The Opener

[Russ Jackson]

Well yesterday was the Pa. Opener for Woodcock and Grouse ,I took the Old Man Hunting and we had a Great Day Out ! He Pointed ,Held and Retrieved one Woodcock and made His way about for a little more than an hour ! After our hunt ,it was off to Burger King for his favorite meal , Whopper ,Fries and a Coke ," He Loves the Fries and Coke " ! I carried the 410 and so far I am Hitting 100 Percent , Hope it keeps up ! No Chalk on the Ground and this is the only Bird we made in our short hunt , hopefully we will get some Flight Birds in soon ! Good Hunting to You All ! Russ

[Rick Losey]

looks like a nice day out.

I am not seeing many woodcock up here to your north either, just read a post on the DU site that the nice weather is holding ducks and geese in place.

http://www.ducks.org/hunting/migration/migration-flyway-reporters/migration-alert-mild-conditions-delay-new-york-waterfowl?poe=huntHomeFeatured

i expect its the same for woodcock.

i have seen- well, actually with the foliage still so thick - heard - grouse in about the same numbers as early last year. I did have one walk out from a point this week, around a tree and up to about 10 feet from me, and then he flushed, and then I missed :rolleyes:

[Russ Jackson]

I was figuring maybe the weather has been good in the Great Lakes region also ,I really haven't been paying attention but hopefully they will start migrating soon !

[charlie cleveland]

good shooting with the 410...looks like the dog was proud of your shooting skills..i hope the percentages stay good..those little birds can reallybe hard to hit for me..once when i was a boy i ran across a covey of these birds about 12 in the covey.i killed about 4 of them with the help of a german short hair named susie..have never seen anymore of those birds in a covey..have ya ll seen them in a covey before.. charlie

[Mills Morrison]

Is that the upgrade? Whoever did the work sure did a convincing job.

[wayne goerres]

Talk about spoiling your dog. No wonder he looks so happy.

[Dave Suponski]

Nice work Russ. What a great Brit. He sure looks proud of himself....:)

[Russ Jackson]

Mills ,Yes this is the DelGrego ,Runge Upgrade which originally belonged to Otis Odum , " I hope I spelled the name correctly " ,it is a good shooting gun and seems to fit me well ,I carry it regularly for Woodcock ! If you are interested ,I have an album of it on my Home Page ,feel free to take a look ! Russ

[Mills Morrison]

Just saw the album. Very cool.

[Larry Frey]

I was figuring maybe the weather has been good in the Great Lakes region also ,I really haven't been paying attention but hopefully they will start migrating soon !

Hi Russ,
Looks like you’re off to a good start. Last week we hunted three days in New Brunswick and the Woodcock migration had not begun there yet either due to mild temperatures to the north. We did pretty well on Grouse and resident Woodcock and my 18 month old Britt Shea had a time she will never forget. We hunted three days and put up a lot of birds and if our shooting was better we would have done even better. Here is a picture of Shea with her first ever Woodcock and a picture of the first mornings hunt for our party of six Parker guys.

[Russ Jackson]

Larry ,That is a beautiful Pup , looks like a great day afield and pretty good shooting to me ! If you guys would have gotten one more Grouse ,You would be dead even in Grouse Numbers as my entire last season ,and I only missed one Bird ! I moved a total of four Grouse the entire second Grouse season last year which runs from just after Christmas till the end of January ! I suppose the Woodcock will eventually show up here but Old Chip isn't going to be able to put in any long days this year ,I'm sorry to say ,we will probably use my Buddies Short Hair " Sam " for the biggest part of our hunting this season , he's a fine Dog but there is nothing like having your own Dog in the Field !

[Dean Romig]

So far this season in Vermont I have seen just 1 woodcock. It was one of the biggest I've ever seen and was probably a local female. Never got a shot because it stayed directly between a hunting partner and myself before darting around an apple tree and out of sight. Even with the "Woodcock Moon" on the 18th we still have not had any 'flight birds' yet. I sure hope they don't come through in the middle of the week and keep on going... I've seen that happen all too often.

My hunting partner, John, took this hefty brown phase bird yesterday at about 1:30 pm as we were heading back to the car. This was one of eleven flushed in about two hours. He shot it with his 'new' Ithaca 16 bore that I talked him into buying while we were at KTP a few months ago.... his wife still won't talk to me. Beautiful little, all original - right down to the Jostam pad - SXS. What a sweet handling gun of about 6 lbs.


.

[Russ Jackson]

Dean ,That appears to be a large Grouse also , The Woodcock I posted ,was quite large with a very long beak and I suspected the same as you , probably a local Female with no reason to have left yet ,she just wasn't aware Chip and I were heading her way !

[Dean Romig]

It is a big bird for certain... John is 6'1" and weighs 235 just as a size comparison.

[Gary Laudermilch]

Am moving lots of woodcock in my neck of the woods - resident birds. I have been moving unusually high numbers since the beginning of Sept training runs. I try not to shoot resident birds so I am also awaiting the flight birds. Not moving many grouse though. As expected, since I saw very few throughout the summer and last year was the worst for me in 50 years.