Pheasant hunting dog
#1
Giant Nontypical
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: PA.
Posts: 5,195

most of you know i like LAB best for hunting just about everything,i do still feel a lab does good job all around.
but this week pheasant hunting i have come to conclusion that best dog i have seen on pheasants is SPRINGER SPANIEL.
16 yr old springer smoked over 12 dogs other than springer.we had some of best setters,pointers,labs,gsp.
i have seen this for many years too.
covering ground and way they pick up scent has to be reason.
those dogs seem to go and go .
we went thru areas and pheasants were running.big run today.only dogs that perform well was springers.
but this week pheasant hunting i have come to conclusion that best dog i have seen on pheasants is SPRINGER SPANIEL.
16 yr old springer smoked over 12 dogs other than springer.we had some of best setters,pointers,labs,gsp.
i have seen this for many years too.
covering ground and way they pick up scent has to be reason.
those dogs seem to go and go .
we went thru areas and pheasants were running.big run today.only dogs that perform well was springers.
#2
Typical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location:
Posts: 860

For running pheasant, I would want an experienced pointing dog. Sometimes these pheasants will want to run, so after sniffing around a bit, my dog will take off at full speed trying to pin it down. But more often she will disappear in the high grass (1/2 of the field is thigh high the other half is chest high. The birds usually are chased into the chest high grass) After calling and calling her, a bird will pop up way too far ahead. Its a pain. Area is too small and expensive to get a beeper/gps but the dog gets lost in 20-30 yards out.
Spaniels are wonderful dogs. They will get into some of the roughest stuff most dogs wouldn't consider entering. But they are flushers. When on scent of a running bird, I'm too old and rickity too try to keep up.
Spaniels are wonderful dogs. They will get into some of the roughest stuff most dogs wouldn't consider entering. But they are flushers. When on scent of a running bird, I'm too old and rickity too try to keep up.
#3
Giant Nontypical
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: PA.
Posts: 5,195

you are right.springer i hunted with stayed close to us.others i saw were out too far.toby could not get into those briars.he knew the birds were inside.
that springer got at them.
springer that hunts close is just unreal on pheasants.
that springer got at them.
springer that hunts close is just unreal on pheasants.
#4

While I can not speak of wild pheasants I did use my Irish on a bird farm and he did great. The owner had a 2 springers which he enjoyed until one of them got into some rasins. ( That one had died from the rasins.) He know uses a GSP on his birds when some hunters show up with out any dogs. Keep in mind most of the pheasant hunting here was in the woods with a lot of cuttings to keep the area fairly clear. So while there was some tall grass most of it was thick brush and the like.
#5

Got to agree with Mite here, on the dog to use on hard running wild birds. A good pointing breed is definitly the way I would go.
The finest dog work I have ever seen on farm raised birds - was an older Brittany Spaniel. It was on a bird farm in Ohio and the cover was knee high weed fields and brushy ditch banks. The birds did not run very much but they all flew strong - like wild birds. That was - hands down - the most bird savvy dog I have ever hunted over and I have hunted over a lot of different breeds. He hunted hard and he hunted close and needed very little correction or direction.
The finest dog work I have ever seen on farm raised birds - was an older Brittany Spaniel. It was on a bird farm in Ohio and the cover was knee high weed fields and brushy ditch banks. The birds did not run very much but they all flew strong - like wild birds. That was - hands down - the most bird savvy dog I have ever hunted over and I have hunted over a lot of different breeds. He hunted hard and he hunted close and needed very little correction or direction.
#6
Typical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location:
Posts: 860

I believe the high grass is causing my dog to develop bad habits. She disappears in the stuff and I don't know if she pointing or just running thru the grass. If she's gone for some amount of time, I'll beep her collar or yell for her since she can't see over the high grass herself. There has been times when she's been on point and I've called her then a pheasant will pop up. Grrr..
#8
Fork Horn
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: North Idaho
Posts: 129
#9
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Allegan, MI
Posts: 8,019

Hey KT29---Where exactly do you live and hunt in sw ND? I was out between Regent and Hettinger again a couple weeks ago and the birds were numerous, but as wild as I've ever seen them as far as it was into the season before we got there.
#10
Fork Horn
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: North Idaho
Posts: 129


