teej89
Well-known member
2 years ago in April 2015 I brought home something that'd change my life forever, my first very own pup, Boomer. The day before my dad and I got our first ever spring gobbler double too.
I bought him with all intentions on training him to compete in Hunt Tests and potentially Trials, well that all came to a halt when a year later in february before his 1st birthday when I found out he partially tore his ACL... a lot of money and 6mo later and he was back at it again... only to find out in october he partially tore his other ACL... I was devastated for the poor guy... well another a lot of money and 6 more mo later and he was ready to rock and roll, 110% better! I coulda bought a small car for what I paid for those knees lol but i never regret the decision to get it done.
Here I am tho feeling terrible, a 2yr old pup and he has yet to hunt...
Fall came and I just moved to a new area and with my elk hunt we got no dove hunting in, I've never waterfowl hunted so that was out... I'm like I gotta get him on something, the dog loves to retrieve, we still train a couple times a week, marks and blinds just to keep him sharp.
Well I had a genius idea I've never done before, took him squirrel hunting with me loL! We ended up killing 4 that evening and it was hilarious his first retrieve, he watched it drop and I sent em on the retrieve, he got to it and was like uhhhhh normally they run up the tree by now... but eventually he grabbe dit and brought it back, by then it was on! We were just sitting and waiting but he was spotting squirrels in trees that I didn't even see, I'd look over and see him focused and could tell he was following something with his eyes and I'm like hot dman there's a squirrel lol
Well deer season came and went, archery goes out in PA, and I had nothign to do on the weekend, I was like well I've never hunted pheasants before so I went to the store, grabbed a permit and Saturday monring boomer and I were off to chase pheasants, neither of us upland bird hunted before lol We get to the field and 8 cars are parked in this lot for a 50acre field, jst our luck..... we go anyways but stay on the lower acre while everyone works the rest of the field. Finally the field was all ours cuz the rest of the guys left, feeling down cuz this field just got combed by guys I was determined to get a single flush. We were combing the field and talked to a guy who was leaving saying him and his pup had no luck, we part ways and no more than 75yds in boomer gets his first flush, a hen, and I fold her and I see a brown blur and he's off. I run too cuz I'm pumped I got my first bird, then thru the tall grass I see boomer running ack to me bird in mouth, I've never been so proud or so excited on a hunting trip before and I've killed many deer and turkeys. The guy I just talked to yells "good shot!". What an awesome moment, we ended up flushign two more and i got my limit on the last hen. Here's our first bird and our limit that day.
Well thanksgiving came and I wanted to take Boomer out back at home, I tried to get my dad to buy a permit but he wouldn't but he tagged along... 2hrs later and we had 3 flushes (1 after I hit my limit) and we were walking out with two more hens. Go figure I've yet to kill a rooster and he flushed a rooster on our walk out lol
Now this is getting a hair addicting... loL! So I find a chunk of public east of me that is HUGE! Fields over a mile long and for all of deer gun season I'm too excited about hunting this piece to care about deer. I did get my GF her first ever doe, 160yds, I was so proud! She did it all from gutting to skinning an butchering!
Anywho the weekend comes to hunt these fields, I'm certain there's some birds left but knew we'd have work for them. The forecast shows 5 degrees and 5mph winds and i'm stoked cuz I know that'll keep people out of the fields. All I have on my mind is finding him a rooster, I had dreams about it. It was a crazy slow start, he wasn't acting birdy anywhere, then an hour and a hlaf in I started to doubt if there were any birds in this area... then he got birdy in a small bush in the middle of the field, real birdy.... only to come running out with a dead rooster in his mouth lol well that sucks but kinda good news. We keep working the field towards the very far edge, the grass is high bout to my chest and all of the sudden he jumps two roosters in front, I miss the first, hit the second and throw out a third volley at the hit rooster to insure he's down. Boomer takes off in a hurry as I mark the second rooster to go after him later. I take 2 steps forward and hear rustling under my feet and two more rooster bust from under my feet, I have no shells in the gun so i grab one off my chest, chamber it, shoulder the gun and drop the closer of the two birds. HOLY CRAP this all just happened in like 20 seconds, the next issue is, where's my dog. The grass is too high, I can't hear or see him I'm calling for him and blowing the whistle then I hear rustling and look over and here he is bringing back the first rooster, I couldn't believe he actually saw em drop with how tall the grass was. I take that rooster and line him up on the second and tell him back, takes off like a bat outta hell an a minute later here he comes back proud as all hell about his first blind retrieve. What fall this has been! Going out friday saturday with the old man after birds then with the GF over new years to get her on her first bird. I've found a new addiction!! Thanks for reading!
I bought him with all intentions on training him to compete in Hunt Tests and potentially Trials, well that all came to a halt when a year later in february before his 1st birthday when I found out he partially tore his ACL... a lot of money and 6mo later and he was back at it again... only to find out in october he partially tore his other ACL... I was devastated for the poor guy... well another a lot of money and 6 more mo later and he was ready to rock and roll, 110% better! I coulda bought a small car for what I paid for those knees lol but i never regret the decision to get it done.
Here I am tho feeling terrible, a 2yr old pup and he has yet to hunt...
Fall came and I just moved to a new area and with my elk hunt we got no dove hunting in, I've never waterfowl hunted so that was out... I'm like I gotta get him on something, the dog loves to retrieve, we still train a couple times a week, marks and blinds just to keep him sharp.
Well I had a genius idea I've never done before, took him squirrel hunting with me loL! We ended up killing 4 that evening and it was hilarious his first retrieve, he watched it drop and I sent em on the retrieve, he got to it and was like uhhhhh normally they run up the tree by now... but eventually he grabbe dit and brought it back, by then it was on! We were just sitting and waiting but he was spotting squirrels in trees that I didn't even see, I'd look over and see him focused and could tell he was following something with his eyes and I'm like hot dman there's a squirrel lol
Well deer season came and went, archery goes out in PA, and I had nothign to do on the weekend, I was like well I've never hunted pheasants before so I went to the store, grabbed a permit and Saturday monring boomer and I were off to chase pheasants, neither of us upland bird hunted before lol We get to the field and 8 cars are parked in this lot for a 50acre field, jst our luck..... we go anyways but stay on the lower acre while everyone works the rest of the field. Finally the field was all ours cuz the rest of the guys left, feeling down cuz this field just got combed by guys I was determined to get a single flush. We were combing the field and talked to a guy who was leaving saying him and his pup had no luck, we part ways and no more than 75yds in boomer gets his first flush, a hen, and I fold her and I see a brown blur and he's off. I run too cuz I'm pumped I got my first bird, then thru the tall grass I see boomer running ack to me bird in mouth, I've never been so proud or so excited on a hunting trip before and I've killed many deer and turkeys. The guy I just talked to yells "good shot!". What an awesome moment, we ended up flushign two more and i got my limit on the last hen. Here's our first bird and our limit that day.
Well thanksgiving came and I wanted to take Boomer out back at home, I tried to get my dad to buy a permit but he wouldn't but he tagged along... 2hrs later and we had 3 flushes (1 after I hit my limit) and we were walking out with two more hens. Go figure I've yet to kill a rooster and he flushed a rooster on our walk out lol
Now this is getting a hair addicting... loL! So I find a chunk of public east of me that is HUGE! Fields over a mile long and for all of deer gun season I'm too excited about hunting this piece to care about deer. I did get my GF her first ever doe, 160yds, I was so proud! She did it all from gutting to skinning an butchering!
Anywho the weekend comes to hunt these fields, I'm certain there's some birds left but knew we'd have work for them. The forecast shows 5 degrees and 5mph winds and i'm stoked cuz I know that'll keep people out of the fields. All I have on my mind is finding him a rooster, I had dreams about it. It was a crazy slow start, he wasn't acting birdy anywhere, then an hour and a hlaf in I started to doubt if there were any birds in this area... then he got birdy in a small bush in the middle of the field, real birdy.... only to come running out with a dead rooster in his mouth lol well that sucks but kinda good news. We keep working the field towards the very far edge, the grass is high bout to my chest and all of the sudden he jumps two roosters in front, I miss the first, hit the second and throw out a third volley at the hit rooster to insure he's down. Boomer takes off in a hurry as I mark the second rooster to go after him later. I take 2 steps forward and hear rustling under my feet and two more rooster bust from under my feet, I have no shells in the gun so i grab one off my chest, chamber it, shoulder the gun and drop the closer of the two birds. HOLY CRAP this all just happened in like 20 seconds, the next issue is, where's my dog. The grass is too high, I can't hear or see him I'm calling for him and blowing the whistle then I hear rustling and look over and here he is bringing back the first rooster, I couldn't believe he actually saw em drop with how tall the grass was. I take that rooster and line him up on the second and tell him back, takes off like a bat outta hell an a minute later here he comes back proud as all hell about his first blind retrieve. What fall this has been! Going out friday saturday with the old man after birds then with the GF over new years to get her on her first bird. I've found a new addiction!! Thanks for reading!
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