Dreaming...
 

A friend from Michigan came to Wisconsin with his two setters to do a little grouse and woodcock hunting with us. It appears the dogs had a pretty good time!

Now that's a great picture. You know the dogs had a good day to crash like that. How were the two legged companions that day???
Cheers,
Jack

The human companions were equally spent and the avian companions suffered a rough day, too.

Greg, I don't know which picture best represents what Dave and I feel like after a full day's hunt in the Vermont hills. We'd like to think we look as pretty as those slumbering setters but in reality we're nearly as dead and stinky as those two woodcock.

Great pictures!! Thanks!!

Dean are you trying to tell us Dave doesn't let you strech out in the back of the SUV after you have chased birds for him all day? Perhaps you need a better master:rotf:

Is that an offer? I'm staunch to flush and shot and I'll even fetch to hand any woodcock (retch) you're lucky enough to connect on. If you'll only let me stretch out in the back of your SUV I'll be faithful and ignore all your faults.

You could reside in the kennel if it wern't for your incurable habit of chaseing deer:corn: I suppose a few rounds with the E-collar wouldn't hurt....come on over and will give ya a run.

Rich,Try as I might I just can't seam to get Dean to stop chasing deer...but on the upside the older he get's his chases don't last as long....:biglaugh:

That's the upside Dave. When I get my buck early in the season I simply clean and case my Ruger and take out a favorite Parker and leisurely stroll the covers for pa'tridge. Whether I get any pa'tridge or not is inconsequential.... at least I'm doin' it again.

Oh, and another benefit is rising at a gentlemanly hour (well after sunrise) while hunting companions fought the frigid darkness (and probably forgot to brush the snow from the seat in the privy) blindly trying to find their deer stands in the puckerbrush. :bigbye:

Dean just as an FYI incase we ever share a deer camp, rising after sunrise is NOT a gentlemanly thing it's just plain lazy...hungover or not...it's like being late to church.

As for the chaseing of deer if you must persist in this deplorable habit perhaps you can be traind to chase only bucks as this would be usefull.

Dave does he chew your slippers too? :whistle:

Rich, Sock's....I lose a couple pair everytime.....:biglaugh:

Mr. Anderson; perhaps you had neglected to put on your spectacles before reading my post..... after I have my buck (we don't shoot does in Vermont) dressed and hanging, and only then, will I arise well after sunrise. Until I kill my buck I am the first to rise, eat, dress and holler one last time to my slumbering companions "Get up and get out!!" and usually the only one who sees deer slipping off like apiritions to their bedding areas.

"Church"? My "Church" during the months of the Harvest Moon and the Hunter's Moon is where God or the Great Spirit dwells - outdoors in the cathedral of tall trees, vivid stained glass foliage, crystalline mountain brooks and the purity of new snow in marshmallow puffs on everything.

And I've graduated from chewing slippers.... those are for pups. ;)

You got that right Mr. Romig.....There are no pup's in That Camp...

I look at Greg's Setter photo and think of the animal rights people who believe gun dogs are forced into service (yes, we have them here in Oregon) and I laugh out loud. I can just envision the enthusiasm those two must have displayed when initially released from the truck. My dog loves hunting more than food and she looooooves herself some Purina let me tell ya.

Once firearm deer season opens all else closes as far as game is concerned:crying: Its deer and deer only from 11/15-11/30 other than preserve birds. On the other hand I have NO problem in letting the air out of the females of the species. Once she's in the freezer then into the cast iron skillet there all the same:whistle:

Real dogs chew boots anyway's:rotf:

Haven't heard of that before but I'll join in with a hearty chuckle. Dogs are predators and the hunt is a natural expression of a deep instinct. I have proven that with four dogs from two off-beat breeds (off-beat in the sense that no one would think of them as gun dogs). The first two were a pair of Shetland sheep dogs (shelties) and the last two were miniature American Eskimos (eskies). There was no intensive training involved. Each one took to pheasant hunting like they had been doing it all their life. The latest is KYRA. She is a 6 year old surrendered little princess house dog. The best she saw of the great outdoors was at the end of the leash on a neighborhood stroll. I took her out for the last days of the 2009 season. Her first trip into the habitat saw her flushing birds within the first ten minutes and she wouldn't stop sniffing them out for the next couple hours. The only thing I did to force this pampered pup to become a gun dog was to let her out of the car in bird country. On our exercise hikes she catches and kills gophers and mice, yet in a previous life, I understand she ate pizza and other human fodder.
Here she is, all 14 pounds of her. The second pic is her predecessor FOXY on one of many days afield over a decade of great hunting.

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1...MG_5008sgw.jpghttp://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1...al_foxy001.jpg