Choices
| Dog PowerMissouri's upland bird hunting distinction is quail and bird dog power. We have all heard the upland bird hunter who will make the statement that he has one or two of the best (chukar, grouse, pheasant, hun, or in general upland bird hunting) dog to be found. And, that may be true. It may very well be true that same upland bird dog may not be a good Missouri quail dog at all and if a good quail dog that bird dog may not be well suited to Missouri's upland bird habitat. Take this one example relative to Missouri upland bird hunting. We have all seen the pointing dog training videos, read the books or been to training seminars where the expert leading the discussion will touch on the techniques to train a bird dog to quarter a field. Quartering a field is a conditioning of the bird dog to work the front area of the hunter regardless of direction of travel and thoroughly cover all the ground so as not to miss any birds. These birds are typically planted quail on a field trail course of open ground to allow for plenty of long range observation by dog handler judge, gallery and other brace mates. The problem with this quartering technique of bird dog work is that it is not effective on linear quail cover common to Missouri creek bottoms. An upland bird dog that quarters will extend his range well into the crop field where the further traveled to the interior the likelihood of finding quail drops dramatically. Or, the other direction as is common for big woods grouse dogs. That quartering bird dog well accustomed to running the trees for grouse will dive too deeply into the river or creek bottom extending well beyond the narrow band of edge the coveys will occupy.
In short most bird dog hunters will agree their bird dog hunts best the upland bird, plains bird or deep woods bird it was introduced to the earliest and hunts the most. An upland bird dog well skilled to hunt all birds effectively is rare. How big of an upland bird hunting issue is this for the MAHA staff? It is significant to the point that if anyone calls us and says they are interested in quail hunting we will have the discussion that was just read. The reason is that we know what it takes to have a good upland bird hunt for either quail or pheasant. A good bird hunt is what we want for all. And we will do the best we can to give each new member the information he needs to make the best choice for his upland bird hunting style of choice of bird and habitat. That bird hunting decision criteria may very well point towards Missouri bird hunting as well as away from Missouri. We will seek to give the best information possible so the upland bird hunter can select his own hunting location. That upland bird hunting information may be the recommendation that perhaps for their first hunt the best hunt will be in the tall grass fields of Kansas on pheasant for a grouse dog well conditioned to quartering saving the Missouri quail hunt for a more easily to influence first season dog that will learn what it means to run the downwind edge and dive in rather than quarter. |
