Search results

Upland bird season ended yesterday here in Montana, left plenty of birds for seed.

For side slopes and long all day loops I like Crispy Colorado GTX.... non-insulated hunting boot made from triple-stitched with Kevlar. Stiff and lightweight at 1.6 pounds which is about 0.5 lbs lighter than most leather mountain boots. Also comes in my size 14 and narrow feet! These boots are...

Wet cattails = wet rooster and dog Took my good camera and slow shutter speed.

I have a 12 gauge and a 20 gauge Citori and no problems in 40 years. The Citori Cynergy is a good choice with no wood to worry about. I shot my friends Cynergy and like it.

I retired 5 years ago and am living the dream....enjoying each morning hunting with the dog. Yesterday I whiffed on a rooster the dog pinned down at the creek edge, but the dog had fun! The sights I see amaze me. Yesterday I was within 10 meters of 3 otters for a minute or 2, saw hundreds of...

In Fairbanks you used to get a -40 below club patch if you shoot skeet at 40 below or colder. I suspect your firing pin has issues, not ammo.

Another cell phone photo. Jumpshooting a Montana spring creek.

Hunted a creek bottom this morning. Flushed one rooster but did not take a shot. Plenty of greenheads to keep the lab happy. Mallard enchiladas for dinner tonight.

I pulled out the back seat on my Silverado crewcab which gave me more heated room for winter. My wet lab thanked me.

Yes! Chemical hand warmers. When its really cold, I put one in the palm, another on the backside of the hand inside each glove.

I hunt with a 60 liter Granite Gear pack instead of a vest. I like the ability to pack out a dog if he got injured, and I hunt solo in big country so I tend to pack quite a load...elk antlers if I find them, etc. I've shot with a pack for 40 years and for me I have no problem. Plus I think a...

I also pick up empty hulls when I see them. I shoot a double, so no spent hulls litter from my hunts. I hike a refuge during the off-season and always carry a litter bag and keep that refuge clean. For some reason, about 90 percent of the litter last year was Twisted Tea cans.

I've had very good luck recovering cripples in cattails in my areas. I think the key is the dog needs to be on the cripple track quickly and then I stay quiet and trust the dog. Lots of other bird scent does not seem to be a problem because a good cripple tracker is following blood scent, not...

Huns are great covey birds. I love hunting them in big country hiking a big loop. I focus on them early before rooster season opens up, and late when south-facing slopes are snow-free and most of my pheasant areas are crunchy snow. Also fun bonus hiking into and from my rooster spots.

I solo hunt exclusively cattails for the last 45 days of the season. A biddable dog that will not go feral and flush roosters hundreds of yards deep is needed. I silently hunt the edge of cattails while my lab hunts in them. I try to position myself ahead of the crashing lab anticipating the...

I typically hunt only mornings. Often that first hour is best in my areas. By hunting most mornings, I can hunt 2 labs almost every day from Sept to the end of the year. Plus at age 68, an all day hunt would be a marathon for me and no fun! I also typically limit myself to one rooster, then...

I think the oily coat helps with labs. Hounds-tonge photos: Before swim: After swim:

In my area beggars-tick and hounds-tongue are the worst. With the lab, at the end of the hunt a quick swim and the towel off gets most of these.

I usually hunt the opposite direction of typical hunters. Yesterday morning, I hiked a fenceline a mile, then side-hilled a steep canyon for another mile, to get to a nice catttail draw where a typical hunter would hunt directly from the west and the roosters would run and flush across the steep...