Pearl's first rooster

[CCefalu]

In late October, my best bird sniffer (Pearl) and I found ourselves in the beautiful state of Wyoming. We made the trip along with my brother to our annual deer and antelope hunting grounds except this year we didn't draw big game tags, instead we were going to chase wild Chukar and Huns. Pearl is a 5 year old experienced waterfowl and upland dog. Pearl has been exposed to ducks, geese, doves, valley quail, and chukar in our home state of Nevada. The first few days went very well with multiple flushes each day of both chukar and Huns. My brother and I chose to use 20ga guns, his was a red label O/U and I was using a light weight semi auto of Italian decent (yes I know a dredged auto). However, I did slip a Parker VHE 12ga with 30" tubes choked IM/Full into the truck before departing from Nevada just in case. On day three we got very lucky and were granted full access to a beautiful ranch with extensive river bottom that was lined by farm fields and held a healthy population of wild roosters. Pearl had never seen or smelled a pheasant in her 5 years and I had never taken game with my new VHE. A few minutes into the pheasant hunt I could tell Peral was birdy and with every step I was anticipating a rooster flush. This went on for what seemed like forever and I could almost feel the frustration coming from Pearl, that wildly ditch chicken was moving ahead of us and alluding the black monster that was hunting it down. Pearl picked up her pace which lead me to darn near trot when all of a sudden pearl dove into a thicket and disappeared. I planted my feet square knowing that this was our moment and a second later that rooster exploded from the brush, flattened out and was headed out of Dodge in a hurry. I leveled the old VHE on that widely rooster and let that Parker sing. The rest is history, Pearl made a great mark, and the retrieve was flawless. So Pearl got her fist ever rooster and I got my first rooster with a Parker ( I've taken many pheasants with a verity of scatter guns just not a Parker). We went on to pick up a few more over the next 3 days but that first one with Pearl will always be special.

[mobirdhunter]

Special indeed!

[Chris Pope]

Nice job Pearl! Great story. Makes me crazy that I missed our annual So Dakota trip this past year.

...and now you will never be able to leave Pearl behind so you can selfishly hunt deer or antelope! That dog is forever ruined! And you will (and should) feel terribly guilty hunting big game next year when there are roosters destined to be hunted down by that fine black lab!! You only have so many years with her...sell those rifles! Buy more Parkers.

[mobirdhunter]

Chris is right! I pretty much quit deer hunting after I got bird dogs. I get the evil eye when they see me pick up a rifle. Gotta keep the troops happy.

[Chris Pope]

I quit big game also and admit I miss it a lot, especially venison in the freezer! But, to see a dog get birdy and go to work - all with their own unique style - just priceless!...unless I then miss the bird...

[Steiner]

Great story. I got goosebumps reading it. For me there is nothing like the pure joy of following a nice bird dog in a beautiful place with birds to find.

[Gary Kephart]

Congrats pretty work Pearl !

[Ken Hill]

What a great trip! Pearl looks mighty proud!!

Ken

[Double Lab]

God I just love a black lab doing what they do best. Nice job team Cefalu.

[Mike of the Mountain]

Atta girl, Pearl!!