Well guys, after a lot of anticpation, and nerves, and exitement, I return to Virginia from Montana with good memories. The trip was great, I found Plentywood to have many friendly people, and met people I hope to stay in touch with I learned that pictures cannot capture this area of the world. The feeling you get when look across this big country is really undescribable.
We found very little birds, Saw 2 single sharptails, and nothuns, maybe abot 10 pheasants. The wind at times was very strong, first day had winds in the 50 mile an hour gust. Montana does a great job lining up the BMAs I feel. Some still had standing wheat, and some had some corn. The one place we did find birds was in some standing wheat.
My dog did grab a porcupine. This was dramatric for the dog, and me. She was trashing around so badly I had to pin her down and remove them on the spot, as she was breaking them off, and appeared to be doing more harm that good. knew I could not leave them until we got to the truck or to a vet. I was able to give her some pain meds, and rest the remainder of the day and she was back at it the next day.
I saw my first jack rabbit, mule deer, and porcupine. The size of the jackrabbit and the speed it had to me would compare to an antelope. That was surprising.
After 4 days, we decided to move to South Dakota, we knew nothing of the area, so we used OnX to find the most public ground. The good thing about the move it allowed us to get 10 hours closer to home. We hunted there 4 days, and was lucky enough to find birds each day. The winds here were also pretty strong here as well. Again lots of nice people in the area, and welcoming to us. One time my dog went on point when the winds were so strong, and the birds were like 60 yards away.
This was the first time the dogs and even I hunted wild birds. I still have a lot to learn. The first few days I allowed the dog to hunt to wide. They were bumping the birds out of range. The last few days tried to get them to hunt closer. I need to learn how to train this. I felt like I was constantly nagging the dog to stay close. Also my dog needs to be more steady, but to be honest there was times when her creeping helped me find the bird.
Overall a great hunt and experince.
We found very little birds, Saw 2 single sharptails, and nothuns, maybe abot 10 pheasants. The wind at times was very strong, first day had winds in the 50 mile an hour gust. Montana does a great job lining up the BMAs I feel. Some still had standing wheat, and some had some corn. The one place we did find birds was in some standing wheat.
My dog did grab a porcupine. This was dramatric for the dog, and me. She was trashing around so badly I had to pin her down and remove them on the spot, as she was breaking them off, and appeared to be doing more harm that good. knew I could not leave them until we got to the truck or to a vet. I was able to give her some pain meds, and rest the remainder of the day and she was back at it the next day.
I saw my first jack rabbit, mule deer, and porcupine. The size of the jackrabbit and the speed it had to me would compare to an antelope. That was surprising.
After 4 days, we decided to move to South Dakota, we knew nothing of the area, so we used OnX to find the most public ground. The good thing about the move it allowed us to get 10 hours closer to home. We hunted there 4 days, and was lucky enough to find birds each day. The winds here were also pretty strong here as well. Again lots of nice people in the area, and welcoming to us. One time my dog went on point when the winds were so strong, and the birds were like 60 yards away.
This was the first time the dogs and even I hunted wild birds. I still have a lot to learn. The first few days I allowed the dog to hunt to wide. They were bumping the birds out of range. The last few days tried to get them to hunt closer. I need to learn how to train this. I felt like I was constantly nagging the dog to stay close. Also my dog needs to be more steady, but to be honest there was times when her creeping helped me find the bird.
Overall a great hunt and experince.
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