Hello all,
I've been enjoying all of your posts this season. I've been a little quiet because my yellow lab Ruby (who is the whole reason I got back into hunting after a 10 year hiatus) was diagnosed 8 weeks ago with a herniated disk in her neck. She's been on rest for the last two months and seems to be doing great. The last two weeks we've started taking her for walks again and in the last few days throwing the ball a few times over easy terrain. The vet said that she was good to hunt after 6 weeks, but I would never forgive myself if I rushed her back into it and put her back to square one or worse... So today is the last day of pheasant season. I've been saviing a little spot of flat cover. No ditches, not fences, no rough stuff. It is sometimes good for a couple of birds. I'm going to take her there for a half hour - that's all it takes to cover the spot. Maybe we'll connect, maybe not, but I am just so happy to see the bounce in her step again that all I want it to let her out of the yard for sniff around before the season ends so that she doens't think that she's been fired! It was dissappointing to lose her for the season, because at 5 years old she was just starting to come into her own. We'll spend a long off-season building her fitness up and we'll see what next year brings...
In the meantime I spent a bit more time deer hunting. I only just shot my first deer ever last year - a little yearling doe. This year I decided to try for something a little bigger. Passed on a few small deer in the early season, but finally decided to take this nice doe on the second-last saturday of the season.
I don't like pheasant hunting without a dog, so I've gone a few times with friends but found that I missed my Ruby a bit, so I did more grouse hunting - just poking along in the woods by myself trying to get a shot here and there. Picked up a few and saw some nice country.
This past Saturday was extremely cold. Being the last Saturday of the pheasant season I figured I'd go out. I called up a guy who just moved here from Yellowknife. I figured if anyone could handle the cold it would be him! lol! He's new to pheasant hunting and just got a griffon pointer. She's just 8 months old. He brought her along and my regular hunting partner with his black flushign lab Jake. Within a half hour Umiq (the pointer - the name means "Bearded One" in a northern Canadian aboriginal language) locked on point - it was pretty neat to see. A small rooster popped out and Kelly, the newbie, also locked up as he watched it fly away! He said "It didnt' cackle so I thought it was a hen!". I corrected him on that and told him to focus on the neck (didn't want him shooting a "long tailed hen" if I told him to look for a long tail!). Anyhow, while we were talking I heard wingbeats and turned to see two more rooster fighting the wind as they came out the other side of the cover. I picked out one of them and let the other go as it was out of my confident shooting range. Umiq got to sniff her first bird and was pretty excited. My buddy Rob connected wiht a nice big mature bird a few minutes later. The thing ran a hundred yards on a busted leg with three in the vitals, but Jake managed to roust him out from under a snowbank. We continued on as the wind started pushing 50 miles per hour. I know of a spot of nasty cover with some deeper ditches behind the dyke wall out of the wind and figured "if I was a pheasant today...". We went in there and all hell broke loose. Keeping in mind that if I see 10 pheasants in a day in Nova Scotia that's quite a lot, and this was the last Saturday of the season on heaviliiy hunted land! We put up at least a dozen rooster and twice as many hens. With the wind howlling over the dyke they'd go up and then peel away from 0-60 in seconds! It made for tough shooting, and by the time I finally connected with my second bird I was leading waaaay out front! Jake was in tatters within an hour (he's all heart, no brains the poor bugger), so Rob headed home to patch him up. Umiq was still prancing around, not too sure what to do. i think that maybe all the scent in there was a bit overwhelming for her. Anyways, I told Kelly that I had my limit but I'd be happy to stay until dark to try to get him his first bird. We got down to business and I did the dog's work - putting my tin-cloth chaps to work pushing through the nastiest stuff I could find. Finally it came together. I set him up in a good shooting lane and pushed a few hens to him, then finally saw a nice rooster fold on his second shot. He was absolutely thrilled and is hookd for life. All day as the birds were going up all around us I kept saying to him "Don't get too used to THIS man!". Nomatter - he called in sick today and he's out there again trying to get a last bird before the off-season. Here's a pick of me with my limit
and I gotta give credit where credit is due. She may not be pretty compared to my Ruby
but she's got a promising nose on her and I'd share a field with her and Kelly anytime!
Anyhow, just an update on my season and a Merry Christmas to all the UPHers and their two- and four-legged families!
Cheers,
-Croc
I've been enjoying all of your posts this season. I've been a little quiet because my yellow lab Ruby (who is the whole reason I got back into hunting after a 10 year hiatus) was diagnosed 8 weeks ago with a herniated disk in her neck. She's been on rest for the last two months and seems to be doing great. The last two weeks we've started taking her for walks again and in the last few days throwing the ball a few times over easy terrain. The vet said that she was good to hunt after 6 weeks, but I would never forgive myself if I rushed her back into it and put her back to square one or worse... So today is the last day of pheasant season. I've been saviing a little spot of flat cover. No ditches, not fences, no rough stuff. It is sometimes good for a couple of birds. I'm going to take her there for a half hour - that's all it takes to cover the spot. Maybe we'll connect, maybe not, but I am just so happy to see the bounce in her step again that all I want it to let her out of the yard for sniff around before the season ends so that she doens't think that she's been fired! It was dissappointing to lose her for the season, because at 5 years old she was just starting to come into her own. We'll spend a long off-season building her fitness up and we'll see what next year brings...
In the meantime I spent a bit more time deer hunting. I only just shot my first deer ever last year - a little yearling doe. This year I decided to try for something a little bigger. Passed on a few small deer in the early season, but finally decided to take this nice doe on the second-last saturday of the season.
I don't like pheasant hunting without a dog, so I've gone a few times with friends but found that I missed my Ruby a bit, so I did more grouse hunting - just poking along in the woods by myself trying to get a shot here and there. Picked up a few and saw some nice country.
This past Saturday was extremely cold. Being the last Saturday of the pheasant season I figured I'd go out. I called up a guy who just moved here from Yellowknife. I figured if anyone could handle the cold it would be him! lol! He's new to pheasant hunting and just got a griffon pointer. She's just 8 months old. He brought her along and my regular hunting partner with his black flushign lab Jake. Within a half hour Umiq (the pointer - the name means "Bearded One" in a northern Canadian aboriginal language) locked on point - it was pretty neat to see. A small rooster popped out and Kelly, the newbie, also locked up as he watched it fly away! He said "It didnt' cackle so I thought it was a hen!". I corrected him on that and told him to focus on the neck (didn't want him shooting a "long tailed hen" if I told him to look for a long tail!). Anyhow, while we were talking I heard wingbeats and turned to see two more rooster fighting the wind as they came out the other side of the cover. I picked out one of them and let the other go as it was out of my confident shooting range. Umiq got to sniff her first bird and was pretty excited. My buddy Rob connected wiht a nice big mature bird a few minutes later. The thing ran a hundred yards on a busted leg with three in the vitals, but Jake managed to roust him out from under a snowbank. We continued on as the wind started pushing 50 miles per hour. I know of a spot of nasty cover with some deeper ditches behind the dyke wall out of the wind and figured "if I was a pheasant today...". We went in there and all hell broke loose. Keeping in mind that if I see 10 pheasants in a day in Nova Scotia that's quite a lot, and this was the last Saturday of the season on heaviliiy hunted land! We put up at least a dozen rooster and twice as many hens. With the wind howlling over the dyke they'd go up and then peel away from 0-60 in seconds! It made for tough shooting, and by the time I finally connected with my second bird I was leading waaaay out front! Jake was in tatters within an hour (he's all heart, no brains the poor bugger), so Rob headed home to patch him up. Umiq was still prancing around, not too sure what to do. i think that maybe all the scent in there was a bit overwhelming for her. Anyways, I told Kelly that I had my limit but I'd be happy to stay until dark to try to get him his first bird. We got down to business and I did the dog's work - putting my tin-cloth chaps to work pushing through the nastiest stuff I could find. Finally it came together. I set him up in a good shooting lane and pushed a few hens to him, then finally saw a nice rooster fold on his second shot. He was absolutely thrilled and is hookd for life. All day as the birds were going up all around us I kept saying to him "Don't get too used to THIS man!". Nomatter - he called in sick today and he's out there again trying to get a last bird before the off-season. Here's a pick of me with my limit
and I gotta give credit where credit is due. She may not be pretty compared to my Ruby
but she's got a promising nose on her and I'd share a field with her and Kelly anytime!
Anyhow, just an update on my season and a Merry Christmas to all the UPHers and their two- and four-legged families!
Cheers,
-Croc
