Dog or No Dog???

[joe_stack20]

Since it sounds as though this season is really booming this tyear with roosters, think a dog is that much of a necessity??? Or could a guy shoot his 2 without a dog? Just curious as you guys new what it was like out there last weekend, i couldnt get out, cuz i was buying and moving new furniture for the house!!

[Norsky]

You could get lucky and get one up maybe without a dog, but you may have a tough time finding them unless they are dead before they hit the ground. Pheasant hunting is all about the dogs, at least to me.

[ChuckN]

I wouldn't think of hunting pheasants without a dog. I have 2 labs and hunting with dogs is a lot of fun. I just take one slow step at a time while the dogs run like crazy and do their stuff.

While hunting this weekend we noticed the dogs had to literally stomp on the birds to get them to flush. Without the dogs I'm betting I would have seen a couple birds compared to 20+.

There is so much cover for a bird to hide that a dog's nose is key to finding them.

Dogs have the most intense passion for hunting and you can see (and hear) it. Much more passion than I have sometimes, and that's what really brings me back into the field.

[gspman]

Your best bet without a dog is to road hunt them early in the am or late in the pm. If you want to try walking them up try ditches, fencerows, and slough edges. A dog is a very valueable tool for finding/retrieving them. A pheasant takes a lot of killing to bring it down dead. Most if not all of us cannot do that every time. A dog will greatly aid in finding the cripples. It's amazing how well a bird that's "dead in the air" can burrow under cover to hide and breath it's last breath.

gspman

[Nova]

I agree that a dog is extremely helpfull, but I had to put my lab down last year because of cancer. I just can't bring myself to get another one with the possibility of having to do that again. I have had some success without a dog but I am sure I walk past a lot of birds. A couple things I do may help. I walk real slow and pause a lot to try and make them nervous and flush. Second when I get birds up I only shoot till I drop ONE and then I mark that bird very well and never take my eye off the spot where it fell. I hate knocking down a bird and not finding it so when one falls that is the only thing I concentrate on. I have shot several birds twice even when I thought they were dead because like these guys said, they can look dead and then come back to life when they hit the ground. Also, try walking areas twice with a crossing pattern. Usually if the birds are there the second or third time you pass them they won't be able to stay put. Takes quite a bit longer to hunt an area, but that just means more hunting time. Good luck and I envy you guys with good dogs.

[james_walleye]

You can shoot birds without a dog and be just fine, you just have too go about it right. When i was in high school and the birds were thick like they are right now i used too drive around until i found a nice fenceline with picked corn around it, better yet if the farmer was just finishing. Get the permission, most farmers i found didnt care if we walked his fencelines. My 2 friends and i didnt have dogs but we shot about 30 birds that fall by doing this. This was pretty much just weekends. We didnt lose any birds, they land in the picked or plowed fields. Now i have GSP and i couldnt go without him, but if i didnt have a dog i could get plenty of birds with how thick they are by going out things like that again.

[Shorelunch]

Pheasant hunting with my lab really adds to the experience for me. There's nothing like watching her get on the scent trail of a rooster, flush it and watching her finding it and bringing it back to hand.

She kicks up a lot of birds we would have walked by and she finds many of the cripples we would have lost. I'd still pheasant hunt without a dog, but for me, it really adds to the experience and success.

[msm1018]

Dogs are a must in my mind. I have walked by countless roosters and have them flush behind me but my father who has the dog close to him, wouldn't have the same problem.

[MikeYager - Suzuki]

Dogs are almost a necessity pheasant hunting but don't let that stop you if your excited about getting out. It could happen plus it's enjoyable getting out.