nstric
New member
Is there anything better than a bird hunt following the season's first snow?
We had an absolute blast during a two field, Sunday afternoon hunt. The first was a 20 acre big block piece of switchgrass that resulted in four bagged roosters. Gunner pointed 3 for me, all holding tight, and my buddy jumped the other for our 4th. Better than a dozen hens held tight for good dog work as well. 25 minute walk . . . four of our six roosters already had.
One more walk . . . this time a linear piece nearly two miles in length. A creek lined with horse weeds and switchgrass, surrounded by picked corn. We start on the south end, hunting the east side of the creek, with the wind essentially at our back. The dogs therefore ran big, and worked back towards us hitting point, after point, after point, after . . . well, you get the idea. This piece was absolutely flush with birds.
Less than five minutes into the walk Gunner locks up and four roosters and 2-3 hens burst from the horse weeds. I duck so my buddy can shoot overhead and he drops one of the first year birds. Five now in the bag.
We continue walking, not going a minute without one or both of the dogs going down on point. Gunner finally found the right color bird, our sixth, and my buddy secures his limit. Immediately following both dogs lock up again, a bit further down the draw, so we proceed, guns unloaded, to find a half dozen or so more hens.
We're now nearly at the turnaround, the dogs remain birdie so we follow. A nice thick piece of horse weeds, and Gunner is all but demanding I let him show me the way. Both dogs quickly get to the end, turn their noses into the wind, and hammer down on point. I cross to the other side of the patch as my buddy walks in on the dogs. Up flush one, two, three, four, five roosters . . . and three to four hens. I was within 5 yards of what should have been an easy triple, something I've never even had the opportunity to attempt. What fun!
We decide to walk back on the same side already taken, so as not to disturb the other birds using this piece, and along the way Gunner's beeper collar goes off again. I approach, he's picture perfect solid -- oh had I a camera! -- and I kick up another two roosters that flushed together. We'd walked by them once, but not the second time!
After a quick warmup in the truck we happened across an old abandoned barn and stopped to snap this photo.
We had an absolute blast during a two field, Sunday afternoon hunt. The first was a 20 acre big block piece of switchgrass that resulted in four bagged roosters. Gunner pointed 3 for me, all holding tight, and my buddy jumped the other for our 4th. Better than a dozen hens held tight for good dog work as well. 25 minute walk . . . four of our six roosters already had.
One more walk . . . this time a linear piece nearly two miles in length. A creek lined with horse weeds and switchgrass, surrounded by picked corn. We start on the south end, hunting the east side of the creek, with the wind essentially at our back. The dogs therefore ran big, and worked back towards us hitting point, after point, after point, after . . . well, you get the idea. This piece was absolutely flush with birds.
Less than five minutes into the walk Gunner locks up and four roosters and 2-3 hens burst from the horse weeds. I duck so my buddy can shoot overhead and he drops one of the first year birds. Five now in the bag.
We continue walking, not going a minute without one or both of the dogs going down on point. Gunner finally found the right color bird, our sixth, and my buddy secures his limit. Immediately following both dogs lock up again, a bit further down the draw, so we proceed, guns unloaded, to find a half dozen or so more hens.
We're now nearly at the turnaround, the dogs remain birdie so we follow. A nice thick piece of horse weeds, and Gunner is all but demanding I let him show me the way. Both dogs quickly get to the end, turn their noses into the wind, and hammer down on point. I cross to the other side of the patch as my buddy walks in on the dogs. Up flush one, two, three, four, five roosters . . . and three to four hens. I was within 5 yards of what should have been an easy triple, something I've never even had the opportunity to attempt. What fun!
We decide to walk back on the same side already taken, so as not to disturb the other birds using this piece, and along the way Gunner's beeper collar goes off again. I approach, he's picture perfect solid -- oh had I a camera! -- and I kick up another two roosters that flushed together. We'd walked by them once, but not the second time!
After a quick warmup in the truck we happened across an old abandoned barn and stopped to snap this photo.
