In Home Covers -- Chasing Mr. Bob
After temperatures in the mid-70s, and spending some days watching young bucks chase does from a tree stand, we finally got a little cool-down and were able to get in a couple of hunts in covers close to home. It was still a bit too warm, and the cover still green -- poor scenting conditions -- but it was nice to get out and check on "our" coveys. I'm happy to report we found good numbers of birds in the coveys we located. Aspen made some nice finds, and Alder was spot-on finding birds. My first day shooting was abysmal, and I can't recall having firm footing for any shots I took in the heavy cover that day. The little DHE 20 helped me redeem myself yesterday. We took a bird from each covey we found, and were happy to rest at the truck tailgate in sunshine...in home cover. Taking trips to bird hunt is great, but nothing beats being close to home and finding birds.
Photos:
1. This was the only shot in open cover that I had in two days of pounding the brush. We got up some scattered birds after the covey flushed wild. You can see two birds, one to the left that we got, and another on the right side that made a quick getaway.
2. The first wild Bob of the year in our home covers. I have some other guns that I need to blood, but it's hard not to carry the little DHE 20 when quail are the target.
3. One of the many nice things about hunting the same covers over the years is that you get to know them on a more intimate level. This Linn County farm has an old roadbed that runs through it. We often let the dogs cool off in the creek -- almost dry this year -- near the remains of an old bridge. I can't imagine what kind of bridge there must have been with such small supports, but back country Missouri is rough, poor country, as these remains suggest.
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“Every day I wonder how many things I am dead wrong about.”
― Jim Harrison
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
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