Another Season Ends
 

After missing 12 days to dog injuries and bad weather, we headed south about 2.5 hours for our last days of the season. The drive was worth it. The ice-crusted snow that we had at home was bad news for dog feet, not to mention the challenge it presented for a couple of aging humans.

With the dogs' injuries protected by either tape or boots, we spent the last 3 days of the season in great cover on farms that, if given half a chance, would revert to the prairie that once covered them. And we found birds. Alder, who had balked at wearing boots in the past, accepted them with enthusiasm, and she was hard going for the three days we hunted. At 8 years she is still going too fast and too far, but finds birds and gives her all. At the end of each day she was burned completely out, but happy to come inside after she had her dinner. Aspen's leg injury is finally healing, but he needed a tape job to protect the still tender skin. Although it was frustrating when we had to pause and reapply his wrap, he was excellent, and continued to show promise.

I used my 30" DHE 20 for the first two days, but switched to the little 28" CHE 20 on the last day. Both guns served me well when I did not become overanxious and rush my shots. I note from my shooting journal that towards the end of every season my reflexes are perhaps a bit too quick for a good gun mount. I think it's a sign of the excitement and anticipation I have for the flush. I always want to shoot better, but I never want to lose that excitement of anticipation.

We hunted some new ground and some old, familiar spots. We always enjoy learning new cover, especially when it shows something of its history in the remnants of old homesteads and fencerows.

The weather turned sour for the last two days of our season -- snow blown by 45 mph winds, so we will have to be satisfied with our memories of three great weather days in good cover with two good bird dogs and the blessing of two Parker shotguns. We still have the Iowa season to finish, but it's sad to see another Missouri season end. Certainly it was a year to remember for many things.

Key to photos:
1. All of the coveys we found still had very good numbers of birds. Although there are only two birds evident in the photo, this picture is from a large covey flush over a moving point my Aspen. I only shoot at one bird on flushes in the thick serecea lespedeza of this farm. It's easy to lose a downed bird in this cover.
2. One of the new covers we hunted had fencerows of some of the largest Osage Orange trees I have ever seen in Missouri. Their distinctive bark and thorny cover make them easy to recognize. Having dulled a chain saw on them, and been impaled on their thorns, I have great respect for the Osage. There are lots of Osage fence posts in Missouri, and they last longer than any of the treated posts commercially produced.
3. Alder pointed a single on the other side of a woven wire fence. It took me some time to find a place to climb over, with Elaine holding my gun while I balanced on the fence. The bird and Alder held through all of this. The shot I had was almost from my knees under the branches of the trees, and I almost always miss these "trick shots." I lucked out this time. Elaine passed Alder over the fence to me and then found a spot she could climb over. We searched and searched for the downed bird, and just when I'd decided to leave, Elaine noticed the bird quiver in the grass. Elaine retrieved the bird, but said she'd pass on my scratching her behind the ears, a reward the dogs seem to enjoy. Go figure.
4. The last bird of the season. Always a somber moment when you realize you will have to weather another year to have the privilege of chasing wild Bobs again. I always plan for next year, but never take it for granted.
5. We had our end of day break before the long drive home at this old homestead. The late winter sun always colors everything with its warmth, and we took our time to enjoy the setting, thinking about who lived here and what their lives were like. I'll bet they enjoyed hearing the summer call of bobwhites in their fields.
6. Alder always makes a production of her points. If you look closely you can see the orange duck tape that is holding her boots on. She seemed to like the boots, quite a change from our past efforts to boot her. The single here provided no shot. There were lots of points without shots in these old fence rows.
7. Shooting in a stand of sumac requires concentration, and I usually don't do well trying to shoot around the stems. You can see the bird if you follow down the gun barrel. The near-cylinder choke of the CHE did its job on this bird.
8. Aspen, with his leg taped, never missed a beat, and Elaine and I both noted how much progress he made this year. He has such a nice disposition, and is a pleasure to hunt over. I hope that within the next two years, he has a new bracemate to run with. I always think its a sign of optimism when an aging hunter thinks about getting a puppy.

Garry,
Thanks so much for sharing all your hunting adventures on here. I really enjoy it all.

Thanks for that great story Garry. What a way to finish a season. That’s beautiful country you have there.

Enjoyed experiencing another hunting season with you via pen and camera! Excellent as always.

Thanks, Ed, Garth, and Reggie. The gun used on the last day Elaine and I refer to as "Reggie's gun." I shoot it as well as any gun I own.

Garth, do you get out for pheasants in IL...or Bobs in the southern part of your state?

Ed, I hope the last storm that came through us here missed you and Marueen. How's the gun search going?

Garry - Those wonderful pictures brought me back to my youth in eastern Massachusetts when we had that exact kind of cover with lots of ringnecks... now it's all grown up in shopping malls and plantations of town-houses. Thank you very much for the memories!





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garry,
thanks to your advice/encouragement I own a 28 gauge side by side that weighs 5.7 ounces. A friend of mine and I are taking both of my new guns to a pheasant farm tomorrow. I never want to lose that "anticipitation" either, I went over today and said good bye to a bunch of 8 week old brittanies that my breeder has. My breeder friend's whole attitude changes when he gets around "his pups". He is 74 years young when he is around those puppies. You always convey the things that mean so much to me in your stories and e mails. You could write in any outdoor magazine especially with a photographer like Elaine to record all your hunting experiences:) Keep up the good stories and pictures in here.

Dean, I don't go back to my home state of Virginia (where I grew up hunting on the coastal peninsula near Williamsburg) because all my old haunts are now town houses or theme parts -- much like what you describe. But, you still have your grouse camp and your Grace to share it with. May our coverts and birds last through our lifetimes.

Ed, Elaine sends her thanks for your kind comments about her pictures. I'm blessed to have her as my hunting companion and have been for over 40 years.

BTW, don't we all hope we have the same enthusiasm as your friend Hap when we are around puppies...no matter our age.

(PS Let me know the details of your new 28.)

Indeed Garry, and beyond too for my grandkids and hopefully for theirs as well.





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Garry, urban sprawl in my area in northeastern Illinois has wiped out most local hunting opportunities. There is some bird hunting allowed on a few pieces of public land but it’s very restrictive so I generally head up to Wisconsin, more hunter-friendly.

Oh my! Those are some nice osage orange. A friend here would love to have some pcs of that to make his long bows with.

Richard, there are, at least used to be back when I was shooting a recurve, several bowyers in Missouri that used Osage for their stick bows. Osage fence posts cost more than treated wooden posts here, and they last longer. I like seeing their twisted forms in fence lines. They have so much more character. You can burn your wood stove up using it, and it is very hard on chainsaw chains.

I asked Elaine to take this photo when we were hunting in Iowa earlier this season. The pile of bulldozed trees and shrubs was a fence row that had held birds the year before. It was an old Osage fence row that had been "harvested" for fence posts many times (the trees sprout back well from cutting) over the course of years. I guess the farmer wanted a tax break this year. Thus the bulldozer. One year we had a covey that would not leave a bulldozed fence line. It was sad to see them running about in the debris.

Ah, thus is progress.

Lordy, what a waste!!

From a hunter's perspective, not necessarily from a farmer's perspective. It may be exactly the opposite if your "drive" is crop production, not pheasant production.

We need to remember that a farmer's means of making a living is the acres of land that produce. We like to go on his land and hunt his birds, leave him a couple as a gesture of good will, and come back later. His goal is likely not getting a couple of birds for the table, but producing a crop that he can sell for a profit. Remember, the taxes must be paid on those acres, even if they generate no income at all.

SRH

I hate to ponder the future of farmland in this country. With trillion dollar deficits and “stimulus” checks the new norm, my speculation is a great wealth divide that ends with the government and Bezos & Company owning most everything.

-Victor

I was referring to the wasted osage orange wood in that pile! That stuff is almost worth it's weight in gold.

My apology for misunderstanding your meaning, Richard.

It's hard, too! I was given some dried osage orange many years ago. It would ring almost like steel when hit with a hammer. I have a custom drop point skinner that was scaled with it. Not really that pretty to look at, but tough!

Garry,

There is still time for you to do a KS hunt! Your pictures remind me of some of the areas I hunt in KS. Osage orange (or horse apple trees) are everywhere and getting through them to get to another field can be time consuming. I brought a pickup bed full of split Osage orange and it burns very nice. I'll head out next week for a day before the season ends.

Thanks for all the pics!

Ken

Hey, Ken,

Good luck with your end of season Kansas hunt. In a different year, I would definitely head west, but will have to make day trips to snow-covered Iowa do.

How's the new pup doing? I hope you'll post a few pictures of your dogs and hunts from this season.

Take care.

From Tranquility Revisited (1940) by Sheldon, I just read this opening paragraph. Even then the “sprawl” was being felt.



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