Last Pheasant Hunt

[3006]

Taking the dog out for his last pheasant hunt of the season on Sunday Morning. We should have a good time. Not sure how many birds the guy is going to have for us though. The rest of the spring and summer will be spent training and conditioning for the fall. Can't wait till we can get out agian on Sept 1st for some Doves, Geese and Pheasants all in the same day.

[Lance]

Doves, geese and pheasant all in one day??
Now that's what I call a season opener!

[Flyin40]

Me and my buddy will be following you up if your going to Lone Oak. Don't miss any of them cause if you do I'll be taking them home in the afternoon, LOL. He was getting low on birds so I had to reserve birds several weeks ago to make sure he had some left for me to hunt. Sure you know but this was my first spring hunting pheasants and they run and run and run, did i mention they run. Actually feels like your hunting birds instead of planted birds the cocks anyways, hens seem to be the same. By the way I was just up there for a morning hunt last Wednesday and the ticks are bad. I found around 6 on me, and maybe 8 on the dogs. I'm takin some spray or something.

Good Luck
I was the guy who responded to your post awhile ago about hunting at Lone Oak.

John

[3006]

Yea, headed to Lone Oak. Like the place a lot. Plus, in September, hens are only $10 a piece. Great to get the dog on. I hope we get some good runners this weekend. The dog needs some practice running them down. For a lab, he does a real good job at it. Every once in awhile, he will catch one before it decides to fly. Last time he went out, he actually caught one in the air as it was taking off. Wish I had a vidoe camera to tape that one as it was real impresive. This time of year can be tough for the guys running pointers though.

Mayber see you out there as you are coming in to hunt in the afternoon. I think we will be hunting the D field. I really like to get down into the creek area, picked up a lot of extra birds in there.

[george tinkham]

boy i can remember back in the 60s phesants ,grouse and quail everywhere in the athens area...i still see some grouse and every once in a while a covey of quail but i have seen only one pheasant in 30-35 yrs...what happened???

[3006]

Had a pretty good hunt on Sunday. We had 6 hen put out, had about 10 flushes and shot 4 hens and 3 roosters. Those things did not want to fly either. The dog would catch scent and it would be another 30 yards or so before the bird would flush. Got to see one hen try to outsmart the dog in one of the sorgum fields. The thing was running all over the place, would circle back, cross its path, etch. The dog finally caught up and pounced on the bird to flush it. Had a rooster jump the creek to try to get away. That stumped the dog a little as he tried to figure out why the sent stopped at the waters edge. He was smart enough to cross and pick the scent back up on the other side though.

All in all, I was very impressed with the progress the dog made during the season. He really didn't know what to make of the first few birds we flushed in November. He did make great retrieves, but he really didn't find the birds, he stumbled upon them and they just happend to flush and get shot. Now he knows what to look for and can track the birds down. It is rather comical when he gets on scent. Head down to the ground, tail going back and forth in a blur, the nose working like a vacume picking up every ounce of scent it can, his excitement when he flushes and his proud trot back to his master with his prize in tow. Of course, that all depends if the master can hit the target.

None of this would have been possible if it were not for the pheasant preserves around here. Was able to get the dog on a lot of birds, in a way that made it easy for him to understand what he was out there to do. I can thank Bill at Lone Oak for helping make those early hunts a training/learning experience for both me and the dog. It is nice when the owner is willing to do whatever he can to make sure you get the most out of the hunt.

Now it will be back bumbers until the seasons open in September...

[Flyin40]

We had a great day also, had 9 hens put out and ended up with 10 hens and 2 roosters. The hens didn't want to fly at all. I thought you were walkin up to the lodge so I figured I would run into you but when we got on A you were driving back. Jake did great, had another 6 flushes, which most we missed, some didn't have a shot. After one season I'm convinced I got very lucky stumbly on Jake in the dispatch. Great purchase. When he scents a birds on the ground he "CHARGES" ahead if its a cross wind or head wind to air scent the bird, he hardly ever tracks unless the winds behind us. If he loses the air scent he will go about 10-15 yrd and scent the ground again, if he finds more scent he runs another 10-15 yds trying to find the bird. When he loses scent he'll swing back around to the last scent and the track alittle until he scent them from the wind. I took my house pet, which is an american cocker spaniel that I have worked with alot, he had 3 or 4 flushes, did great, hes just under a yr. Hes starting to pattern back forth, I'm really impressed with him. He tracks on the ground alot which makes him slow to get after these running birds. I was out last week with just the lab and the birds were running and circling around us like crazy so I decided to use both dogs which worked because it confused the birds some when they had 2 dogs running around.

By the way our 2 groups were the only ones to get what they put out. One grp that hunted in the am had 17 birds and only got 4 and another had 6 or 8 and didnt shoot ANY!!

I'm tryin to find some pigeons to work on sit to flush so if you know anyone let me know. Probably have to buy a trap.

We'll have to get together in September when those hens are $10 each.

John

[3006]

Saw those guys head out in the morning. I think there were about 5 of them in all. Not all of them were hunting though. Would have like to have gone in there in the afternoon to clean up. Not sure if the dog could have taken much more though. He was pretty tired from runnin all morning.

[Flyin40]

I'm headed to Elkhorn preserve in the A.M. I called looking to buy some birds for training and found out they still have quail and chuckar hunts. $7.50 for quail with a minimum of 10. Chuckars are $10 a piece. Its not pheasants but I'm sure the dogs won't mind. Its up in Bucyrus, should take me just about an hr or little more. Going to be interesting with the chuckars since they have never smelled them, but already done work with quail.

Flyin40

[george tinkham]

any buddy ever read "the road to tinkhamtown"

[Lance]

George,
Can't say that I have!


Flyin40
The only thing you may find is that the dogs may not want to retrieve the chuckers. Some dogs don't like the taste, not as bad as woodcock though.

[george tinkham]

it is one of the best short stories ever written by corey ford of "the lower forty"i think field &stream mag. but the artical was in harpers,look,readers digest bout all major mags. bird hunters will love it

[Flyin40]

Had a great hunt today. Shot all 10 quail and 5 chuckars. Quail are fun but I hate that they fly so low. I had to pass alot of shots because of the dogs. I bought three more chuckars for some sit to flush work. I flushed another 6 pheasant hens but the guy said not to shoot any hens so can lay eggs. Seen two roosters and was aloud to shoot them but didn't get a shot and I sure was trying. They have sporting clays, skeet and trap. I think I'll be making some trips this summer to do some shooting. This guy hatches around 400,000 birds a yr, which is his main business, a hatchery. Elkhorn Lake preserve is anyones interested. Real nice guy. I'm headed back up next week with a buddy to do some more.


Flyin40