I did post this with some trepidation, the last post i shared last season received a rude response, one that soured me on the site for quite awhile. Well, here's hoping for some class.
Took my nephews (and their dad) out this Friday-Sunday to north eastern Colorado, one of which has been with me before and the other who has never had the pleasure of pheasant hunting. We left home at 2:30am, arriving at the 1st days designation around 9. Pulling into a WIA, the new kid learned an important lesson. The last one out, he slammed the door and two roosters and 4 hens flushed out of the middle of the corner flying into private CRP. His older brother and I both gave him THE LOOK and his brother used some choice language about listening to what we told him in the car all morning
(pheasant hunting crash course). We walked the field anyway, to no avail. In fact we were hard put to find a walk in that had decent cover and the ones we found had no more birds. We worked our way north and knocked on a door that I had not visited in a few years. We got access once again to some great feed fields, only recently harvested and from 11-1:30 proceeded to take 6 roosters (all young of the year!) out of a combo of the grain and in the weedy corners. Both
nephews connected and I was done for the day. Pictures of my nephews first bird (he got one more on sat!) and my 12 yr old lab is coming (along with his older brothers 2 that day, he ended up with 5). I won't bore ya with too much continued play-by-play.....
The bittersweet part is that I think that this Ol' willies last trip. He did great, even for a dog many years his junior. Although those 6 were the only ones we got that day (didn't even see another bird, not even driving that evening, in fact we saw only one bird from a moving vehicle all three days), three of them were 100% due to him. The next day we visited with my college buddy (saw his 2day old son) and hunted his families properties, ending up with 14 birds total for the trip with around 11-12 misses for the group (I stopped hunting by 1 on sat, and walked working with the dog in draws, with nephews on either side of me, they both out shot their dad. Sorry bud, if you read this, at least I didn't use your name and ya did finally get one on Sunday). Ya know, I realize that nothings better then an old flushing lab, I never had to whistle (or cuss) once because he got ou to far ahead, he stayed close because he didn't have it in him to get out far ahead, I finally could keep up with him all 2 1/2 days. Like always, I followed him to birds I never would of flushed and he retrieved some beautiful marks, even chasing down a few wounded birds that we never would of found, and even some dead birds that dropped in thick enough cover that locating them would have been tough. He ended up losing only one, one I dropped deep in a draw. he saw it drop and was on in a split second. However, that rooster ran back into the huge nipple high pile of tumble weeds that he flushed out of and willie got confused with all the scent in there. Looked for awhile but he came out sneezing, and giving me the same look he has been giving me of late when I ask him to chase wounded ducks in thick cattails (sorry, I tried .... but go find the damn thing yourself). I will try to get out again around Xmas, but it's a long way from home to get to wild birds and willies getting slower quick. Fantastic way to end a career if it ends up that way... I'm picking up his replacement at the end of dec. although ill plant some birds for him until he can't go on. I'll post pics on this thread as soon as I figure out how to do so. Having trouble figuring out how to transfer pics from phone to this site.
Cheers, and I'm always looking for good, mellow folks to hunt with.
Took my nephews (and their dad) out this Friday-Sunday to north eastern Colorado, one of which has been with me before and the other who has never had the pleasure of pheasant hunting. We left home at 2:30am, arriving at the 1st days designation around 9. Pulling into a WIA, the new kid learned an important lesson. The last one out, he slammed the door and two roosters and 4 hens flushed out of the middle of the corner flying into private CRP. His older brother and I both gave him THE LOOK and his brother used some choice language about listening to what we told him in the car all morning
(pheasant hunting crash course). We walked the field anyway, to no avail. In fact we were hard put to find a walk in that had decent cover and the ones we found had no more birds. We worked our way north and knocked on a door that I had not visited in a few years. We got access once again to some great feed fields, only recently harvested and from 11-1:30 proceeded to take 6 roosters (all young of the year!) out of a combo of the grain and in the weedy corners. Both nephews connected and I was done for the day. Pictures of my nephews first bird (he got one more on sat!) and my 12 yr old lab is coming (along with his older brothers 2 that day, he ended up with 5). I won't bore ya with too much continued play-by-play.....
The bittersweet part is that I think that this Ol' willies last trip. He did great, even for a dog many years his junior. Although those 6 were the only ones we got that day (didn't even see another bird, not even driving that evening, in fact we saw only one bird from a moving vehicle all three days), three of them were 100% due to him. The next day we visited with my college buddy (saw his 2day old son) and hunted his families properties, ending up with 14 birds total for the trip with around 11-12 misses for the group (I stopped hunting by 1 on sat, and walked working with the dog in draws, with nephews on either side of me, they both out shot their dad. Sorry bud, if you read this, at least I didn't use your name and ya did finally get one on Sunday
). Ya know, I realize that nothings better then an old flushing lab, I never had to whistle (or cuss) once because he got ou to far ahead, he stayed close because he didn't have it in him to get out far ahead, I finally could keep up with him all 2 1/2 days. Like always, I followed him to birds I never would of flushed and he retrieved some beautiful marks, even chasing down a few wounded birds that we never would of found, and even some dead birds that dropped in thick enough cover that locating them would have been tough. He ended up losing only one, one I dropped deep in a draw. he saw it drop and was on in a split second. However, that rooster ran back into the huge nipple high pile of tumble weeds that he flushed out of and willie got confused with all the scent in there. Looked for awhile but he came out sneezing, and giving me the same look he has been giving me of late when I ask him to chase wounded ducks in thick cattails (sorry, I tried .... but go find the damn thing yourself). I will try to get out again around Xmas, but it's a long way from home to get to wild birds and willies getting slower quick. Fantastic way to end a career if it ends up that way... I'm picking up his replacement at the end of dec. although ill plant some birds for him until he can't go on. I'll post pics on this thread as soon as I figure out how to do so. Having trouble figuring out how to transfer pics from phone to this site.Cheers, and I'm always looking for good, mellow folks to hunt with.
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