A good weekend

[gspman]

Got out with my brother Sat. & Sun. and had some fun. The goal was to get the dog into birds and we did that and got some shooting in as well. We had alot of good bird work this weekend. The dog nailed a couple of second year roosters perfectly. She stuck a bionic rooster (the thing was gigantic) with a hen by a fencerow next to standing corn that we didn't get a shot at. At the end of the day Saturday she pinned the other oldster in a cat and mouse game on a tire track trail in a huge crp field. That bird is pictured below. So the pooch gained a lot of good experience this weekend which is great.

There's more corn coming out with plenty still left to be harvested so the hunting should get better and better. We need some cold weather and snow to get those birds sitting tight. The birds are not too willing to sit tight and they seem to want to double back behind us. Sometimes they succeed and sometimes they don't.

My brother with a pair of birds.

Yours truly with the same 2 birds. Dixie played a short game of catwalk, point, catwalk point before she nailed the bigger one which was a second year bird with long, needle sharp spurs. It was a textbook example of dog vs. bird.

A shot of a couple other birds. I'm a wannbe photographer. Both birds hatched this spring but you can tell one hatched early and the other late.

[setterguy]

Nice work GSP, and I think those pics turned out great. I wish I could hunt all weekend like you, but I did manage to get out and chase some grouse around the woods today with moderate success. It was the first real hunt in the woods so I didn't really know what to expect. We were hunting my 5 year old with a dog that is brand new to the grouse game, so anything could have happened. We started out north of Palisade about 10 miles and had some action right away, we moved five grouse along with close to ten woodcock in the first hour with all woodcock pointed and 3 of the grouse. We hunted for another hour and didn't see another bird until 50 yards from the truck the young dog stuck a woodcock. We headed to another spot just east of McGrath and had 4 more grouse pointed, 2 bagged and at least another dozen woodcock pointed. All in all it turned out to be a good day in the woods, the rain held off, the dogs performed wonderfully and we ended up with a nice grouse dinner. To me the numbers seemed a bit better than last year in the same spots. I hope the upswing continues.

[gspman]

Thanks Setterguy,

Sounds like you had a blast in the woods. 30+ birds is a great day in my book. Do you think those woodcock were locals or migrating birds? It's always cool to see the young dogs start to figure things out. And nothing is better on the plate than a grouse.

gspman

[james_walleye]

Nice pictures, i wish i would have taken a few from yesterday. They wouldnt have been as nice though as yesterday afternoon was so foggy and drab. But 2 of us hit a piece yesterday afternoon and did quite well. We hadnt even gotten going and my GSP had a rooster stuck. Unfortunatly it was right next too I-90 so we couldnt shoot with the traffic. He stuck 2 other roosters that we couldnt shoot at either because of the interstate right there. 2 of the 3 roosters that we got also held really tight and my dog stuck them hard. In both cases i walked up and the grass moved about a foot and a half in front of his nose. What a blast too see him work so good. Hes 3 now and man is he on fire this year. In all we saw 7 rooties and about 10 hens. Not bad for an hour and a half walking nothing but a few waterways. We tried too get a few more ducks and geese yesterday morning for him too retrieve again but the ponds were empty this time. But as far as the pheasants, im seeing numbers of birds in areas that i havent seen in quite a long time.

[setterguy]

My guess would be that they are migrating. I say this because once you got into them, they were thick. Maybe 4-5 birds within a 50 yard radius.

[gspman]

JW, sounds like you've got yourself a heck of a pheasant hound!

[brittman]

Pheasants appear to be "migrating" or dispersing a little bit right now.

Hunted 3 hours on Sunday. 11 pointed roosters. Two in the bag ... probably saw double the number of roosters on the road and/or flushing wild.

[james_walleye]

GSPman he is a good pheasant dog. His instints are really good and i worked with him alot from day one and its paid off as he listens really well. But its like most GSP, its all about getting the time in the field too bring out the instincts. That and just getting them too listen too you. Those darn dogs can hunt, you just have too get them in the field enough when they are young. It sure makes me proud though when i take friends with and i get compliments on how well he listens and how fun it is too hunt behind him. All you dog owners here know what im talking about.