First Bird '08

The heavy frost of the morning gave way to an unusually warm, blue-sky, fall day. Started the day on campus in colloquium, but left quickly afterwards and played hooky with Paul for the rest of the day. For his birthday I bought a 100 rounds of sporting clays at Warriors Mark Shooting Preserve. We headed down there with a couple shotguns and a pile of shells for the afternoon. I’d never shot a sporting clay course – 18 stations with throwers set at different angles, positions, and speeds. Pairs of clays are shot from each station in either following or report fashion – the former being two clays thrown in rapid succession, the latter, two clays thrown in sequence with the second clay thrown upon the report of the gun firing at the first clay. We each shot 100 rounds with varying success – many of the stations had clays flying at severe angles and speed and removed from the station a good 50 yards or more. It really made you think hard about the arc of your swing, the lead time, and overall form. Timing, too, was big from some of the very distant throwers. I think the final tally was 56 for Paul and 61 for me. Certainly a lot of room for improvement, but definitely something I hope to do again soon.

We took a quick drive around the preserve after talking with the owner for a bit. They have beautiful fields and some thick lowland areas for hunting. One guy was out hunting his lab – made me jealous. We also got a chance to watch a pair of hen pheasants feeding in one of the cut rows. You don’t get to see that much so we watched through the binoculars for a while before heading home.

On our way home, we stopped and peered into Spruce Creek along the Harpster property where Jimmy Carter fishes. Huge browns and rainbows dashed for cover under the bridge. As we pulled away, a Bald Eagle soared along the stream channel just overhead lit brilliantly by the afternoon sun.

At home I found wired dogs, crazy from a day being cooped up, and an urge to take the DeHaan out for a walk. I’d used the Remington all day at WM as shells are much easier to come by and cheaper than for the 16ga. Plus, seeing those pheasant gave me an itch for the flush of a bird. As light was fading, I quickly loaded up the dogs and headed up to Greens Valley for a quick hunt. We worked the pines just to the left of the side road – nothing – then headed up to the right of the side road gate. On the edge of the side hill thicket the dogs flushed a woodcock. It went fluttering up and off to my left as the gun rose and fired. I didn’t see it go down, but was pretty sure I’d made a good shot. “Dead bird” got the dogs going and quickly on the downed timberdoodle. First bird of the year. Tried to take some time with the dogs to enjoy the moment and get them riled up by our first kill. The dogs, however, needing no more encouragement, weren’t happy about a break in the action and although interested in the bird were more anxious to get going again. We circled through the thicket and worked the cover until dark – no more flushes here today. Maybe later this week…

Grouse...

...are everywhere. Libby saw five yesterday off greens valley road (half way to the gate, on the left, by the old deer carcasses). She and I saw one and heard others drumming yesterday next to Penns Creek at the end of tunnel road - about 100 yards down the path, after crossing the footbridge, on the left in the rose bushes of the floodplain. I saw three today up on greens valley (two about 100 yards from the lower greens valley road gate on the right, and another at the trail intersection just above the large, private field on the preserve). Hopefully they'll hold out for next fall :) With all this dry weather, the little ones should do well. Also saw nine deer in those fields and 2 more on the way home - odd for a hot day (78 on the bank sign today).

February Hunt

Last hunt for the year today. Paul, Libby, T, Thor, Porter and I hit Idiehl for five hours today. Shot skeet for a while before tromping the grounds in search of chukkar. Gorgeous blue sky and warm sun made me forget for a while it is still February . The dogs were crazy - running hard and listening poorly, but we were able to bag six out of seven birds; the seventh flew right over the dogs' heads until it was out of range. It was so nice to walk ourselves tired, feel the wind and sun on our faces, and watch the dogs work and the guns shoot well. Can't wait for next year...

Unpointable birds

Went for a nice walk today up on lower greens valley road with the dogs. Overcast with a bit of fog floating through the leafless trees, but the temperature is right around 50 and is was so nice to feel the fresh air. I was thinking a lot about pointing dogs and flushing dogs and the best strategy for nabbing those wily feathered beasts. Here's the thing; most hunters fall into either a pointing or flushing "camp." Flushing dogs search for birds and when found, chase and/or lunge at them to flush them out of the cover offering the hunter a shot. When pointing dogs find birds they thoroughly freeze their bodies so as to not scare the bird up, but rather "point" the bird out to the hunter. These strategies require different training techniques and offer completely different hunting experiences. But when your goal is to find birds and fill the game pouch, our resident roughed grouse doesn't always cooperate with either strategy. So what strategy is best? Is one really better than another?

As far as I understand it, those with flushing breeds train their dogs to hunt close (within gun range) and thoroughly search the cover. If the dog hunts beyond gun range, then birds flushed will simply fly off. Hunting over a flushing dog requires constant attention to keep the dog within range and stay prepared to shoot as the dog will likely flush a bird quickly.

Pointing dog owners hunt differently. Dogs are encouraged to range further and "hold" a bird on point until the hunter can get within range. Sometimes pointing dogs are trained to flush birds on command and other times they are trained to be steady (remain on point) until the hunter has flushed, shot, and given a retrieve command.

The problem is that birds don't always cooperate. In my experience, most grouse don't hold very long providing few opportunities for pointing. Other game birds, especially pheasant, often run along the ground to get away from dogs instead of flying. If you're going to have a flushing dog, how can you keep them in range once they're tracking a scent trail? If you're going to have a pointer, then what's the good of it if you only work them inside gun range? I guess the answer I've come to in the short time I've owned dogs is to adjust how I work the dogs depending on what I'm hunting. When hunting grouse or otherwise "spooky" birds, I do my best to keep the dogs within gun range. When hunting chukkar or pheasant, I let the dongs range and rely on them to hold birds until I can close the distance.

The biggest problem with this approach is running pheasant, especially the roosters. From what I've seen, once a pheasant has decided to run, it is unlikely to sit still and be "held" in place by a dog. So what to do? It's fairly easy to tell when a dog is on a running bird- nose to the ground, tail wagging furiously, sharp direction changes as they explore dead ends and return to the scent. When I see this, I have to keep the dogs within range despite their best efforts. So, within range on grouse and running birds, further out on steady birds. There is a little more room for error here than with a flushing dog, as the pointing reaction will likely give you a few moments more to react on those quick to flush birds. The other option is let the dogs run down those running birds and hope they learn to cut them off and hold them on point or flush them back to me...probably depends on the day:)

Probably boring to most people, but I needed to get my thoughts straight. Luckily, no one reads this besides me!

Partridge in PA

Grouse season ended last Saturday. This was the first season I really got out since coming back to Pennsylvania. My first year in grad school I hunted pheasant and woodcock a lot with Paul as grouse numbers were super low. New puppies the next year meant I had to maximize their contact with birds. With grouse numbers still low, I figured my best bet was to buy quail for training and hit the game lands to chase stocked birds. With stocking numbers shrinking and quail hurting the bank account I joined Ideihl farms and got the dogs on tons of quail, pheasant, and chukkar. This year, the dogs are trained and grouse numbers are finally back into a semi-healthy range. I only got out a few times during the late season, but ended up with three birds by the season's close. Paul, Primo, and I headed out Saturday and had four beautiful flushes. T pointed my bird beautifully (even if I wasn't paying much attention) and it went down with one shot from my new DeHaan 16ga. Great ending to the first of (hopefully) many more PA grouse hunts.