Hunting buddy drove over from the wet side for some bird hunting late last night. We spent the night at our guest house in Quincy.
Started off with some early morning duck hunting near Desert Aire. The duck action was super slow. It was warm out and clear skies. I had my 1.5 year old springer with us in the blind. He was a bit of a pansy at first. He is use to the fast paced upland action. I shot a lil bufflehead to avoid the skunkage. I had the dog tied up so i let him off the leash and re-threw the duck for him. After some hesitation, he jumped in again and again to retrieve the bird. I have never practiced water retrieves for him but the dirty dirt dog Durson did just fine.
By 8:00 we were bored. The dog was cold. We were ready to go chase some elusive pheasant around.
p our massive 10 decoy spread and loaded up to head to the potholes area.
Started hunting some thick brush between farmer's fields and along a creek. There were some goose hunters set up in a field near us. There were also 2 young kids on 4-wheelers. As we drove by, we waved. Got to the spot, and here come the kids on the atvs. They stop by and say how they are chasing a wounded goose. Right as they tell us this, one says "MY GOOSE!". Sure enough, the goose was jumpin around the bushes. "Put one in his head" I tell him. After some struggle to walk through a creek, the kid unloads a shot. "Oh my gosh, its still moving" he says "Just let it die" I respond. BANG - he shoots it again. "I shot his head off" he replies "Oh my gosh I shot its head off and its still alive" BANG. Another round.
By this time me and my buddy are cracking up. Here is the pathetic part: He walks up to the bird and says this: "Well its head is gone and ewww I shot its guts out. I don't want that bird." He walks back up for another look and says "Its not even banded, I'm leaving it" Runs over to his 4-wheeler and takes off back to their field spread.
I walked over and looked at the bird. Shot up - yes, but I peeled back the breast skin and the breast was hardly touched. "we just got a goose" I said. Cleaned up a bit, and threw it in the truck. What a sad sight.
The weather was great and the dog was hyped up. He was working the brush great and staying within range.
Ended up seeing 2 roosters but they were well out of range. The wind was blowing HARD by then and the dust storms looked like Armageddon.
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ImageShack.usAt this time, we took a much needed lunch break at the Mardon gas station. Their chicken strips are great.
Went back to a very secluded chunk of public land. The weather was downright nasty by now. It was a giant sand-blaster out there.
We were hunting around a series of ponds/canals. The cover was excellent. There were ducks flying up left and right but nothing within range.
About an hour in, we found ourselves between 3 ponds. About then Durson flushed up a big ol' rooster. I think that it caught us both off guard. I was about .5 seconds too late but my first shot connected. I was shooting 3in. #2 black cloud shells out of my 12 guage browning cynergy. My follow up shot missed.
When the pheasant was hit, his legs were left dangling but he was still flying. I saw him land about 100 yards away.
After working our way to the area, we started searching. I told my friend that "we are never going to find this bird in this cover". What I didn't know was that my springer pup was already searching. I called him but didn't see him. My friend said "well looky here". He bent over and picked up the rooster. Turns out, the bird had flown into the bank of the lake and my dog had found it. He didn't really do a good job of being gentle with it, but the bird was recovered.
We flushed 5 or 6 other roosters in the process of searching for this guy but they were not within range.
It was a hard earned bird for sure, but it sure beats hunting the poorly managed release sites around here!
I remembered reading a thread about counting the stripes on their longest tail feather to determine the age. I knew that 28 was a mature bird. This guy had 33 stripes on his tail. Not the biggest body ever, but I think that its a good number!
GLORY SHOT:
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