It’s a Good Day When.......
 

you run out of shells and have to walk back to the truck through good grouse and woodcock cover, holding the dog at heel...





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A flight must have dropped in in the last night or two. We were deep in woodcock today on the “Scrubapple Sidehill” cover. We generally onle take 10 shells with us on a three-hour grouse hunt but today in less than an hour and twenty minutes in an area of about 10-12 acres Grace pointed 17 woodcock.




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Day of dreams! That's great!

Woodcock hunt
 

Hunter and "Right Arm Companion" in sync > Congrats Dean that's why we keep going.

That is a great day.

And...what's the woodcock limit? Seems 10 shells should be more than enough! :whistle:

Under the consistant conditions on a skeet field 10 should be MORE than enough, but.....


I had a chance at a true double on woodcock (it would have been only my second on woodcock since ‘61 or ‘62) when three flushed simultaneously... but I got flustered and blew two new holes in a fine autumn sky...#@*%@!!





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That's fantastic! From what I have heard flight woodcock have not hit mid Michigan yet

Went to M aine thursday and found more than the week before, with the cold and north wind they may come in a bunch this year. Last year was a constant trickle. My companion got a lot of use out of them .i was on for once and did not need many shells but he got to shoot a lot.It is all about the hunt, the day, the dog and the company.

You betcha Daniel!!!!





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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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I'll give it a try Dean. I'll just split the bird in half along the backbone and sauté the halves, legs and skin attached.

Have it your way Tom, but it's just not the same... you'll overcook it that way. :cheers:





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Really enjoyed the photos...especially the "dog tired" one!

Sometimes I cannot believe the bond between hunter and dog. It's an incredible thing to behold (even from your lap). You are a lucky man.

I have never skinned a bird in my life since I started hunting at 13 years old. Good old gramps told me a person who skins a bird doesn't deserve to eat it. But just for you Dean, I am going to pop the breasts from some woodcock and do it your way. I wouldn't do it for anyone else Dean. Gramps will be rolling in his grave and I'll probably be shaking too hard to pop the breasts, but I'll do it.

And just for you Tom, I’ll pluck one of mine and roast it your way. Please give me your cooking instructions so I can enjoy it the same way you do.





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Garry - we really do have a special bond. She is devoted to me... and I to her. She’s a PITA sometimes but we overlook her transgressions.





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As she does yours.:)

Dean, when you said camp, that is not what I was expecting to see:shock: Guess you better not come to my camp, no running water, woodstove heat, gas lights ! Beautiful place

Eric - we have a Vermont Castings "Resolute" wood stove, an outhouse just off the picture to the left, and the running water is disconnected the first time Tom sees frost on the field in the morning. It doesn't have many creature comforts but it's very comfortable when we come in from beating ourselves up chasing birds. Oh, and we do have electricity in the new camp. ;)

Remembering the old camp that we hunted from for forty-some years, the new camp is like the Taj Mahal... and it does look a lot nicer too.





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The Vermont Castings stoves are the prettiest ever built. Back in the day I used to visit the original factory in Randolph, Vermont. I became friendly with Duncan Symm who designed all the stoves, of which the Resolute was one. It was the smallest in the line. He showed me the mahogany templates he carved to make the original molds. They were beautiful. He designed the stoves using early American furniture as a guide. All the stoves were named after trans Atlantic sailing ships.

Yup, The Defiant, the Vigilant, the Resolute and the smallest today, to the best of my knowledge, the Intrepid. I have a Vigilant in my home as a secondary heating source (it used to be my primary source) and a Resolute in my place on the lake in Maine, and of course the Resolute in the camp in Vermont. I bought the Vigilant at the foundry in Randolph in '79. It has been a wonderful heater - in fact, it's keeping the Fall afternoon chill off as I type this.

Tom, what's your recipe/cooking instructions for roasting a woodcock?





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I never cook the woodcock by themselves. I put two or three grouse in the oven first and after a while add the woodcock. I put a pad of butter on the birds backs and lightly salt and pepper. Sometimes I'll put a little paprika on because it looks nice on the cooked birds. I slice an onion and cook it with the birds. Woodcock take about 20 minutes to a half hour at 300 degrees, depending on the stove. I make a gravy from the drippings using Gravy Master to darken it a bit. The little fat strips under the skin of the woodcock is very tasty. The skin and legs are the best part, in my opinion.

I am an absolute fanatic about my game. I age all my game including birds in a refrigerator I have set up for the purpose. I like my grouse aged for five days and woodcock the same in the refrigerator kept at 38 degrees. I place waxed paper over them to keep the uppermost layers from drying out. It is important that they are not wrapped and air circulates around them during aging. Aging makes the birds more tender and I believe, adds a nice mellow taste. Sometimes I just put the drawn birds in the refrigerator with the feathers on. It works well and you don't need the waxed paper but they are harder to pluck and therefore you have an increased danger of ripping the skin. If I have too many birds to pluck after hunting, I just do some every day.

So let me know how you like the fileted breast medallions when you get around to doing it. Remember, 1 minute (max) on the first side and no more than 45 seconds on the flip side in very hot butter - then take them out of the pan! If they cook to "medium" they'll be overdone...





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I'll remember Dean. I'm going to cook up some over the weekend and give you a report next week. I leave tomorrow for Pawling to do some hunting. Three hours from Mayland. I close on the Maryland house on 11/1 and then I'll live in Pawling permanently. Many of my coverts are 10 minutes from the house. I'll be able to roll out ouf bed and into my coverts like I used to do. It's going to feel like heaven being back permanently in my Pawling home.

I only wish I could go back in time to the hunting haunts of my youth.

Someday I will, but I won't be able to share my experiences with anyone else...





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For anyone who wishes it, I have a French recipe for eating the WHOLE woodcock, including the entrails. UURRPP

John,
The camp we have gone to the last 10 years has mostly European (French) hunters who travel to New Brunswick every year to hunt the Woodcock. I was told of their method of preparing and eating these birds and honestly didn't believe it until I googled it. Like Dean I breast all my birds and could not imagine eating the innards especially after the long trip back to France.:eek:

I've watched a video of a French chef preparing the bird, removing the "trail" (entrails) and dicing them up with salt and some spices and sauteeing them in clarified butter, them stuffing them back in the bird and roasting it for another ten or fifteen minutes. The trail was then removed and spread on little cracker thingies and eaten..... yuch :eek: (I mean there's dead worms and stuff in there - :whistle:.......... and then the rest of the bird was consumed with great relish.:bigbye:





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I don't care how great the relish is -and I like relish !!! I aint eating bird shit and worms !!!:rotf:

Ah Chris, you have a way with words. I'm still laughing. I completely agree with your assessment of eating woodcock guts.