Today's adventures

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duckn66

Well-known member
Took one of the youngin's out today with the new Astro to look for some birds but to really just get used to using the new Astro.

First spot 100 yards from the road Obie goes on point according to the Garmin at 102 yards away. Get about half way there and sure enough he is on point. A small covey won't hold long enough for me to get there and they bust out so on we go. Get a little further and another big, big covey won't hold either and they bust out. Then he decides to go on a big run. Garmin says he is on point at 320 yards away. No way can I get there. Then the next one is at 400 and something away. Again no way can I get there. He's way over on the next hillside across a creek and through the timber. He gets out to 720 yards and by this time I figure he must be lost.

Next the Garmin shows him closing in on me. He gets back and I give him a big drink out of his water bottle and we head to the truck. I'm fairly disappointed at this point.

Go about a half an hour south and dump him out on a little milo field and at 92 yards the Garmin says he's on point. I get to about 50 yards from him and the birds explode headed away from me. While he is over near where that covey was I step on another big covey. Last spot we hunt we get into another small covey and I fail to connect. By this time it's getting later so I pick him up and put him in the back seat of the truck for the drive home. He sleeps the entire way. Tuckered out little guy.

Not a bad day for not quite 4 hours of hunting. According to the Astro he covered almost 15 miles.

I think both of us learned a few lessons today. I learned of some darn good quail hunting areas and he learned that maybe his legs are outrunning his nose at this point! I just hope he settles down some with age. I sure as heck can't keep up with him at this point.

Tomorrow I will take his brother out with the Astro and see what we can do.
 
No doubt I saw a good number of birds. Obie just needs to learn not to pressure them. Hope he learned some today.
 
learning

duckn66 said:
No doubt I saw a good number of birds. Obie just needs to learn not to pressure them. Hope he learned some today.
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he probably did, he learned how far and fast he could run and the excitement of having birds busted. good luck with that one. the area you hunted sound pretty exciting though, at least with birds to work on, a chance you have with the dog

cheers
 
Takes birds to make a bird dog as the saying goes and I found them yesterday. The place I have has roosts all over in it. There has to be at least 3 big coveys on it. I found two of them yesterday. I'm happy that he has some go in him. Would much rather have that than have to be kicking him in the arse to get him out from under my feet.

Now that deer season is over I can move out just west of town to a 2K acre ranch I just aquired permission to hunt. ;)
 
Great post and glad your into some birds....I also recently bought a Garmin Alpha and learning how to use it. I have set the update rate to 2.5 seconds....what about you?

Please post some pics when you can.....

PS.....I just posted some pics of my quail hunts in the quail thread.

Reed
 
Keep putting those pups in the birds. Only good things will come of that.
I took my two out today. Hunted 4 hours and found 4 coveys. Not near as good as your areas.
 
Jakeismydog2 said:
And everyone just decided that duckn66 is their new best friend.
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Ha Ha. I haven't even been out there yet to even look at the place. It may be not worth a hoot. This was set up through a very good friend of mine. I'm hoping it's not all over grazed pasture.

Steve I went yesterday alllllll day and only found 2 coveys and one was a small covey. But, I didn't hit the best two spots either. I wanted to scout for some goose hunting while I was out so I went to another area.

I can't remember what I had mine set up for updates now. I think it was the shortest one. I pulled a ding dong move yesterday though and left the charging clip on the collar and now it's gone. Ordered a new one last night off Amazon.
 
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I have not pulled that move with the charger yet. Having used the collars a lot, I hope that it won't happen to me now.
 
At this point how would you compare Obi with Bob? Juries still out on Junior and Bentley. I haven't been out much due to several reasons. The only thing real obvious is Ranger is still head's above any of them and he's 13.
 
Obie ranges further and seems to find more birds than bob but that could be the areas that we hunted. Bob actually handles better and seems to be more in tune to where he is in relation to me. Both check in frequently tho.

Obie knows no quit. He would literally run himself to death if given the chance. Bob appears to have some shoulder issues which will limit his hunting duration I think, especially as he gets older.

I really need to get them on more birds though. It's tough to have a young dog right now. Can always shoot pen raised birds but it's just not the same as wild birds I don't think.

Time will tell on both of them.
 
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We had a good outing today. It would have been a better day if we could have shot a little better but we were frozen with all of the roosters we found. Walking a deep draw beside a cut cornfield was felt as if we had slipped into a time machine. Bumped four roosters right away and the rest of the family was hanging around for the Christmas holiday. We should have shot 6 or 7, but hey, it was a lot of fun, hearing the cackle and watching the dogs work.
 
It was great! The birds didn't want to leave the draw, as in doing all they could to not leave the safety of the plum thickets and everything else. We found a couple of big coveys and can't wait to go back on Monday with the snow on the ground.
 
Been using an astro for a couple of years. Most of the time, due to low bird numbers, the point indicator comes on when the dog stops to listen for me. Learned to use a hawk screamer. When the point indicator comes on, I let out a couple hawk screams. This lets the dog know where I am. If it is on point, the hawk screams may entice the bird to stay on the ground. If the dog is looking for you, the point indicator will come off and you won't have to move to the dog.
 
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