Upland at McKee Beshers

[bbarrows32]

Anyone hunt upland at McKee Beshers? Any wild birds there?

I know some organizations do hunt tests so there might be a few birds left over.

Has anyone ever stocked their own birds in the training fields? Lots of competition or could I take some buddies and a few dozen chucker/quail and do my own preserve hunt on the cheap.


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[tallen702]

I've never seen any upland there in my scouting trips, the state stopped stocking back in the 1960s and the edge-to-edge farming techniques and taking of the entire plant down to the ground for silage have pretty much destroyed the upland habitat where chuckar, quail, and pheasant are concerned. You *might* have luck doing your own stock-and-shoot, but I'd make sure it was on a week day to minimize interference from everyone hunting deer there.

It's a pretty heavily pressured area. The sunflower fields get hammered for dove season, and the flooded fields get just as hammered for puddle ducks. I've heard it described as "lead rain: on the dove opener and was told that if I go there for dove, I should take a boonie-type hat to keep the birdshot from rolling down my shirt. Not saying it's *not* worth a try. There's a lot of acreage out there, so it could work well. I'd just make sure to do a really good scouting trip before committing.

 

[Derwood]

You can do dog training there with live birds, but trying to do an actual preserve type hunt would probably be tricky, since anyone can show up and use the field just like you.

 

[bbarrows32]

Thanks we are going today to check things out.


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[94hokie]

It's illegal to release birds unless you are have a regulated shooting area permit. The only exceptions to that are for dog training and field trials.

 

[bbarrows32]

I have my retriever permit. Any releases would certainly be training-related


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