WaterfowlForum.Net

Awesome read thanks!

Thank you very much, Deltaman..
Moe and I do have a good time chasing those prairie grouse, it's not so much fun for my black lab Trigger.. lots of time in the truck for her, but she gets all the waterfowl and Moe has to stay home in the pen... So it kind of, sort of, works out in the end...

Ducaholic wrote:Awesome read thanks!

Thank you very much, Ducaholic...

September 24th our 5th and final day...
Started off the morning 57° and mostly cloudy, just about perfect for me.. Not 250 yd from the truck Moe goes on point.. I'm thinking all right we'll get one out of the way real quick.. Walked past Moe in fairly Short Grass and was thinking it must be running.. I was thinking bird the whole time and didn't realize Moe had pointed right by a badger mound, he breaks and grabs this badger and start slinging it around.. I was surprised he's never been what I call a fur dog.. I start hollering at him to turn it loose and it was quite the fiasco.. Long story short he finally turned loose and we got the heck out of there.. Moved on a couple hundred yards and I bump one and kill it.. Thought long and hard about going back to the truck calling it quits and head for the house, we could have been home by 9:00 p.m.
But decided to move on, Moe worked the rest of this field really well and the wind was nearly perfect.. but we came up empty and kept on going.. We were getting close (150yds?) to another tank when a bunch of birds started getting up most I'd seen maybe 40? I'm thinking all right we'll get a straggler, but none to be found, we get some water and push on.. The closest one I saw go down was in what I think ideal grass for Moe, and we head that direction.. A little more than a quarter or so Moe gets wind of it and locks it down pretty good and I kill it.. There were some of that big bunch that I think go to the next fence line? We started hunting in that direction.. Moe's winding birds from time to time but they are running on us and we don't seem to gain any ground on them.. At the fence line five get up wild on us, it is actually a corner.. We hunt around where those got up looking for a straggler but no luck..I'm pretty sure there was more than five so I crossed the fence and head into a little bit heavier cover thinking they might be there. We get about 75 yards from the fence corner and four get up the opposite direction we went and fly towards the truck.. I'm tired, Moe's tired, so we head in that direction if we find one okay if we don't okay, we're on our way home.. We're on the lower side of a big long hump, and of course they fly over the hump so I don't get to see these birds down.. probably a quarter from the fence corner over the hump, two get up wild on us, I was actually surprised we found them again.. Probably another hundred yards past where those two got up, Moe goes on point.. We were going with the wind so tough scenting conditions and the wind had picked up... This must have been a young bird because he held well and was close, easy shot.. It was a great way to end (for sure Moe and I) the best trip ever..
I made myself wear that stupid GoPro on my head, and it paid off in spades.. I have 13 of the 15 birds on video..

I stashed the first bird by the truck, so it didn't end up in this picture..

Great finish 5stand, and thanks for taking us on the trip with you! Are the birds usually that flighty or have they been receiving hunting pressure?

I've only hunted them for 9 days, 4 last and 5 this year.. So that's a very small sample, but yes they love to fly off from me, I'll say that...

Season started the Saturday before I got there on Tuesday.. So they had been hunted a week my last day.. All the stragglers (dumb ones) I call them, are dead..

I drive around and scout after I get done hunting, and let me just say, I see a lot of trucks...

Thanks again for the compliment...

The 15 wings we put in the wing box...

Sweet finish 5 Stand, Congrats

Thank you, Deltaman
The more time that passes after this trip the sweeter it becomes..

I’m trying to catch up on everybody else’s logs. It’s kind of hard ha ha anyways I enjoyed reading yours! Probably dodged a big bullet with that badger. They can be pretty feisty. Are you in your home state or did you travel somewhere?

Yes sir, I'm sure we did dodge a bullet with that badger. Moe ran right over the top of that rattlesnake, with me hollering at him and it didn't bite him. Was a lucky hunt however you want to look at it.
I live in a little town called Alma, Arkansas it's about 14 miles from Fort Smith, Arkansas. So I did travel.
Thank you very much for your kind comments.

When Moe goes this, it will get your heart rate up...

We killed a few more doves last Sunday morning... Trigger needed a little more Trigger Time, Moe had been hogging it all...

Glad trigger got a few feathers!

5 stand wrote:When Moe goes this, it will get your heart rate up...

GH021269_#12 Slomo_Slomo_Moment(3).jpg

Well my proofreading sucks also...
That should say. When Moe does this, it will get your heart rate up...

5 stand wrote:When Moe does this, it will get your heart rate up...

Nothing quite like the "Polish mine detector" feeling of walking in to flush for an honest pointing dog. Gunning over a flushing dog can't hold a candle to it - but is still infinitely better than doing without.

When I did my upland thing I occasionally took ppl.
They'd laugh at the first point from my lab but really quick they accepted that he'd point briefly before flushing birds.

Yes sir, I know exactly what you're talking about, have seen it time and time again.
Triggers mother, Teal would actually point and hold the point, when she could see the bird... Triggers brother Gus points from time to time...

Rick wrote:

5 stand wrote:When Moe does this, it will get your heart rate up...

Nothing quite like the "Polish mine detector" feeling of walking in to flush for an honest pointing dog. Gunning over a flushing dog can't hold a candle to it - but is still infinitely better than doing without.

LOL... I couldn't agree more...
"but it's still infinitely better than doing without" At this stage in my life if I can't hunt with a dog, I'm not going...

Fun to watch pointing dog purists freak out over the notion that retrievers, beagles and whatevers might "point," but from what I've seen, there's no shortage of other-than-"pointing" dogs that could readily be taught to hold instinctive points - just as many "pointing breed" pups must. My first Chessie's half-brother was inherently staunch until flush for the several years I knew him, and that first one and two of my other five Chessies could have easily been brought on as pointing dogs had I not actively broken them of it.

As a youngster, the late, great "coyote" all but needed a kick in the butt to get over pointing and start flushing:




And my even my only beagle, Chaz, flash pointed before flushing: with a 12:00 tail on birds and spinning propeller tail on rabbits. Could have easily broke him to hold those flash points, but it would likely have been even more of a PIA with a rabbit dog than retrievers used for rails.

Still, be the above as it may, they still wouldn't have been as cool on point as a good setter:

Thanks for the stories and pictures Rick..
Even the flushing dog purists will tell you that your flushing dog isn't pointing...

A good friend of mine owns the dog Gus that I refer to above... Gus's first year hunting pheasants in South Dakota he pointed three or four birds, and his owner said you're not going to believe this Gus is pointing...I just laughed and told him I believed it because his mother did it... I never discouraged it because I thought it was handy... As you already know no purist here...

One of Moe's videos...
https://youtu.be/bUF0shXW3N0

5 stand wrote:One of Moe's videos...
https://youtu.be/bUF0shXW3N0

To embed youtube video here: click on it's tab at the end of the tool bar above the reply box and paste the part of its address after the "=". as shown if you quote this post.

Thanks, Rick...

Great video 5 Stand!!!!

Great work from Moe! Thanks for sharing.

Moe and I appreciate the comments...

We Dove hunted this evening.... Ended up with 12, better than I expected actually... 80° when we started but seemed cool compared to all the other afternoon hunts...