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steve voss wrote:Bob, I admit I'm not hunting enough. It seems the closest birds to me are my few Chickens around here with a 3 bird per season limit and then it's hundreds of miles. Tough to do at 17mpg and $4 gas plus motels and such.

Steve, you have to drive that far for decent pheasant hunting? Still halfway decent in Iowa, but definitely very spotty.

Have you ever tried for woodcock along the Missouri? I hunted them just across the river a couple times. Didn't get out there much because I had doodles much closer to home, but that's a pretty much underhunted migration route.

Larry, it's just far enough to birds to mandate an overnight stay. :(

Bob, on that same ranch is an east-west scraggly ass barbwire fence with grass about 18" wide under it. Both a north or south wind it blows across it. After a couple days of hunting it is amazing how many bird contacts you can get a young dog in a mile of walking that thing. Most trips would be anywhere from eight to twenty points. Some singles and many two and threes. Only shoot a rooster that was handled right after about four or five other birds done correctly. Couple of days in a row of that and a pup believes he's gonna find birds. Got a really good start on two different dogs there.