Red Hills Quail Forever fundraising tower shoot

[Dani]

So, Saturday I got to try something I had never done before. I participated in a tower shoot. I gotta say that it isn't something I would want to do A LOT of but I enjoyed myself. Our Red Hills chapter of Quail Forever didn't put on a banquet this year because of the pandemic and instead chose to do a fundraising tower shoot. Three guys from my quail lease and I went in on one "bale" and had a great time. I saw some spectacular shooting and then some really bad shooting. I participated in showing off spectacular shooting as well as a few really bad shots. I have never been a great shot when I see a bird coming from a ways off, so I am not surprised about a couple of the really bad shots.


I had heard of a tower shoot before but didn't really know what it was. There were 15 bales and we rotated around the whole field. 300 pheasants were released in 20 bird "rounds". Drake would have LOVED the shoot. There were small munsterlanders, labs, boykins and english springer spaniels out there. The dogs were a lot of fun to watch and quite well trained (or in the process of becoming well trained but were still very steady). We were only allowed to have two shooters per bale at a time so we rotated shooting chances every other bale.


Anyway, here are a few pictures from the morning....

The property is a beautiful property and there were lots of wood ducks upset about the shooting.

Until the end of the hunt, one bird was released at a time. With the clouds and lighting, sometimes it was difficult to tell if the bird was coming or going.

For the most part, we made the best of our opportunities.

Then Sunday was spent processing pheasants. I was surprised and a little disappointed in many people (not the guys on my bale) because so few people took birds home. I took 26 birds home but could have come home with easily another 40 or 50 birds and I waited until everyone had birds that wanted birds before pulling any. If had more freezer space, I would have brought home more....or if I knew more people in Tallahassee that would FOR SURE have taken birds I would have brought home more. Ah well....next year I will know to plan ahead.


It didn't take long to breast and leg out most of the birds. I have a few recipes for whole pheasant that I have wanted to try so I picked through all of the birds looking for the best birds and ended up plucking three. I could have done more but after plucking the three I decided it might take forever to do anymore and it was cold out standing in the shade in the north wind with wet hands. I tore a bit of the breast skin though I tried to be very gentle in my plucking.

I ended up with two really large bowls of legs and breasts. I figured I would make some stock with legs since I tend to find the tendons a pain to deal with. Plus it uses a lot of legs quickly. I followed Hank Shaw's recipe, which really wasn't all that much different than the family recipe that I have used all my life. Except that I baked the legs in a 400 degree oven for an hour, coated in olive oil and salt and pepper. Then when it was time to add spices and vegetables, the only difference is the addition of crushed juniper berries. I had never heard of using juniper berries but when I did more searching, apparently that is a common ingredient in many stock (light or dark) recipes. I ended up with two 2qt containers of meat and stock for soup or enchiladas or something (frozen in the juice to keep the meat from burning in the freezer) and then two 2qt jars of just plain stock that I froze. I really should learn to can some of my food. That would cut down on some of my freezer space that is being used.

This evening I will spend a bunch of time vacuum packing and freezing the meat that I soaked....I might just go ahead and cook up the rest of the legs as stock. I haven't totally decided but the stock and meat is delicious.


I HAVE decided I need a bigger freezer....and I won't need white meat for a good long while!


Dani

 

[Pete McMiller]

Loads of fun for sure Dani - thanks. I'm surprised there were so many bird's left over, that's a lot of great eating. I've never had a failure with any of Hank's recipes, probably because his flavor profiles are right up my alley.

 

[RLLigman]

These are supposed to mimic European driven pheasant shoots, employing stationary gunners along a line toward which game is driven. These are used as fundraisers for large estates in the British Isles where shooting posts positions are often auctioned and dog handlers invited to retrieve birds for the "guns" who often have a separate person loading a second shotgun to pass to the shooter. These shoots divide-up the game, which is often sold into the local butcher shops with some of the profits paid to the dog handlers. For the dogs, there are strict rules: no whining, barking, no breaking to retrieve birds no matter how close they fall.until they are released to begin retrieving dead and crippled birds. Any dog that violates the rules is sent home and the owner receives no game or pay. Much of British retriever training methods are based on this type of hunt, where the dogs must be calm and fully under control at all times until they are released between shooting flurries. A dog must be able to make multiple marks, be able to be directed to falls it never saw, as well as sit without acting like an "Odey Dog". as ,u wife refers to them. One reason why English Field Trials differ from out version where lining and being under handler control at distance are more heavily emphasized.

I used to attend tower shoots for a now-defunct pheasant hunting preserve out by Rock when I owned Dugan and Quinn. Like you, I was surprised by the number of people who would just come to shoot and not take birds the first year I worked picking up birds for the gunning stations.. Initially I thought it would be good steadiness training for the dog, but after walking away with a mountain of birds for the table I quickly put my hand in the air to attend again as a bird boy, doing that for four more years. I also ended-up getting some invitations to accompany groups who had no dogs, which worked-out well also. It was odd that some folks thought preserve pheasants would not eat as well as wild birds, while the converse held true, they had significantly more fat on them and were not as easy to cook too dry.
Assuming you have a spice grinder. In the recipes section of this site is a German recipe that we use for both venison cutlets and duck breasts that uses a rub of crushed juniper berries, black pepper corns, coarse ground sale, bay leaves slivered and ground, butter and heavy cream. Let the meat sit on a plate in the fridge after applying the rub prior rolling in flour and searing. Save all the spice flour mixture and use that to thicken when you add the cream. This is hands-down the best recipe I have every had for waterfowl and venison.

 

[Carl]

Cant believe anyone would not want to take home pheasants!
I loved it (and ruffed grouse), we used to get a few every year growing up in PA.
We always roasted them whole.