This years Stettler Pheasant Festival

[CMichaud]

Strange one this year.

The 1/4 we drew had a lot of bush and quite a bit of cover and sloughs.

Birds were very hard to find and our dog was young and a bit rangey.

We left lots of "seed" for next year

Hit up the DU 1/2 section south of Botha but no geese seemed to be hanging out.

On the up shot, we saw at least 15 mulies and WT does on the way in/out.

Saw a cow/calf moose on the 1/4 we were birding at about 300yds.

On the way out also saw a nice young bull hanging near a cow and twin calves.

[Canadasnowman]

Originally Posted by Newellknik

There are a few areas where local hunters are not
that enthused about the city folk invasion . Brooks,
Taber to name a couple ... I get it .
There is a weird obsession about snows now , they just
Have to be wiped out ...at any cost ....another Buffalo
coming .
The fallacy is that somehow the local economy is stimulated
by these events ,,,,,the slickers come , they shoot They leave
usually their garbage behind ...and may buy some gas !
Old story

Oh really, so our four or five night hotel stays, our numberous breakfast lunch and dinners, coffee shops ,trips to local bar, liquor store, convenience store, fuel, local repair shop for trailer fixing, driving to neighbouring towns to see relatives, never mind the two day drive back and forth supporting all of the above. We leave Zero hulls, Zero garbage, Zero impact on the area, except for harvesting some birds and supporting local economy. Ya were *****s.
Don't label all with the same brush.

[oldgutpile]

Originally Posted by Newellknik

There are a few areas where local hunters are not
that enthused about the city folk invasion . Brooks,
Taber to name a couple ... I get it .
There is a weird obsession about snows now , they just
Have to be wiped out ...at any cost ....another Buffalo
coming .
The fallacy is that somehow the local economy is stimulated
by these events ,,,,,the slickers come , they shoot They leave
usually their garbage behind ...and may buy some gas !
Old story

Wrong in so many ways!!
Brooks has been a hunting get-away for many years. Many decades in fact.
Many of us look at the hunting season as a time to reconnect with freindships made over the years of hunting and visitors.
The local economy does welcome and recognize the value in hunters as a tourism source. Sales in gas, meals, rooms, and sporting supplies are a benefit to local merchants. As the city grows from the little oil-town is started from, the benefits may seem less noticeable but they are still there and visitors keep coming.
As for the garbage, if you get out about the community, you will see that we have more than our own share of local contributions before, and long after the hunters leave.

[densa44]

Be assured that you are always welcome in Stettler. There will be lots of roosters running around and of course for now plenty of waterfowl.

[sjemac]

Originally Posted by wwbirds

Nice 1/2 section south east of Botha, think it was site 19. Flushed 15 of the 16 birds we ordered and found #16 safely holed up in a pile of slash branches about 3 feet in so he wasn't coming out and the dogs couldn't get at him so we walked away leaving him for seed.
Condition of the birds was terrible with only 1 of the 15 flushed having a stub of 14 inch or so tail while others were completely without a tail. Not many were able to fly well and the dogs caught 2-3 about a foot off the ground trying rudderless flight. Others we had to call the dogs off as there was no safe shot without hitting a close in pursuing dog. Think we got a second chance at a few of those flushing or the dogs trapping them later in the day.
Since tails are usually not grown due to crowding it looks as it they need more room or more cover to develop. Some times permanent damage is done to the tail feather folicles when blood feathers are just developing as crowded birds will actually feed on the growing blood feathers.
Guess the other disturbing thing that didnt really affect our results because we had already searched the cover on both sides of the pea field was the outfitter or goose hunters that set up blinds and decoys in the north west corner of our 1/2 section around 3 PM. He stopped to talk to us on his way out saying he had forgotten all about the festival. More troubling at about 3 30 while taking a break and watering the dogs at the south gate was a silver mini van with 2 guys and a dog who drove onto the pea stubble and hunted one of our covers actually flushing a rooster and missing it 3 times.
You would think the festival would grant exclusive rights to a property until the end of the day. We headed back to Stettler at about 4:40 pm and these guys were still running their dog and hunting our property when we left. they came in from the north so I have no idea if they came from another release site near us and wandered on to "our" property or if they were just taking advantage of free birds.

I was also quite disappointed in the quality of the birds. We found six of the eight released for us but two of those were picked up by the dogs on the ground. One bird was already dead and just starting to rigor up and the other was emaciated and nearly dead already. Of the three that we shot none of them had tails and all showed evidence of having been picked at by other birds in the tail feather area. We won’t be eating the one that was already dead or the sick bird so we get three birds total.

I like the idea of the event and the price is pretty good considering. There are just some wrinkles that need to get worked out such as ensuring that there are good quality birds released. If that could be insured I would be a repeat customer.

[Paule]

Our group(same 4 since inaugural year) has attended the Stettler festival from the beginning. I haul my decoy trailer up to enjoy the waterfowling in the am, do afternoon releases for the pheasants. Makes for a few busy days, but entirely worth it. I must say, the birds........quality just wasn't there. Literally 1/3 of our birds (16 of 48)in 3 days were caught by our dogs. Anyway, hopefully it is rectified and we can continue to come up there for this. Other than that, the waterfowling did not disappoint again. Thousands of birds, mixed bag, snows, specs, canadas, ducks. Funny thing is landowner(which we hunted 2 separate quarters of his 2 morning hunts in a row for waterfowl). Had 2 gorgeous labs, hunting trailer and I assumed we weren't gaining permission upon seeing this on entering the yard.(because he would hunt it himself) Turns out, he was headed south to hunt some wild pheasants south of Lethbridge. Fellow sportsman, outdoorsmen and just a great guy.
I would also like to apologize to the 2 gentleman in an suv that stopped by to see if we needed a couple guys with dogs. I was on a business call at the time and as I reflected, I may of been short with them stating "we have 3 dogs in the back, I think we're good". It may of come off arrogant, I was just preoccupied and they were just being helpful. As they departed, my conversation ended, my partner said " I think that's that densa 44 from the outdoorsmen, theres 2 pudelpointers in the back there". Whoever it was, as I said. I hope you found who you were looking for and had a great hunt, as we did that afternoon. Thanks to all the volunteers and organizers of that event and the great land owners we've always encountered up there! Hopefully "till next year Stettler"(with a little more challenging bunch of pheasants).

[wwbirds]

Bringing me my folder with all my hunting licences I had left in his truck Friday. Once again they got 15 of 16 birds, Dogs caught a lot and none had tails and Dale said a few were sadly emaciated being half size of a normal rooster. this is easily corrected.
Measure square footage of holding pens and divide by 10 square feet per bird (if spectacled) to determine holding capacity of pens. If not using spectacles you need 20 square feet per bird to raise healthy fully muscled and feathered birds. If the diet is good the only difference can be crowding. As this event grows each year either more pens must be built or spectacles must be used.
I would even donate 1000 or so specks to the organizers. I am sure I have some pins but they would probably need to order more pins from Kuhl.

[Sako300]

Have to agree with the above, huge difference in bird quality over the last two years. Great event, but would be tough to make the trip up again if the same birds were being used.

[Twobucks]

We found the same thing - no tails and one severely emaciated bird that couldn't even run from the dog. It just sat there and waited.

Last year the birds were generally great, especially considering the freezing rain we had. Hope they get that sorted.

People were terrific, the land had great habitat and we loved watching string after string of snows going over. We'll see what dad is up for, but I hope to be back next year.

[fish_e_o]

Originally Posted by Twobucks

We found the same thing - no tails and one severely emaciated bird that couldn't even run from the dog. It just sat there and waited.

i wonder where the birds came from. i visited wessex and the birds were almost dead in the crate when we got them.

[calvin]

Had a great site, had great weather, stopped and parked and waited for our starting time. Wife took dog for a quick walk and found 3 birds within 100ft of parking spot. Dog went absolutely ballistic when we turned him off leash. Birds running all over the place. Running. Few flew. Dog caught about 4. We finally got him leashed and got away from there. We did find a couple more but I think survivors from previous hunters. No tail feather. No meat on birds and a few just had full feathering. My son raised and released pheasants thru the 4h program and were released in better condition a couple of months ago. Very disappointing in the birds. Second day was much the same. Found all 8, killed 6, dog got 3. They didn't fly. He pointed, we told him to flush, he did and birds stood still and basically dog picked them up with little effort. We will head south in a couple of weeks to find some wild birds. Will be tougher hunting as this experience may have not been good for dog.