Ive never been upland bird hunting, but I'd like to. Problem is that I have no dog, no buddies who are interested, and live in Houston. What should I do?

Get a dog, read some books on training, go hunting. Look back 20 years later.

I'd find a preserve around Houston, Kindall (on here) can point you in the right direction. Give it try and see if it's something you enjoy before you get a dog and all that goes with that. It's tough right now with the decline in bird numbers.

Then if you want a dog, contact someone who has puppies and get busy. I have a new litter of Vizslas and CC has some great Brittany's.

Be warned...it's addicting!

This is the way Ive been thinking of going. Just not sure how well a preserve hunt simulates the real experience. Thoughts?

Oh, and the wife and I have been talking of getting a dog in the next year, and a Vizsla is definitely on the list. How are they with young kids, and being indoors? What about with water? I grew up with labs and a chessie, and am partial to water dogs, being on the Coast.

The preserve hunts can be great & can be bad. As long as they have good flying birds, they are usually alot of fun. Double B is right about trying to hook up with someone in your area to go with, at least go out to where they are training & watch. kindall's friend is picking up one of my pups Sunday so I bet they will be in their training field alot over the next couple of months. A bunch of us on here & Texas Gun Dog Club are going to Kansas in November to hunt wild pheasants if you would like, you could get in on that too.

Most of mine are water pigs...I have one that will get in, but he prefers the dry ground, I think it's because he loves to RUN!. Great with kids and being indoors. Will retreive anything - great versatile dogs.

I'm kinda in the same boat as you. I took the plunge and got a Brittany puppy in June.

The training is about to begin (besides obedience). I hope to take him up to oklahoma in January for pheasants (doubt he'll be very prepared but what the heck!)

I'm going to try and train him mostly myself, we shall see how thats going to go lol. (im a total newbie in the upland game).

If you're partial to water dogs, look at the german wire haired pointers

I'm in Houston and plan to hit a couple preserve hunts to prep for a trip to Kansas later this year.

You're welcome to join my dog and I on a preserve hunt so you get a feel to whether or not this is interests you.

PM me and lets see what we can work out.

Your timing sucks. Wild quail will hit an all time low in Texas this year. You could go to a Katy NSTRA trial and watch most breeds work, if they ever have another Katy NSTRA trial. Take a look at the pastures in this area. There's nothing there for qauil. I'll get some pen raised birds for my Johnny house, but I'll have to take trimmings from my yard to even have a place to hide them.

^^ Great offer! If you like it you could hit up Kansas with us later this year. If you're looking for a versatile dog dont forget about German Shorthairs! Had to throw them in the hat.

CSF - Thanks for the invite. I may take you up on that. When are you thinking, October? What preserves in the area do you recommend?

Bill - Lol, yes I know my timing sucks. Ive heard about the decimation of Texas quail, and the drought is of course terrible. Ive done a bit of dove hunting this season and can attest that the pastures are nothing but dust. That's why I mentioned being located in Houston as being a problem. It seems to be a long haul to any real upland bird hunting areas from here.

The soonest I will hit a preserve is on an early morning in October when it gets cooler.

There are a couple preserves near hear that I've tried, one near Navasota another in Columbus. I usually hit Top Flight in Columbus since its a bit cheaper. However, I don't know what their cover looks like this year due to the drought.

Anyway, like I said, you are welcome to join. It's a fairly inexpensive way to gauge your interest before dedicating lots of your resources into this sport.

Tim Crawley guides upland hunts in the Hockley/Waller area.
Reasonable prices. http://www.wgohunt.com/gamebirds.html
CSF named the other two that are fairly close.

Try Top Flight in Columbus. Talked to Leon last week and cover is good but brown.

Also, consider a started dog for your first.

Phil

Yes, we will be out training on mornings during the weekdays. Right now its hunting dove, teal and hopefully some goose on the weekends. We sometimes carry a few quail with us and do some dog work after the hunt when the weather cools off.

Another vote for Top Flight. Have not seen better prices and you can have them use their dogs to get a taste for it.

What part of Houston? I can send you a pm if were going to be in one of the fields on your side of town.

I'm pretty new to bird hunting relatively speaking...I'm, on bird dog number one and probably started hunting 7-8 years ago. A couple of suggestions:

1. Dogs: If you want to get a dog, and you don't already have a dog, get one that will double as a pet and treat it like one; that way if you decide you don't like walking 10 miles a day with a shotgun and not shooting anything you'll at least have a nice dog. Some breeds are better than others as pets. I have a setter...good household pet and good bird dog. Some breeds require a lot more exercise than others to keep them happy and not destructive.

2. If you do what I said in #1, buy "Gun Dog" by Richard Wolters and read it. Read it again. Do what it says. This training method is not the newest, and probably not the best for field trials, but it works for the casual hunter and is pretty easy to implement.

3. Actually hunting. What I am about to say is probably a sacrilege to virtually everyone on this forum, but here goes: You don't actually need a dog to bird hunt. All you really need is a shotgun and a place to go that has birds. I started bird hunting on grouse in the northeast and northwest. Once you recognize the right habitat you can be successful by just walking them up. That might not work well right now for quail in Texas because bird populations are in dire straits, but if we ever have a good year again you will be able to find and kill birds without a dog. The first year I had a quail hunting lease my dog was just a puppy was still learning, but it didn't matter because it was 2005 and birds were everywhere. The dog is now trained and does great, but I killed more birds in 2005 with an untrained dog than in any year since just because there were tons of birds.

Dogs aren't necessary for pheasant hunting either. In the early season groups of hunters do what is called a drive hunt where they walk in a line and shoot the birds that flush. I do an annual hunt this way in Kansas every year. I leave the dog at home. I have heard that there are towns in the panhandle that organize these types of hunts and you can just join up for a few hundred bucks.

All of that said, you did pick a bad year to get started, as upland bird populations are going to be down big-time due to the drought and other factors.

4. Where to hunt. This is always the million dollar question. Literally. Hunting is big business in Texas because virtually the entire state is private. Texas sucks for publicly accessible land that offers good hunting, so having a place to go that has game usually means paying. The public areas tend to be overhunted, especially if they are within, say, 5 hours of a major city. If you want to try them take a look at the TPWD APH program. I tired of it quickly, at least for upland opportunities. If you don't want dive into quail hunting by spending at least 3-4 grand on a lease and equipment, plan a trip out west somewhere where there are millions of acres of open space that you can just go to and hunt. This will require research, but might be worth it. A guy did a great post last year about a successful grouse hunting trip to new mexico. You might also look at Oklahoma and Kansas...they seem to have more options for accessible land. If you aren't into driving all day, there is quail habitat close to Houston on the coastal plains, but I've never hunted down there and I've heard lease prices are crazy expensive. You could also try woodcock hunting in the national forests in east texas, but you will absolutely need a dog to find those. I don't know anything about preserve hunting...never messed with it.

Good luck!

That's all true.
You can fish without a boat and you can hunt without a dog, but once you have one you'll never want to do it any other way.

I have not hunted the Rio Brazos Preserve, but I have heard some good things about it. The prices are reasonable compared to other areas around Texas. Plus, it's in Simonton (not far from Houston). Google Rio Brazos Hunting Preserve.

my 2 cents. as far as wild bird hunting.... unless you have a fair amount of vacation time plan on having to use it to travel
out of state as needed. global warming, climate change or whatever you want to call it the weather is changing and so are the bird populations with it. but somewhere the weather was favorable for bird populations and you need to be flexible about getting there. if you dont have vacation time to do that then its hard.
now if your ok with hunting hard all day and bumping a few coveys and taking home a few birds then you wont have to travel as far. but young dogs need more than a few coveys a day to learn the ropes. so hire an experienced guide and use his dogs and know how. decide if you like it. if and when the population in texas rebounds decide if you want to go to the next step and hunt on your own with your own dogs.

"Dogs aren't necessary for pheasant hunting either. In the early season groups of hunters do what is called a drive hunt where they walk in a line and shoot the birds that flush. I do an annual hunt this way in Kansas every year. I leave the dog at home. I have heard that there are towns in the panhandle that organize these types of hunts and you can just join up for a few hundred bucks."

While this is true, a lot of bird doggers really frown on this practice because it's more about just killing as many birds as possible and nothing to do with dog work. I've never hunted pheasant this way so I'm not knocking it or knocking you for doing it but as an owner of a bird dog I personally would never like to leave my dog at home just to kill some birds. The most enjoyable part of pheasant hunting to me is watching your dog work them. Heck I even bring him when I dove hunt and that's all about killing birds! LOL!

Kindall - I live off of I-10 just outside of the loop on the west side of town, but Im willing to drive.

I think Im going to try to do a couple of preserve hunts and maybe book a trip north with an outfitter or local rotary club. Between work and family, my time is pretty limited, so I dont think I'm up for training a dog quite yet. I need to do some hunts and see how I like it first.

on another note, I just saw in the TPWD Quali survey thread that they are seeing higher numbers of quail in the coastal prairies. Are there any outfitters or guides in the area? That's a lot closer than South Texas.

I will be out dove hunting the south zone opener this Friday. If the TPWD quail survey is correct on the coastal prairies these same fields should hold quail. The bad part is even during quail season I'm not allowed to shoot them on 90% of the fields. These wild quail are worth their weight in gold right now. I do use them for working the dogs. The good part is during quail season I can plant and shoot birds on the fields not holding quail. I don't know of any outfitters doing wild hunts in that area, wish I did I'd suck up to them big time.

try Raisin L Ranch i have been hunting with them since i was a kid great people,dogs and birds cant beet them