BrownDogsCan2
Well-known member
i haven’t been my hunting self this year. I don’t know why that is lazy , getting older, combination of both. I haven’t been getting out much mostly half days here and there. Bird or two mainly quail. Lately I have been looking at pups. Last night I was talking to my wife about maybe hunting today. told her I may or may not go. If you’re not going to hunt anymore why do you need a pup? She says. That did it.
This morning still a little bit reluctant but with some more coaxing from my wife I got around.
I decided to head towards the nearest public piece of ground with some measurable snow. Evidently everyone else was thinking the same thing I pulled up and it looked like a Walmart on Christmas Eve morning.
I looked around and decided to cross the road and hop into a patch of grass I didn’t see anyone else hunting. It wasn’t very long before I was walking in someone’s else’s track s. I continued on hunting it the way I have in years past. When I got to a berm that I thought the backside might hold a few birds the dogs got busy working hens. About then a rooster explodes at my feet, boom boom and mostly tail feathers. I watch him fly way over into the corner and I think he has left the field. I continue working it and by chance end up over in that far corner. The dogs put up a rooster same rooster different rooster I don’t know but not a strong flyer. This time I drop him over a big bar ditch deep. He hits the top of it and gets up to run, ah crap! About then he loses his footing in the mud and slides thirty feet down the bank and into the water. Roo hits it like a ton of bricks. Good Girl.
Walk the rest of it and dogs screw it up a time or two. I’m thinking this field is done. And another rooster gets up, knock it down but not dead. ******Big head start but Roo catch’s up to it, rooster and Roo playing tag and the rooster mostly winning but soon enough rooster. In hand.
Time to move the truck ,crowds are gone. I pick a spot that I don’t think has been hunted and it hasn’t. The snow is really melting off now. Move a few birds running and wild. Small covey of quail only four of them and I don’t shoot even though I’m fairly sure the rest of them are around. More walking . And then it happens, Have you ever been duck hunting and had to step out of the blind and take a pee. It always happens. Well this time it was two roosters delayed flush. Man I sure screwed that up.! Hunted it out and crossed the road. Spent some time over there. Picked up another rooster in standing water it ran a little bit but Wally picked it up no problem. Actually spent a lot of time in standing water today but didn’t get wet until right before that bird . Sucked but worth it.
Crossed back over the road working a couple of heavy ditches back to the truck. The dogs are working birds and a rooster flushes out in front of them but flys back at me giving me a high cross, I catch him with the second shell but he keeps going four hundred yards out and he falls. In my mind it’s fifty/ fifty he’s alive or dead. The problem is there is a ditch full of deep water between us. I keep going towards the truck as it’s going to be easier to drive over to a point we can cross the ditch and then go try to find it. But the whole time I’m secretly hoping another rooster gets up. I don’t want to make that extra walk.
We take the truck over to the crossing point but now it’s a seven hundred yard walk. We head out and I leave my gun and vest in the truck. Grab a package of peanut butter crackers and the e-remote. Working our way out to the area he fell we circle him, try to flank him and get the wind. I’m actually hoping he’s moved a little bit because I think with a track it’s going to be easier to find him. When we get to the area he fell Wally flushes a hen which is good because the dogs are spent. Wally gets busy again working another bird this time I’m thinking it’s him. We work small circles. I’m about to give up but I’m thinking maybe I marked it a little long so we continue to work into the wind and forty yards further Roo stops and points, it happens some times on the tight holding live ones . This one is dead. There he is!
Not a perfect day but years from now when I look back and remember today I won’t remember my piss pore shooting or the birds the dogs blew out wild. I’ll remember the four retrieves, They were perfect!
This morning still a little bit reluctant but with some more coaxing from my wife I got around.
I decided to head towards the nearest public piece of ground with some measurable snow. Evidently everyone else was thinking the same thing I pulled up and it looked like a Walmart on Christmas Eve morning.
I looked around and decided to cross the road and hop into a patch of grass I didn’t see anyone else hunting. It wasn’t very long before I was walking in someone’s else’s track s. I continued on hunting it the way I have in years past. When I got to a berm that I thought the backside might hold a few birds the dogs got busy working hens. About then a rooster explodes at my feet, boom boom and mostly tail feathers. I watch him fly way over into the corner and I think he has left the field. I continue working it and by chance end up over in that far corner. The dogs put up a rooster same rooster different rooster I don’t know but not a strong flyer. This time I drop him over a big bar ditch deep. He hits the top of it and gets up to run, ah crap! About then he loses his footing in the mud and slides thirty feet down the bank and into the water. Roo hits it like a ton of bricks. Good Girl.
Walk the rest of it and dogs screw it up a time or two. I’m thinking this field is done. And another rooster gets up, knock it down but not dead. ******Big head start but Roo catch’s up to it, rooster and Roo playing tag and the rooster mostly winning but soon enough rooster. In hand.
Time to move the truck ,crowds are gone. I pick a spot that I don’t think has been hunted and it hasn’t. The snow is really melting off now. Move a few birds running and wild. Small covey of quail only four of them and I don’t shoot even though I’m fairly sure the rest of them are around. More walking . And then it happens, Have you ever been duck hunting and had to step out of the blind and take a pee. It always happens. Well this time it was two roosters delayed flush. Man I sure screwed that up.! Hunted it out and crossed the road. Spent some time over there. Picked up another rooster in standing water it ran a little bit but Wally picked it up no problem. Actually spent a lot of time in standing water today but didn’t get wet until right before that bird . Sucked but worth it.
Crossed back over the road working a couple of heavy ditches back to the truck. The dogs are working birds and a rooster flushes out in front of them but flys back at me giving me a high cross, I catch him with the second shell but he keeps going four hundred yards out and he falls. In my mind it’s fifty/ fifty he’s alive or dead. The problem is there is a ditch full of deep water between us. I keep going towards the truck as it’s going to be easier to drive over to a point we can cross the ditch and then go try to find it. But the whole time I’m secretly hoping another rooster gets up. I don’t want to make that extra walk.
We take the truck over to the crossing point but now it’s a seven hundred yard walk. We head out and I leave my gun and vest in the truck. Grab a package of peanut butter crackers and the e-remote. Working our way out to the area he fell we circle him, try to flank him and get the wind. I’m actually hoping he’s moved a little bit because I think with a track it’s going to be easier to find him. When we get to the area he fell Wally flushes a hen which is good because the dogs are spent. Wally gets busy again working another bird this time I’m thinking it’s him. We work small circles. I’m about to give up but I’m thinking maybe I marked it a little long so we continue to work into the wind and forty yards further Roo stops and points, it happens some times on the tight holding live ones . This one is dead. There he is!
Not a perfect day but years from now when I look back and remember today I won’t remember my piss pore shooting or the birds the dogs blew out wild. I’ll remember the four retrieves, They were perfect!
Just kidding. Your kind of hunt/storytelling is what I really enjoy, had me right there w/ya..