Recent content by crockett

Got back from a successful two-tag moose hunt with my old high school buddies from back home, dropped my young dry cow hind quarter off at the butcher, kissed the wife, picked up Pearl and headed out to pop the top on bird season. Then went out the next day and did it again!

Well, I've been having more than my share of good luck with pheasants over my new yellow lab Pearl this season, so I decided it was time for a change of pace. Pearl was pretty beat up after two big hunts this week, so I left her with Mum for a rest and put a canoe on the car to try to jumpshoot...

I've been having a good season so far, putting in a lot of time and putting on a lot of miles. We've trained hard, hunted hard, and generally had pretty good success. Pearl is starting to get a little ragged, including a pretty good barbed-wire gouge on one leg that needs a bit of time to...

Like the title says... After my lab Ruby died in April, I had the great good fortune to be invited to hunt some great covers over a friend's golden retriever, Ginger. To thank him, I stitched together this video of some of our adventures. I hope you enjoy this little snapshot of Nova Scotian...

My young pup had fun today, and we sure put some miles on. Last-day birds were thin on the ground and skittish as hell, but she flushed 19 in all, mostly hens or wise wild-flushing roosters. We broke a wing on one rooster, and worked until dark to find him, but he took her (and me) on a long...

We don't (usually) have very high bird density here in Nova Scotia, so chances at true doubles are relatively rare. When I've been given the chance I've always gotten "double fever", and flubbed my first shot - being happy to just get one bird out of the flush in the end. But this year we're...

My buddy's golden flushed a flock of birds yesterday evening and I saw this one come out in the middle of the bunch. I could tell right away he was a big one. My biggest pheasant to date. His longest tailfeather was 26.5" long (tip to tip) and the spurs were 5/8". Don't know how this...

After losing my beloved yellow lab Ruby this April, it's been an awfully quiet in our house, not to mention by my knee in the woods and in the bow of my canoe during fishing season. I'm pleased to report that I got my new pup on Thursday. Pearl is a very confident and boisterous young lady -...

How could this be? When I look at you now, 90 pounds of muscle and Fundy-proof fur, led at one end by your big block head bearing an infallible nose, wise brown eyes and impossibly soft ears. Bringing up the rear is that thick ever-thumping rudder of a tail. Yet inside that muscular shoulder...

Well my friends, with the setting of the sun on December 15th, or rather exactly 30 minutes afterwards, came the end of the 2012 pheasant hunting season in Nova Scotia. Although the tally of flushes, birds and limits downed are a natural metric of our hunting success, they really are...

With pheasant season in Nova Scotia over last Saturday, it was not long before my thoughts turned to my neglected waterfowl gear... Normal people say "Hey, what a NICE, WARM, SUNNY day. I think I'll take a day off". Duck hunters say "Hey, a 70km/h nor'ester? With a blizzard you say? HELL...

I expect you are not a member here, but I want to apologize to you anyways, because I've been feeling bad about the way that I acted yesterday. Near the end of my hunt, as I rounded the stand of oaks by the river, I heard you shoot, and looked up just in time to see you knock down a fine...

I had a short window of time this morning before a work commitment, so I took off early and found my way to a new pheasant spot that I just got permission on last year. I spent the 20 minutes preceding legal shooting light pushing birds out of cover too close to the houses, and checking my GPS...

Pheasant season opened in my area on Tuesday. I took a few hours and managed to get one rooster, but numbers seemed very low and I was worried out our harsh winter and wet spring. I went back on Saturday and most of the corn had been cut in the few days since I was last there. What a...