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Shooting Tips from the Runaway Inn, Week 2
November 4, 2010
Upland Gun Dogs No matter how much cover you push, a well trained dog by your will increase your odds of pumping up a rooster. A well trained upland dog can be an invaluable tool for the pheasant enthusiast. What does it take to encourage a young pup to be the next pheasant king? Unlike waterfowl hunters, training an upland dog doesn’t take near as extensive of a training program, just the right training. The first thing any hunting dog needs is obedience. You need to be able to call your dog off of a flyer or a runner for that matter. Next is the proper introduction to birds. Most importantly we need to bring out pups natural instincts as young as possible. There is no time too young to introduce your new pup to a wing or dead bird. This will be very important down the road. What comes after that can be learned in many good training books available today. The Runaway Inn is a great place to get a young dog started on live birds.B. To follow up with hunting over a quality trained hunting dog. There are several factors that can aid your hunting dog into being more successful, thus making you more successful. First off, as most all avid hunters know, it is very important to hunt your dog into the wind when making a pheasant push giving your dog the edge on the birds scent. Next taking your pup to the local game preserve prior to his first hunt of the year can give your pup a push in the right direction as it may take a few times out before pup actually remembers what his job really is. Also keeping your dog hydrated during the hunt, even on a cool day is vital. A good idea is to carry a bottle of water in your vest or at the very least, pick up a gallon of water at the gas station when filling up; along with a bowl, which can be often forgotten. C. Not to beat a dead horse but many hunters have heard about the terribly hot South Dakota opener a couple years back where numerous dogs died of heat exhaustion. Although heat exhaustion is a very dangerous situation, that particular incident may not have been from heat exhaustion as first thought, but from an algae bloom in the lakes and ponds. This can occur on very warm days and is lethal to many animals including dogs and livestock. If you are not aware of this problem, maybe it’s time to do a little research. You can detect a lethal algae bloom as the entire lake or pond will turn a hazy blue green especially on the down-wind edge. Thus it is very important to keep an eye on what your dog is getting into and to bring a fresh source of water with for them at all times. |
| Don’t Move the Gun Until You See the Target A lot of shooters are aware of this but stop paying attention to it. If I shoot a lot I  tend to start anticipating when the target is going to come out and start moving the gun when I call for the target. This results in missed birds and frustrating times. To correct this I work on it often during practice. I get a friend to pull for me and tell him to occasionally not throw a target when I call for one. This helps teach me to keep the gun still until the target has actually left the house, if I don’t keep the gun still it is very obvious as the gun barrel moves even though no target was thrown. For variations of this I will instruct my friend to also give me slow pulls, this again causes me to wait until I see the target before shooting. It also has the side effect that slow pulls no longer affect me in competition. Since I don’t move the gun until I see the target it doesn’t really matter when it comes out, so if it is a little slow I shoot it anyways. If the pull is very slow (>2 seconds) I will turn it down because my mind can’t stay focused for that long. But for slow pulls under 2 seconds I shoot them and haven’t missed one in over a year. |
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