One hundred and fifty years ago, the people of Germany struggled to create a united nation out of a patchwork of tiny kingdoms, city-states, and fiefdoms. Around the same time, german hunters also struggled to create a national breed of short-haired pointing dog. Eventually, both goals were realized. 

Today, Germany is a rich and united republic and the German Shorthaired Pointer sits in triumph as the most successful continental pointing breed in the world.

Read more at projectupland.com.

The Kansas Flint Hills prairie rose 100 feet above the low-lying soybean field I was hunting. Each day, two groups of greater prairie-chickens screamed down from the grasslands and into the field to feed at unbelievable speeds. I had these birds dialed in; I knew exactly which electric pole they flew past every morning. I was set up well before dawn, ready to pass-shoot them.  

The first group came in well in advance, but I was unprepared for how fast they were. I missed, wildly behind. I adjusted my swing on the next group, got lucky, and dropped a bird at the tail end of the group. Was it the bird I was shooting at? Probably not. But in any case, I had my first late season chicken. 

That chicken hunting experience was more like pass-shooting waterfowl than upland bird hunting, but it was utterly unique and incredibly fun. Every upland hunter should try it. These tips will help you connect on a greater prairie-chicken during the late season.

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While people will always disagree about which breed is the “handsomest and perhaps the most generous,” everyone agrees that trying to follow all the twists and turns of the setter’s creation story is more or less impossible. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn something more about them by taking a look at some of the more interesting, and even surprising, stops along the way. 

 In 1872, Edward Lavarack, the father of the modern English setter answered the question by writing “… the setter is nothing more than the setting spaniel improved.” Ok, so setters are spaniels that, at some point were “improved” to become setters. But what exactly is a setting spaniel, and what exactly were the “improvements” that turned them into setters? 

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When I started hunting waterfowl, diver ducks seemed like the most expensive birds to target. YouTube videos worsened this impression. Everyone seemed to be hunting from extravagant blinds while utilizing an infinite number of bluebill and redhead decoys. It was baffling! How was a hunter on a limited budget supposed to compete with that? 

The truth is, small decoy spreads are very effective if you play your cards right and know your diver ducks. Let’s look at how we can decoy diver ducks on a budget.

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On a sunny day on the fall of 1990, I was aboard a train traveling through the beautiful countryside of northern Italy. As I watched the rich, green valley of the Po River pass by my window, I was reminded of an area where I hunt ruffed grouse near my home in Manitoba. I couldn’t help wondering what kind of game could be hiding in the root crops and corn.

During one of the many unscheduled train stops in the middle of nowhere, for unknown reasons, I noticed a man walking in the field about 200 meters from the track. He was carrying what I assumed to be a shotgun and appeared to be following a hedgerow that angled toward us. Un cacciatore, I thought, a hunter!? As I pressed my nose against the window to get a better look, I could see that the hunter was not alone; he had a dog. It was fairly large, had an orange and white coat, and was about 50 meters to the hunter’s left, trotting along the other side of the hedgerow.

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In the southeast, by mid-December, most hunters turn their attention away from whitetail deer and solely focus on waterfowl hunting. Wood ducks and Canadian geese can be found anywhere there’s water. Many folks decoy puddle ducks and divers on the coastal plains, and lakes offer great opportunities for mallards and teal. But there is one migratory bird that most waterfowlers rarely glimpse: the American woodcock. 

Woodcock arrive in the South each fall under the cover of darkness. By sunrise, they are tucked away in dense cover. However, if you don't mind putting a few miles on your boots beside a good bird dog, hunting American woodcock in the southeast is a great way to get out of the blind and into the woods.

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Until the mid-1800s, no one set out to create a rough-haired breed from scratch by systematically crossing dogs with different coat types. But the idea of deliberate crosses had been around since at least 1825 when Freiherr (Baron) v. d. Borch wrote in Yearbook for Forest Men, Hunters and Friends of Hunting, “It is noteworthy that crossing the pudel and the pointing dog would unite and maintain the excellent drive by the virtues of both types.”

In 1881, German hunters began systematically cross-breeding Pudels and Pointers. The Pudels used in the original crosses differed from the Poodles we have today. The German Pudel was a hunting breed known for its keen love of water, strong retrieving instinct, and sharpness on predators. The Germans eventually created a superb gun dog breed named the Pudelpointer. 

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Nothing gets my blood flowing more than hunting upland birds in November and accidentally flushing a snowshoe hare. Each fall, early season snowshoe hare hunting catches me off guard. Seldom am I ready for those first wild flushes that mark the beginning of hare season.

Snowshoes are commonly found in the same places as ruffed grouse and spruce grouse. To top it off, they will test your shooting capabilities to their fullest. You think shooting a ruffed grouse busting through the alders is tough? Try hitting a snowshoe hare that’s just as fast but sprints across the ground.

Increase the odds of adding a hare to your game bag before the snow comes with these tips.

Read more at projectupland.com.

Project Upland’s annual North American Upland Bird Hunting Survey ended earlier this year. What better way to share our data than by starting a brawl over the most popular bird dog breeds? 

The hunting dog world is full of personal biases, and our survey results reflected our community’s diverse preferences. When asked, “What type of hunting dogs do you own?,” 53.69% of respondents said pointing, 32.84% said versatile, 19.37% said retriever, 11.11% said spaniel, and 1% said hound.

Although pointing dogs have retained the #1 spot seven years in a row, the number of versatile dog owners has increased slightly and the number of spaniel and retriever owners have decreased slightly. We won’t let our dog breed snobbery enter the chat, but personally, we’re always happy to see pointing and versatile dogs in the number one and two spots, respectively.

Read more at projectupland.com.

Late-season ringneck hunting isn’t as glorious as opening weekend. Gone are the early season’s young, short-tailed roosters that make up most hunters’ game bags. Long marches across tall grasses or freshly cut crop fields no longer result in dozens of flushes and easy shots for walkers and blockers alike. Rarely do birds hold for solid points, allowing that classic upland experience to unfold for solo hunters. 

Instead, birds have been pressured hard, and many of the naive young-of-the-year birds have been harvested. Birds abandoned short cover and crop fields due to winter weather conditions and holed up in thick grass, cattail sloughs, and woody windbreaks for protection. Additionally, due to heavy hunting pressure, roosters are prone to run from approaching hunters or flush too far away for an ethical shot. 

This all sounds discouraging, right? Even so, my favorite time to hunt pheasants, besides the first two opening weeks, is the late season. While it’s not easy, pheasant hunting late in the year can be wildly successful. 

Read more at projectupland.com.