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Originally Posted by MK2750
What difference does it make if the birds are "slaughtered" by a few buddies in the parking lot or by you and your buddies a half mile away. Your bird is held under point until you walk up to him and you have proclaimed yourself on numerous occasions as an expert wing shot.
The chances of the bird's survival is likely higher in the parking lot than out in the field with you and your dog. If fact; I would wager a large amount of the birds you "slaughter" have zero chance of survival as compared to 20-50% at release.
"Sporting" or "Fair Chase" does refer to the animal or bird's chances of surviving. The greater the chance of survival, the greater the challenge or more ethical the hunt.
The real problem here is that some believe that their enjoyment is greater or more important than someone else's enjoyment. Ground swatting a pheasant may be more challenging and exciting to a new or occasional hunter than a perfect point and flush is to someone else.
I like the idea of a "timeout period" when the birds are released but tricking people into missing a release day is selfish and harmful to the sport. Nobody wants to drive an hour or two with zero chance of seeing a bird and many can hardly afford the trip. A couple or three useless trips and that person might just give up on pheasants altogether. As you know, the more involved the better with the chance of more sites and more birds.
You do realize that the majority are not expert hunters, do not have well trained dogs and are not expert wing shots. In a democratic system the majority might argue that expert hunters and wing shots be banned from the sites to encourage a fairer chase and an increased chance of more birds remaining on non release days.
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In the frenzy of trying to shoot the birds as they leave the crates some people shoot at several birds so even if they only take home two, they may wound or kill as many more. The fact that myself and densa44 have had our dogs find as many as five freshly killed or crippled birds after a release, supports that theory. On the other hand, if I come along a few hours after a release, or the next day, the birds have had a considerable opportunity to find cover, or to leave the site altogether. And even if my dog finds a bird after it reaches the heavy cover, it still has a fair chance to escape by flying through the trees and offering no clear shot. Or the bird may run and flush at 40 or 50 yards, and unlike some people, I will choose not to shoot that far. You won't hear four five or six shots at one bird when myself and my hunting partners are at a release site, and you won't see many birds fly off that we shoot at. And if a bird does fly off we follow up, so that we are't leaving wounded birds in the field. I have seen several incidents where people shoot at birds, wound them, and then continue after another bird rather than follow up on the one that they shot at. Last Wednesday, we saw two people fire five shots at one bird, I saw the legs drop, and they didn't bother to follow up, even though they had a dog. So now, having dogs and shooting better, does not mean that you are going to kill more birds, although you should wound a lot less, and waste fewer birds as a result.
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I was out at the Daysland site on Monday, I had a couple of great walks, with my husky under my arm, and I felt great. I didn't see any pheasants but there was a chance I might have, and that makes the 100km trip worth while. This is the second time I've been out this year, and I for one just enjoy getting out and walking around with a shotgun under my arm. It brings back memories of growing up on a farm in the Bawlf area, same terrain, and as your growing old you need to bring back those memories. And as a side note I have never seen the release truck, and I would never go on weekend when there might be hi activity. I imagine everyone that uses that site, uses it for a different reason, and all is fine.
My thanks goes out to the Alberta Conservation Association for making this available to me
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I was out Monday as well, and even though we saw no birds, and heard no shots, we had a good walk, and got some fresh air. There obviously was no Monday release , so the last release would have been Friday, which explains no birds. Hopefully, no release yesterday means that they are mixing up the schedule to become less predictable.