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01-28-2019, 12:09 AM | #3 | |||||||
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I'm glad to read that you have been able to get out...and find birds. It sure makes the future look good when a pup shows promise. It's easier to live through the off season when you are looking forward to the next phase of your pup's development. Got any pictures of Buzzy?
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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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01-28-2019, 06:35 AM | #4 | ||||||
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Picture #4 really brings me back to my early days in eastern Massachusetts when there seemed to be pheasants everywhere. In fact, our flocks often doubled or tripled the size of that one. They were about gone by the mid-seventies.
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"I'm a Setter man. Not because I think they're better than the other breeds, but because I'm a romantic - stuck on tradition - and to me, a Setter just "belongs" in the grouse picture." George King, "That's Ruff", 2010 - a timeless classic. |
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The Following User Says Thank You to Dean Romig For Your Post: |
01-28-2019, 10:38 AM | #5 | ||||||
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Dean,
How often do you find yourself lamenting changes for the worse in matters relating to hunting opportunities? I read similar lamentations in sporting books from past generations of sporting authors. It makes one wonder what the next generations will find...or even if they will care. BTW, Southern Iowa is not a pheasant destination, but we did ride by a field with about three dozen pheasants and an equal number of turkeys gleaning beans. Back in the late 80s, we’d see 75-100 pheasants on open ground feeding in conditions like we have had recently.
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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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01-28-2019, 11:00 AM | #6 | ||||||
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I know about hunts like that Garry. Trigg and I hunted a preserve north of Anchorage in 2006 when it was -13F and thick ice fog. His GSP was able to scent birds and point from 50yds out! He was a superdog though. He got some pointing practice in on the bird box(dog kennel) before we put the birds out. We stayed warm enough and didn't have to walk far but that was the coldest hunt I've ever done, but not so cold that you had to really dress up. Fun though! Only birds I've ever taken with my 30" damascus DH12.
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The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Richard Flanders For Your Post: |
01-28-2019, 11:15 AM | #7 | ||||||
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In the fall of 76 I was introduced to quail hunting in East Central Indiana by a friend whose father had several pointers. We would load of his fathers dogs in the back of my Camero, throw vests and guns in the trunk and head off, getting home just in time to clean guns and clean the few birds we were able to scratch out, then clean out my car before I picked up my girlfriend. Everyone reminisces about the winter of 77-78 but the winter of 76-77 was pretty brutal as well. I still remember driving on country roads "punching through" drifts that winter trying to get to coverts.
I was a senior in high school the following year. Record snowfall and unheard of low temps kept me out of the fields from mid-January through the end of February. When we finally did get out the only coveys we found had frozen together under the snow and ice. Two brutal winters brought the end of quail hunting in Indiana - there weren't huntable numbers after then and, to my knowledge, there really aren't huntable numbers today. Not saying it was just because of the weather (farming practices and predators have changed the ecosystem forever) but back to back hard winters spelled the beginning of the end. ...AND THE WEATHER TAKETH AWAY is right. |
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The Following User Says Thank You to Jay Gardner For Your Post: |
01-28-2019, 01:05 PM | #8 | |||||||
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I really enjoyed your pictures -- thanks!! I've not bird hunted in temps that low, but did climb the bluffs of NE Iowa after grouse in 0 degree temperatures, and also hunted grouse on a Christmas Day in SE Minnesota when it was minus 10 by the truck thermometer. That Christmas Day the bells filled with ice and froze solid, the beepers' batteries "froze" and would not work...but we still moved some grouse in the pine plantations. My 28 sounded like a pop gun when I fired it. Again, the dogs loved it, but we went through lots of Mushers Secret and my hands got very, very cold putting it on them. Looking back, I'm not sure why we hunted except that we were there and had driven 6 hours to hunt. But, I am absolutely not sorry I hunted that day, and have never been sorry I spent a day in the field with my dogs, my wife, and my guns. Highs of minus 10 are predicted for the next two days, so we'll stay in and reminisce...and pack the truck to head earlier than planned to Oklahoma to finish out their season. Thanks again for responding and posting your photos!
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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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The Following User Says Thank You to Garry L Gordon For Your Post: |
01-28-2019, 01:21 PM | #9 | |||||||
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I was in SE Ohio in grad school during the years you mention, and I do recall two particularly bad storms, probably the ones you mentioned. We had a fiercely cold and snowy late winter here in Northern Missouri in 1983. I, like you, found frozen quail, and it was after a stretch of bad weather like that at the end of the 1980s that took our pheasants from us. They never recovered and are not particularly common today when in the mid-80s we used to flush 40-50 birds from CRP fields in late winter. I'm sure you are correct in your surmise that those storms were the beginning of the end of your huntable quail populations. When the habitat is marginal and then they get hammered by bad weather, there's little they can do.
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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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The Following User Says Thank You to Garry L Gordon For Your Post: |
01-28-2019, 02:52 PM | #10 | ||||||
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Garry,
It looks like a challenging time for the end of the year. The weather in Kansas has made the traveling around the back roads interesting. Areas we want hunt you can't get to. I walked a half mile just to get to a field to find few birds. However, the moisture is really needed although maybe not this early. Ken |
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The Following User Says Thank You to Ken Hill For Your Post: |
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