Released birds are not wild. No comparison. It's still a 'canned hunt' in my books. Doesn't matter if they are planted minutes before or days later.
However, it is as good as it can get to train dogs whether a pointing breed or a flushing breed.
I've planted thousands of birds. Spent hundreds of hours training mine and other peoples dogs and judged versatile pointing dogs for 20+ yrs.
Nothing compares to wild.
I joined a Gun Club 20 years ago
Mostly as I wanted a decent place to hunt waterfowl and upland birds
Not greatest for either one ,but it is only 10 miles from my house
Well the club has 400 acers of upland fields where we release Quail , Chucker and Pheasants for hunts
These are pen raised birds
But they do fly well and taste good
Well fast forward to now
I had a nasty fall at work and now I am disabled
So I hunt as much as possible between Migraines and other headaches
I went out to the clubs marsh this morning to do some Canada Goose hunting
About 10 AM I decided to change and do some pheasant hunting
As there was a release & hunt last Saturday and I had been hearing some pheasants in a field close to the area I was goose hunting
I put the geese in my truck and put on a orange vest