Preparing and Packing for an Upland Hunting Trip

Out of state hunts take a lot planning, packing and prep work. Deciding what to take can be overwhelming and the right gear can make or break a trip. In this episode I take a look at whats most important to bring for yourself and dogs to have a successful, safe trip.

Lots to talk about on this episode! Welcome in our first guest, Justin Berkley of Northern Forest Gun Dogs to go over some listener questions and topics sent in, including: Shooting busted birds and how it affects your dog, running your dog on pheasants and grouse and how it affects them, tips for traveling with dogs, getting a dog to naturally retrieve, woodcock vs grouse cover and strategies for approaching ruffed grouse covers!

On this episode I discuss cameras options to film your upland hunts, how to mount them, a few tips to capture the best possible footage, recording settings, file storage and more.

Not everyday of Upland Hunting is picture perfect. Guns jam, dogs aren’t perfect and our shooting isn’t always spot on. On this Episode of Bird Talk I reflect on some of the hunts I’ve had where everything falls apart, mistakes were made and it all goes wrong.

On this episode we discuss how to get our dogs in the zone to go hunting, know their purpose in the field and fully understand were going hunting, there's birds involved and we need to be on top of our A-game to find those birds and properly handle them.

After the leaves fall and the ground foliage dies at the end of October, there's a period of a few days where ruffed grouse are yet to realize their surroundings have changed. These couple of days give us a small window of opportunity to get some great shot opportunities and can make for some action packed hunts with birds that hold well for the gun.

Welcome to Bird Talk! In Episode 1 we'll be talking about Home Life vs. Field Life and how you can easily transition from one to the other to mentally prepare your bird dog for a hunting trip.