Scary Moment

NDPheasant

NDPheasant

Well-known member
Today found five more roosters in the vest with two of my nephews each getting one. We quit for the day after a near disaster.

I noticed orange ribbon on cattails of a slough we hunted between two tree rows and fresh vehicle tracks. I failed to put the pieces together until Ellie yelped and backed up quickly. I went to look and noticed a cable snare she had hit. At the same time Willow’s beeper caller was going meaning she was on point or at least stopped. My nephew walked over and realized she was not pointing but just staniding there. He looked closer and saw her head in the snare. I quickly went over. Willow was standing calmly but then wanted to get to me as I got closer but my nephew had her collar. Her calmness and Dawson holding her collar kept the snare from tightening down. I did not have to cut it but was able to loosen just enough to work the angles over Willows petite head. This event scared the daylights out of me and brings many threads on this forum together for me:

1. I will NOT loan my dog out. I doubt she would have remained calm nor would others likely have the knowledge or preparedness that I am going to have especially swapping info with all of you.
2. Always carry a cable cutter and study how snares work. I was prepared for today.
3. I will always be able to locate my dog; Beeper collar, gps, or cowbell does not matter to me. I have tried stealth mode with and without my dogs and independently and with hunting partners. You will have a lot of trouble convincing me that they don’t know you are there from the moment your boots hit the ground. Ground vibrations, site, other sounds cue them in from the get go. Use any method you want for tracking your dog and don’t apologize for it. In the end, the effects are negligible on alerting roosters.
4. Sharing knowledge and experiences helps prepare us all for more successful hunts. I really enjoy this forum for this reason. Even if we have useless bantering over what a Triple really means. : )

I warned you ahead of time I rolled many threads together. Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings today. Some of your ramblings since I joined this forum contributed to saving my dog of not both from disaster today. I appreciate you all!

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PS. Also encountered a porcupine in the cattails earlier in the morning and shot that.
 
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Yah, that could have ended badly. Good times when the young ones connect. Looks like the temps have improved from what you had yesterday morning. Got a single myself this morning, my buddy got his limit, happy of him, second time this year for him, he is shooting better, things are starting to to come together.
 
I sit here just shaking my head.. I cant imagine. Glad you and everyone kept their cool and it all turned out ok. I wouldnt have put that puzzle together either.
Thats for posting this though. I hope it helps a light go on if I ever see it
 
remy3424 said:
Yah, that could have ended badly. Good times when the young ones connect. Looks like the temps have improved from what you had yesterday morning. Got a single myself this morning, my buddy got his limit, happy of him, second time this year for him, he is shooting better, things are starting to to come together.
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Saturday was cold indeed but almost no wind so it wasn’t unbearable. Warmed up to about ten degrees by afternoon. Today it got in the thirties. Tomorrow single digit highs again. Glad to hear you are getting some birds. Fun to have hunting partners enjoying the sport!
 
Thank you for sharing. Being more prepared from reading stories like this make everyone better dog handler. Glad everything worked out.
 
very scary with a great outcome
 
Last year my Lab -kinda disappeared. Backtracked and found her in a snare standing calmly. This was on county multiuse property. Lots of dog exercisers as well as hunters. Talked to the county about it requesting trappers at least post there are snares in use. Nothing came of it but the snare was gone. Turns out it was a youngster learning to trap.
 
I am not anti-trapping but any kind of trap that kills should be illegal above ground! This is a true story; Years ago my brother was hunting with a friend when his Britt didn't check in for a while, they went looking and found that Some dumbass had set the largest conibear across a deep narrow ditch. The britt was dead. He took it home buried it and went back to ambush the dumbass. He waited on and off for three days. Come to find out in the meantime the friend went around to the local bars and put the word out. When my brother found out he was pissed at the friend until his friend told him that he had never seen a look in his eye like that and didn't want to see his family suffer for what he thought he was going to do. I hate snares and although legal I will not leave one intact if I find it.
 
Thanks for your post NDPhez, really happy all worked out for you and Willow!
Very scary indeed!! Did enjoy the big smiles(y)
Regarding your bullet point #4, well written & agree - have read/enjoyed many great posts over the years...................trolling and picking fly s*** out of pepper not my cup of tea................

Your story reminded me of our trap incident...............years ago we used to hunt with pointers, but shifted to labs due to lots of waterfowling. +25 years ago we were hunting a grassy CRP field in Iowa, along a gravel road. We had hunted this field numerous times. This particular morning, we had our Vizsla Tara and black lab Ruby in the field. We typically would work the road edge inward and make our way to the creek bed. There was a culvert (dry) and Ruby stepped in a conibear trap. I can still remember that dog screaming, with Laura and I frantically trying to remove the trap. Was simply unfamiliar with traps in general, so it took a minute to figure it out, with a dog in total distress. We finally got that damn trap off of her, and at first thought she was ok. Long story short, she did not have any broken bones, but did have tendon damage. she never fully recovered from this incident, but continued to hunt the rest of her life. I did yank the trap and went and spoke to the farmer. He did give permission to a trapper, so no more came of it. I do believe the trap was set illegally, outside of the culvert, and on dry ground. I am not against trapping, but thankful for not meeting that particular trapper after all that. I haven't been amped like that since then...........................................
P.S. the wife really misses the pointers🤣......................so do I
 
NDPheasant said:
I noticed orange ribbon on cattails of a slough we hunted between two tree rows and fresh vehicle tracks. I failed to put the pieces together until Ellie yelped and backed up quickly. I went to look and noticed a cable snare she had hit.

1. I will NOT loan my dog out. I doubt she would have remained calm nor would others likely have the knowledge or preparedness that I am going to have especially swapping info with all of you.
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I doubt anyone will ask to borrow your dog. It seems as though your knowledge and preparedness was lacking being you saw flagging tape and still decided to hunt that slough. I'm glad the dogs were okay.
 
Another thing to check as well when it comes to snares/traps, most trappers connect the trap/snare to their anchor using a quick link, if you dont have a set of cutters, then you can look for a quick link to unscew
 
You must have been in the boonies, seems bold to mark your sets...no way I would do that. Maybe it was a trapper that had a big trapline. Sounds like fur is about worthless, likely few folks trapping this season. I trust our local coyote hunters will still get after those. Every year they take 60 or so locally and it just keeps the populatate steady...have seen 3 over the last 2 weekends, so there are plenty here. Seems the hunters are more of a sport thing and trappers it is a financial thing.
 
Pretty good straight forward video if you haven't handled traps before. Just pray your dog never gets into a 330 size conibear, even if you saw it happen, it might be over before you could help. Good post.
 
Cable cutters (your Leatherman/multi-tool won't cut cable) and a rope (1/4" or so in diameter) to release conibear traps should be in every bird hunter's vest. I've found old sets from previous years even. Best to be prepared!
 
AKSkeeter said:
Snares are scary. Thanks for sharing.
Here is a youtube video on how to release dogs from traps.
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Great video! Better than the 51 page PDF NDGF puts out. My hunting buddy told me to get a good lineman’s Pliar which I carry but will definitely get a short nosed cable cutter. Love all the info sharing this forum provides. Knowing that flagging tape may be used for marking snares/traps has increased my awareness too.
 
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