Yeah, I'm eager to go hiking with the dog and gun.
I've no advice for your 16 ga., other than to ask: are you sure? For that money you can buy a serviceable new gun with chokes..and then have 2 guns!
My observations on bird populations for what they're worth:
No birds. On my place, one out of 12 breeding pairs of quail produced chicks, I haven't seen a pheasant since mid June and certainly no chicks. In my view, the weather has finally accomplished what the Washington legislature wanted all along, the likely near extermination of wild pheasants in Eastern Washington. Certainly in the Spokane area. If I hunt pheasants at all in Washington, it'll be south, one pass only through familar old haunts, and likely a couple of trips to preserves. I'm wating to tell my grandkids about wild bird hunting in Washington, it's by and large over in my opinion for the forseeable future. Pay to play, or chickens out of a DFW truck, that'll be pheasant hunting here. Too bad. It was fun.
Waterfowl: it all depends on water, the wet spring may be responsible for some of the water I'm seeing in small ponds that haven't been hydrated for 5-7 years...could be worth digging out the calls.
I hope the grouse population held up...
