Decent day
 

I'm basically dog less, first time in years ,old Ben at 11 has given me too many fine days to count, and young Moses promised a season to remember but I lost him suddenly this past spring ...there's a new pup in the kennel, but a bit young to put up much of a threat .
Ben lasted a couple hours this morning, but his wind and scenting ability have crashed,so my buddies Brittany's held the day ,I shot a brace with a clients 24 inch ghe 20 ,my buddy scratched a single,we put up 6 or 7 if I were to geuss .

Was your friend's GHE a factory 24" barrel? What chokes and shell information? I have no experience in using the 2 1/2" factory loads and wonder how well they work on any wild birds.

It is a factory 24 inch,not sure on chokes,factory round knob and checkerd butt,factory 2.5 shells work as good as anything else

Beautiful!

That looks like some very tough land to hunt. Is it rocky under foot?

Very nice pics!

Yeah it is,the pictures don't really capture it ...what looks like even ground is 6 to 12 inches of moss,covering rocks and rotten dead fall,the actual dead fall is something you have to swing a leg over ...and over to get through or find a way walk around ,and everything is damp to over your boots wet ...it used to be easier,but never easy - most people here avoid it like the plauge,but the grouse like it so I keep going!

Great pics Chris! I like the shed. I didn't know you had those in your area. Well seeing this makes me want to get out for quail this weekend. Just opened here Friday, but just too hot! Saturday is looking like a small chance of rain and upper 70s. I'll post pics for you if successful!

Chris, AZ

That’s some birdy looking cover! Thanks for sharing your hunt.

Dogless just isn't the same anymore is it Chris...?

This is my first season without Gracie and it kinda sucks...

I carry her bell with me and her whistle on the braided leather lanyard you made for me many years ago. She was a puppy when you first sent the lanyard but through my carelessness she chewed it up and you sent me a replacement. I always used it whenever Gracie was outdoors with me and though it has a 'sweat and grime' (patina) polish to it it's still whole.
I blew the whistle a few times on the first of our '24 VT grouse season just to reminisce and possibly summon her spirit... but then my vision got a little cloudy and I've gotta see those grouse when they flush...

Thanks Chris :bowdown::cheers:





.

Dean, I see my former hunting companions in so many of “their” covers as well. Gives clear meaning to the word: bittersweet.

Years ago the NY state DEQ cut a deal with a "boutique logging" firm to alternate thinning and clearcutting plots in one of our favorite grouse covers, a flatland bisected by a meandering stream. Unfortunately the contract let included removal of the more valuable hardwoods but not for the removal of the slash and understory waste of the softwoods.

The result was a flatter version of exactly what Chris' photos show - a knee-deep-plus tangle of fallen trunks, stobs, branch spikes, and the remains of a couple of hundred-year old stone walls, all covered with mosses and lichens. I narrowly averted a disaster when my English setter leaped over a downed trunk, slipped on the slime, and caught a bayonet-like stob between his neck and his collar, which could have easily pierced his neck or chest as he fell. After that and a couple of cracked shin bones and soaked crotches, we quit hunting it.