Shot some stocked birds across the Connecticut river from you in Vermont Thursday and it was an absolute full foliage morning with the sun burning off the fog, the cackle of ring necks, the report of my 16 gauge trojan, and the smell of gun powder in the fall. Hard to believe how lucky I am to be able to do this.
The trojan is a 1932 gun, family gun, in very good shape and is the gun I first shot as a kid and the one I hunted with in Pennsylvania growing up.
Switched over to a 20 gauge VH for the last bit of shooting and next week it is the 28 repro.
Connecticut river ducks on Tuesday and will take out the GH 30" 12 ga. before the week is out. In the boat blind for Vermont ducks on the 13th.
Woo hoo - "cut 'em"

Michigan used to do what they called put and take Pheasant hunting. They released birds in certain Game Mgt units on different days of the week. The birds were usually poor flyers. This practice was discontinued decades ago.

today I went to the Hunt Club for a Quail hut (released birds) which ran, ducked for cover, flew like Grouse in the woods. Excellent birds and managed 3 Pheasants as well. for a preserve type setting these are the next best thing to truly wild birds.

I took the VHE 28 skeet then switched in the late morning to the H&H 20 and popped her cherry on upland birds:)

NH stocks about 12 to 14K birds each fall, depending on the number of Pheasant stamps they sell the previous year. The birds do not winter well and do not (Pete will disagree with me) breed in the spring, so it is a put and take hunt. It is what it is, and can provide some fun shooting a little later in the season, and feeds many hawks and owls. Opening day can be a war zone. I much prefer our native grouse and woodcock.

I can hear Mr. Holland turning in his grave... "popped her cherry"?:rotf:

Thanks!
I haven't yet experienced an opener at a WMA so it will be a study in safety and awareness for me!

Daryl I took the Holland & Holland out again today as I didn't want her to think she was a one hunt wonder and feel slutty. We bagged a limit of Woodcock. It's to the U.P. next week for 4 days of Grouse and Woodcock with Gunner's Gun:)

Well, the opener on Pheasant came and went yesterday without incident nor feathers, in my bag anyway...
All in all a great, although very, wet morning.

The WMA I hunted had a few trucks parked at sunrise, and a few shotgun reports were heard even as we got our gear ready at the back of the Jeep...

In no time, we were in the midst of probably 5 or 6 groups working their dogs in the soggy conditions...Although, spread out over about 400 acres the orange colored hunters were out in force.
I immediately, put up a hen about 20 yards in front of me on a trail towards the big fields...I was on a curve in the trail and having heard dog commands and whistles and bells somewhere ahead, I held off taking the shot and the hen apparently made it across the field unscathed, for the moment anyways...
Plenty of shooting from the dog folks and we witnessed some nice flushes and kills from a distance. On one of the flushes and resulting misses by a fellow about 100 yards away, the rooster flew towards us and into the woods line, treetops 30 yards in front of us...no shot and no bird seen upon entering the woods to try and bag him!
After 5 hours of slogging through beautiful, wet, habitat, we had had enough of being soaked through to the skin and headed in to dry out.
The picture was taken as the sun poked through and we were about to quit...
I did fire the Trojan (to clear the water from the barrels)and it was nice to hear the quick, double, report of my own treasure from the past.
We had thought about the last time she was fired and carried by the long, deceased, Father of my Girlfriend and what kind of game he may have shot with it...
A great day in the Autumn beauty of NH...!

The shooting pose was when I fired the 20 ga into a nearby bush to end the day...

In 1973 Governor Mel Thompson ordered the destruction by burning of the NH Fish & Game Pheasant farm in Brentwood NH due to a EEE outbreak. Prior to this event the NH F&G raised their own birds and stocked in both spring and fall. Those birds were larger than what we have today and in spite of the winters back then many survived and did breed in the wild. Unfortunately I know this because during the summer I would occasionally accidently run over a nest with a hen pheasant standing her ground that I did not see with a sickle bar mower. I would then have to stop the tractor and go ring the birds neck. The NH pheasant stocking program today is a shadow of it's former self.

I told you Pete would not agree with me:eek:

I suppose, like chickens, pheasant hens will lay without having been 'fertilized'.