I live in Edmonton and would like to hunt pheasant and grouse this fall but have no experience. I'm hoping someone can either offer me help via where to go, what I need, how to get it, where to get it. ... or who would like to mentor a new Hunter by coming along. I really wanted Turkey but see that there is a very small window and even smaller location for hunting them. Any information is greatly appreciated.
wanting to learn/upland game bird
- Thread starter Joel Schmidt
- Start date
I'm sure there is, I will take a look. As for books, I have read a bunch online but making sense of some of it can be difficult when you don't fully understand the topic! Of there was a specific"hunting pheasant in edmonton" book I would be all over it lol.
Probably the easiest way to hunt pheasant near Edmonton, is visit one of the release sites that are stocked every year. You will still need to drive close to two hours, but it's a lot closer than is required to hunt wild birds, and you know that there will be birds on the property that you are hunting.
Brutus
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
It's hard to bring yourself to trust a stranger. In all my years of hunting, I've been 'shot at' four times. And three incidents involved a hunting partner that I accompanied that day.
How your partner reacts to live game is often never very predictable. Especially so, with a novice hunter.
Good luck to you.
How your partner reacts to live game is often never very predictable. Especially so, with a novice hunter.
Good luck to you.
Suka
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Upland birds, "gravel up" at dawn and dusk. When there were lot's of pheasants around here we'd hunt them from dawn till about 9Am, hunt ducks all day, then pheasant again the last couple hours of daylight.
Lot's of grouse not far from you; lot's of different species as well, make sure of your identification and seasons. Likely hungarian partridge not to far as well. Camping/hiking/spotting will teach you much.
BTW, turkey's draw here, right now you're about 9 years from a tag. Here's a link to our regs: http://albertaregulations.ca/huntingregs/
Lot's of grouse not far from you; lot's of different species as well, make sure of your identification and seasons. Likely hungarian partridge not to far as well. Camping/hiking/spotting will teach you much.
BTW, turkey's draw here, right now you're about 9 years from a tag. Here's a link to our regs: http://albertaregulations.ca/huntingregs/
There's a dedicated AB outdoor/hunting forum that you might check out as well. For pheasant you need a dog. For ruffed grouse and spruce, a dog helps, but they are huntable without if you're quiet and know where to look. Spruce grouse are dumb and can sometimes be killed with a rock or stick. Ruffies, less so, but you can catch them unawares on trails, etc...
Your best bet is to join a hunt club or ask around at your gun club and see if someone will take mercy on you.
If you're a good guy, I'm sure you'll have no problem finding someone to mentor you into the brotherhood. Best of luck!
Your best bet is to join a hunt club or ask around at your gun club and see if someone will take mercy on you.
If you're a good guy, I'm sure you'll have no problem finding someone to mentor you into the brotherhood. Best of luck!
I started "hunting" upland game when I was about 10, going out with my Dad. I was the retriever.
He never used a dog. He seemed to know where he could find a Prairie Chicken flock or bush partridge (that's what we called Ruffed Grouse). Huns were hit and miss. That was well over 50 years ago when I started. I still hunt many of the same places. Dad wasn't up to too much walking, as he had chronic bronchitis and asthma.
As a kid with my trusty Model 39, I spent hours walking out on his grain farm, mostly following a large flock of chicken, maybe 150 birds. Once in a while, I would fluke and shoot one.
On a warm, calm day in the Fall, chicken won't fly very far. On a windy day, they will fly a long way. Often, when a flock gets up, there will be one or two left. That's when you can sometimes get a shot. Often, walking around a bush in a nice wheat stubble field will produce a flock. Chicken don't seem to wander very far, and over the years, I can go back to the same spots and often find birds.
Bush partridge are the same. I have hunted the same areas since the 1960's. I only take a very few birds in a year, if any. I love to get out and walk the fields on a crisp Fall day, or tramp my favorite bush. It doesn't matter if I actually shoot a bird.
Probably better for you to try to team up with a person who has some experience. You will find that you can develop a sense for the right kind of day, terrain, etc..
Good hunting, be safe, have good days hunting. Oh, and you won't need the latest whiz bang shotgun and bazooka ammo. I mostly use a Savage 24H-DL in .22/20ga that I bought new in 1967 or so. I can pop a chicken at a good distance with the .22, using solids.
He never used a dog. He seemed to know where he could find a Prairie Chicken flock or bush partridge (that's what we called Ruffed Grouse). Huns were hit and miss. That was well over 50 years ago when I started. I still hunt many of the same places. Dad wasn't up to too much walking, as he had chronic bronchitis and asthma.
As a kid with my trusty Model 39, I spent hours walking out on his grain farm, mostly following a large flock of chicken, maybe 150 birds. Once in a while, I would fluke and shoot one.
On a warm, calm day in the Fall, chicken won't fly very far. On a windy day, they will fly a long way. Often, when a flock gets up, there will be one or two left. That's when you can sometimes get a shot. Often, walking around a bush in a nice wheat stubble field will produce a flock. Chicken don't seem to wander very far, and over the years, I can go back to the same spots and often find birds.
Bush partridge are the same. I have hunted the same areas since the 1960's. I only take a very few birds in a year, if any. I love to get out and walk the fields on a crisp Fall day, or tramp my favorite bush. It doesn't matter if I actually shoot a bird.
Probably better for you to try to team up with a person who has some experience. You will find that you can develop a sense for the right kind of day, terrain, etc..
Good hunting, be safe, have good days hunting. Oh, and you won't need the latest whiz bang shotgun and bazooka ammo. I mostly use a Savage 24H-DL in .22/20ga that I bought new in 1967 or so. I can pop a chicken at a good distance with the .22, using solids.
Brutus
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Ditto, in my past dawn hunting of ducks only stretched into late morning on foggy/overcast days. Especially the very first sleepy wave, flying into the nearby fields to eat grain etc.
Once the sun was fully up and the sky devoid of clouds, just forget about waterfowling. The rest of the day could better spent on an upland expedition alongside the edges of tree lines and other small overhead cover, preferably near water sources. The odd duck from puddle jumping but this was serious upland hunting on purpose. The ducks were often a given, provided you arrived early enough. Then the upland species during the rest of the hunting day were just gravy on top.
Cheers!
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Suka
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
You hunt with a dog? I ask as we don't and could always find pheasants on trails/roads/ditches/close to ditches dawn and dusk. Really, same with finding grouse on cutlines.
