December Pheasants

[Guy]

My son and I took the dog and our shotguns for a little walk today. We found five roosters, but only brought home four. One got up at an odd angle, my son missed two shots, and he would have been in my line of fire, so I never even shouldered my shotgun. Good day though, we enjoyed!

Here's the good old Ithaca (SKB) 20 gauge double he uses. It came to me in 1969! Still in beautiful condition.

And, you'd think a fellow who had just made a terrific shot, bringing down this bird, would smile.

Regards, Guy

 

[teej89]

Good stuff!! If you don't mind me asking, were these at the release sites?

 

[fishing4sanity]

Congrats to you and your son on the birds and more importantly just on the time spent hunting together!

 

[Guy]

Good stuff!! If you don't mind me asking, were these at the release sites?

Nope - about once a month, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, I treat us to a day at the Cooke Canyon Hunt Club. These are not wild pheasant. It's helping a lot with the new bird dog, getting him on birds. But... Mostly it's just a nice, relaxed hunt for my son and I. Wild birds, I try to hunt about once a week during the same time frame. Am semi-retired now and having fun. New dog is a CHALLENGE though! So EXCITED by the birds. Makes me laugh. He's learning.

Guy

 

[teej89]

Nope - about once a month, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, I treat us to a day at the Cooke Canyon Hunt Club. These are not wild pheasant. It's helping a lot with the new bird dog, getting him on birds. But... Mostly it's just a nice, relaxed hunt for my son and I. Wild birds, I try to hunt about once a week during the same time frame. Am semi-retired now and having fun. New dog is a CHALLENGE though! So EXCITED by the birds. Makes me laugh. He's learning.

Guy

That's awesome! Very exciting!

What kinda pup? Or have you posted pictures of it before?

 

[BrentD]

Looks like amazingly open country with little cover compared to our birds that like the tallest, nastiest stuff they can find.

The Ithaca/SKB guns are good ones. I have 2 of them, though they don't get used a lot.

 

[Irrelevant]

Nope - about once a month, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, I treat us to a day at the Cooke Canyon Hunt Club. These are not wild pheasant. It's helping a lot with the new bird dog, getting him on birds. But... Mostly it's just a nice, relaxed hunt for my son and I. Wild birds, I try to hunt about once a week during the same time frame. Am semi-retired now and having fun. New dog is a CHALLENGE though! So EXCITED by the birds. Makes me laugh. He's learning.

Guy

Certainly a good idea, took my pup way too many years to finally get the hang of it. There's just so few birds in WA compared to elsewhere.

Though I think either we're on a chukar upswing, or I'm finally figuring them out, because we're seeing quite a few these days. Hope to shorten the training time for the next pup substantially.

 

[Guy]

That sounds good - I haven't got a shot at a chukar yet this year, but have done fairly well with them in years past. I do enjoy hunting those rascals!

Guy

 

[Guy]

Maverick the GWP pup! He's my buddy. We're working on the hunting thing:

He's a "liver" colored German Wirehaired Pointer. A rescue pup. Has only been with me about 4 months, and is 15 months old I think. He's up to about 65 pounds now, strong & healthy. FAST runner. Good grief. We hike together a lot. Even when I'm on snowshoes lately. Good dog, lots of potential, but it takes work, he's a bit of a wild child. LOVE his drive and energy, but wow... A day of hunting with him leaves both of us exhausted!

Guy

 

[HFW]

Nice looking dog and good on you for the rescue. I think introducing a dog to pheasants in a controlled environment like a preserve gets then up to speed faster on the hunting. Much easier to control the situations and no other hunters around.

 

[NDMuley]

Love hunting roosters in the snow. Congratulations.