Here are the basics for those considering taking up bird hunting . . .

by BCR Staff

It’s been in the back of your mind awhile, that thought, a wonder really, if you ought to try bird hunting, but there are so many questions.

Maybe you heard someone at work talk about pheasant hunting and you are curious about seeing if that activity would be a good fit for you. Maybe your instinct is telling you to get outside and be more active, connect more intimately with nature through actual participation in its processes. Maybe you are a trout angler with angling friends who double as ruffed grouse and woodcock hunters, and you wonder what they’re doing out there in the woods during those autumn months when you don’t see them on the streams.

Maybe your interest lies in eating healthy, natural protein and decreasing independence on industrial food. Or maybe your late father was a bird hunter and there’s an inexplicable pull to connect to your heritage and him that is driving you to consider dipping your toes into the bird hunting world.

You’re on the right track

As a long-time bird hunter who sustained the interest from his teenage years, through college, getting married, raising a family, working decades at a corporate job in communications and seeing kids through college, I can honestly tell you I consider bird hunting the best recreational activity for all ages. I am proud to have introduced my wife, two sons, daughter-in-law and others to the sport who have become knowledgeable, skilled wingshooters. It’s also been a point of pride to have had at least one well-mannered and productive bird dog I trained myself, five in all, share our home the past 35 years.

If you embark on this endeavor — a recreational diversion for some, a way to spend a week with friends for some, and a way of life for others — there are many rewards. It’s a sport you can do alone or in groups, with or without a dog, high in mountains or in low, brushy draws. You can do it with the goal of adding an exciting new hobby to your life, providing unique, tasty food for the table, for the healthy exercise and fresh air, the social affiliations, to be an active participant in conservation, to give your dog something to do, to keep those high school sports-honed reflexes and hand-eye coordination sharp, to escape or to embrace reality.

Is it right for you?

The ideal candidate to get started in bird hunting prefers plenty of physical activity, being outdoors, likes action, maybe even being startled a bit, which happens sometimes when birds take flight close to your feet, likes making quick, reactive decisions, enjoys the company of dogs, getting off the beaten path and enjoys shooting. (A bird hunter typically gets to pull the trigger many more times in a season, than say, a deer or elk hunter.) It also helps to be a bit of an adventurous eater who is willing to accept that gamebirds, which can range from very dark to very white and delicate meat, are superior dining fare than supermarket fowl.

For our discussion, I’m talking about pursuing upland gamebirds as compared to waterfowl hunting for ducks and geese, which, I won’t argue, is a very exciting wingshooting endeavor. However, the learning curve and equipment needed to hunt waterfowl can be quite a bit more extensive. With over 20 upland gamebird species to pursue in the United States, we should have enough to keep us busy until you decide to expand your bird hunting experiences into the lakes, flooded timber and other wetlands.

For now, it’s time to go beyond pondering if bird hunting is for you and start learning what it takes to take up the activity and become a bona fide upland gamebird hunter. We’ll cover topics at a high level to get started, keeping in mind there’s always more to learn. No matter how many years a bird hunter has been at the game, there’s always more to learn.

Safety First

To get started you’ll likely be required in your state to take a hunter’s safety course and purchase a hunting license. A lot of states have a mentor program to encourage hunter recruitment, which allows someone who has not earned a hunter safety certificate to hunt with a licensed adult. You can check with a friend or relative you know hunts to see if they would be kind enough to show you the ropes as a mentor before taking a hunter’s safety course. We have used the mentor program to take our kids’ friends hunting with us when there wasn’t time between when we planned to hunt and when we invited them to join us. It is important the mentor takes the time to make sure the apprentice understands that safety through proper gun handling is paramount.

Myself, my wife and my kids all took Hunters Safety courses in Michigan. A quick way to find the license requirements for your state is to google the state and include “department of natural resources.” (Example to fill in the search field on google: “Michigan, department of natural resources”) Not all states go by department of natural resources, but it usually works for google to get you to the right place if you use that phrase anyway. Once at the site, you should be able to find how to access a required course and see what gamebirds are hunted in your state along with the season dates they can be pursued.

Will You Need a Bigger Closet?

Many, many pages of books are filled with suggestions for the firearms, clothing and accessories you should acquire in order to go bird hunting. As a male teen not too worried about fashion in the 1980s, I wore tennis shoes and jeans on many small game hunts, toting a shotgun never pictured in the high-end wingshooting magazines. I also spent a lot of time with wet feet and I tore holes in all my jeans from walking through game cover. Luckily, torn jeans became cool. I won’t be so bold as to say I started the trend, but about the time I entered journalism classes at Michigan State University, other students were paying good money for brand new pants that looked like my “ruined” Levis.

Recommended equipment basics:

Comfortable boots appropriate for the climate you’ll be hunting. Bird hunters typically walk a lot so light weight boots have an advantage. Approximate cost: $120.

A shotgun. (Approximate cost: $400 — $12,000) If you’ve found this article and read this far, it’s probably safe to assume you know that a shotgun is a gun that fires small pellets, commonly called “bird shot”, to take down flying game birds out to 50 yards or so. They come in several configurations, called actions, based on the way they handle ammunition. It doesn’t matter what type of action you start with. Most experienced upland bird hunters use either a 20 gauge or 12 gauge in either a semi-automatic action or a double barrel configuration. More important than the action you choose is the level of “choke” it has. Choke is how constricted the end of the muzzle is on the shotgun’s barrel. Using one of the more open chokes, such as improved cylinder, works best for most bird hunting, where shots are often less than 25 yards. The more open the choke the quicker the pellets begin to spread to allow you to hit birds at close range. Many guns come with screw in choke tubes so you can change to tighter chokes, such as modified or full choke if you anticipate needing to take longer shots.

The gun I mentioned toting as a teen was a single shot 20-gauge. It was light weight and cheap with a fixed modified choke. It didn’t take long after I took up dove hunting in Arizona to get a larger 12-gauge pump action with switchable choke tubes, which I used for years even after moving back to southern Michigan where I hunted a lot of pheasants. When that gun wore out, I switched to a double barrel 20 gauge over/under, which has the advantage of looking stylish and having two different choke options, one for each barrel. The idea is to use an open choke for the first shot which should be close as a bird flushes and to have a tighter choke in the other barrel that would be fired at the bird that is now further away in its flight path.

For my kids who started shooting when they were young, I purchased a 20-gauge semi-automatic shotgun for them. The reason? Recoil, or kick that is felt as a reaction of shot being propelled out the end of a gun barrel at about 1,200 feet per second. It can be jarring and could potentially dissuade a beginning shooter, particularly one small in stature, from wanting to pull another trigger. The 20-gauge as a rule kicks less than the larger 12-gauge gun, and some of that recoil energy is used in the semi-auto to kick the spent shell from the chamber instead of being transferred to the shoulder. Some may argue the semi-automatic action is not the best choice for beginners because it fires every time the trigger is pulled and the newbie may be prone to unintentionally pulling the trigger instead of pushing on the safety for instance. Until our boys were adept at safe gun handling, we only loaded one shell at a time in their semi-auto.

Gun case. You’ll transport your shotgun in the gun case, which is soft or hard sided and helps protect your firearm. These come in extra sturdy cases for hardcore traveling or flimsy, zippered models that work fine for most road trips. Approximate cost: $20 — $200.

A vest with a game pouch. Get one with a lot of hunter orange. It’s the law in many states to wear the highly visible color for safety and it makes sense to be safe even in states that don’t require it. Of course, the game pouch is so you can conveniently carry the birds you shoot while you continue hunting. Approximate cost: $60.

Ammo. Your ammunition for bird hunting is the shotgun shell that matches the gauge of your gun. Besides the gauge, on the box of shotgun shells you’ll see a number that tells you the size of the pellets in the shell and a number with the amount of powder in it. The larger the number for the shot size, the smaller the pellet. You’ll want to know what species of game bird you intend to hunt to determine the size of the pellets in your shell. Larger birds, such as pheasants, require larger shot sizes such as 5 or 6 shot. You’ll also want to go with the higher quality shells with more powder for these durable birds. Smaller birds, such as bobwhite quail, don’t require a lot of fire power. №8 shot with less powder, common at gun clubs for shooting clay targets, is fine to humanely take down these small game birds. These shot sizes are in the more popular, cheaper shotshells filled with lead pellets. More and more public lands are requiring non-toxic shotguns shells, the more affordable option being pellets made with steel. The rule of thumb is to go two shot sizes larger when using steel shot. For the above example, the pheasant hunter would want to use №4 steel shot. Approximate cost: $10 — $30 per box of 25 shells.

Some optional items you’ll soon consider essential after some experiences in the field are hunting pants that shed briars, shooting gloves to keep your hands warm and keep a sensitive connection with your shotgun, and quality headgear. You’ll soon learn to use that hat to help find downed birds. This works by leaving your hat where you were standing when you shot and marked where a bird dropped. If you don’t initially find your bird it is extremely helpful to return to where you watched the action to help realign where the bird fell. Of course if there is a hunting partner nearby, it’s even better to direct them to where to find the bird.

Jumping in

So now, let’s say you have passed the hunters safety course and have your firearm. It’s time to google: “gun ranges near me.” You want to look for facilities with trap or skeet ranges, preferably skeet. Pick up three or four boxes of №8 target load shotgun shells, ear plugs and eye protection and head out to the range. Likely, you’ll meet someone there happy to show you around.

Wingshooting form

Either at the range or practiced before, practice proper gun mounting form. An easy way to achieve the correct posture for wingshooting is to, from a standing position, point the unloaded shotgun straight into the sky with the stock on your shoulder and your cheek on the side of the stock. Straight up, not at a 45 degree angle. Then, slowly arc the gun barrel down so it parallels the ground. Let the heel of your back foot come off the ground. Eighty percent of your weight should be on your front foot. Your front knee should not be bent; your lead shoulder should be leaning out over your front foot, your waist leaning forward. Your eye should see the bead at the end of the barrel but not see much of the barrel.

If you see a lot of barrel, raise the stock further up the cheek until your eye is in better alignment to only see the bead and very little barrel. The posture should feel aggressive and you should be able to swing the gun from left to right while keeping your cheek pressed against the stock and your eyes firmly in position looking down the barrel. You keep both eyes open when shooting a shotgun.

Common errors in this form are a bent front knee and a waist bent back a bit at an angle that puts the weight of the shooter’s top half over the back foot.

When you shoot at a moving target such as a clay pigeon launched into the air at the skeet range, keep in mind that you can’t shoot where it is. You need to shoot out ahead of it, where it will be by the time you pull the trigger and your string of pellets from your shotshell leave the barrel and travel through the air to, we hope, intercept and break the target. That space in front of the target is called lead. The amount of lead you need to give is dependent on the speed of the target, its distance, and the angle the target is from you. You also want to keep the barrel swinging after you pull the trigger for proper lead; this is called “follow through” and is as necessary in wingshooting as a baseball pitcher’s follow through after releasing the ball toward the catcher’s mitt. The faster, farther and more acute angle, the more distance you need to lead the target.

Many autumns ago, a friend joined me on a woodcock hunt in northern Michigan. Woodcock are migratory and the hunting for them can be a feast or famine exercise, depending on if they are staging in a particular area or already vacated for parts further south. In this case, we were in the right place at the right time, encountering a good number of woodcock. Pete, an athletic fellow who was the quarterback on our high school football team and a college baseball player, was missing bird after bird with a fancy new Browning shotgun, a gift from his recently acquired father-in-law. Shouts of disbelief unfit for a Sunday afternoon curdled late-hanging aspen leaves in the wake of some of those muffed, easy shots.

After I had slipped a couple birds in my gamebag I gave my good friend a tip that helped his shooting instantly. I reminded him he’s got to lead the birds, like when he’s throwing a football to a speedy wide receiver. His next two shots yielded two plump, long-billed timberdoodles, one of many affectionate nicknames for woodcock. The new-found success provided some excellent additional table fare and had the effect of improving his language immensely as I recall.

Athletic or not, the best way to determine how much lead you need to see ahead of a bird or clay target is best achieved through practice. Good for us, that practice is fun.

Strong arm, weak eye?

I’d be remise if I didn’t touch on the topic of eye dominance.

Hopefully, your dominant hand matches your dominant eye. You want your dominant eye looking directly down the barrel. For example, if you are right handed, you most naturally would point the shotgun from your right shoulder. If you are right handed and your dominant eye is your left eye, there’s a problem called “cross dominance.”

An easy way to check eye dominance is to point at an object with both eyes open. Then close one eye at a time. Your pointing finger will seem to jump way off the object when your dominant eye is closed. A remedy I’ve read about but have no experience with is to put clear scotch tape on glasses over your dominant eye if that is not the eye looking down the barrel. Both my sons are cross dominant, which we determined when they were youngsters. They learned to shoot left-handed so their dominant left eyes would be looking down the gun barrels, even though they are both right handed. From the time they picked up toy guns or bows, we encouraged them to shoot like they were southpaws. It’s with mixed emotions I admit they both can outshoot their dad these days.

Do You Need a Four-Legged Partner?

You can hunt birds with or without a dog. A common evolution seen in bird hunters as they mature (i.e. age) is their relationship to bird hunting and dogs. Many of us got our start walking up birds without a dog. During those dogless hunts, you think about how many more birds you would find in a field if you had a canine partner. So you next either befriend a dog-owning bird hunter or you acquire a dog of your own with the goal of making those game bags sag under the weight of daily limits, the number of game you’re allowed to harvest in one day. Just like the fly angler who tells you it’s much more rewarding to catch fish on a fly they tied with their own hands, the memories of birds taken are more cherished with one’s own dog. Eventually, actually shooting a bird may take a back seat to watching and coordinating with a dog as it works as the motivation leading a gun dog owner afield. The key to hunting with or without the aid of a dog is to know where a game bird lives and spend time hunting through its habitat.

Places to hunt

Most states have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of public acres open to hunting. Many also have programs that provide additional hunting access on private lands. Check your state’s department of natural resources department to find these federal, state and other areas to hunt. My son also swears by a subscription GPS app, called On X Hunts (www.onxhunts.com) to locate hunting areas and pinpoint property boundaries.

Outfitter option

You could benefit from using the services of a bird hunting outfitter. Many of the guides at these lodges are experienced and confident introducing newcomers to wingshooting. The education about how to hunt birds, identify habitat, shoot, handle a gun dog and any number of subjects, they can provide in hours and days would take years to learn on a trial-and-error basis. It could also be fun to take family members or friends on a bird hunting vacation so maybe more of you could get started in a new sport together. Some luxurious resorts even offer amenities such as spas for hunting and non-hunting guests. The Bird Country Resorts website makes it easy to check out hundreds of these outfitters using filters to select the lodge based on your preferences for kind of game bird, desire for a guide, state and level of service. Start using the filter at the top of this page to see your options. www.birdcountryresorts.com.

Meet the Birds

What kind of gamebird you’ll pursue depends on where you live or what states you plan to visit. I’ve put together this overview of 23 gamebird species which includes their sporting characteristics, tips on the equipment best suited to hunt each, how many states have hunting seasons for them and what to expect in the way of table fare.

Time to enter Bird Country

Best of luck in your adventures! Be sure to check back here for more articles to help you achieve a successful journey through Bird Country.