Thrasher
Member
Molly and I headed out to NW Kansas this morning. Got the the WIHA that I like to hunt at first light. Its a big area and we walked 5 or 6 miles. Molly stumbled across one hen, we had 10-12 hens flush wild 100 yards ahead of us, and one rooster flushed wild at about 80 yards. I think that that place has been hunted hard every weekend and the birds are very wary by now.
I have not been able to get Molly on birds lately, or on the one day it really clicked for her, I failed to drop the birds. Today she started out sort of sight-seeing again. She got birdy when we reached the place where the group of hens had flushed from, but that was about it. The wind was really blowing (25-30) and that may have been part of it.
Around 1230 I figured that was it, I had 3 papers to write for class and I would just head home. On the way home I thought about a place right next to I-70 that I always drive by in the dark. Got there and it is a plowed field. Looked at the map and decided I would find a stubble field and spend an hour or so trying to get Molly on one last bird. She is young and every one helps!! Found a stubble field. 2 different groups hunting it, one group in the CRP next to it. I figured I would look at one more random place on the map and if it did not look good I would just head home.
Got to the place I had picked and it is a short grass pasture on one side, CRP in the middle and posted stubble on the other. The CRP couldn't have been bigger then 30 acres, but it looked pretty good. I liked the corn stubble on the side. We headed out into the field and I started walking edges. We cut into the field and somehow walked right into the middle of a group of pheasant. I counted 5 roosters and 5 or 6 hens got up at one time, all around us. Molly was as surprised as I was.
I managed to knock one down and Molly retrieved perfectly. I think that that bird sparked her memory and she became a hunting machine. Within 15 minutes she had flushed two more roosters after tracking them down. The problem was that she got on the track and left me in the dust. She tracked the bird and flushed it at around 60 yards from me. My fault for not moving my butt, and instead trying to call her back. The second rooster, same scenario, except that she was about 100 yards out front. At least she followed to completion and flushed the bird.
I got her calmed down and hunted back towards the truck. She tracked and flushed 2 hens and this time she stayed close and slowed down. At the truck I have her some water and headed back out into the field. Somewhere around this time the wind died down to 5 to 10 MPH. We hunted one edge and then cut into another area of the field. Molly is quartering well and all of the sudden just freezes. Not really a point, but she just stopped. I moved in from the side and flushed a rooster 5 ft in front of her. I broke a wing and saw the bird on the ground flapping. It took off running and I got Molly after it. I travel 50 yards or so with Molly hunting the bird. She stops in an area that I had just walked by. I walk back and glance around, no bird. I try to call her to me and she won't come. She is standing there looking at me. I go back and take a closer look. Tail feathers in a clump of grass about 6 inches from her feet. She watched as I reached down and picked up the bird. It was very much alive, just looking around. I finished it and put it in the vest.
30 minutes of good hunting by Molly and she tracks and flushes another hen. 5 minutes later, she gets birdy, finds it sitting, and walks away. I called her back in and we flushed another rooster. Another good retrieve. I decided to call it a day at that point.
Molly is a 14 month old Lab-Weimaraner mix. I have had her out somewhere around 10 times this year. When a bird flushes near her, she gets startled and runs towards me. When they flush out 10-15 yards in front of her, she is fine. I think that it is just an experience issue and am sure that she will outgrow it. I had wondered about her pointing, but thought that since she had never done it, it would not happen. I guess that it the birds will sit, she will point. If they run, she will track, and if they flush, they flush. We will try to get out on some preserve birds so that she can get a few more under her belt.
