hunting dog journals
 

Every now and then we have discussed hunting journals, some of us keep them, seems most don’t. And content/details varies.

I am a paradox, I have, through the years, diligently kept a journal and made entries for my setters. And I sometimes write a fair amount about the day's events.

This has not been true for the retrievers for some reason, the few notes I had on my first retriever were lost at some point and the one for Macallan gets only occasional entries – maybe it’s the difference between sights seen while traveling distances in the woods with a setter verses sitting in a boat with a retriever waiting for birds to come to me. On the other hand, I end up with, by far, many more photos of duck hunts than upland.

I bring this up because in the past few days I was rereading some George Bird Evans books which are largely based on his journal pages. That along with thinking about some of the training, weight gains and occasional backsliding on house breaking with Tweed encouraged me to get some of my old journals out to see how the earlier dogs compared.

I have to say, this trip down memory lane has been a lot of fun- and educational - for example – I have been concerned about the number of very warm days we have had the past few years, but going back over 25 years of written memory I find this is not new. 60 and 70 degree days lasting into November are not rare.

I started out using those "marbled" covered composition books we used in school back in my day. I filled three of them for the first setter. at one point I found a close out on leather covered blank books, I bought the lot of them and switched to filing them.

I could, from memory, walk you to the spot where Old Hemlock Osthaus’ first point and kill on a woodcock occurred, as well as the location and odd circumstance of his first grouse productive point and kill. I had somehow forgotten those two tremendous events for a 10 month old setter happened on the same day

I am no George Bird Evans - but maybe if there is interest there is a story or two here -

I had to laugh at this entry for one, we tend to remember the dogs as bird finding saints - but they all have their days

Rick, thanks for bringing this up. I've kept a log/journal since my second season following a Gordon Setter (and for about 7 years before that from my experiences sitting in a tree stand, bowhunting). You are so right about what your old notes can do to add to/subtract from your perceptions about things -- from bird numbers, to temperatures, to a pup's development. I'm always surprised, and often chagrinned at how my memory changes the past. I've also been blessed that my hunting partner for all this time has carried a camera and not a gun, so I have both photos and "word pictures" to connect me with the past. I've been spending the last few (bad weather) days scanning old Kodachrome slides to my computer. It's like going back 30 years when things seemed so much simpler than they do now.

I'd be interested in reading more about your journal entries...and anyone else's who might also add theirs to this thread.

I've attached a few of the slide conversations I've made. They include my first two bird dogs...and a much younger me.

i have never had a setter that liked to pose - right down to Tweed the new pup

one good shot and then "I'm bored with this"

That first shot, especially, is priceless.

Unfortunately I haven't kept a journal on Grace other than a picture record and my memories of those days.

Grace's first grouse and her first woodcock...

And my grandson Cam's first woodcock that Grace pointed and almost retrieved. She's gotten pretty discerning about what she'll put in her mouth... she eats goose, horse, cat, and turkey excrement :shock: but she won't pick up a woodcock anymore - but I'm certainly glad she still points them.

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I really like those monochromatic memories. :cheers:





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Thanks, that is Tweed, I shot those this past Wednesday on Tri-X with a Nikon F3

I’ve gotten in the habit of taking photos with my phone during all my hunts and then transferring them to my laptop. The plans are to piece them together into a journal at some point. I have a photo album, with note pages with each photo page that my wife gave me one Christmas. I have film photos of my late German Shorthair with her first duck, our trip to South Dakota, etc. Once I get done organizing my shooting gear and books with the new shelves I got for Christmas last year, I’m going to start putting the computer photos together.

Rick, I think your journals/writing would be quite interesting, and I for one would enjoy them. I kept notes on my hunts from 1983 thru the early '90's, but stopped for some reason. In 1983 , I found a copy of Gun Dog magazine, with an article by GBE in it, and that piqued my interest in keeping a journal. Funny, even though we see each other only 1 afternoon/year, I can tell you have many stories to share..

I have a friend that would think Grace has better taste than those that eat woodcock!