Woodcock hunting down south

Nice vid hunting woodcock down south.
, https://youtu.be/9o0o_OXBsuw

Never did sit right with me hunting woodcock on their wintering grounds. Seems the only rest they get is during nesting season.

I'm sure the same sentiment is felt for those down south only trade the words breeding grounds. Seasons are seasons and all you can do is trust in the managers of the resource or stop hunting them here to give 'em a break.

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Originally Posted by finsfurfeathers

I'm sure the same sentiment is felt for those down south only trade the words breeding grounds. Seasons are seasons and all you can do is trust in the managers of the resource or stop hunting them here to give 'em a break.

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The only positive is that they are allowed only 3 birds a day. I get that seasons are seasons but when the majority of those birds are concentrated in a couple of states, with the main one being Louisiana, its like shooting fish in a barrel.

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Originally Posted by huntervinni

The only positive is that they are allowed only 3 birds a day. I get that seasons are seasons but when the majority of those birds are concentrated in a couple of states, with the main one being Louisiana, its like shooting fish in a barrel.

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Well that didn't look like shooting fish in a barrel to me. Bird here bird there sort of what you find here before the migration starts. To the south season lengths are adjust accordingly. They have split seasons that give grief to the woodcock hunters. They are spread out all the way to Texas. Right now the quail hunters in South Carolina are getting annoyed with the number of woodcock being put up but during the season few where to be seen.

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Originally Posted by finsfurfeathers

Well that didn't look like shooting fish in a barrel to me. Bird here bird there sort of what you find here before the migration starts. To the south season lengths are adjust accordingly. They have split seasons that give grief to the woodcock hunters. They are spread out all the way to Texas. Right now the quail hunters in South Carolina are getting annoyed with the number of woodcock being put up but during the season few where to be seen.

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The reports over the years on woodcock migration have overwhelming shown that the vast majority of woodcock winter in Louisiana. That video just showed me one small location that was not even woodcock habitat and they still found birds here and there. Imagine if they had actually gone to the proper habitat.

Back in the '80s and 90's would hunt almost every year in January in Louisiana with a friend who was a resident there. We would run as many a four Brittanys and sometimes had three dogs pointing different birds at the same time. The areas we hunted looked a lot like that on the video. There was sometimes so much water we always had to wear rubber boots.

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Originally Posted by GrouseGuy

Back in the '80s and 90's would hunt almost every year in January in Louisiana with a friend who was a resident there. We would run as many a four Brittanys and sometimes had three dogs pointing different birds at the same time. The areas we hunted looked a lot like that on the video. There was sometimes so much water we always had to wear rubber boots.

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Wow couldn't imagine running four Brits at the same time. Don't run my 2 setters together as find it to hard to keep up with the chaos. Ideal hunt for me is one dog , one handler, one shooter.

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Originally Posted by finsfurfeathers

Wow couldn't imagine running for Brits at the same time. Don't run my 2 setters together as find it to hard to keep up with the chaos. Ideal hunt for me is one dog , one handler, one shooter.

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It could get a little chaotic with that many dogs. In those situation we might have 3-4 hunters. When we had multiple points we would deal with one bird at a time while the dogs held the birds on point, or we would individually go to one of the dogs if it was safe to do so. Those dogs were woodcock specialists.