Personal Goals

[Mr. B]

Ok that makes sense, about being able to see over the cover and having the stamina to break through the cover.

Maggie my lap pictured in my avatar is 55 lbs. Not sure how tall she is but it is funny to see her running through tall thick grass. About every five or six bounds she will make sure to lift her head above the grass. Sometimes it looks like she is on springs and bouncing through the cover.

When she gets in to the really thick grass around the edge of a wetland she does one of three things: break though it, burrow under it or pounce on it. The last time she pounced on it I think she knew there was a pheasnat there, not sure how the rooster made it out of the grass with a dog on top of it but it only made it a short distance.

[bigeyes]

I don't think that 55 is real small, bottom line is if you have a good dog they will jump, dive, wiggle, crawl, burrow or whatever it takes to get the bird anywhere. Btw my buddy has a female black lab and man are they fun to hunt roosters with, dang good pheasant dogs too!

[lawdog]

My labs are about 65 and 80 pounds respectively. Neither is small, both will go whereever they need to to flush pheasants.

[CodyDawg]

In my experience, the bigger dogs dont have the all day, every day stamina that many of the smaller breeds do. Not just on Day 1, but on Day 4, you can see the difference. It makes sense too as they just have to pull around that much more weight.

My brittany is now 14.5 years old, but when she was in her prime she never found cover that she couldnt handle at 45#s. It is just harder to get a big dog through the thick stuff as well. In my experience, they go like crazy for the first 6 hours then start to wear down and by day 3 you can tell the difference. But that is just my experience and I am sure there are individual dogs that dispel this theory.

[bigeyes]

Yes, I think that is true it depends on the dog, but I also think it depends on the weather a lot too. I release a fair amount of pen raised birds on a private farm for personal dog training starting each August and Early September. I can't and don't run him hard or long but after an hour or two I have caught him laying down under scrub brush for shade during a hunt. If it is 60 or above he really wears down quick, but it seems with mine the colder it is the better he is. Might have something to do with him wanting to keep moving and stay warm? I know if the temps are 30-40 and low 50's he goes all day and I have never seen him sit or lay down at the end of a hunt. I really think heat hurts dogs especially big ones and really any that are in bad shape/health. Remember a couple years ago in SoDak when the papers reported hundereds of dogs dieing on opening weekend with the warm temps.

[bigeyes]

Cody-btw you are a lucky guy, I only wish I could ever get out on a 4 day hunt. I don't think it has ever happend. Made a few 3 days in my life, but they are pretty rare, I am happy to get out for a day, 2 in a row is a bonus. That dang work, wife and walleye fishing keep getting in the way.

[CaptainMusky]

CodyDawg, I used to think that big dogs would lose energy too because of their size, in fact, my first GSP had that problem but that was due to the food I was feeding him.

At that time (20 years ago) I bought whatever was cheapest. He would crap like a goose and be tuckered out after the first 2 hours of hunting.

Larger dogs need different formulas of dog food, much like feeding a puppy. I have had GREAT success with Diamond Large Breed formula and I now feed my dogs every morning and night instead of just at night. It gets them used to eating in the morning and then they don't burn off most of the calories in their sleep.

Sounds simple enough now, but I sure learned my lesson after years of wondering what the heck I would do on the 3rd day of a trip. There are lots of excellent foods out there, I no longer buy the $5 a 50# bag at Mills. They eat less and crap less too. I do have to buy more fertilzer though!

[CodyDawg]

bigeyes,

I hear ya about the wife and work deal, but you get no sympathy from me if you go a-fishin'!! Yeah, I am lucky, no doubt about it. It is an annual trip for fathers and sons and it rocks. You learn a lot about dogs on Day 4, that is for sure. We had to tip a lab out of her crate to take a leak in the morning. But then she warmed up a little and was fine.

[Rost]

I usually shoot around 20 per year. My brother will easily shoot 60 back in MN. In my opinion, there's no such thing as "game hog" when it comes to pheasants. One bad winter, and they're gone anyway. So shoot em' while we got um.

And, as long as your not over your possession limit, your fine. We get to hunt 3 months out of the year and I am not about to pass up any oportunities.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the "hunt". It's not all about killing. IMO it's about having fun with my buds. But I will say it's more fun to limit than not.

In 3 hours I will be in my stand

[LuciandTim]

Well put Rost.

[buffalomark]

This is interesting, "Set a goal for roosters killed." I personally try to hunt 1 or 2 days a week, with one trip to SD and I take home 20 to 30, but have never counted my birds. I developed what I call my grading system for each day. I count number of flushes. I don't worry about roosters or hens since I can't control the ratio. 10 or less flushed is a grade of D. 11 to 15 bird flushed is a C. 16 to 20 is a B. 21 to 25 flushes is an A. Anything over that is an A plus. Last year I had two days of over 50 and one day I had 63! I mostly hunt alone and I enjoy just being out. I don't need the meat and I can buy better tasting birds it is not about the kill. I wish sometimes that I could practice catch and release.

[james_walleye]

Hey Buffalo how are the bird numbers up your way? My brother in law is from Rockford and is just getting into hunting. He really enjoys hunting behind my GSP and has even gone so far as too go look at buying a brittany but hasnt yet. I think part of the problem is he isnt sure how the hunting is up that way and isnt sure how easy land access is.

[buffalomark]

I haven't much this year. I am working a second job this year. Locally there birds, but there are lots of hunters. I only go locally if I can go during week. All of my spots are getting houses built on them or next to them making it very difficult to hunt. If i go quick I hit Paynesville or Kimball. I usually try to get west of Benson. Good Luck1