Linn County Brace

C

cockerfan

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I came up to Iowa yesterday to visit my family over the holidays. My parents happen to live in the country and are close to some pretty decent habitat. There's an awful lot of snow on the ground, which made the walking laborious, but we managed to find and put down a couple of birds. Macy retrieved both of them, but it was almost comical to see her bringing the birds through chest deep snow (chest deep for her); it was hard work for her!
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And, in case you don't think Cockers are tough, I'd like to see YOU hunt under these conditions:
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I think I'd be even more cruel to leave them at home :) I'm taking them out one at a time, and my wife has informed me that the dog that gets left behind has trouble coping with it! I got to my parent's house Sunday evening and I'm staying here till next Sunday (NE of Cedar Rapids). Then I'm driving up to MN to see my wife's family for a few days. Tuesday is when I'm coming back into IA for a hunt with Coot.

I went out this morning for an hour and managed another bird. This time I had Rocky with me. I swear that his black and tan coloring must have come from a hound...he did an excellent job of finding this bird.

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Not sure where I will hunt. Possibly Rake IA if I get an IA Lic. or over by Gukeen and Fairmont. In MN. When I get there I am going to asses the snow problem right away. And if travel sucks we will stay in the nest. Sounds like more of that cruddy snow coming down there now.:mad:
 
Well, if you end up hunting and decide you want company, shoot me a PM. I'm not positive I'll be able to, but I think there's a good chance I could make it out for a while Monday morning.

I went out again this morning to a new spot around my folk's area. Historically it's the best place I've found to hunt around here, and I was saving it for later in the week, hoping I'd get someone to go out with me. I ended up going solo, but I had my limit by 8:40. Three shots, three birds...I'm starting to get my old form back:) Two of the birds the dogs weren't a whole lot of help with, one because I didn't have the dogs out of the truck yet, and the other because it flushed from near the top of a cedar tree. Rocky did chase down a runner which was fun to watch. On the third bird Macy, made a great find on the other side of a creek; she smelled it on my side and crossed over. I made a long shot on the rooster and didn't see where it went down, but she made a decent retrieve on it. She had to fight through the snow drifts along the creek to get the bird back to me, but she finally got it done. I think it took all of her energy out of her though. Right now she's sleeping on my lap as I type! A pic to capture the hunt:
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those cockers sound like tenacious little hunters/retrievers, you don't see that breed very much....good job!
 
Very :coolpics: Cockerfan:thumbsup:
Stop shooting so many pheasant making me feel bad:D Will see pheasant might not be that easy:D Looking foward to hunting with you and those nice looking dogs:thumbsup: Ok if my other brother and nephew go will need somebody to walk through the willows and they be good choices:)
 
captaincoot said:
Very :coolpics: Cockerfan:thumbsup:
Stop shooting so many pheasant making me feel bad:D Will see pheasant might not be that easy:D Looking foward to hunting with you and those nice looking dogs:thumbsup: Ok if my other brother and nephew go will need somebody to walk through the willows and they be good choices:)
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Thought you had a dog, send him in the willows. Or we need to get you a dog I guess.
 
captaincoot said:
Stop shooting so many pheasant making me feel bad:D Will see pheasant might not be that easy:D Looking foward to hunting with you and those nice looking dogs:thumbsup: Ok if my other brother and nephew go will need somebody to walk through the willows and they be good choices:)
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I'm shooting enough pheasants down here I might just walk the dogs with you and let you do the shooting :) I don't care at all who else is along for the hunt; you're the one lining up places to hunt, so invite whoever you want!

I took the day off from hunting today to butcher 12 (yes, 12) deer. My brother shot all but one of them this year, and he was saving them for when I came. He's such a nice guy. We definitely filled the freezer. In the morning I'm going back to where I got my limit yesterday, then in the afternoon I have another spot lined up that's supposed to have some birds. My brother is going with me in the morning, and a couple of his brother-in-laws are joining us for the afternoon. Should be a fun day!
 
I think we must have got another foot of snow between Thursday evening and during the day yesterday. Yesterday morning my brother and I went to the field where I limited out on Wednesday. The snow was AWFUL. Most of the time it was well above my knees, and I don't think I ever found a spot where I wasn't at least knee deep in the snow. I took Rocky with me, but there wasn't much he could do in those conditions. It was literally at or above the top of his back the entire time. In the afternoon we went down toward Solon. The snow wasn't nearly as bad down there, and we saw birds, but they weren't sitting tight. We didn't get a single shot off the entire day. We still had fun in spite of it all. I was sure exhausted by the end of the day though!
 
i have walked in that knee deep stuff, it gets worse when it gets crusted over and you break through every 3rd step or so....season over.
 
I'm laying on the inlaw's couch right now recovering from a good day of hunting! We covered a lot of ground for the first half of the day, but didn't put any birds in the bag. We saw a lot of birds, and had a few opportunities, but it wasn't working. In the early afternoon Benelliboy put us on an "almost too easy" spot, and the shooting started! I stood in one spot and shot my limit (not sure if I've ever done that before) and Benelliboy ended up with his limit as well. Coot bowed out on that hunt; he said he didn't want to mess it up by having too many people, but I think he might have been getting tired :)

A few observations from the day:

1) Coot and his family are some really nice folks. It was great hanging out for the day with some quality people.

2) Surprisingly, there is a quite a bit LESS snow in NC Iowa than there is in the area north of Cedar Rapids. I'd say there is 8" more of snow where I hunted on Friday than there is where we hunted today.

3) I discovered that Benelliboy is an excellent shooter. So good, in fact, that he was even able to shoot a handful of my shells :laugh:

The dogs are tired too...it was a fun day!
 
Your shells must have been good luck! :D I coundlnt of hit the broad side of a barn with out them :DThank you! Your welcome to come up anytime ya want
 
I was on my best behavior today didn't want to set a bad example for benilli boy:) It was Benilli boys first day with a shot gun We didn't want to embarrass him by having him shoting a BBgun:D Were did all that steel shot go:)
I enjoyed myself today also you have two mighty fine dogs:thumbsup: You should feel honored. Blackcloud has never passed the test so he can go to the Big Pheasant event (Last place you were at):D Might of been getting tired I was tired:D Let us know when you want to do it again your welcome any time. Not to soon I got to find a treadmill. Have a save trip back.
 
I'm back in good (?) old texas now, wishing I was in IA to help deplete your pheasant population even more :) I do feel honored about being able to attend the Big Pheasant Event...that was pretty crazy having birds flying everywhere! It's maybe the only time that shooting an O/U has been a disadvantage for me-- I was stuffing shells in as fast as possible. Funniest part was when Benelliboy gets to the end of the hedge after firing 7 shots. I asked him how many he got. He said something to the extent of, "a few tail feathers". That step up from a BB gun to a shotgun was hard on him :)
 
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