Upland Bird Hunting with Tom Huggler

This is a decent instructional and documentary video, made in the the mid-1990s (but still available new) covering hunting pheasant, grouse, and quail in the United states. It is aimed at the intermediate level hunter, and assumes a basic familiarity with hunting. However, I think beginners can learn a lot from it too, and experienced hunters can also learn some tips about hunting techniques, bird food sources, their cover choices, habits and habitat.Each of the three segments is about 50 minutes long. It is a combination of instruction, documentary footage, and several short interviews with bird hunting experts and state wildlife department personel.The narrator (hunting & fishing author Tom Huggler) uses a rambling style, and the video jumps around in topics, so I had to watch it a few times to pick up all the information. I'd recommend that it be supplemented with a couple of the good books on upland bird hunting (and a class too if possible). Several of these books are out of print, but of course many are available used on Amazon. I can recommend the NRA series of hunting books as good books for beginners. (Obviously check the Amazon reviews on the books to compare them.)This video being older, it is more instructional than most current hunting videos. These days we are inundated with many silly entertainment-style hunting DVDs in the Reality TV format, many taken from television shows. The general format is: "Some wacky/unsual/interesting people (apparently with a lot of money) go hunting and fishing with a lot of expensive equipment and nice trucks." And in those modern hunting DVDs there is a lot of obvious sponsorship and "product placement" by a brands of hunting equipment and vehicles rather than objective comparisons of equipment. I believe this has to do with the change in culture in the U.S. since about 2000. So some younger people may consider this video to be too "old school" or "retro," and not entertaining enough for them.The DVD video quality is good, and it is well produced in a combination instruction/documentary format. Obviously since it is from the '90s, some of of the inforamation about bird populations and wildlife management in the U.S. is dated. The video alternates between the narrator speaking to the camera, a few graphics, interviews with experts, and segments of the narrator and other hunters in the field hunting in many U.S. locations.There is information on the history of hunting each bird in the U.S. Of course there is a lot of information about hunting with dogs, but some older hunters interviewed say in the mid 1900s birds were so plentiful that dogs were not always used. There is some information about techniques for hunting without dogs, but the emphasis is on dogs to be more sucessful. Unfortunately, there is little information about how to locate good hunting spots and get landowner permission to hunt, and little information about hunting gun safety (which is very important when upland hunting in groups). There is some coverage of hunting at private game preserves.The equipment descriptions and hunting techniques described assume a little familiarization with bird hunting, rather than assuming that the viewer is a complete beginner. For beginners, I would have preferred a somewhat more straight-forward and organized "how to" discussion of equipment and hunting techniques.Overall, I'd say it's worth buying, especially since there are so few decent instructional hunting videos available these days on DVD. (Decent older ones are still available used on VHS video tape, if you still have a tape player.) And again, for beginners I would also recommend a couple of the good upland hunting books and taking a bird hunting class if possible.

Nuthin on DVD

Living in Michigan, we are familiar with Tom Huggler and is excellent writing. So, while looking for bird hunting dvd's for my husbands Christmas gifts I came across this dvd and thought it would be worthwhile. We have just enjoyed watching it and we HIGHLY recommend it. Informative, great footage and fun to listen to, we're pleased with the purchase and anyone interested in bird hunting (all aspects..from habitat, hunting methods, guns & dogs)really will be pleased to add this to their collection.

This is one of the most informative hunting DVD's I have ever seen.And I have seen hundreds! This is a great buy and a great instructionalDVD for begginers and seasoned hunters alike. Very enjoyable!

Great DVD that captures the basics of upland bird hunting. Great for beginners learning about hunting upland birds. Very informative and entertaining to watch!

I got it for my husband. he says it is a real interesting dvd.watched it more than once. Sayed he learned from it

I enjoyed the pheasant and quail hunting. I haven't watched the grouse portion of the video.

Great details about all types of Upland Bird Hunting in the US. Terrific dvd, what a great guy and teacher!!!