projectupland.com On The Go

Dove season. You’re sitting there, twiddling your thumbs. The little grey rockets have not presented a shot since early that morning, but you’re determined to put a few more in the bag. Waiting. Sitting. I mean, is there a law saying you have to sit here?

Look, I’m gonna run something by you. It’s a little weird, but hear me out. Let’s try something different. Let me ask you a question: rather than waiting for pass-shooting opportunities, have you ever walked up on doves? Walk-up. Jump-shoot. Kick-up. Flush. Whatever you call it, sometimes the traditional pass-shooting method isn’t going to cut it and walking-up on those doves is going to prove to be a lot more effective. When it gets slow out in the field, nothing gets birds in the air more effectively than some brush kicking!

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As we stare down the barrel of the 2019 upland bird season, thoughts of long days in the field following our favorite hunting partner come to mind. Right now my time is spent working dogs on wild birds and getting them acclimated to the ground and temperature as well as in the physical condition required to start an upland season. I like to wait until August to run dogs on wild birds, making sure the birds are plenty old enough to escape the vigorous drive of a dog wanting to capture its prey. 

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The calendar might say that fall is still a month away,  but the cooler breezes and shorter days have a different story to tell. For some, the beginning of Fall is marked by an overabundance of pumpkin-spiced, well . . . everything, hitting the shelves, but for many more the start of fall is opening day of the season, whether that be dove, goose, or early teal. 

Here at Project Upland, fall kicks off when the Fall issue of the magazine hits your mailbox. Here’s a sampling of some of the great stories this issue has in store...

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There are truly two versions of this question of wild turkeys, one in the cultural sense and the other in the legal sense. Legal sounds very uptight but meant in state law standards, as most states list wild turkeys as upland game. They are in fact part of Phasianidae family, which is home to our beloved grouse species, chukar and even pheasant. Many of us have seen the ruffed grouse behave like an old strutter with just as much confidence (and no turkeys do not effect ruffed grouse populations). But in the cultural sense, wild turkeys are in essence part of a very different world than the upland community.

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For many of us, upland bird hunting often brings to mind vivid images of years past, of handsome English setters and German shorthairs—paw up, tail straight—poised behind a pheasant or grouse holding tight, waiting for the flush. At least that’s what I always envisioned upland bird hunting to be. That is, until I brought home my first gundog, a field-bred golden retriever. Have you considered a flushing dog as your next hunting buddy? Walking the fields behind a flushing dog is an exciting experience, although quite different than that of a pointing dog. 

The decision was easy for me: I was lucky. I grew up with beagles—great hunting dogs in their own right, although ours never hunted (except for the stray rabbits that wandered too far into the yard) and knew that I wanted a dog that could hunt, but birds instead of rabbits. Nobody in my family hunted the uplands, but the romance of it always intrigued me. I did, however, grow up with a friend who had a large, majestic golden retriever, and the allure of the retriever always got to me. 

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The pet food aisle is a daunting place. Carefully crafted marketing serves up equal doses of promise and guilt. Feed your dog like family! Unleash the inner wolf! Never feed an ingredient you can’t pronounce! It’s enough to make a conscientious dog owner throw up her hands in defeat.

If you stick with the same dog food month after month, you’re relying on that one product to provide everything your dog needs on a daily basis. Your only tool for assessing results is your power of observation – does your dog seem to have enough energy? Are there any obvious signs of an allergy? Does it seem like everything is getting processed appropriately? Your dog certainly can’t tell you – and if they’re anything like my dogs, you could probably serve a bowl of gravel and have them happily wolf it down. It’s difficult to know how to make the best choice.

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Mention upland bird habitat and more than likely images of thick emerging stands of aspen, endless rows of CRP, or the pinewood flats of a Southern quail plantation come to mind. But wet soggy ground, mud, cow pastures, and river banks? Not if your pursuit is grouse or pheasant, but most certainly if you are looking for snipe. If you are new to snipe hunting or think it’s a childhood prank, the Wilson’s Snipe-Upland Game Bird Profile is a great place to start. Before we dive into locating snipe habitat, let’s start with some fast facts:

• Snipe are a global bird, found across North America, Europe, and Asia
• The Wilson's snipe (Gallinago delicata) is found in North America
• The Common snipe (Gallinago gallinago) is found in Europe and Asia
• Snipe are migratory birds, reaching as far south as Central America, Africa, and the Middle East
• In the U.S., every state but Hawaii has a snipe season
• The migration typically starts in late September, after the teal migration

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Few things are more satisfying than a perfect shot. The skill required is a product of sound basic techniques, perfect practice and smoothly honed reactions, but these don’t come overnight. First, you must know what it is you need to practice; only then can you do something about it. In shooting, as in other endeavours, ignorance prevents progress.

As a professional coach over the last 30 plus years, I have regularly seen shooters struggling with the same basic problems – stance, gun mount, eye dominance or gun fit. Sometimes they will need to correct just one of these; at other times, a combination.

Let’s look at the most important of all the “basics” that needs to be perfect: the ‘Gun Mount.’ This is the bedrock of all good shooting – get it wrong and you’ll never produce your best, no matter how many cartridges you put through the barrels.

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