Going for Distance

Prairie Drifter

Prairie Drifter

Well-known member
Pheasants are world reknowned for their foot speed and evasive tactics. What is the furthest you have had a dog point and relocate a running rooster and still bring him back to the truck with you? I know on several occasions with several different dogs that I've followed a rooster for at least a mile before getting him pointed and brought to hand. On one occasion the wife dropped me off on one side of a section and drove around to read while I hunted. We started working bird track almost immediately and the wife got to see me shoot all 3 roosters right in front of the truck a mile from where we started. Anyone else have similar battles?
 
I have this one time when I dropped a pheasant and it was running before it hit the ground. His legs were going in the air. He took off and over a hill. Tony right close behind. I got to the top of the hill and no Tony or bird. I sat down smoked a cigarette. That took about 10 minutes. I got up and looked around and here comes Tony bird in his mouth about 2 hills away. He stopped put the birds down to rest and the bird started running again. Tony grabbed him and brought him to me. How far he ran after that bird No Idea, but I got him and that is what counts.

The funniest one Tony did was; I shot a Rooster and it fluttered down a couple hundred yards the other side of a creek. Tony had to chase a little to pin it down and pick it up. He gets back to the creek and in the center of the creek he decides to take a drink. He sets the bird down and starts to drink. When he realizes the bird is going downstream in the current. He rushed to the bird and picked it up. He still wanted that drink and stood there with the bird in mouth. I called him to me, took the bird and let him go get his drink. The facial expression he got when that bird went down stream. Was "Oh Sh--" and he took after it.---Bob
 
Bobeyerite,

Great story! Lesson learned for the pooch I guess.

In response to the thread starter, 1 mile is a long way to have tracked a rooster and still been successful at the end. Your dogs must behave a lot better than mine that's for sure:) I've seen my older brit track em' up to nearly 1/2mi. before pointing and putting him up. I wish I had a dollar for everytime my ill-mannered (poorly trained) Britts started pushing one out the end while I'm yelling. You can definately tell when it is a rooster, because the dog heads straight to the end at about the same pace every time it happens.
 
Roosters

I've had it happen several times with several dogs. A few years ago with Jetta in the county to my west, we were hunting two N/S WIHA 80's that had a road between them. I came in on the south end into the wind and crossed to the east side of the east patch. About half way up the east side, Jetta started working bird. At the north end the bird turned west and we tracked it the full width of the north end or 1/4 mile only to have him cross the road at the intersection. She continued the cat and mouse across the entire width of the west 80. She lost scent for about 20 yards in the corner where the bird ran out into the green wheat for a bit before tucking back into the CRP. She kept the point/break scenario for 1/2 of the west side before wearing the bird out and getting a hard point. She swelled up like a true champion when she brought that bird back. So did I!!! It's really those birds that are burned into my memory. The hard ones!
 
I am not sure exactly how long the longest has been. Here in south central Minnesota there isn't always that much real estate for them to cover but I did have a springer once who took off to the west after a rooster I winged. It seemed like it took forever for her to get back with that bird but when she gat back to me she had a Wall Drug bumper sticker on her butt.:D So that one must have been a doozie.
 
My lab a few years ago trailed a rooster for 1/2 mi.. He trailed that bird as it criss crossed the creek. The small creek was frozen. He came to a post that was at the edge of the creek and locked up. I knew he had the bird, but Duke wasn't moving. Duke proceeded to stick his head under the ice, there was a small depression next to the post, and came out with a soaking wet rooster. He made longer retrieves over the years, but I'll never forget that one.
 
water retrieve

my old lab had a similar underwater retrieve. We were hunting a ravine that was full of roosters and we had bagged about 8 birds. We hunt a leg on a rooster and watched it fly off and land in a clump of cover that also has some water in it. We hunted over to the area and my lab kept going back to the same spot along the edge of the water. The cover was heavy and we kicked and stomped and could not come up with that bird. Finally my dog stuck his head completely under the water and came out with one soaked rooster with one broken leg!

I gave my old boy a little extra food that night! :)
 
Sneak your Ford into the field and take that blaze orange off and they will quit running...:D...actually, I had a GSP push some blues into a ravine and out on the other side. My best guess was around a 1/2 a mile. We ran into another hunter and his GSP which penned the birds between the two dogs. They probably would still be running; which bodes the question? --- skillet shot or not (blue quail only of course)?
 
The winter weight must be impacting me. The thought of walking miles is tiring me already. Nice reminder to me that I must get in shape before next fall.
 
I winged a bird in the middle of the section and we followed it to one section line and back to the other so 1.5 miles as the crow flies . Heaven knows how many actual miles we put on as we were up and down a hillside. This occurred at Dry Lake in Western Brookings, Eastern Kingsbury, County, SD, if any of you are familiar. I remember it as a very warm December day. I think I may have been in shirt sleeves.

I had another where we didn't exactly follow the bird, it was just that I saw my buddy shoot at a bird in the distance and from where I was at, I could see feathers blow off the bird (he didn't think he hit it). We happened to be hunting the west side of Lake Carthage on the Kingsbury - Miner County line. I watched as the bird flew across the lake to the east and got a general impression of where he went down in a large area of grass cover. We hunted around the lake until we came upon the general area. I let my dog work awhile, in fact letting him out of range. A rooster flushed and I assumed that we just chased away our bird. Not long after that, my dog locked up and low and behold, there was our fresh kill. This hunt was memorable too, as it was the first trip out after putting down my first hunting dog.

For some the Pheasant Country old timers, this may be familiar stories.
 
omsrud said:
I winged a bird in the middle of the section and we followed it to one section line and back to the other so 1.5 miles as the crow flies . Heaven knows how many actual miles we put on as we were up and down a hillside. This occurred at Dry Lake in Western Brookings, Eastern Kingsbury, County, SD, if any of you are familiar.
Click to expand...

I caught the biggest walleye I've ever caught on Dry. On the east side of the sunken road. I was just casting into the shallows off the boat on the south side of the lake, having a beer and a nice huge walleye grabbed it. Lots of freshwater shrimp on the lake.

Unrelated to hunting, but I just thought I would give you a boring story about Dry Lake.
 
long range and excitement

i was hunting two years ago with a group their wasnt enough room for all to walk this strip so they tok my dogs and i blocked. they were a 100yards from me when 2 roosters went up my ep got one and the other flew 3 terraces over and the lab was on his heels well i counted them and when she passed the 3rd terrace i was upset calling her names and such and when she got to terrace number5 she was not my dog anymore she hit the top of the terrace and took off straight north for about 3 or 4 hundred feet i was ready to kill her she swooped down picking him up on the run and came back. handed it to the kid who shot him and as soon as she did another flew up he shot him droped the other bird and it all started over again long story short we estimated 1 mile after a wounded bird that she did bring back the second time and left me eating crow and remembering to always trust the dog they know what the are doing
 
Gove County, your experience reminds me of a hunt my buddy GW and I had about 6 years ago. We took two of his fast draw buddies and headed into the hills in Mitchell county. A half mile in his male Rooster pointed and his buddy moved in and flushed dropping the bird crippled across the fence in a pasture near me. I took my dogs out into the pasture and called fetch. I watched Rooster and he headed back into the CRP some 100 yards further south. The shooter (his name escapes me) was screaming and cussing Rooster for giving up on his bird with no effort. Rooster got safely through the fence and went on point in about 40 yards in a shallow ditch. I hollered to the shooter to go to the dog and get his bird. He insisted the bird was under my feet. I had to walk 200 yards to Rooster and collect his pinned bird in front of the dogs' point to convince him to trust the dog. Then he got a bit sheepish and we went on. The punchline of the story is this was a 1/4 section and GW's two friends couldn't make it back to the truck. We had to drive to the corner and pick them up. They were too tired to walk the last half mile back to the truck on the road. Tender foot!
 
good story pd i really enjoy taking tender foots out or peaple that have never hunted with a dog becouse they r power walkers an out walk the dogs and then they get mad and embarrased when i get all the action thats when i tell them if you listen to me smarty pants u would have gotten birds
 
Long Distance Pheasant

When I hunt alone as is often the case on a Sunday afternoon after everyone else has headed home, I let my dog go out as far as he wants so long as I can see him. One warmish Sunday afternoon about 3:30 the dog went on point about 150 yards away in some hilltop CRP. I wanted to hurry over, but I was on about my 14th mile for the weekend and I just didn't have the legs for a quick pace. So I thought, the heck with it, just amble over. I did, the dog stayed absolutely rock hard on point, and it was a cock too, put in the bag. A bird I would have never encountered without letting the dog range.
 
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