GoldenHunter
New member
I had a golden and a lab as a kid that both would bring wild birds back to me a few times a season. All on private ground and all wild birds.
I've had 2 labs over the past 15 years. My first one caught 1 hen and 1 rooster in 12 hunting seasons. My current lab has caught 2 roosters so far in her first 3 years. The last one was actually this summer while we were out exercising. I would walk the full perimeter of a 160 acre CRP field early in the morning and just let her "hunt". She was about 100 yards out in the grass when Isaw her go on point. This is a pretty regular occurrence during these exercise trips, so I kept walking, I walked about 10 more steps and looked back to make sure she wasn't still "pointing", and she was coming back to me carrying something. I was nervous because the last thing i was expecting was a pheasant. Sure enough, it was a mature rooster pheasant with plenty of life left in it when she brought it all the way back to me. About 5 feet away she dropped it, it took off running, but couldn't fly, and she caught it again. Not sure if it couldn't fly before and that's why she caught it, or if she broke a wing initially. The other was in heavy grass cover during hunting season, and she caught it out of the air during his flush. Hard to be mad as much as shells cost these days!![]()