After finishing up several great hunting days on the Big Island of Hawaii, it was time for us to load all of our gear, dogs and make our way to Molokai. The travel within the Hawaiian Islands is extremely easy, and also very affordable, with the majority of the tickets...
Kansas Bobwhites – The Journey Within, A Bird Hunter’s Diary
After successful stops in Arizona, Oregon and Nebraska, our last stop on this Upland Slam road trip, before heading home to Michigan for Christmas, would be north central Kansas for wild Bobwhite Quail. Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas are among the top states for hunting wild Bobwhite quail. We are set...
The Process for Bringing Your Bird Dogs to Hawaii – The Journey Within, A Bird Hunter’s Diary
In a previous blog I mentioned that if you, as an upland hunter, wanted to bring your bird dogs to Hawaii, that I would give you some pointers of what we learned from our experience. There are 4 keys:1. Your local vet can assist in steering you through the regulations.2....
Hunting Hawaii’s Big Island – The Journey Within, A Bird Hunter’s Diary
Not many upland hunters think of Hawaii when it comes to planning a hunting excursion, but it truly is an “Upland Hunter’s Paradise”. During our recent hunting trip to Hawaii, my Dad and I hunted both the Big Island and Molokai. Our hunt was in January, but we started our...
Roosters of Nebraska – The Journey Within, A Bird Hunter’s Diary
I have had many great pheasant hunts during my life, from Iowa to the Dakota’s, but when choosing a location to hunt 100% wild pheasants for my Upland Slam, I knew exactly where we would be heading. Western Nebraska is known to have some of the best hunting there is,...
Wild Chukars in Oregon – The Journey Within, A Bird Hunter’s Diary
After an extremely successful quail hunt in Arizona, we loaded our equipment and dogs and set out for our next destination in northeast Oregon. During our quest this season for the Upland Slam, luck has almost always been on our side. To date the only species that we were unsuccessful...
Arizona Quail Slam – The Journey Within, A Bird Hunter’s Diary
When it comes to hunting wild quail in the United States, Arizona seems to be, everyone’s favorite. In Arizona you can hunt three species of desert quail on the same trip: Scaled, Gambel’s and Mearns, which is also known as the Montezuma quail. We timed our trip to Southern Arizona...
Grouse & Snipe Hunting Saskatchewan – The Journey Within, A Bird Hunter’s Diary
I have upland bird hunted most of my life. Still fresh in my memory are the numerous trips with my Dad where we would go and hunt the relatively untouched aspen cuts in northern Michigan and in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We would load up our pickup truck, staying in cabins...
The Woodcock Migration – The Journey Within, A Bird Hunter’s Diary
Some of the first memories I have of hunting, while I was not yet old enough to carry my own shotgun, were with my Dad following our almost pure white English Setter Casper, who was working the thick timber regrowth’s of Northern Michigan. I would have been, maybe 6 or...
Hunting Valley and Mountain Quail in Oregon and California – “The Journey Within, A Bird Hunter’s Diary”
After South Dakota, and a long pick-up ride, our next stop was in southern Oregon. This would be a multiple purpose stop as we would be hunting Valley Quail but also Columbia Whitetail. Columbia Whitetail, which I will cover in a future blog, are one of the many whitetail subspecies,...
The Journey Within, A Bird Hunter’s Diary – Half Way Home
It is hard to comprehend that Dad, Grant and I are at the half-way point of this journey. We’ve traveled some miles. Especially the dogs. In one day alone, Shooter put on 23.41 miles, Arrow put on 19.36 miles, Tiny put on 16.42 miles and Missy put on 7.85 miles...
The Journey Within, A Bird Hunter’s Diary – South Dakota
South Dakota is well known as the pheasant hunting capital of the world, but South Dakota, with its rolling prairie lands, also holds great habitat and numbers of prairie chicken and sharptail grouse. Prairie chickens used to be found all over the central US, but in the late 1800’s, as...
The Journey Within, A Bird Hunter’s Diary- Wyoming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lis5X0sUQVUWyoming has long been known to have some of the best big game hunting in North America, but it is often overlooked for the quality and diversity of its upland hunting opportunities. In reality there are very few areas that offer the diversity in upland species and terrain for an...
The Journey Within, A Bird Hunter’s Diary – The Alaska Ptarmigan Trifecta
As one of the most over looked upland species, the ptarmigan is also one of the most challenging to the hunter if he seeks to take each of the different species. There are three species of ptarmigan. The Willow Ptarmigan, which as its name would suggest, are found in lower...
The Journey Within, A Bird Hunter’s Diary- Himalayan Snowcock
https://youtu.be/APrVwmZwanAGoing into this fall, the upland trip that had me the most worried, was heading into the Ruby mountains of Nevada in search of the extremely elusive Himalayan Snowcock. Himalayan Snowcock live in high alpine meadows and cliffs generally between the elevations of 9,000 to 11,000 feet, but they are...
The Journey Within, A Bird Hunter’s Diary
As I look back, some of my best memories of growing up, were following along with my Dad and our dogs, hunting the thick cuts of trees in northern Michigan in search of Grouse and Woodcock. I couldn’t have been more than 8 years old on my first of many...
