Fox Collectors

MA stops stocking the day before Thanksgiving and while the season runs until 12/31, birds can be tough to find especially when released in the freezing rain Wednesday night and 22deg and snow the next morning - many simply freeze to death that first night.

Started Thursday morning in the mix of freezing rain and snow and while many others went birdless, Maggie and Mollie went right into this 8-10' high cat tails and swamp and flushed 5 birds. The swamp was 4-8" of water with dry elevated clumps of brush tucked in among the cat tails and that's where they were. Only took one shot but got a hen with my VH 12g. They were a soaking wet muddy mess but it didn't bother them one bit.

Went out Friday morning in snow and they put up a single rooster that was taken down by my Trojan 20g. Then went about 50mi west almost into NY to this really nice WMA that was covered in about 8" of snow. No pheasant raised although the dogs flushed a large Tom turkey. They have run turkeys out of brush but this is the first time I have ever seen one flush. I thought they were on a pheasant and seeing this thing spring up surprised the hell out of me. What amazed me is how quickly it flushed and reached full flight speed.

Saturday hit the swamp again and flushed a hen in morning and rooster in afternoon so season most likely ended on consecutive hits (unlike Monday when I went 0/9 with 16 shots fired from one of my SW.....it was simply one of those days where everything looked right when you pulled the trigger but results indicate otherwise).

Thanks for the pictures. You’ve had an amazing Fall.

Jeff S wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2024 7:53 am Thanks for the pictures. You’ve had an amazing Fall.

Thanks Jeff. For 2 pound dogs they probably put up 75+\- birds with 45-50 to bag. Only problem this year was they just started taking off - they would get a scent and move full speed to where I couldn't keep up.

Maggiemollie wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2024 7:38 am Saturday hit the swamp again and flushed a hen in morning and rooster in afternoon so season most likely ended on consecutive hits (unlike Monday when I went 0/9 with 16 shots fired from one of my SW.....it was simply one of those days where everything looked right when you pulled the trigger but results indicate otherwise).

I've had a day like that. The best grouse day I ever had was also the worst. I missed 11 grouse with a new to me LC Smith grade 4 20 gauge. A rare one that is a good addition to the accumulation but I almost never want to hunt with it because of the scars in my brain from that day.

Maggiemollie wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2024 7:38 am Saturday hit the swamp again and flushed a hen in morning and rooster in afternoon so season most likely ended on consecutive hits (unlike Monday when I went 0/9 with 16 shots fired from one of my SW.....it was simply one of those days where everything looked right when you pulled the trigger but results indicate otherwise).

I've had a day like that. The best grouse day I ever had was also the worst. I missed 11 grouse with a new to me LC Smith grade 4 20 gauge. A rare one that is a good addition to the accumulation but I almost never want to hunt with it because of the scars in my brain from that day.

I have hunted Pa SGL's quite a 7 times. Only got into birds 3 times and took at total of 2 shots. One bird stoned and the other hit the ground with a broken wing and headed into a cluster of swamps and briers. Dogs went in twice looking for it and I finally called them off after 15 minutes as they were getting torn to shreds by the briars. PS. If I had flushers I would certainly have more birds. Pointy dogs are what I can keep up with as a hot dog on a hot bird can often result in a bird that gets up way in front of you.

We have sort of entered our dead time locally. There are no Grouse around to speak of and the first split of Woodcock went out yesterday. Should have been after them yesterday but my son was here from NH as well as my daughter from Richmond so I hung around the house. Quail season is in, but I have only hit one covey in Va in the past 3 years. Killed a bird out of it and felt guilty later because the covey was so small, but it was a pointed covey and I felt I needed to reward the dog for a good job.

Pa is now in the deer season and it closed to bird hunting for 2 weeks and they aren't stocking anyway.

If I was younger and single I'd live in SD during the bird season's and winter in Arizona. However, it is what it is. Va is in my roots, but it certainly isn't what it used to be in regards to gamebirds.

thanks again Ron,enjoy pics and report