One year I ran into a major woodcock flight in a cover I hunt. Too good to keep to myself so the next day I invited a friend to go, him shooting and me working the dogs. This cover requires a substantial walk to get to it so I told my buddy to take plenty of shells. Well, half way through the cover with only 1 bird in the bag he advised he was down to his last two shells, which he emptied without success.

The next day I invited another friend as this was way too good to be true. Again, I admonished him to take plenty of ammo. Again, halfway through the cover he was out of shells with no birds in the bag.

Both of these guys are reasonable shots on the clays course. However, woodcock in heavy cover are a horse of a different color.

So, send them south boys. I have friends that are waiting.

The ones we send south will be showing signs of heavy battering, limping along on shredded wing feathers. Have at em - they should be easy to kill by the time they get to you fellas.






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That is a VERY good day !

Dean, all of us New England boys wish for a day like you had. Good for you!!!!!! I will be polite and not ask you if you skinned your birds. But I will say that the woodcock is one of the easiest birds to pick. The skin doesn't rip easily and the white meat on the legs is the best part of the bird, in my opinion. I'm glad you had a great day.

Actually Tom, though you may call me a heretic, I filet the breasts off and sautee them in butter at a high heat - 1 minute on one side and about 45 seconds on the other side and take them out of the pan immediately. They’re like rare venison tenderloin and go great with a sip of bourbon or scotch. Have you tried them this way?





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[QUOTE=Dean Romig;256379]you run out of shells and have to walk back to the truck through good grouse and woodcock cover, holding the dog at heel...

Dean, great day!! Please send some of those wounded birds over here to New Hampshire:) What gun are you using?

I'll refrain from calling you a heathen Dean, because you're a great guy. I've never tried them that way. I roast them in the oven with nothing on them but a bit of salt and pepper. Some put bacon strips across their backs, but I never do that. I don't want to introduce any "unnatural" flavors to my game. You are missing a treat with those little legs Dean. White meat and wonderful, although there is not much meat there. But those little legs are fat and you get a mouthful of great eating. If you have 100 or so woodcock they could make a meal in themselves.

[QUOTE=Stephen Hodges;256434]I was using my 28 gauge VHE with 26” barrels and skeet chokes. The several times I failed to connect were my fault entirely.





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Tom, you really should try it one time - you owe it to yourself. Just unadulterated woodcock breasts sauteed in butter. But don’t overcook them!





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A few pictures from our wonderful woodcock happening yesterday.

Incidentally, we went back to the "scrubapple sidehill" again today in the hope of a repeat performance. We were very lucky that either they were still there or that more had dropped in overnight. In any case, we had 12 flushes - most pointed by Grace - but today I couldn't get a break. Every flush I had was behind the screen of a gnarly scrubapple tangle. Jamie connected on two of them... lucky guy...

That's the new camp built in 2000 and finished in 2001 & 2 but we never skipped a beat - still hunted from the new camp even while it was under construction. The long low section closer to the viewer is the camp - the rest of it, the tower and the three story stone structure is Tom & Diane's home. This place was his brainstorm and he built it, stone by stone and beam by beam, almost entirely by himself. Jamie and I stayed in a camping trailer for two weeks while we helped tobuild the camp section.
I've told Tom that he has actually built a monument to himself but he disagrees - says he just likes working with his hands.





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