Shorthair Hunters
Member
Saturday morning found my cousin and myself once again heading to eastern Colorado to chase pheasant in what started out warmer then expected weather. We started at a WIA that we found birds at last weekend but just a nature walk this time giving the dogs time to get all of their excitement out of them and breakfast. Next stop was the private property we do pretty good at and after talking to the land owner we headed for his corrals only to be out smarted again with 5-6 birds flushing once again before we got close enough. The snow was still crunching on top but soft under and with the sun warming up it was going to get messy. We made our way around his property with my cousin having the majority of the luck for being in the right place, on the edge of the stripped wheat to cut wheat fields flushing several birds and dropping one that both his labs thought it was a tug a war. I went over to him and held his older pup (2 yrs) and my Shorthair while he tossed the rooster and had his new 9 mo. old retrieve it which by the third toss she brought back to him so on to the next field across the road. With the flush of several more birds he dropped his second and i took a shot at one with no luck. We pushed towards to road with a hen holding tight in the ditch in front of me giving Orley a great point before flushing. As i waited for my cousin to work my way he jumped a rooster and quickly knocked it down. Both Labs chased after it but was unable to locate the bird so Orley and myself went to help look for the downed bird. we circled the area it went down and then expanded our area in hopes of picking up a scent. I was up ahead of my cousin and his 9 mo. pup was to my left with her nose in the wheat just standing there, i called out the my cousin she has it as i turned back to look at her the rooster was up and trying to get away but Jessy was having any of that she quickly grab him and brought it back to my cousin. That was so impressive to see a young pup that has only hunted 8 days total find a downed bird retrieve a still kicking bird and bring it back just like she had been doing this for years. Oh i forgot to tell you all that as i was heading over to help look for the downed bird a rooster flushed by me and i politely let him live but made it look good by through lead in his direction. We finished the field back to the truck where i removed my recoil pad for my new Franchi thinking that it might be a bit to long for me and we headed back out to try and get me a bird but the rest of the day would not give me the opportunity to try the shortened length. So next week i will hope to get a chance to see if this is why i have gone three trips with missed opportunities.
three weekends left and we will hit the all weather permitting.
three weekends left and we will hit the all weather permitting.