projectupland.com On The Go

When I started hunting waterfowl, diver ducks seemed like the most expensive birds to target. YouTube videos worsened this impression. Everyone seemed to be hunting from extravagant blinds while utilizing an infinite number of bluebill and redhead decoys. It was baffling! How was a hunter on a limited budget supposed to compete with that?  The truth is, small decoy spreads are very effective if yo...

On a sunny day on the fall of 1990, I was aboard a train traveling through the beautiful countryside of northern Italy. As I watched the rich, green valley of the Po River pass by my window, I was reminded of an area where I  hunt ruffed grouse  near my home in Manitoba. I couldn’t help wondering what kind of game could be hiding in the root crops and corn. During one of the many unscheduled train...

In the southeast, by mid-December, most hunters turn their attention away from whitetail deer and solely focus on waterfowl hunting. Wood ducks and Canadian geese can be found anywhere there’s water. Many folks decoy puddle ducks and divers on the coastal plains, and lakes offer great opportunities for mallards and teal . But there is one migratory bird that most waterfowlers rarely glimpse: the A...

Until the mid-1800s, no one set out to create a rough-haired breed from scratch by systematically crossing dogs with different coat types. But the idea of deliberate crosses had been around since at least 1825 when Freiherr (Baron) v. d. Borch wrote in  Yearbook for Forest Men, Hunters and Friends of Hunting , “It is noteworthy that crossing the pudel and the  pointing dog  would unite and maintai...

Nothing gets my blood flowing more than hunting upland birds in November and accidentally flushing a snowshoe hare. Each fall, early season  snowshoe hare  hunting catches me off guard. Seldom am I ready for those first wild flushes that mark the beginning of hare season. Snowshoes are commonly found in the same places as  ruffed grouse  and  spruce grouse . To top it off, they will test your shoo...

Project Upland’s annual  North American Upland Bird Hunting Survey  ended earlier this year. What better way to share our data than by starting a brawl over the most popular bird  dog breeds ?  The hunting dog world is full of personal biases, and our survey results reflected our community’s diverse preferences. When asked, “What type of hunting dogs do you own?,” 53.69% of respondents said pointi...

Late-season ringneck hunting isn’t as glorious as opening weekend. Gone are the  early season’s  young, short-tailed roosters that make up most hunters’ game bags. Long marches across tall grasses or freshly cut crop fields no longer result in dozens of flushes and easy shots for  walkers and blockers  alike. Rarely do birds hold for solid points, allowing that classic upland experience to unfold...

  The Irish Setter, like many dog breeds, has a history filled with complex twists and turns that have shaped the dog we love today. Irish Setters  descend from the  same rootstock that gave rise to all the setter breeds , but there is good reason to believe they may be the oldest of them all. The spaniels that became setting dogs were in Ireland since at least the 16th century. During this time,...

When hunting in black duck country, a thermos full of coffee is mandatory—not for the caffeine or warmth but to keep your spirits up. On the marshes where black ducks live, they make up the bulk of every bird you see. The problem is, they want nothing to do with you. Of the over two dozen duck species that migrate along the Atlantic Flyway, the black duck is the only one rumored to be able to coun...

Our modern hunting dog breeds have been around for roughly 150 years and, in that time, people have created countless divisions based on politics, preferences, and differing opinions on the best way to create the perfect hunting dog . These divisions yielded a broad spectrum of options when it comes to choosing a hunting dog that works best for you. In some cases, the differences were based on sty...

Despite being exotic to North America, the  ring-necked pheasant  has supplanted our native gamebirds as the most popular species to hunt among the  upland hunting  populace. Pheasants are abundant,  meaty , found over a large range, and just so darn charismatic. Even the most ardent  quail  or  grouse  lover must admit few birds can match the beauty and sheer excitement at the flush of a wild roo...

Depending on how you choose to look at it, my very first day in the  Maine grouse woods  with Lincoln was either an embarrassment of riches, or just an embarrassment. I had only bagged one ruffed grouse before that trip, the precious end result of miles and miles of hiking in the rough  West Virginia  mountains a few hours from our home. While I took great pride in the challenge, I decided that we...

Most people associate  American woodcock  with the Northwoods. However, they are common throughout the entire eastern half of the United States over the course of their fall and spring migrations.  During the  woodcock migration , these plump, bug-eyed brown birds utilize very similar habitat types across each state, albeit habitat that is comprised of very different species of trees and shrubs ac...

Brittanies are the fulfillment of a French dream to build a better bird dog. I am sure that if those old  braconniers  from  La Bretagne  could see the breed today, they would be thrilled to know that Brittanies have conquered the world. I’ve seen Brittanies in European trials. I’ve shot roosters and  ruffed grouse  over Sporty, Bandit, and Buster, three tremendous Brittanies owned by a good frien...

Field goldens typify these traits and more. For instance, field goldens have all the affection of a show golden, but with the sky-watching, duck-loving, cold-water-plunging nature of a lab. Field goldens don’t lumber. They glide like a  German Shorthair . Their thick necks and brawny shoulders taper down into sleek frames like that of a cheetah. Unlike a show golden’s flat white coat, field golden...

Have you ever returned to a quail hunting spot later in the season and failed to find the birds that provided such a great hunt just weeks before? Whether it’s a public wildlife area, a  Walk-In Hunting Area  (WIHA) in  Kansas , or any other type of publicly accessible property in whatever state, there are definitely strategies that hunters should consider, especially when pursuing  bobwhite quail...

Perhaps no upland game bird embodies the ruggedness of western hunting better than the  chukar . They inhabit the wild, mountainous terrain that defines the vast wilderness of the Great Basin, the high desert, and the inland northwest—places where water is scarce and survival depends on adaptation to the harsh environment. Because of the physical challenges associated with reaching chukar habitat,...

Thousands of hunters venture afield across the Midwest on the opening weekend of pheasant season. Opening weekend is a tradition, and regardless of the state agency’s pheasant population reports, hunters head out in pursuit of wily roosters. Although, in the case of opening weekend, plenty of roosters have yet to reach the status of “wily.”  The fact that early season roosters have yet to be educa...

We sat on the tailgate of my pickup overlooking a cover we had just hunted on a late October day as the sunset. The whistling sound of woodcock wings began while the sky still held mute signs of the sun hidden behind the mountains. We counted the birds with excitement. One after another, a tangle of “there is another” and “here comes two” was complemented by big smiles. It did not take long to deb...

One of the most important things I have found while navigating the wilderness with a toddler in tow is involving them in the activity. No, this doesn’t mean having your toddler go and retrieve birds for you. Instead, it means something as simple as listening to different songbirds while hunting and asking, “Did you hear that?” or identifying different trees,  mushrooms , or animals.  I often find...

What makes an ideal grouse gun, or what Gene Hill would call “a gun of specialist function?” Does action type matter? What about gauge? How does the environment play into it? How has the modernization of gun-making changed grouse guns? How different is a grouse gun from a clays gun? How different is a gun built for  ruffed grouse hunting  versus shotguns used for other wild game? While I don’t hav...

Birds primarily rely on sight and sound to evade predators. We know that  ruffed grouse are far more jumpy in high winds  because their hearing is impaired. Living in dense cover has heightened their dependence on sound. In my opinion, their sense of hearing is often greater than sight. When we factor in  transgenerational stress inheritance , we gain insight into sound’s profound impact on ruffed...

If I could smell a bird, walk effortlessly through thick brush, and cover ten times as much ground as the average human,  Woodcock hunting  would be a breeze. If I had a dog which could do all these things, Woodcock hunting would be even more of a breeze. Unfortunately I can’t smell birds, I’m a slow walker, and I don’t have a dog. The problem is that I’ve grown increasingly fond of hunting  Ameri...

One of the most constantly changing topics in the field of veterinary medicine is flea and  tick prevention  for dogs. Hunting dogs are some of the most exposed and susceptible victims to ectoparasites such as ticks, fleas, mites and other insects. Every year, it is important to purchase preventative products for your dog and to ask your veterinarian what new products are available.  In this artic...

Generally speaking, grassland grouse are not the most adaptable critters. Both prairie chicken species need large expanses of grassland, while  sage grouse must have large expanses of sagebrush  to thrive. The one exception to this rule is the  sharp-tailed grouse .  While generally considered a grassland species, sharpies range from the  shrub-scrub grasslands in Wisconsin  through the vast prair...