mission.