Moose's 2025 Upland Season

[bighorns2bushytails]

Hello,

Thought I posted this previously, apologies if its a double post.

Just wanted to share some pics of my dog Moose as we get ready for our first real/full season hunting.

Moose is a 2.5 year old Yellow Labrador Retriever.

He currently has his HRC Started Title and his NAHRA Hunters Title.

We train or hunt daily.  We hope to get our NAHRA Intermediate and HRC Seasoned Titles this next year.  We may also go after his HRC Upland title.

All training has been done by myself.

This is his first full year hunting.  I did a few very controlled hunts last year, mostly leaving him in the blind and worked on blinds manners and let him do a few controlled retrieves.  Did a pheasant trip or two as well, but think we only put up 2 birds all year.

Grouse is my favorite game bird.  I have always road hunted them but have always dreamed of shooting them over a dog.

We decided to kick of his 2025 season with some Grouse hunting.

All birds were shot on the flush.  No road hunting. 

Thanks for looking!

[bighorns2bushytails]

Had a little free time today so we went and go the oil changed on the diesel and hit a few new grouse spots afterwards.

First 2 spots looked fantastic but no action.  Will probably go back at least 1 more time because they looked that good.

3rd spot finally paid off.

Got this one on the way back to the truck literally AT the truck...  not sure why I walked 1.5 miles down the logging road if he was just going to come to the truck 

That is bird #13 we have flushed/seen and the 4th bird we have taken so far this season.

Cant wait to get out again.

I hope next hunt I can start earlier.  The earliest we have been able to start hunting on any given day has been 8am.  I think we may be missing the best hour or so of hunting at first light.

Thanks for looking!

[full choke]

Congratulations on a good looking hunting partner!
Thanks for sharing pics as your season progresses. 

[bighorns2bushytails]

Got out again today with one of my good friends to see if we couldn't find some grouse and or quail for Moose.

Flushed 2 grouse and got into a covey of quail.

No shots on the grouse.

After the initial quail broke up we put up another small group of 6 to 8 a little later one and then a few doubles here and there over the next hour or so of working that section of the property.

We ended up taking 2 between us over the course of the hunt.  We both shot a lot more then that so had we shot better (always the case) we would have definitely bagged more birds.

In either case dog work was good.  No real issues.  Especially happy with that given it was the first time working in front of two guns.

He seemed to work cover in front of both of us as needed. 

He sat to the flush and or shot.

My partner was pleased with him and had nothing but good things to say about him so that alone means a lot to me and makes the hundreds of hours of training we have in worth it.

I personally have never really hunted quail before.  At least not with any real success of flushing them while actively hunting. I have jumped shot a few before that I knew where there and snuck up on where they were roosting.

Learned a few things today while chasing these quail through the thick hedgerows near the creek bottom we were hunting for grouse.

Quail are fast.  Quail are small. Quail are hard to hit. Quail are fun to hunt and you get a lot of shooting in potentially.

Over all had a great day of dog work, got a few shots off, saw some birds and flushed several birds (the most important thing) and me and my buddy had a great time.

[bighorns2bushytails]

I took yesterday off and rested Moose as well as my feet and my back.

Went out scouting some fields for geese earlier today and on the way home stopped and checked out a new Quail spot.

We put up a lot of birds today.  I lost count of the number of flushes we had.

Ended up shooting 4 on the first property on what I would consider marginal to subpar shooting.  We were only able to recover 3 however. 

Not sure why we couldn't find the 4th bird.  My guess is that it was really thick sage brush and the birds have been in there so much its covered in scent so Moose was struggling to get a line on the downed bird... Otherwise I am guessing we were not hunting the correct area for the fallen bird.  I had taken my eyes off it momentarily before it hit the ground to go for another shot. I guess it could also have possibly been a runner.

Hit another spot that I have seen quail at before when training the dog and we were able to get into a second covey. 

Again lots of flushes.  Put up lots of groups of two to 3 over the course of a good hour or so.  Actually ran out of shells so had to quit hunting LOL.

I didnt shoot much better on this second covey, but I ended up hitting 4 birds over the next few flushes, but we could only find 3.  The cover was so thick. 

Moose did make 2 great retrieves out of that same cover however when I shot a double (my first on quail). So I cant be too mad, and I feel like he worked the cover well when sent in to find the down bird.  I also wasnt sure exactly where the bird had gone down. 

Anyways what a great day with my dog.  I think he did great.

He was birdy when birds where near by and he made 2 or 3 really impressive retrieves out of very thick cover.

[bighorns2bushytails]

Went out to try for some geese in a field opening morning.  Was a complete bust. 

Felt bad for moose having to sit there for hours with no action so on the way home stopped by a few places to see if we couldnt jump a duck for him.

Ended up getting a duck and a straggler quail.

Hoping to get out field hunting soon and get him on some ducks and geese but untill the birds start using my fields I guess its quail and jump shooting ducks.

Cant wait for pheasant season to open this weekend.

[Threewolves]

Nice, great posts. A guy gave me some advice once: I told him I can't see quail to shoot, all I see is a blur. He said shoot six inch's in front of the blur!

[bighorns2bushytails]

Jumped another duck Thursday last week.

Was able to get out today for the pheasant opener with one of my good buddy hunting partners.

We flushed ALOT of birds today, both hens and roosters as well as quail.

Got into some quail initially and then started flushing some pheasants but had no shot on most of them as they flushed way long and they flushed across the creek.  This unfortunately continued to be the theme with the pheasants all morning.

Continued to hunt and got into some Huns and some more quail. My buddy got a Hun out of that covey.  Unfortunately they flew onto private so we could not pursue.

Flushed a rooster a bit later and my buddy knocked it down but we were unable to retrieve it.  The dog had it at one point and time but lost it trying to get under the barbwire fence and then we couldn't find it again.

Ended up getting into a second covey of quail and I got 1 and then I picked up another on the walk back to the truck.

My buddy had to go (dang daughter's birthday) but me and Moose still had some hunt left in us and we REALLY wanted a rooster...

So we hit an adjacent piece of property that doesn't seem that great as far as cover BUT we ended up putting up 11+ birds, 8 of which were roosters.  We flushed one 25' from the truck right after we got out after parking.  Got back to the truck and the dog started acting birdy again at the same spot but figured it was just the scent from the bird earlier.  He ended up putting up 2 more roosters and 2 hens right at the truck.  I wish I had trusted the dog more...

I ended up taking 2 roosters on that walk and missed 3 others that I am still kicking myself over. 

Glad I took the time to check out that part of the property that "didnt look good".

Anyways had a fantastic opening day. We hope to get out again next week and get after some more pheasants and quail.