One of my dogs is really classy pointed. High head, high tail, on his tiptoes kinda dog. I used him to help guide at a preserve few years ago. After a couple of days he looked like a wet rag pointed. Even he knew the difference.

Early season pre release can improve the birds, but if I'm driving 8 hours it's for wild birds.

Ever considered NSTRA?

I ran 2 dogs in couple of trials a long time ago and was really impressed with the quality of dogs running. Didn't get nothin done, but we had a good time. Super nice people.

That article makes a good case for using pen raise pheasant as a way to protect the wild birds from too much hunting pressure.

The other interesting aspect of this is pheasants are the same as hogs... an invasive exotic species not native to the US yet we treat them as a native game bird.

Looking at the history of the 'American' pheasant you would be hard pressed to say pen raised birds dont know how to survive in the wild since they were a majority of the original breeding stock here which eventually led to 'wild' populations.



Pheasant history

Greg Biggins in SD. Been years ago but great hunt wild birds in all type of land conditions. He also has the ability to do preserve bird hunting. Food was great and plenty of it. Large accomodations, great dogs, shooting. Wish I could get back

http://www.bigginshuntingservice.com/

'Sent an inquiry for 2019. Thanks!

Why not just do a tower shoot if you are just there for the birds and shooting?