Christmas Hill Pheasent “Driven Shoot”
 

I did the Christmas Hill “Driven Pheasent Shoot” today . Sorry to say my picture taking was kinda lacking . There were 12 pegs and 24 shooters . A friend that was shooting with me got 17 birds using his K-32 Sporting Clays gun . I used my VH 16 gauge 28” M&F and was able to get 19 with 37 shots some I just plain missed , some I got with the second barrel , some with the first barrel and there were several I hit twice . I’d never done this before but was a little hesitant about the load to use . Initially I was going to take 16 gauge Express loads with 1 1/8 ounces of shot . Ended up carrying two boxes of Remington 1 ounce rabbit/squirrel #6 loads , a box of Remington quail/dove #7 1/2’s and a box of Remington Express 1 1/8 #6’s . Put a box of ounce 7 1/2’s in my left pocket for the right barrel and a box of 1 ounce 6’s in my right pocket for the left barrel . And had no problems that weren’t my own fault ! Brought home three dozen birds as many weren’t claimed . Just finished filleting all the breasts from the breast cartridge :eek:

Christmas Hill
 

I used to be a member at Christmas Hill, years ago. I would take my pointing dogs the days after a pheasant shoot and have a good time finding birds that got missed. They kept changing the rules on how often we could hunt and how many we could shoot so I dropped out. Patricia Kluege was a member then and I remember her shooting in the rain with a matched pair of 28ga. Holland &Holland guns that too nice for the weather.

I shot Christmas Hill the first time about thirty five years ago . I don’t think they had tower/driven shoots then but more of a club atmosphere . I was not a member but my grouse hunting partner was and we’d go their to work the dogs often . John Ambrose ran the place then . I went up their with a friend two years ago after a driven shoot doing the walk up thing . Killed nine that day out of eleven fired at . Used my little Parker VHE 20 gauge 28” M&F .

I’m going to meet a friend at another place Sunday to work his GSP on pen raised flight conditions quail . Gonna carry my Parker VH 28 gauge 26” F&F . I’d had thoughts about training a dog blah blah blah , but I’ve come to the conclusion once or twice a year of the tower/driven Pheasent stuff and one or two times a year doing the pen raised quail stuff and that’s about enough for me and even though the tower shoots are a bit pricey it’s a darn sight cheaper and less work than keeping a bird dog .

Take that Boykin with you tomorrow you will be surprised at what you get out of her. My puppy her sister hit the ground on her first last weekend. You could be amazed it just comes naturally.

It might be cheaper Craig but unless you are a dog guy (labs in particular) there is nothing that can describe the bond that you have with your dogs all year long. Dog ownership is not for every one but for those who own them they will know that they are worth every minute/penny spent on them. The old saying is "lock your dog and your wife/girlfriend in the closet then go to work. See who is happy to see you when you come home to let them out"

I’ve not tried to train a bird dog in about twenty years . Used to enjoy it but other obligations make it a bit impossible at the moment .

I’ve done virtually nothing with her . And of course that’s no ones fault but my own . Might take her we’ll see .

Hmmm, better be good doors, the wife will chew her way out!!!!:rotf:

My kind of girl.:)

I'd lock them in different closets. By the time I got home from work the wife would probably have him trained to attack as soon as the door was opened.

Did the quail thing today with my friend and his GSP . I didn’t drag my Boykin along . Didn’t shoot much either six shots four birds . Parker 28 was fine but the shooter was not as perfect as he thinks he should be LOL’s :rolleyes:

Looks like my 28 gets another chance next Saturday at Rasawek Hunting Preserve .

As of today it looks pretty good that I’ll have a spot for the March 14th shoot at Christmas Hill ! Then I’ll try and hit Central Virginia Sporting Clays on the 19th and that’ll be it until I return from the Philippines and head straight to the Southern provided I don’t get held up anywhere :rolleyes:

Tower shoots are a real hoot. I did one at 10deg in Michigan some years back. 12 stations, 200+ birds. A few flew a circle around all 12 stations and never got hit and just landed outside the ring and ran off to be hunted up in the walk up afterwards. Hilarious to watch. You really got to see how most shooters shoot behind when they miss, as they'd shoot the tail clean off a rooster that would keep on going. And I love it when folks don't want their birds. I took home 35 birds from a hunt once, and that was after tossing some into trucks on their way out of field. I think I'm going to dig into my freezer today to see if I have any pheasants or ducks in there. Haven't had one of either in a while.

Iam invited to bring Daisy out as a picker upper for one of the clubs near me. I see the same shooting capers Richard describes. Occasionally of the nimrods will ask me why he's not hitting the birds. I tell him it's a matter of pronunciation. I get a quizzical look, then I tell him it's a matter of more lead "leed", not more lead "led".

John,

You are so right , it doesn't matter how big the package is if you send it the wrong address!

Jack Kuzepski

These weren’t from a tower but rather from the ground on a higher point . While I couldn’t actually see the throwers it was no issue to see the birds rising up thru the tree branches . Kinda irked me how many of them smacked into limbs and then came out to low to be shot at and or landed in plain sight ! They released 500 birds at this shoot . Never did here what the total take was , generally from a couple of the retriever guys I know they say 250-300 is about average . I do know two years ago I went with someone for a walk up three days after a release at this same place and even with others working the area the two days before us in 2 1/2 hours we put up about three dozen birds . And we didn’t really cover the whole place . That day I musta seen 8-10 roosters running across open clean cut fields that the dogs never got to .