Well, the opener on Pheasant came and went yesterday without incident nor feathers, in my bag anyway...
All in all a great, although very, wet morning.
The WMA I hunted had a few trucks parked at sunrise, and a few shotgun reports were heard even as we got our gear ready at the back of the Jeep...
In no time, we were in the midst of probably 5 or 6 groups working their dogs in the soggy conditions...Although, spread out over about 400 acres the orange colored hunters were out in force.
I immediately, put up a hen about 20 yards in front of me on a trail towards the big fields...I was on a curve in the trail and having heard dog commands and whistles and bells somewhere ahead, I held off taking the shot and the hen apparently made it across the field unscathed, for the moment anyways...
Plenty of shooting from the dog folks and we witnessed some nice flushes and kills from a distance. On one of the flushes and resulting misses by a fellow about 100 yards away, the rooster flew towards us and into the woods line, treetops 30 yards in front of us...no shot and no bird seen upon entering the woods to try and bag him!
After 5 hours of slogging through beautiful, wet, habitat, we had had enough of being soaked through to the skin and headed in to dry out.
The picture was taken as the sun poked through and we were about to quit...
I did fire the Trojan (to clear the water from the barrels)and it was nice to hear the quick, double, report of my own treasure from the past.
We had thought about the last time she was fired and carried by the long, deceased, Father of my Girlfriend and what kind of game he may have shot with it...
A great day in the Autumn beauty of NH...!
The shooting pose was when I fired the 20 ga into a nearby bush to end the day...
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