Had a good day, sort of.

D

duckn66

Well-known member
Took both of the youngsters out today. Put them both on the ground at the same time. Could have been a mistake but it turned out just fine.

First spot was one of my old stand by's. 30 minutes into the hunt OB goes on point. About 6 quail get up and scatter. Now here is where my problem starts. I have dogs on point in two different directions. What to do. I go with OB since he is closer, all the while thinking, wow what a small covey of birds, someone must have hunted here already. Back to OB who is on point. Bang miss!! About this time Rocket Bob is back from who knows where.

I walk another 200 yards and BAM OB snaps around and is locked up. No sooner than I take one step and EXPLODE!!! 20 birds get up. BANG! MISS!!! I didn't chase the covey afterwards. Headed back to the truck and to town for lunch.

Next spot I hunt don't see anything. Both dogs on the ground doing their thing.

Third spot I hunt I just put OB on the ground because Bob's right rear foot is bloody from a thorn. So, OB and I head out. Hunting an uncut milo edge at this spot. He runs right through a big covey. Wind blowing in his face and all. Guess he thought it would be more fun running through them instead of pointing them. Young dog mistake I suppose. We chase this covey some and he gets on some singles and again I can't connect.

All in all I am glad to finally get the pups into some wild birds and they did great for their first time hunting wild birds.
 
Still sounds like you had fun and it is good to know that I am not the only one who misses :) Must have been an off day, give them heck next time.
 
That sounds like a pretty good day.

If it were me I would hunt them by themselves for a while. These first few hunts are really important to their development.

Now on the shooting :rolleyes:
Indy's first season I hunted him at 6 months of age. He was pointing birds from the get-go. I missed the first 9 (it may have been more) pointed quail over him. The season was coming to an end and I still hadn't killed one. It was really in my head bad, I got a special pup and I can't kill a thing he is pointing. I ended up killing the first rooster he pointed, before I hit a quail over his point.


Good luck with the pups...... and stay down on the gun.
 
Sounds like a good day to me but how do you guys miss pointed quail?:confused: Maybe Musti was right, maybe my quail are slow.:D:cheers:
 
Quail Hound that is a million dollar question right now!

I think my problem was that I may have been thinking about the dog more than my shooting. Even though both have been shot over numerous times, I guess I was worried about the real deal....

Steve they are going on the ground seperate for probably the rest of the season. They are worn out little guys right now and Bob is pretty beat up.
 
Yep. That'll do it every time, "clear the mechanism" (for love of the game quote).:thumbsup:
 
duckn66 said:
Quail Hound that is a million dollar question right now!

I think my problem was that I may have been thinking about the dog more than my shooting. Even though both have been shot over numerous times, I guess I was worried about the real deal....

Steve they are going on the ground seperate for probably the rest of the season. They are worn out little guys right now and Bob is pretty beat up.
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I would just play it by ear. If they both do real well, you could put them down together later this year. But you set yourself up for one on point and the other comes in and blows up the deal. Basically you have twice the chance for a train wreck with two pups at the same time. Generally we try to go too fast and it blows up in our face, I know I have done that several times and should know better :eek:

But the place where you can make some fast progress is on the singles. If you find a covey, work the singles. You don't have to shoot them all, but get the dog work. If you have someone to go with you and you find some single. you could let them down together dragging a check cord, so that you have some control of them. You can see if they are going to back each other without training. If they stop great, if they don't, you can step on the CC and stop them.

It all just take time, and it is on the pups time schedule, not yours.

Pups are so much fun. You get to see them grow up and learn their job and become a team member. :cheers:
 
Sounds like a good plan. I knew there could be a train wreck but was hoping that when one found birds the other would be off somewhere else.

I think this week I will start working on getting them to back each other here at the house with pigeons. Just not real sure how to go about that just yet.

My oldest one won't back for crap. So he needs some work as well.

Headed out tomorrow with him if the rain isn't too bad.
 
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