We were off, me and Zeus, Kevin and Bowser (new one year old pup), and Dave was without a dog, having lost Ace during the year. Due to circumstances, after Ace he had decided it would be tough to care for a dog with other things and planned travel going on. And while that sounded easy enough back then, he wasn’t fond of his decision as we were loaded and heading east. Since we had time, we decided to take a little different route on our way to northeastern Montana this year. We decided to get off I-90 at St. Regis following the Flathead Valley to US2 and use the highline route over the Rocky Mountains past Glacier.
The sun was out and it had snowed throughout Montana the day before leaving beautiful snowcapped mountains our entire route.
As we crossed the plains along the highline, we caught up to the storm that left the snow on the mountains the day before. Storms on the prairie can be pretty and ferocious looking at the same time.
We arrived in town late, checked into the hotel and in the morning we headed to some favorite sharptail fields as pheasant didn’t open till the next day. My buddy’s new pup, Bowser, didn’t have as good a hunt as we hoped; he didn’t react well to the guns going off. Sorry to say, poor preparation and introduction to gunfire had reaped its reward. We were pretty bummed and quite frustrated; knowing a fix to this could be quite pricey. Despite Bowser’s issues, we had a pretty good hunt putting up well over fifty birds resulting in a couple full bags. My buddy took his pup and went back to get the rig, circling ahead to pick up his dad and myself. He pulled off the highway onto the generous shoulder to pick us up. While we were balanced over the barbed wire, a couple hay trucks passed, after the second truck passed my buddy jumped out screaming. Something came off the highway or the truck and took out the back window of the suburban.
After hurrying back to town to get another window ordered on a Friday. Window would arrive Monday afternoon; we thought that pretty quick service for the far reaches of Montana. We bought some duct tape and went to work.
By the time it was done, if you were not close to the rig and looking for it, the replacement fix wasn’t even noticeable.
The next day was the pheasant season opener. We got a late start due to a shotgun malfunction. Of course we usually bring an extra gun, except for the last two years, so we had no replacement. We visited the local gunsmith, but he didn’t have the parts needed. Dave ended up buying a new gun at the local sporting goods shop. We ended up not getting out into the field till almost noon.
We took a couple unproductive walks, putting up only hens. Kevin put up a pheasant with Bowser, with mixed reaction. Although the little guy was terrified of the blast, he did pounce on the bird. Good news, cause a dog has to want the birds if the gun-shy issue is ever going to get fixed. But after the shot he spent most of his time under Kevinq’s feet instead of hunting.
There seemed to lots of groups hunting the ranch, everywhere we turned we ran into more hunters, so we moved to another area. We went to a favorite CRP field that consistently puts out birds for us. Zeus seemed to know where he was at and hunted this field hard.
Bowser was having fun in the field and looked like he was hunting hard. He ended up finding two birds and spooked back to Kevin’s feet when they flushed. I’m sure he was worried about the impending boom. Kevin held off on shooting, because it wasn’t just right. He had decided to make sure that he never fired the gun unless he was absolutely sure his pup would get a bird. Well it didn’t take long for Zeus and me to find a bird also. As Zeus was retrieving the bird, Kevin brought Bowser over to show him how Zeus retrieves a bird.
You may not be able to see the teeth behind the feathers, but be sure they are bared. He was warning the little guy not to touch his bird and had a menacing loud growl.
Looked pretty cool watching the two dogs work the field together after that.
We split the dogs apart again since Bowser was more concerned with staying ahead of Zeus than looking for any birds. So Kevin led him off on his own so that he would work birds again. He soon found a hot scent and I was clicking pictures as fast as I could. It was awesome watching him work that bird. The scent was obviously a hot scent and we was going nuts. The next three photos show him working the bird, with the last a zoom-in of the picture showing the bird flush. Kevin held off on the shot as it wasn’t a good percentage shot and it would have been right over Bowser.
Our moods were much better after Bowser worked up that bird. We knew that if we could help him through his gun-shyness issue, Bowser would be a good bird dog. The little dog knew how to use his nose and obviously wanted to find the birds.
After finishing that hunt, we headed off to another spot along the river.
Didn’t take too long before we had a pair of roosters flush between Dave and myself. Well I shot one bird and Dave…well ahh…he couldn’t find the safety on his new shotgun.
We had been walking for a ways, so Kevin took the dogs down to the river, to get some water and cool off.
Barely a hundred yards after getting the dogs water, Dave bumped a rooster. Again he couldn’t find his safety, and fortunately I made the shot. The bird fell in some deep weeds. The weeds had benefited from spring rains, and last year’s flooding lead to a resultant refresh of nutrients. The ranch had great harvests this year and the weeds grew to unheard of heights this year. These weeds were shoulder height. Fortunately Zeus could run around under the thick stuff and quickly found the downed bird.
While we were hunting the edges for pheasants, the geese were circling like made wanting into the corn fields beside us. We were blessed with a great sunset as we finished out the daylight on our hunt. Dave is off to the side and geese flying overhead. A great end to the day.
The next day we hunted along the side of another corn field. As we were hunting along the river we could see just how low the river was this year. By far the lowest we have seen it since we started hunting this area.
A break taken during a long walk, with no birds yet, a long walk…
Shortly after the break we ran into some birds. Zeus pointed, didn’t have time for a picture, but I did bag the double. Again wouldn’t have had the chance at a double if Dave could ever find the safety on this shotgun. Zeus looked pleased with a double also.
We put up quite a few more birds after that but didn’t add to our bag. We cleaned our birds and were making another pass though the ranch looking at how the cover had grown this year when we saw a rooster flying into some tall weeds of an old feedlot. Of course we bailed out and headed into the cover, didn’t take too long before Zeus rooted it up.
We ended up getting a couple birds out of the old feedlot. Here Zeus found a bird that Dave had shot and had landed in weeds about 7-8 foot tall. Yup Dave finally found the safety on that new gun in time.
The next day Zeus looked pretty ragged. Hunting a few guys all day over one dog had taken its toll. We had been pushing pretty hard, of course Zeus was leading the charge, but all those tough weeds and stickers were winning the battle. He had two swollen feet one front and one back, and most of his leg arm-pits were blazing red and almost raw. We never did find what caused the swollen feet, little weird; the swelling went down with a bit of walking. We went for a short hunt in a CRP, but called it a day after that.
The forecast had predicted rain for that day and we decided to treat it as such. Since our main bird dog needed rest we caught up on laundry and relaxed our muscles in the hot tub. Might have even had a few extra libations that day, while Zeus took care of resting, after I doctored up his irritated skin. Was having trouble getting him to eat, so I took him down the hall to visit is girlfriend (not) Cowboi. He gladly finished all of the little vizsla’s food and was ready to leave. Cowboi hasn’t been very nice to Zeus, so he will not even look at her, even when in the same room. Here’s Zeus after his dinner and as I’m heading down the hall for mine.
The next day Zeus needed more rest, despite some minor protests, we headed to the breaks to harass the local coyotes. We had seen one, which got away without a shot fired. The second, Kevin stepped out and we keep driving, hoping the coyote would stop for a clean shot. We stopped the rig a bit further up the track when Dave noticed something running off the other way. He jumped out with a rifle and headed after it. It was heading for a draw behind us, so I backed up thinking I might get a crack at it also. Well I notice a badger diving into the culvert under the road. I hit park and headed to back looking for a rifle. Well mine was buried, but Kevin’s shotgun was on top and some pheasant loads sitting on top in Dave’s vest. I grabbed a couple rounds and ran (as well as a guy with a fused ankle can run) after the badger shoving shells into the gun. About the time I got the two shells into the magazine, the badger turned and charged me. I threw the gun up trying to find the slide release, found it-ratchet, now where is the dang safety? Fortunately the badger had turned around by that time or I might have more ankle problems. I found the safety and gave chase; fortunately it cut sideways giving me a chance to stop it with the second shot from a borrowed shotgun. When I walked up to it, no movement but I figured that I wasn’t quite ready to grab hold of a bad-assed badger leg just yet. About that time a yell from Dave told me to cut off Zeus heading my way to help in my hunt. I corralled Zeus and walked him back to the truck. Dave was standing there with his rifle so I grabbed that and headed back to the badger. I got about twenty feet from the bugger and could see it breathing, “glad I didn’t gab hold and start admiring that little bugger. Another couple steps and it jumped up facing me looking like it was ready to charge again, only this time it looked very pissed. Fortunately a well-placed little hole ended his plan of revenge.
A bit further down the road we found a great picture opportunity, an elk herd on the prairie.
They even ran alongside the road beside us for a bit, adding some more great pictures.
Fort Peck Lake and the breaks can be rather photogenic.
Tailgate lunch in the breaks, Zeus was closely monitoring the making of sandwiches.
A single yellow tree in the breaks, really stood out more than the picture shows.
The next day Zeus was bouncing and ready even got me up early. After a short walk we were into birds.
After a long walk without birds, we all took a field break.
Right after our break Zeus was birdy, and didn’t take long till we had a couple birds down.
Soon after that our buddies Brian, Scott and Cowboi joined us for hunt.
As part of our push through some cover, Zeus and I went through a very impressive weed patch. I’ve never seen cockle burr plants grow eight foot tall. They were raining down on me as I walked through. Fortunately Zeus has short hair that doesn’t gather burrs. He only had one burr stuck on his collar. I wasn’t so fortunate.
When we pulled into the parking lot of the hotel we saw our buddies off in the corner. They were carefully skinning a bird; a friend of Brian’s wanted a cape of pheasant feathers.
The next day a wet snow was falling and the radar showed it was dry up north. So we headed that direction rather than pushing through thick wet snow covered weeds getting all wet. It may have not been wet, but it was cold that day. Figured since I needed an extra coat, Zeus might like his also. We headed down some tree-lines that have produced before.
Zeus is not on point, I knocked down a bird but it was running. Zeus was hot on the trail.
We ended up a few hundred yards away before Zeus caught up with it. After catching that bird he did look pleased with himself.
