Though it goes without saying, it's been a tough season thus far. My wife and I were unable to make opening day but we hunted the two days following the season opener (Sunday/Monday). We were in the panhandle, and had our sights set on a few locations where we had done well in the past. The weather was good - 20s early, warmed up into the low 50s in the afternoons. There was no wind to speak of.
Our first stop on day 1 was such a good location - food, water, cover - it has it all. Except for birds. We walked the area and had good dog work but we didn't see or move one single bird. I should note that we had our 3 year old female GWP (Julep) and our 6 month old male (Sioux). We ran Julep on the first few passes then finally let the puppy out on a check cord to get him some time in the field. Honestly, I was really surprised that we didn't even encounter one bird. I won't go so far as to say I was shocked but I was pretty damn surprised. I did find (and pick up) some new spent shells so I know someone had at least a few shots on opening day in the area but it was barren the day we hunted it. Bummer.
Back to the truck and onto the next spot. We had another place in mind where we had done well last year but wanted to check out a few new (to us) places on the way. We made at least three stops to check out new areas and did hunt each. The cover was great and there was food nearby (cut corn) but again, zero birds. I wasn't too concerned because we were on the way to the honey hole.
As soon as we pulled in we decided to only run the older dog, thinking we'd definitely get into birds in this area. The puppy was not happy about being left in the crate again..such is life. We started walking the area and it didn't appear initially that it had been hunted. No footprints or spent shells. Good signs. It's a long narrow section and about halfway through, we started to get into some trees, which had held birds in the past. We approached a large juniper and Julep got really, really birdy. My wife was walking towards her and all of the suddent a hen flushed and literally almost hit my wife in the head - she had to quickly duck to not get hit. Of course I was thinking that there was a rooster in there that Julep was locked into, and I was ready to shoot. As I approached, I could see that the dog wasn't really holding but rather doing this sort of back and forth step but also moving in and out towards the bird. At this point, I started to think that it wasn't a bird and saw a flash of long black and white hair that looked similar to Julep's coat but it was longer.
I immediately realized that she'd found a skunk. I started yelling for her to come and she did not want to leave the critter yet I eventually got her to come to me but not before she got a full facial spray. And, I do mean an adult portion. She was covered and reeked. If your dog hasn't yet been sprayed by a skunk, it's really something. It was our first time, and I could not believe how powerful the scent actually is when you're up close and personal. It's one thing to hit a skunk with your car or pass a dead one along the road but it's entirely another thing when your dog is covered in the oily spray. Just unreal. It made for a long walk back to the truck.
Given that this was our first skunk encounter, we were entirely unprepared to deal with it (lesson learned). As we walked back to the truck, we began to formulate our plan. We decided to empty the back of the truck, put all the gear in the back of the cab, put Julep in the crate, and have Sioux ride in my wife's lap to the nearest town where we could get some supplies to deal with the mess.
It was about an hour ride, and Julep was not happy - neither were we.
The puppy on the other hand was in heaven...riding in mom's lap for an hour.
Given that we had an hour to figure out what to do, my wife discovered that there was a ranch supply store in the closest town that had Skouts Honor, which, according to the interwebs, was the solution.
We bought two bottles ($12 ea), and then headed to a hardware store to get 5 gallon bucket and a spray bottle (recommeded on the internet to make application easier). We also got some long dishwashing gloves to try to keep the oil off us. We located a car wash and began the process of cleaning up the dog. We followed the directions on the bottle and filled the bucket at the car wash to faciliate the necessary rinsing. I'll be honest - I didn't think the Skouts Honor would work but it was incredible. It litereally knocked out all of the smell except for what was on her e-collar and regular collar. The oil just didn't want to come off those items. We later tried real dishsoap which did help but the tincture of time is what really worked for those items.
It's amazing how many people at the car wash said, "get some tomato juice!" According to the internet, it doesn't really work and we didn't try it.
Needless to say, our afternoon was shot. All of us - dogs included - had the wind taken out of our sails. My wife was ready to pull the plug and head home (~2.5 hrs) but I wanted to stay. Hell, we were already there, we had gotten the dog mostly clean, what did we have to lose? The decision was made to move to a different part of the state, spend the night, and hit some areas we'd hit in the past.
We got an early start on Sunday and did a lot of walking. Both dogs seemed to be glad to be back in the field but despite our efforts, we didn't see any birds. Zero, zilch, nada.
I had a feeling that it was going to be a tough season but these few days confirmed that it is indeed a bad season. Top that off with the skunk, and it could be chalked up as a total bust of a hunt. That said, my wife and I both just enjoy getting out with the dogs, and the silver lining is that we are always learning every time we're out in the field. This time we got a real education in skunk spray and now know how to deal with it (we're open to suggestions if there are better methods than what we used), and we found some new areas to check out in the future.
Pheasants - 1
Skunk - 1
Hunters - 0
Our first stop on day 1 was such a good location - food, water, cover - it has it all. Except for birds. We walked the area and had good dog work but we didn't see or move one single bird. I should note that we had our 3 year old female GWP (Julep) and our 6 month old male (Sioux). We ran Julep on the first few passes then finally let the puppy out on a check cord to get him some time in the field. Honestly, I was really surprised that we didn't even encounter one bird. I won't go so far as to say I was shocked but I was pretty damn surprised. I did find (and pick up) some new spent shells so I know someone had at least a few shots on opening day in the area but it was barren the day we hunted it. Bummer.
Back to the truck and onto the next spot. We had another place in mind where we had done well last year but wanted to check out a few new (to us) places on the way. We made at least three stops to check out new areas and did hunt each. The cover was great and there was food nearby (cut corn) but again, zero birds. I wasn't too concerned because we were on the way to the honey hole.
As soon as we pulled in we decided to only run the older dog, thinking we'd definitely get into birds in this area. The puppy was not happy about being left in the crate again..such is life. We started walking the area and it didn't appear initially that it had been hunted. No footprints or spent shells. Good signs. It's a long narrow section and about halfway through, we started to get into some trees, which had held birds in the past. We approached a large juniper and Julep got really, really birdy. My wife was walking towards her and all of the suddent a hen flushed and literally almost hit my wife in the head - she had to quickly duck to not get hit. Of course I was thinking that there was a rooster in there that Julep was locked into, and I was ready to shoot. As I approached, I could see that the dog wasn't really holding but rather doing this sort of back and forth step but also moving in and out towards the bird. At this point, I started to think that it wasn't a bird and saw a flash of long black and white hair that looked similar to Julep's coat but it was longer.
I immediately realized that she'd found a skunk. I started yelling for her to come and she did not want to leave the critter yet I eventually got her to come to me but not before she got a full facial spray. And, I do mean an adult portion. She was covered and reeked. If your dog hasn't yet been sprayed by a skunk, it's really something. It was our first time, and I could not believe how powerful the scent actually is when you're up close and personal. It's one thing to hit a skunk with your car or pass a dead one along the road but it's entirely another thing when your dog is covered in the oily spray. Just unreal. It made for a long walk back to the truck.
Given that this was our first skunk encounter, we were entirely unprepared to deal with it (lesson learned). As we walked back to the truck, we began to formulate our plan. We decided to empty the back of the truck, put all the gear in the back of the cab, put Julep in the crate, and have Sioux ride in my wife's lap to the nearest town where we could get some supplies to deal with the mess.
It was about an hour ride, and Julep was not happy - neither were we.
The puppy on the other hand was in heaven...riding in mom's lap for an hour.
Given that we had an hour to figure out what to do, my wife discovered that there was a ranch supply store in the closest town that had Skouts Honor, which, according to the interwebs, was the solution.
We bought two bottles ($12 ea), and then headed to a hardware store to get 5 gallon bucket and a spray bottle (recommeded on the internet to make application easier). We also got some long dishwashing gloves to try to keep the oil off us. We located a car wash and began the process of cleaning up the dog. We followed the directions on the bottle and filled the bucket at the car wash to faciliate the necessary rinsing. I'll be honest - I didn't think the Skouts Honor would work but it was incredible. It litereally knocked out all of the smell except for what was on her e-collar and regular collar. The oil just didn't want to come off those items. We later tried real dishsoap which did help but the tincture of time is what really worked for those items.
It's amazing how many people at the car wash said, "get some tomato juice!" According to the internet, it doesn't really work and we didn't try it.
Needless to say, our afternoon was shot. All of us - dogs included - had the wind taken out of our sails. My wife was ready to pull the plug and head home (~2.5 hrs) but I wanted to stay. Hell, we were already there, we had gotten the dog mostly clean, what did we have to lose? The decision was made to move to a different part of the state, spend the night, and hit some areas we'd hit in the past.
We got an early start on Sunday and did a lot of walking. Both dogs seemed to be glad to be back in the field but despite our efforts, we didn't see any birds. Zero, zilch, nada.
I had a feeling that it was going to be a tough season but these few days confirmed that it is indeed a bad season. Top that off with the skunk, and it could be chalked up as a total bust of a hunt. That said, my wife and I both just enjoy getting out with the dogs, and the silver lining is that we are always learning every time we're out in the field. This time we got a real education in skunk spray and now know how to deal with it (we're open to suggestions if there are better methods than what we used), and we found some new areas to check out in the future.
Pheasants - 1
Skunk - 1
Hunters - 0
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