ROAD HUNTER

around the West during upland bird season and gets his dog on more points and gets more shooting during his two days of hunting the preserve than throughout the rest of the season combined.

I start upland bird hunting season on September 1, when I take my dogs into the Cascades in search of quail and forest grouse. We get out on a few dove hunts, then usually hunt every day of bandtail pigeon season, which is brief. We’ll go on some fall turkey hunts, but for the next four months, it’s waterfowl hunting several days a week. So for me and my dogs, hunting bird preserves once waterfowl season closes is just what we need to spend more time together, doing what we love.

Less than an hour from where I grew up in western Oregon, the first ringneck pheasants were released in the continental United States. Pheasants were everywhere when I