Best day ever!
- Thread starter Quailnerd
- Start date
Quailnerd
Well-known member
I don’t have the formula but warm days stacked together dont help, look more at the nighttime lows.. that warm feeling on the back of your neck from the sun is what they seek. This year has been warm down here, if I waited on optimal weather it would be 10 days in the field instead of 30. Is what it is
dustin mudd
Well-known member
Very sound advice
Had a mess of buzz tails light up one of my GSP’s last year in late February one hung up in her muzzle and one in her front leg… they were just coming out of den at about midday and third high 50’s low sixties day.
I knew better, but it was my last hunt of the year so we rolled the dice. I had some guests that 1). Didn’t know my dogs 2). Didn’t know not to shoot a rattlesnake in front of dogs 3). Didn’t shoot them properly (blow head off).
So most dogs are going to get after anything you shoot at, Most pointers will point at rattlesnakes and other reptiles.
Anyhow, they walk up to dog on point, see rattlers, shoot 3 amidships, and not in half, so dog goes in on 3 mad half rattlers and it ain’t pretty….. my vet was with me, she had crotalus vaccine, vet hauled her to the clinic and she spent a few days on IV and sedated… came out of it ok at the end of it all but not a perfect end to the season.
Quail hunt in rattler world enough it will happen… 3rd bite event for my dogs out of many encounters best thing to do is call em off and move on….start shooting them and they think you want to hunt the damn things
I knew better, but it was my last hunt of the year so we rolled the dice. I had some guests that 1). Didn’t know my dogs 2). Didn’t know not to shoot a rattlesnake in front of dogs 3). Didn’t shoot them properly (blow head off).
So most dogs are going to get after anything you shoot at, Most pointers will point at rattlesnakes and other reptiles.
Anyhow, they walk up to dog on point, see rattlers, shoot 3 amidships, and not in half, so dog goes in on 3 mad half rattlers and it ain’t pretty….. my vet was with me, she had crotalus vaccine, vet hauled her to the clinic and she spent a few days on IV and sedated… came out of it ok at the end of it all but not a perfect end to the season.
Quail hunt in rattler world enough it will happen… 3rd bite event for my dogs out of many encounters best thing to do is call em off and move on….start shooting them and they think you want to hunt the damn things
dustin mudd
Well-known member
Read this twice , great advice and a hard to learn lessonHad a mess of buzz tails light up one of my GSP’s last year in late February one hung up in her muzzle and one in her front leg… they were just coming out of den at about midday and third high 50’s low sixties day.
I knew better, but it was my last hunt of the year so we rolled the dice. I had some guests that 1). Didn’t know my dogs 2). Didn’t know not to shoot a rattlesnake in front of dogs 3). Didn’t shoot them properly (blow head off).
So most dogs are going to get after anything you shoot at, Most pointers will point at rattlesnakes and other reptiles.
Anyhow, they walk up to dog on point, see rattlers, shoot 3 amidships, and not in half, so dog goes in on 3 mad half rattlers and it ain’t pretty….. my vet was with me, she had crotalus vaccine, vet hauled her to the clinic and she spent a few days on IV and sedated… came out of it ok at the end of it all but not a perfect end to the season.
Quail hunt in rattler world enough it will happen… 3rd bite event for my dogs out of many encounters best thing to do is call em off and move on….start shooting them and they think you want to hunt the damn things
This is KS wise -- but I had my 1st Setter get bit in 2010 -- it was after Thanksgiving and almost December -- the drive out to where we hunted it got down to 10 degrees at night -- the day we were hunting was only about 50 with a 10-15 mph wind from the North -- we were in an abandoned prairie dog town that I didnt realize the snakes holed up in -- regardless - it was a very very bright sunny day out - and the buffalo grass was about shin high -- (the grass was thick and a great wind break at ground level for something to catch the sun.
So I guess since it was sunny and if you were down at grass level below the tops of it - the wind wouldnt hit you -- the snake must have been sitting on top of the hole sunning itself. I saw the event - but had no clue the dog was bit until I examined her later at the truck -- I was about 50 yards away and the way she acted I figured it was a big rat or something she was investigating or something else.
Anyways after doing a decent amount of googling and research I believe the snakes do not TRULY hibernate as we'd think -- that on nice days they can come out and be a little active but not stray very far at all from their dens. The landowner that let us hunt a year or two later hated snakes and recalled a story for us that during a warm spell in December or January - one of his friends found a dead black snake on the road (We had one of those warm spells that did a KS ending -- several days 60 to 70 some degrees - then mother nature became hormonal and within hours down to 10 or something like that...ha -- Anyways the snake didnt check the weather forecast and was too far from it's winter hole and died due to exposure...his friends grabbed the snake and scared him with it by putting it on his front porch -- We all thought it remarkable in January a snake would have been out and away from the den.
I'm sure somewhere on this board there is a herp expert -- but that's my knowledge of the situation.