Bells on flushers

BrownDogsCan2 said:
I lost dogs 3 times yesterday each of them once and once lost them both together. At one point I thought the little one was truly lost and had to fire shells in the air to help her locate me.
They aren’t the runoff type and do a good job of keeping track of me. I don’t hack at them and make them stay underfoot.Sometimes I’ll let them run a bird we have no chance of killing. The problem with that is a day like yesterday. Noisy and tall and grey and wet.
And they aren’t hundreds of yards away. 75 yards away and lost is still lost.

As an example from when I lost them both. There’s a strip I was hunting where they had come in and tore a bunch of cedars out. It has grown back in weeds and brambles and sunflowers about 8’ tall. We had been running a bird and I was on the edge of it trying to keep up and holding them back as best I could. At a point I got to a plum thicket and had to cross the weed strip to get past it. The dogs followed the bird through the plums and flushed it out the end. I was on the other side and didn’t keep up. They ended up lost for a little while at one point they ran past me at about 25 yards working my track towards where we had come from but it was so thick they didn’t see me. I was hollering and screaming but they didn’t hear me. Eventually they worked my track back to me.
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Terrifying when that happens to us. All the horrible thoughts that go through your mind…
 
BrownDogsCan2 said:
I lost dogs 3 times yesterday each of them once and once lost them both together. At one point I thought the little one was truly lost and had to fire shells in the air to help her locate me.
They aren’t the runoff type and do a good job of keeping track of me. I don’t hack at them and make them stay underfoot.Sometimes I’ll let them run a bird we have no chance of killing. The problem with that is a day like yesterday. Noisy and tall and grey and wet.
And they aren’t hundreds of yards away. 75 yards away and lost is still lost.

As an example from when I lost them both. There’s a strip I was hunting where they had come in and tore a bunch of cedars out. It has grown back in weeds and brambles and sunflowers about 8’ tall. We had been running a bird and I was on the edge of it trying to keep up and holding them back as best I could. At a point I got to a plum thicket and had to cross the weed strip to get past it. The dogs followed the bird through the plums and flushed it out the end. I was on the other side and didn’t keep up. They ended up lost for a little while at one point they ran past me at about 25 yards working my track towards where we had come from but it was so thick they didn’t see me. I was hollering and screaming but they didn’t hear me. Eventually they worked my track back to me.
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The light sound of a ting-ting-ting, could have saved you from that situation. You would have been shooting birds instead of holes in the sky. Glad you found them. I am a "follow the dog guy", with out a bell in the cover I hunt, that just wouldn't always be possible. I want to hunt the birds, not for my dog.
If the cover is only waist high, no bell is needed, but shoulder and head high, I couldn't hunt much without a bell.
 
Bob Peters said:
I know this is a pointer thing. Today hunting it was very hard for me to keep track of the golden retriever because the cover is tall, her fur matches a lot of it in color, and it was blowing a gale. I was really thinking a bell could be helpful here.
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Ace & I are really behind on videos this season, but sit tight. We've got a lot of great footage to work with & plan to include a "How To (or not to)" segment on this very topic!
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Ace & I are really behind on videos this season, but sit tight. We've got a lot of great footage to work with & plan to include a "How To (or not to)" segment on this very topic!
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Is this to be a comedy or a satire? I quit watching hunting videos a few years ago. The last one I saw, everytime the guy in it shot a bird, he laid his shotgun in the snow, I guess the game vest had no front access and it took 2 hands to stow it?? I would like to see if GH has a recent one showing his habitat progression that he started several years ago, that would be interesting to me.
 
I just remember thinking, that if one has hunted enough and thought they were of the caliber that they needed to record themselves to share their hunting, that they might have a better system in place. My shotgun is not valuable and it is older than many (of the members) ⁰on this site, but I try not to lay it down in snow. I try to not lay it down anywhere in the field. Over the years, I have laid it down in heavy cover while trying to assist the dog wrangling a downed rooster. Twice when the recovery was neither quick or easy, I struggled to relocated it again. Once was over an hour looking!
 
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I got this new one devoted specifically to pheasants and not for when I need to carry a gallon of water.
It’s a dream to carry and load. American made by someone in Rapid City. T&k with added alps outdoors pockets on it. I chose orange for the added visibility. I walked 5 1/2 hrs in it on one big piece of public. The roads were wet I didn’t feel like tearing them up so there was only one way in. No way to break it up. All of that for 2 quail.
 
Bell wouldn't do me any good, I can't hear anyway. Once a dog is 100 yds away in the wind, no one is going to hear it. GPS is the way to go. It would also tell you if your dog is loaded up in someone's truck as it is being stolen and going down the road or if your dog is injured or has fallen in a well. A bell could help you in a short yardage situation in tall grass but that is about it.
 
westksbowhunter said:
Bell wouldn't do me any good, I can't hear anyway. Once a dog is 100 yds away in the wind, no one is going to hear it. GPS is the way to go. It would also tell you if your dog is loaded up in someone's truck as it is being stolen and going down the road or if your dog is injured or has fallen in a well. A bell could help you in a short yardage situation in tall grass but that is about it.
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From Kansas, where you can watch you dog runaway for 2 weeks. Even if you aren't anywhere near your dog, in Kansas, couldn't you see someone removing the dog's collar and taking your dog? Oh, you think the people that would steal a hunting dog wouldn't think about that collar it is wearing? On the plus side, you should be able to find where they threw the collar and get that back. If you are hunting WITH the dog, you wouldn't have the worries and anxiety you must have. Just bustin your balls...I just have a different hunting style it seems.

Why is there so much of "not hunting with the dog" today...too much work? Chime in on why you are not within or very close to, shooting distance to your dog, almost constantly. Should have started a new thread for this.
 
remy3424 said:
From Kansas, where you can watch you dog runaway for 2 weeks. Even if you aren't anywhere near your dog, in Kansas, couldn't you see someone removing the dog's collar and taking your dog? Oh, you think the people that would steal a hunting dog wouldn't think about that collar it is wearing? On the plus side, you should be able to find where they threw the collar and get that back. If you are hunting WITH the dog, you wouldn't have the worries and anxiety you must have. Just bustin your balls...I just have a different hunting style it seems.

Why is there so much of "not hunting with the dog" today...too much work? Chime in on why you are not within or very close to, shooting distance to your dog, almost constantly. Should have started a new thread for this.
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I don't have any trouble keeping track of my dogs, which is why I don't use a bell or a GPS collar. If you had any comprehensive skills you would have known that. Besides, we were talking about heavy, thick CRP in Iowa. Again no reading comprehension for you I guess. As far as a new thread, maybe you should start one while the rest of us discuss bells, no reason for your smart mouthed remarks.
 
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I personally don't use a bell, but did in the past. Based on my experience, being as silent as possible yields the best results. I hunted a public area on Monday and had no issues getting close to birds. We did have someone else's dog show up while we were out there, then eventually found the 2 guys she was supposed to be hunting with. Once we parted, I could hear those guys talking and loudly praising there dog from quite a ways away and I could see birds flushing out of range ahead of them.
I don't know if a bell does or doesn't effect the birds, but I personally choose not to use one on my dogs. Once or twice a season I'll lose one of them for a bit in heavy cattails, but I'm not sure a bell would have helped in any of those situations.
 
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