Any breed of gun dog will have ample opportunity to hunt prairie grouse and ringneck pheasants on the 12,000 acres of Tumbleweed Ranch property.

These walk-and-block hunts can be spectacular, with some cover often producing dozens, even hundreds, of pheasants, small groups of Huns, or at times, a few flocks of prairie grouse. Though there can be shotguns fired in several directions, the safety factor in these hunts is good if no low shots are taken and everyone is aware of each other's location among the walkers and blockers.

"This is the way we hunted pheasants 35 years ago when I was growing up back home in Michigan," one hunter recollected after his group of six walkers met the three blockers at the end of an 80-acre field of CRP filled with head-high prairie grass--and pheasants, lots of pheasants.

Over 100 ringnecks, more than half of them roosters, had boiled up in front of the walkers and their dogs. Any birds that didn't fall to the moving shotgunners flew at high speed over those waiting at the end of the field. There some roosters hit the ground in an explosion of feathers and others, untouched by any pellets, kept right on going.

Another hunting technique at Tumbleweed is for a few hunters (from two to five) in ATVs, SUVs, or pickups to ride to small patches of prairie grass, food plots, creek bottoms or tree belts that often hold pheasants, grouse or Hungarian partridge.

Though this may sound easy, in many cases the birds will run to the outside of the cover and flush on the edge of shotgun range. Fast, on-target shooting is necessary for a limit that might be had in a few hours or with an all-day effort. No matter what, the action is always exciting. As with other hunting methods, good dogs are key ingredients for success.

"I've hunted quail in South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama and have had the thrill of covey rises that nearly made my heart stop. But having a half dozen ringneck pheasants, a dozen Hungarian partridge or a bunch of prairie grouse explode out of a patch of cover is an even bigger thrill in my opinion," says Ron Kline, a 72-year-old hunter from Pennsylvania. "When we walk into these small stands of sorghum, prairie grass or plum thickets, we never know what the dogs will flush until the birds are in the air. And though the shots may seem easy when we later talk about them, when we're taking them, they're not," Kline reports with a grin.

A third Tumbleweed hunting strategy is for a couple of shotgunners and their dogs to walk the more rugged draws, gullies, and ravines accessible only on foot. These are the places to which ringnecks, Huns and prairie grouse will gravitate early in the season to escape hunting pressure and later in the year to escape cold and windy weather conditions.