Looking forward - let us hear your bird hunting plans

[AmarilloMike]

I have had my usual Summer melancholy over the lack of bird dog activity and hunting. Field trial season shuts down during the summer because it gets too hot here. I quit training dogs during the Spring and early Summer because of the rattlesnakes. I have been taking my rowdy bird dogs out to the city Dog Park and running them with the Foo-Foo dogs and the overweight Labs. Quite a contrast. I am shouting at my four outlaws and scaring all the other dogs and their dainty female owners. When I correct the puppy for breaking the "whoa" command she sets to squalling like a bear is eating her. My bird dogs are such liars and exagerators. I just know the Sheriff is going to show up there with the ASPCA and haul off me and my dogs.

Anyways my wife and I are going to Montana in time for the September 1 opener. We will take the little 5-1/2 pound Fox A 16 gauge and a 5-3/4 pound Parker 16 VH. We also will take three of our bird dog / house pests. Molly is four, Belle and Red are three. All have hunted since they were pups. One year old Ginger will be in San Angelo, Texas at Tina and Tonya's Bird Dog Finishing School and will miss the trip. They are all French Brittanys. Last September in Montana we had some some good luck and found Huns, pheasant, and grouse and in one memorable afternoon bagged seven or eight huns. We could have taken some more but that was enough. That was all on public access land that we had never seen before nor did we have any tips or recommendations. We picked it out by driving around and looking. In Texas we say if it is true it is not bragging so please forgive my boastfulness. We also spent three days in Yellowstone Park and attended the annual French Brittany get together. Took the fly fishing gear but never got it out.

It seems to me that quail season in Texas starts the first weekend in November that has a Sunday in it. If so that would be November 5. Currently, based on only having received 12% of our normal rainfall, the predictions are pretty dismal. But with weather and Bobwhites you never know.

Pheasant season starts in Kansas on November 12. I expect to spend quite a bit of time and effort in Southwest Kansas and in Northwest kansas as I am pessimsitic about the Bobwhite crop here in the Texas Panhandle.

I joke about it being a methadone treatment for my bird dog hunting addiction but the first West Texas NSTRA Fall field trial is scheduled for September 17. My wife and I will miss that one but should make the next two. One in late September and one in early October.

Red on Point

Quail20082009 009.jpg (166.12 KiB) Viewed 6558 times

[fox-admin]

My two Labs are retired from AKC hunt testing both are Master Hunters, Tess is now 12 1/2 and retired from hunting and DeeDee is 8. We train two days a week, I have beautiful training grounds. The weather is great up here in the summer and we get many pro from Texas that run the HT and Field trial circuit in western NY. I plan on looking for a new pup in the fall, black labs only! Mike my best friend has a male Brit that comes out of field trial stock, crazy guy but finds us plenty of birds.
I am headed out to North Dakota in early October, pheasants, ducks, huns, sharpies, geese and cranes. I drive with a truck full of dogs. The dogs know when they hit Fargo, it must be the smell of the prairie, they go crazy!
Back to New York for the waterfowl season that starts October 22nd, we have 1400 acres of marsh and upland just north of Montezuma NWR, my little piece of heaven. I get in a few trips to the North country and southern tier to hunt grouse and woodcock between duck hunting outings.
Mike like you I am addicted to bird hunting, I can't wait!!

DeeDee watching a flock of ducks circle my pothole last season.

[AmarilloMike]

DeeDee is a very handsome dog! What wonderful times to look forward to. I seriouosly considered Jim Cloningers HE simply because of the pictures you all posted of your duck and goose hunts with your HEs. I haven't been wildfowl hunting in five years but my pulse races when I hear the stories and see the pics.

Here is a picture of me and my Red after he won third in the NSTRA West Texas Regionals this Spring (again i claim the Texan exemption so this is not bragging):

[AmarilloMike]

Here is a picture of my late Brie with some opening day pheasant taken West of Dalhart a few years ago:



And here she is retrieving one of the birds in the first picture:

[fox-admin]

Mike: Red looks like a very cool dog, I love his markings. Having run dogs in competition I understand the thrill !! The amount of time and effort that goes into getting the full potential out of a dog in competition is not understood by most. Hunting with a highly trained bird dog is an experience few ever know.

[vaturkey]

Mine are a bit loose at this point. I'm retired but looking a few things that might impact my ability to hunt this fall. If my hunting exploits are shelved to a large degree because of work my longer trips will be replaced by little foray's into either Virginia (a non-target rich environment) or Pa (certainly better). My soon to be 12 year old Golden is semi-retired (maybe a preserve bird or two) to be replaced by my 2 year old Golden. The two year old has a better nose, much more athletic and listen's. She has however the hardest mouth I've ever seen anywhere. Still trying to figure out how to break her from that. If I'm not working I'll be headed up to Coastal Maine to hunt Woodcock and them partridge things. Like Maine. Woodcock are always around and enough grouse to keep it interesting. Good company and nice eats as well.

[AmarilloMike]

Thanks Craig! Red did a good job at the trial but we had some luck too. And I think the competition level in the Lab trials is at a very high level. A lot of people with time and money are involved in trialing Labs in my experience.

VA nice woodcock(?). Are those woodcock?

Certainly I will dove hunt this Fall. My Brittanys like dove hunting too. The females seem to get that we are ambush hunting. The males usually spend too much time running around trying to make something happen it seems. I haven't tried it but I have been told that when a dog has a hard mouth to freeze the bird and drive nails through it so that they stick out on the other side. Then have the dog retrieve it.

Here is a picture of my XE sixteen with the first wild Bobs I took with it:





Best,

Mike

[Jim Cloninger]

Hi Mike, I am planing on a trip to Minnesota and Wisconsin for Ruffed Grouse. I will be hunting with my 9 year old black Lab, Mandy. She has never hunted Ruffed Grouse but she did great on Sharptails and Prairie Chickens in South Dakota a couple of years ago. I hope to buy a 16 gauge Fox to go along with my 16 gauge M21 for the trip.
Jim

[birdawg]

Thanks for posting this Mike,
Since I am setting the Salt Lake airport returning from Alaska it gets my feeble mind racing and thinking about fall. My English setter and GSP are all ready (mentally, if not physically) for the season to start in less than 2 months. Conditioning will be starting soon at my place. 7000 ft next to the Continental Divide makes summer training a reality. I have watched many trials both field and retriever and hunted with a National Champ duck dog but never played that game myself. I tip my hat to those of you who work the field trials. That game takes time and commitment.
I was recently very tempted to start a lab pup, but as much as I love water fowling, waking the upland fields is my true passion. I am currently looking for a English Setter started dog. Maybe it has something to do with those sweet small bore Foxes.
Speaking of which I am putting together a CE 16/20 gauge set that may be done for late season in Arizona or New Mexico. She is an original 26" 20 gauge recently sent to the smith with 30" 16 ga NOS barrels I came across a few years ago. I have not work out the ejector/exptactor parts issue yet so I may be hunting with a pocket knife in one hand to shuck out the fire hulls for a while on the 16 ga set
Enough rambling from the red eye
Good Luck this year.
Jess

[AmarilloMike]

Hi Jim:

I have been keeeping an eye open for your 16gauge Fox. I have never hunted ruffed grouse and wish you success. Thanks for posting.

Jess I think Setters are the most graceful of the pointing breeds and have the most stylish points. Good luck 0n your two gauge set. Cool idea.

Another gratuitous picture. While training this Spring for the West Texas Regional Trial my friend Steve and I noticed there were thousands of pigeons flying over. So the next time we met we came prepared and these are part of the birds. These are my dogs Molly -4, Belle - 3, and Red - 3.

[Jim Cloninger]

Mike, that is quite a pile of pigeons! Jim

[vaturkey]

Thanks Craig! Red did a good job at the trial but we had some luck too. And I think the competition level in the Lab trials is at a very high level. A lot of people with time and money are involved in trialing Labs in my experience.

VA nice woodcock(?). Are those woodcock?

They indeed are. They are however from Maine. Have killed a few in Va, but where I hunt in the mountains there aren't many around these days.

Certainly I will dove hunt this Fall. My Brittanys like dove hunting too. The females seem to get that we are ambush hunting. The males usually spend too much time running around trying to make something happen it seems. I haven't tried it but I have been told that when a dog has a hard mouth to freeze the bird and drive nails through it so that they stick out on the other side. Then have the dog retrieve it.

Here is a picture of my XE sixteen with the first wild Bobs I took with it:





Best,

Mike

[AmarilloMike]

Thanks Jim. There are fifty of them in that pile. We bagged another 20 over the rest of the day

Thanks VA. I have never laid eyes on a Woodcock, much less hunted them. You guys that do certainly seem obsessed with them. They show up in the engraving on my small bore double guns on a pretty regular basis. I understand they are migratory?

Here is a picture of my best hunting buddy and shooting student Joe Wood missing a Bobwhite. He found that hat in a dumpster behind the Salvation Army building. If you look above the dogs head you can see the Bob. Opening day of 2009.

[fox-admin]

Mike: With the fires and drought, is it worth planning a trip to Northern TX for Bobs this year??

[AmarilloMike]

My best guess is no. I lease the same land year after year. If I were sure I could it back for the 2012/2013 season I would drop the lease this year and use the money to go North to Kansas and hunt pheasant.

We got a little rain this weekend but it is almost too late. Certainly I don't think we have had enough yet for the birds to have a hatch. But there are anecdotal stories out and about. Joe's family is seeing baby Bobs on their ranch.

Best,

Mike