New to pheasant hunting-need advice?

[JasonsZ06]

I'm new to bird hunting, and would greatly appreciate some advice about pheasant hunting. I have a newly trained, almost 12 month old lab that I'll be taking with. Would I be best off going over east somewhere and trying to find a place to hunt on public land or try to get access to private land? It'll be as much for my pup as it is for me, as he absolutely loves birds/retrieving. I think I have most, if not all of the equipment that I need already.

[taggbro]

If it were me, I'd first of all go to one of those pheasant release hunting farms in central oregon. Get the pup some easy meat so to speak. After the pup gets used to what it is supposed to do, go find some wild birds to hunt on public land. Pendleton, heppner, john day areas all have a fairly decent pheasant population. Yakima valley is pretty good too.

Have fun!

[Hawk]

Equipment wise, plenty of orange on the jacket and hat, good boots, and check the other thread for gun stuff.

The preserves around Maupin and Wamic would be nice, but they are pretty spendy. We've hit Sauvie Island for the fee hunting (now closed) and EE Wilson (haven't seen a bird yet!), and we are heading east on Friday for the big opener.

[billc_sbio]

Hmm...I'm not so sure how good of an idea it will be to just go turn your young dog loose on a bunch of wild (wily) birds?!!

The thing you're looking at wanting to avoid is for it to just get "birdy" and take OFF chasing these things (great fun!) and flushing them wild.

(Remember it's easier to train good habits in than to UNtrain bad habits out)

I'm not trying to discourage you from wanting to take it, but you'd like to get a handle on the dog's handling first.

Ideally you're wanting to teach the dog to quarter, that means go back and forth, left and right out in front of you...AND to stay CLOSE!

So you either want to work with your dog back and forth, using hand signals and/or your whistle to teach it to turn.

And you want to do this all WITHOUT birds.

Ideally you'd like to have very good CONTROL of your dog, and this usually takes a while to get this trained in.

Often you have to use a long check cord (a horse training Lunge Line works good) to get this working initially.

My current little Lab is now just over 2-1/2 and she's picking this up pretty well, but then she likes to stay close and I've never had to use a line on her.

My 2nd Lab, who was an Upland Bird hunting fool, took a few years of hunting before I was able to whistle her to a stop once she was on a running Pheasant... She was really good, but if a few roosters started running out in front of her, hold on! She was locked on and there was no getting her back!

Anyway, I'd say just take it easy turning your young dog loose on a bunch of wild birds WITHOUT proper field work first. If things didn't work out the way you wanted, it could be a pretty frustrating experience for you.

But you say your dog is "trained"...so maybe you've already done this?

If so, have at it and enjoy your hunt!

[Tilla]

Work hard, wade into it all the way up to your neck! If it doesn't look inviting, that's where you should go!

[Buglemn]

not central oregon it sucks, try fishers or equivalent.

[lentz]

I've heard that a good way for a dog to leaern is learning from a seasoned dog. If you have a friend with a good dog then take them along. The best places to go are private. The public places get hit real hard because the few and far between.