Bird Dogs Afield host Paul Fuller is the gun dog columnist for Northwoods Sporting Journal. The Journal has granted permission to re-print Paul’s articles. Thank you Northwoods Sporting Journal.

Montana 2023

Montana: Just the state name brings visions of the great west, adventure and prairie life. And it delivers on all counts. In September, Susan, the dogs and I made our seventh trip to Montana, For us, roundtrip, it’s an eighty-hour drive covering over 4000 miles. We travel through eleven states.

Let’s talk about the upland bird hunting. Montana has three popular upland birds: the ring-necked pheasant, the sharptail grouse and the Hungarian partridge. Of those three, only the sharptail grouse is a native bird. The ring-necked pheasant and Hungarian partridge are imports. For the September 1st opener, only the sharptail grouse and Hungarian partridge are legal. Due to later hatches, the ringneck pheasant hasn’t matured enough to be hunted on September 1st.

Susan and I like the opening week because the birds have not yet been pressured which means the opportunity for solid points from our dogs is better than later in the season. The downside of the early dates is that the weather is warm and pheasants are a nuisance. We counter the warm weather by hunting early in the morning.

We counter the pheasant issue by carefully selecting the cover we’re hunting. There is an old adage about the cover. If you’re finding and flushing pheasants, you’re in the wrong cover for sharptails. Pheasants prefer taller and thicker cover. Sharptails prefer knee high and thinner cover. That short and thin cover equals native grass. It gives the sharptail the opportunity to stretch their necks and watch for predators. Slightly elevated ground is also favored by the sharptail.

Let’s discuss native grass. Unlike the ring-necked pheasant and the Hungarian partridge, the native sharptail has never adapted to agriculture. Which means they are not corn, wheat, peas, etc. feeders. They require berries found in the native grass fields. So, both food and shelter must come from native grass fields. Not grain fields.

For many years, much of the native grass was protected under the Crop Reserve Program. This program paid farmers to not plow native grass. However, when ethanol was invented, many farmers found it more profitable to plow native grass and raise corn. As the native grasslands slowly diminished, so did sharptail numbers plus other upland birds such as the sage grouse. I want to state that I’m not blaming farmers. I grew up in farm country. They do what’s necessary to survive.

Here is a possible solution. In July of 2022, Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Michael Bennet of Colorado introduced the North American Grasslands Conservation Act. This Act provides resources to farmers, ranchers, and Tribes to voluntarily take steps to prevent the loss of grasslands and, when possible, restore them. As of this writing, this Act is still working its way through congress. Let’s hope it’s passed soon.

Let’s get back to hunting in Montana. In the seven trips we’ve taken to Montana, this year we found sharptail numbers to be down a bit, Hun numbers about the same and pheasant numbers very high. In fact, you could hardly go ten minutes without seeing pheasants somewhere…on the roads, in fields or flying over roads. Northeast Montana will have an outstanding pheasant season.

For Susan and me, it’s all about watching our dogs work. Killing a large number of birds isn’t necessary. When our dogs point and pin a cover of sharptail grouse, we limit ourselves to shooting only two birds from that covey. The sharptail is not a difficult target. It’s a rather slow bird. Also, the covey flushes in stages. Perhaps three will flush, then two, then four, then two and so on. Shooting a side x side, the most I could kill would be two birds from a covey. Shooting an over/under, the same for Susan. That’s enough.

Every upland hunter should have a prairie hunt on their bucket list. Either Montana or North Dakota will satisfy your desire. You’ll be happy and so will your dogs.

Copyright 2023 Paul Fuller

Paul and Susan Fuller are co-hosts of Bird Dogs Afield TV show. All past episodes are available on their website: www.birddogsafield.com. Contact: paul@birddogsafield.com.