Hunting Washington Forum

Other Hunting => Upland Birds => Topic started by: Stilly bay on July 31, 2012, 03:51:04 PM

Title: wagons east
Post by: Stilly bay on July 31, 2012, 03:51:04 PM: just wondering how many folks are heading east to the prairies for sage grouse, sharptail grouse and huns in Sept?

I am going to eastern MT in early sept, I have never hunted there before and plan on doing a lot of cruising around and scouting.
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: wildweeds on July 31, 2012, 05:26:51 PM: Got 4 dogs going for a month,going to head over and hunt a week at the end of it.
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: Wingin it on August 01, 2012, 10:46:12 AM: Lots and lots of folks will be there! It will be worse than the pheasant release sites on opening day here! Save your money and save yourself some real frustration and stay home. Just kidding! I wish I was going this year but I have to sit it out due to a new job and not enough time off. Have fun and post some pics when you get back.
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: Stilly bay on August 01, 2012, 12:12:39 PM: Quote from: Wingin it on August 01, 2012, 10:46:12 AM
Lots and lots of folks will be there! It will be worse than the pheasant release sites on opening day here! Save your money and save yourself some real frustration and stay home.

heard it gets down right crowded overthere, I saw picture of three cars parked at one Block management unit parking lot - at the same time! :yike:
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: AWS on August 04, 2012, 09:16:20 AM: We're headed over the weekend after the pheasant openner, we leave openning weekend for the locals and they are very nice to us. Neither of us like the Sept. heat, hard on us and the dogs. We'll be there 2 weeks and there are always plenty of sharptails and huns left when we get there.

We like to hunt some coyotes and the pelts are looking pretty good the last half of Oct.
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: Stilly bay on August 04, 2012, 11:11:46 AM: Quote from: AWS on August 04, 2012, 09:16:20 AM
Neither of us like the Sept. heat, hard on us and the dogs.
.

I am kind of worried about the heat. but I figure if I hunt in the cool of the early mornings I can drive around, scout, or fish for the rest of the day and set up a new camp in the evenings for the morning hunt. I don't really know where I am going so I figure I should cover as much ground as possible.
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: AWS on August 04, 2012, 02:38:44 PM: I could never get my partner to hunt like that. We rotate the dogs throught the day, by week two both my knees are wraped and I'm living on Aleve, my dogs feet are wraped to the knees to keep the CRP from wearing through his hide. My partner gives me a break and drops me off at camp and gets one more hunt in while I make dinner. My dog sleeps for a week when we get back.

We have some great times though.
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: Stilly bay on August 04, 2012, 02:57:12 PM: thanks for reminding me.. I need to go to costco and get big old bucket of aleve before I go. If I had few more big running dogs and a clear direction on where I was going I probably would wait till mid october and hunt hard enough to run myself and the dogs into the ground. as is it will be just me and my busted up old setter so were going to take it pretty easy. he can snooze in the truck while I catch brown trout... or a buzz on brown liquor. :tup:
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: Wingin it on August 06, 2012, 04:02:50 PM: It is a great experience to hunt the prairies for sure. It is surprisingly hard on dogs so best to be prepared with dog boots, etc. I always take them along and every year by the end our dogs are having to wear them. (We are usually there for 2 weeks).
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: fethrduster on August 06, 2012, 07:08:58 PM: I have friends who go there every year and rave about it. They say it spoils you though. I've never hunted there myself. I've heard sharpies are bad table fare though, so that kind of kills it for me, even though I'm sure it's a blast. I suppose you could always bake them with chutney on a wooden plank with onions and apples, then throw the birds away and eat the plank. :chuckle:
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: Stilly bay on August 06, 2012, 07:19:39 PM: Quote from: fethrduster on August 06, 2012, 07:08:58 PM
. They say it spoils you though.

after fly fishing in MT I had a hard time getting excited about fishing western washington again. I love those german browns!

Quote from: fethrduster on August 06, 2012, 07:08:58 PM
I've heard sharpies are bad table fare though, so that kind of kills it for me, even though I'm sure it's a blast.
that bad Eh? I figured out how to make snowgoose palatable, a sharptail should be easy :puke:
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: jetjockey on August 12, 2012, 07:05:52 AM: Not a big fan of eating sharptail or chickens, so I've never really targeted them too much, but they are fun to train dogs on, and at the end of the day it's all about the dog work to me. With that said, I'm hoping to be in the Sandhills of Nebraska to watch the American Brittany Club Chicken championship that starts Sept 17th near Bassett NE. It's a true All Age wild bird trial and they don't release any birds. A dog has to point a chicken to win, even if it finds 100 sharptail. It's one of the toughest trials to place a dog in since the birds are wild, the dogs have to run big, and the heat and wind can be brutal. Many dogs go bridless in the hour braces and the winners usually only have 1 or 2 finds. I think pheasants are more fun the shoot, but chickens and sharptail in the prairies are a lot more fun to hunt.
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: ribka on August 12, 2012, 10:01:11 AM: I'll be heading over in Oct when it cools down a bit for Huns and sharpies. probably hitnthe Missouri River too for a few days of fly fishing
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: Stilly bay on August 12, 2012, 11:25:54 AM: Quote from: jetjockey on August 12, 2012, 07:05:52 AM
A dog has to point a chicken to win, even if it finds 100 sharptail. It's one of the toughest trials to place a dog in since the birds are wild, the dogs have to run big, and the heat and wind can be brutal. Many dogs go bridless in the hour braces and the winners usually only have 1 or 2 finds. I think pheasants are more fun the shoot, but chickens and sharptail in the prairies are a lot more fun to hunt.

god that sounds like fun. it would be cool just to tag along and see some hardcore dogs in action.
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: singleshot12 on September 19, 2012, 08:48:11 PM: Hey Stilly :hello:, is the wagon back west yet? If so a detailed story and pics please
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: Stilly bay on September 20, 2012, 09:20:39 PM: the wagon has been back a couple days now, I didn't get to stay as long as I planned, but it was a good time. I really dropped the ball for taking pictures... I was a little preoccupied most of the time...
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the drive there was uneventful, I got a late start so I ended up stopping in St Regis for the night.
I camped along the Clark Fork and found some Blue grouse right away... too bad I had a fly rod instead of a gun with me..
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in the morning these guys came stomping through camp... but I had not purchased a turkey tag yet!
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I left camp and drove through Missoula all the way to XXXX without incidence. I found a decent place to camp and studied my maps while asparagus and a big Ribeye sizzled on my BBQ
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in the morning I loaded up and checked out my nearest Block Management Unit. the locals tried hassling me some, but I managed to push through.
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I got the ecollar and Astro around my dog's neck and let him go while I got my gear on. didn't even have shells in the gun before the Astro vibrated. I looked up and he was on point already! it was a group of 15 or so huns. they all flushed past the cattle that were hanging about, so I didn't even try to shoot.
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we walked up a likely looking coulee, up above on the edge of a harvested field I spotted a "look out" sharptail that was sitting on a rock fence. soon the dog went on point and we were into the birds again. the first group flushed and I missed with both barrels, I was almost awe struck until a voice in my head said " reload the flush in waves" I quicly reloaded while my dog was still on point and the next group flushed from practically under my feet. I dropped one and let another group flush with out a shot. I had my first sharp tail and thats all that mattered at the moment.
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luckily I brought along a wagon wheel for photo opportunities :chuckle:
we pressed on and flushed another ( maybe the same) group of Huns, and got into some single shaptails. I managed to put another in the bag even though my setter wanted to clean it on the spot ( the hard mouthed SOB)
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next time I intend to shave my dog nearly bald and coat him in crisco before we go, the stick tights were horrible beyond belief. he would build up big mats of them without even trying.
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it started to get pretty warm, and we headed back only coming across one more covey of very skittish Huns. we made it back to the truck and hydrated. then I set my dog up on the back of the truck so I could go about cleaning the burrs off him. and that is when the chit hit the fan.

I pulled some burrs off his front leg and noticed some blood on my hands. I took a look and gasped! the skin from front of his leg all the back around his elbow had been horribly lacerated! when it happened I do not know, he never even yelped. since he survived getting hit by a car a few years ago I have always kept a close eye on him for limping, and this time he never did. Gordons are tough critters.

although it was very bad, I could see it was just his skin that was cut, every thing else - tendons flesh ect looked alright. its times like this I am glad I have an extensive first aid kit. I fired up my battery powered shaver and cut away all the matted dirty hair around the wound, cleaned it with benadine and stapled what I could and then bandaged it. I knew better than to staple the whole thing since elbows can be tricky spots even for qualified vets.

knowing full well that this long planned hunting trip was over I rushed to nearest vet so my dog could get stitched up properly.
the rest of the day was a bit of blur as I waited at the vet clinic for them to attend to my dog. all I really remember was that they had some really nice office cats
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soon enough it was time to rescue the dog, he was like a limp noodle for the rest of the night because of all the anesthesia. all the nearest hotels and motels were out of rooms so I took him back to an RV park and got him set up comfortably in back of the truck on my air mattress and sleeping bag while I shivered the whole night through with a shiny emergency blanket (next time I am bringing more blankets with me)

morning broke and he was back to his normal self, I on the other hand was pretty bummed out that my trip was over (Dr. orders no hunting for two weeks) and that my dog was injured. I made the most of things and relaxed in camp for the morning trying to figure out a plan B.

as luck would have it there was another bird hunter in the RV park and his son was heading home for seattle that afternoon, he wanted to spend more time hunting in MT but didn't want to do it all by himself ( I don't blame him, its a big place) so he asked me to join him... and like an idiot I said "no thank you". then a few hours later he asked me again, and I came to my senses and agreed. luckily he had more than enough dog power in a couple of very nice Drahts and a GSP.

so the next couple days we checked out some spots and got some hunts in and even managed to bag a few more birds. I really owe the guy, he salvaged my trip.

Bones and Greta the Drahts couldn't escape the burrs with all their bristly hair
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Jazz the GSP is one impressive girl... I must admit I was kinda smitten with her
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jazz with a sharpy

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one more sniff before going in the bag

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lots of imature birds made for great eating.
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fun lovin' Draht
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wide open spaces
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Jazz doing her thing
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more wide open spaces
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Dog boots?
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cone of shame
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I found I really enjoy young sharptail meat, probably better than any other bird save ruffed grouse. for an easy camp fix I would part out the birds and let them sit in a ziplock baggy full of italian dressing overnight before throwing them on the bbq. cook them med rare and add some salt to taste and it would pass for sirloin.
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on the way home we hit the little black foot, the clark fork, and the XXXX for some decent fishing. it was pretty hot and the water was low but I found a few fish to cooperate.
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things didn't work out as planned, but it was a good primer. hopefully I can pull a few strings and go back as soon as my dog's stitches are out at the end of the month.
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: fair-chase on September 20, 2012, 09:34:59 PM: Love the pics and story. Hope your dog heals quickly and you can make another go of it. The cone of shame pic says it all. :chuckle: I'm sure he's as anxious to get back out there as you are. Thanks for sharing such a great story and pics. Best of luck with the rest of the season. :tup:
Title: Re: wagons east
Post by: singleshot12 on September 21, 2012, 07:51:17 PM: Great story and pics, sounds like it turned out to be a worthwhile adventure, to bad Guff got injured , same thing happened to one of my Labs he cut his leg bad on a broken beer bottle and he never seemed to notice but I sure noticed when I saw the blood trail.