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S.davis
PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2021 5:34 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 14 Sep 2016
Posts: 68
Location: KC,MO

Was it the same type of bird you flushed out of the brushy ravine after all? They have a pretty distinctive wingbeat pattern (flap-flap-flap, glide).
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Riflemeister
PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2021 11:13 am  Reply with quote
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S.davis wrote:
Was it the same type of bird you flushed out of the brushy ravine after all? They have a pretty distinctive wingbeat pattern (flap-flap-flap, glide).


I just got a real short look at that bird from the ravine, but I was positive it was not a pheasant and it didn't give that sharptail chuckle on the flush. The plumage and short square tail looked similar. My guess that it was a prairie chicken was more of a process of eliminating all the other birds rather than thinking it was definitely a bird I'd never seen before. In my mind it had to be a prairie chicken because I could eliminate all the other suspects. It would have been a lot easier to identify if I'd had a good shot at it.
On that flap,flap, flap glide wing beat, I've noticed the same thing hunting sharptail and sage grouse. I'm not real sure I even saw that ravine bird for 3 wing flaps. The one I shot was still scratching for altitude and airspeed when I dropped it, so don't remember any distinct wing beat on that bird either.

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Riflemeister
PostPosted: Fri Oct 08, 2021 10:45 am  Reply with quote
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Dan my year old pup got a prairie chicken today, his first wild bird, and he handled it flawlessly. He held his point, tail and head high, while I pushed this 80 year old body up the hill to flush the bird and broke on the shot just the way he's been trained. The retrieve was to hand after a couple of victory laps around me. He's got all the tools and attitude to be a great gun dog. I just love that little pocket rocket. Win7stw is going to post the I love me picture for me this evening.

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win7stw
PostPosted: Fri Oct 08, 2021 5:53 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 30 Jul 2012
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Location: Central, ND


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Old colonel2
PostPosted: Fri Oct 08, 2021 6:31 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 07 Jun 2020
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Early season Prairie Chickens are hunted by walking them up with either flushing or pointing dogs. I have been doing it for decades.

Later Mid-October and later when they form into larger groups, walking up is less effective to ineffective. Then it becomes a pass shooting on flight lanes or trying to get them as they come into a known feeding field
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Riflemeister
PostPosted: Sat Oct 09, 2021 4:34 am  Reply with quote
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Old colonel2 wrote:
Early season Prairie Chickens are hunted by walking them up with either flushing or pointing dogs. I have been doing it for decades.

Later Mid-October and later when they form into larger groups, walking up is less effective to ineffective. Then it becomes a pass shooting on flight lanes or trying to get them as they come into a known feeding field


Thanks, that explains why I've been seeing covies of sharptail, but all the chickens have been singles. My dogs have really worked hard getting me on birds. I just can't imagine finding those birds as a single hunter walking the prairies without them. After the pup got his chicken yesterday,I took my 7 year old GSP who hunts closer and more deliberately and went back over the same half section of CRP to see how good the little rocket pup was and didn't find another bird. I'd thought all along that the pup had a nose to go with his speed and range, but now I'm sure of it. He's a keeper. Should be interesting to run him against some of those field trial dogs when I get home from this trip.

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