Irrelevant
Well-known member
I finally got out this year. Been bogged down by kids sports, deer hunting, and trying to get all the pre-winter chores that I put off all summer finally done.
I failed both myself and my pup and didn't work on force fetching at all, it was the only goal I had, and I made almost zero progress, again, the "whole summer" mentality bit me in the ass.
This was a pretty fun start, we had a kid in our office we poached from another office to do some field work on a couple of projects. He's just out of college, and just started hunting a couple of years ago, but already has more under his belt than I do the last decade (in WA). We (I have one coworker than is as into Chukar as I am and in much better shape) were BS'n and made the comment that chukar are just so hard to hit... and he was like "why?" We embellish but generally describe why it's so hard and why the artist-formerly-known-as-JLS is incredible for his consistent limits. This cocky bugger replies, "I mean if I went more then a couple of shots without getting one I'd be surprised, I'm pretty good at trap."
We immediately invited him. I love the setup.
We picked a spot that was going to have some birds but not many, wouldn't have anything close to the truck, and if he invited all his buddies and we lost it, it wouldn't be much of a loss.
It's almost mean to describe how the hunt actually went. But needless to say, about 700ft off the valley floor we were both waiting for him, and when he finally got to us he said he needed to sit down for a while. But then proclaimed he was fine... as asked again at 1,500 ft. He said he left leg was cramping, but he was fine... At 2,000 ft he said both his legs were cramping and if we didn't mind he was going to go back to the truck. I gave him the keys and my buddy and I proceeded on a big, though almost entirely fruitless loop through some cliff bands only managing one bird. Though I blanked on the easiest shot I've had in a really long time. We get back to the truck 1.5 hr later and he's not there, we finally spot him 300 ft up still, sitting, "Wait, did he just slide on his butt?" Yes, he admitted both his legs effectively stopped working and he had to slide on his butt on the steep sections. At this point I felt quite guilty. I hope he's okay. He could hardly hobble out of my truck when I dropped him off.
I probably shouldn't tell him my daughter did this hunt without complaint at 11.
I failed both myself and my pup and didn't work on force fetching at all, it was the only goal I had, and I made almost zero progress, again, the "whole summer" mentality bit me in the ass.
This was a pretty fun start, we had a kid in our office we poached from another office to do some field work on a couple of projects. He's just out of college, and just started hunting a couple of years ago, but already has more under his belt than I do the last decade (in WA). We (I have one coworker than is as into Chukar as I am and in much better shape) were BS'n and made the comment that chukar are just so hard to hit... and he was like "why?" We embellish but generally describe why it's so hard and why the artist-formerly-known-as-JLS is incredible for his consistent limits. This cocky bugger replies, "I mean if I went more then a couple of shots without getting one I'd be surprised, I'm pretty good at trap."
We immediately invited him. I love the setup.
We picked a spot that was going to have some birds but not many, wouldn't have anything close to the truck, and if he invited all his buddies and we lost it, it wouldn't be much of a loss.
It's almost mean to describe how the hunt actually went. But needless to say, about 700ft off the valley floor we were both waiting for him, and when he finally got to us he said he needed to sit down for a while. But then proclaimed he was fine... as asked again at 1,500 ft. He said he left leg was cramping, but he was fine... At 2,000 ft he said both his legs were cramping and if we didn't mind he was going to go back to the truck. I gave him the keys and my buddy and I proceeded on a big, though almost entirely fruitless loop through some cliff bands only managing one bird. Though I blanked on the easiest shot I've had in a really long time. We get back to the truck 1.5 hr later and he's not there, we finally spot him 300 ft up still, sitting, "Wait, did he just slide on his butt?" Yes, he admitted both his legs effectively stopped working and he had to slide on his butt on the steep sections. At this point I felt quite guilty. I hope he's okay. He could hardly hobble out of my truck when I dropped him off.
I probably shouldn't tell him my daughter did this hunt without complaint at 11.
I'm taking my shotgun if we go this weekend.
