ArttuJ

Yeah I heard they imported Tikkas as ithacas for a some time. Valmet is not a bad shotgun either, for some reason I just prefer Tikkas. Both are surprisingly expensive still at least in here. Mine has full and modified also, seem to be quite basic configuration but same here, more like full and extra full. m77 is a great gun though.

I have a friend who hunts everything from grouse to deer with his really worn out 870 and with much better success than me. at the end of the day it is not about the gun, it's the shooter anyway.

Mickey Finn

ArttuJ, public lands are open to hunting as well as other outdoor activities. Some states have a lottery often called a draw for certain tags. Others may be purchased "over the counter". In some areas you can get permission to hunt on somebody's land simply by asking. This often works for me. Others lease the land for the season, or for a week or two.

ATB

rbduck

Although I live in Canada, our upland hunting sounds almost the same as my fellow hunters south of the border.
The only rifle we are allowed to use is a .22. Other than that shotgun and archery (in my province) is allowed, using all gauges and types of actions. We hunt over pointers and flushers most of the time while some do not use dogs at all. Most birds are shot on the wing while some are shot from trees or on the ground but this too is frowned upon.
We hunt both private and public land with 90% of our province being public with mostly open country while the top half is Boreal forest.
I usually hunt with four others as we make a full day of it and we enjoy the comradery .
Welcome to the forums.

Ron

MudderChuck

The older guy who taught me to hunt here in Central Germany took me Dove hunting. We go to set up next to a stand of old pine trees in the middle of farm lands. I check the wind and find me a spot near the forest edge facing outwards looking over the fields. He walks up to me and asked what I'm doing and said I'm waiting for a Dove to fly into the roost or leave to feed.

He laughed and said follow me, we light footed it through the trees, hiding and skulking until we spotted a bird in a tree. Those birds knew what the game was, hide and seek and were generally better at it than we were. I really think I would have bagged more birds doing it my way.

We usually take Pheasant or Grouse in a mass hunt, along with Rabbits, Hares, Fox and occasional Boar. Either a kettle hunt or a line hunt. Maybe 30 hunters, 20 dogs and twenty beaters. If it is organized well and everybody knows what they are doing it is a fun hunt. We may hunt one area once every three years this way. The hunt is controlled with a hunters horn, with certain signals blown. It can be dangerous with 50 people and twenty dogs in a relatively small area, shooting at moving targets. You really have to know what you are doing.

Sometimes we line hunt with fewer hunters and dogs, mostly for Pheasant.

Mickey Finn

We do something roughly like your line hunt in Northern Michigan (UP). Shooting grouse, woodcock, and Snowshoe hare's. For Dove in Texas, we used to sit out in sunflower fields or water holes at dusk. That was a lot of fun.

ATB

MudderChuck

I really enjoy Dove hunting. I own a piece of undeveloped property in So. Cal. between where the Dove feed, an aqueduct and where they roost. They cross my property 3-4 times in their daily routine. There is a saddle between two small hills and a couple of trees at the bottom of the slope for shade. Depending on how the wind is blowing they come through that saddle like a rocket. Dove are tasty.

Things have gone downhill lately. Everybody and there brother has a dirt bike or an ATV, the area used to be scrub desert, now anything that tries to grow gets flattened. A major city/county nearby incorporated what used to be a small farming town into the County and the County has a shooting and hunting ban on the books. Now I just pick up the trash and think about the old days. I'm technically in the County now.

Maybe they ought to have a season on dirt bikers.

The trouble with hunting them around here (in my area of Germany) is there are no defined flyways, food is in every direction and water is abundant. Setting up near a roost in the late afternoon is the only way to wing shoot.

Back in So. Cal I also really enjoy Jack Rabbit hunting with dogs. Scrub desert with plots of irrigated cattle feed and veggies. Hunt next to the Alfalfa fields and you see a lot of Rabbits. These aren't your typical scrawny Jack Rabbits, these Rabbits eat well and are plump. We walk through in a line abreast kicking the scattered brush piles, while the dogs worry the brush piles to our left and right. Works best when it is just getting hot before noon, when the Hares are looking to bunker down in the shade for the day. Few things on the planet can bob and weave quit like a Jack Rabbit does, you have to be quick. You have to have good dogs you can keep close and under control.