Upland Game Hunting

Looking to hopefully plan an out-of-state hunting trip. Located in Nebraska. I have hunted bobwhites, prairie chickens, and pheasants here. I will go after sharpies also. Looking for other options (possibly close). I have a two-year-old dog on her second season and wanting to get more taxidermy for the wall.

what kind of Dog? If a Retriever then SD ducks, if a pointer Arizona Quail.

Any history of bad decisions in your past ? If so there are always chuckers to start chasing.

I would suggest ruffed grouse in Northern MN. Several folks on here who might provide advice if asked.

Pointing or flushing brred?

Breed.

The first time you hunt chukar is for fun. After that, all subsequent hunts are for revenge. Legs of a mountain goat, speed of an F-18. All the while laughing at you hysterically.

I used to upland bird hunt. But anymore the other sports interfere with that. On Oct. 1st. you have Bow Deer hunters charging into the woods for about 6 weeks. Then Deer rifle season comes on Nov.15th.
Starting Dec. 1st. back to the bow hunters, muzzle loading, trappers earlier etc.

On top of that I turned 75 this summer. Not quite as adgile as when I was younger.

Still like to shoot partridge when out and about.

Grouse hunting in northern MN is top notch, hard to beat it

Flushing breed. Not a purebred. Lab/border collie mix.

I would do a mid/late season hunt in SD. A fair amount of public.

Only for the weak of mind diffently not for the weak of lung power

Doves. Lotta fun to shoot at

I consider myself lucky that I was hunting during the peak of pheasant hunting in Southeast and Southcentral PA .The pheasant was a non native bird in the United States It was first introduced in the US in the state of ORI think That was in the late 1880's and 1890's .Pa did not introduce them into the wild until some time in the early 1900's .Thanks in part to the farming practices being used at that time the habitat was perfect for natural reproduction .And raising pheasants and releasing them into the wild became a very popular program for the many sportsmen's clubs in PA Plus many people took up raising them also . Opening day was usually the last Sat of Oct .It was like a holiday for many people I would guess there was more people hunting pheasants in PA and there where deer hunters at that time .Hunting hours for the first day was you could not start until 9:00 AM The main reason for that was it allowed he farmers to do their morning chores before opening time for pheasants occurred. For the first several hours you would be hearing someone shooting nearby . almost non stop The daily bag limit was 2 .Many hunters with dogs where finished in about an hour .You where allowed to hunt in parties of up to 5 people .The best farms as far as habitat had so much cover that you had to hunt every field to work all the cover And often times we would hunt some of those fields. More than once we would hunt the same spots more than once a day. The southeast and south central part of PA was called the pheasant capital on the eastern part of the US .It started to fade away in the 1970's and by the mid 1980''s the pheasant population had nearly disappeared I still get a thrill out of hearing a rooster pheasant crowing and flushing a tight sitting bird at your feet is as much fun as it was 40 or 50 years ago

I should have clarified. I was looking for upland bird species like quail species and grouse species. Chukar sounds kind of fun also.

Any other suggestions or pointers in the right direction?

Scaled quail. Call NM game n fish to determine what population status is. I've had friends go down there and pile them up.

NE Montana for Hungarian partridge, and Sharptails, they are very plentiful right now. SE Montana for Sage Grouse, not sure how much longer there will be a season so if it’s on your bucket list should go sooner than later.
Lots of Public ground.

Tray is right. If you want to shoot sage grouse, you would be wise to get it done sooner than later

If you go to NE MN you can shoot ruffed grouse and one stinking Spruce grouse for the wall. Stay just a little further south and you can pick up woodcock too.

they are putting up a lot of birds here in the u p

Go to Valentine National wildlife refuge for sharpies. Call the refuge headquarters and ask for Mel he will point you in the right direction. I go every year and love the place. Western Kansas has good quail numbers

Nebraska used to have good numbers of pheasants and quail but that's gone now. Indicators point to turkeys as the main culprit, as they destroy eggs when they find them and the turkeys are thriving. South Dakota has good numbers of pheasants around Winner and west of Brookings but it's pay to play.

I have actually found some groups of Sharpies lately. got my limit the last two trips.

Any pointers on where to start? is there much public land available also? Sorry for all of the questions.

Hungarian partidge and spruce grouse would be awesome!

About 8-10 years ago I hunted with a friend near Beach, ND. Two miles from the Montana border. Loaded with pheasants, also had sharptails and huns. I never saw so many birds. Might be one of the best kept secrets.

I could exchange an opportunity to hunt some sharptails/prairie chickens for help on where to plan a hunt haha.

Been doing a lot of looking at Wyoming. It appears they have a large variety of grouse species as well as chukars and partridge. Has anyone experienced a hunt there?

They are certainly the best eating upland game bird there is.

The upland game bird I had the most fun hunting was when I was a boy. Hungarian Partridge. Now, they're practically extinct. Is there anywhere in the country that has a fair amount of them anymore?

Head for the Superior National Forest for Spruce hens and on the way home hit the Chippewa for Ruff Grouse and most anywhere in ND for Huns.

[/quote]Head for the Superior National Forest for Spruce hens and on the way home hit the Chippewa for Ruff Grouse and most anywhere in ND for Huns.[/quote]
Thank you for the help!

Hey now...,

Tray is spot on. A trip to Montana is not close, but it's great bird hunting. Those big Sage Grouse are pretty cool but I don't know how long the season will go. Huns are a blast, and then you my be able to get up a little higher in elevation and get some big Blue Grouse. Huns and Blues are two of my favorites. It's been years but I love hunring Woodcock. I think it might be a little tricky timing the migratory flights.

Head over here to Wyoming.
Eastern side has upland birds, mountains to the West of Laramie have blue grouse, sage grouse over near Saratoga, ruffed grouse on Western side mountains.
We have chukar near Thermopolis, huns on Eastern side with pheasants and sharpies mixed around.

Sage grouse will be closed now, short Sept season.