Late day Pheasants

[Brush Buster]

Got a bit of a late start today and almost decided not to go ,I am really glad I took advantage of the nice day here in SW Pa. . My buddy for the day canceled out on me last evening as he shot a small Black Bear late yesterday afternoon the last day of the Pa. Regular Bear season . Of course I had other things to do today any way ,but by late morning had decided I just had to get in the field ! I loaded up my nine year old Britt ,Chip and drove about twenty miles or so to the first field , the fields are way off the beaten path and on the way in ,I passed two truck loads of hunters and two kennels of Dogs in each truck !When I parked up on the hill ,I figured ,all those dogs and hunters in the big fields ,had to move some birds ,so figuring a Rooster will fly with the wind at his back and off the high points ,I would naturally hunt the bottoms !Well ,I ran into a late flight of Woodcock and Chip pointed bird after bird on a sunny rise just up from the creek bottom ,they are out of season here now ,but we moved more than a half dozen birds in that first draft ,turned ,and came back into the wind and Chip was Quartering beautifully ,without any instruction ,when he struck a beautiful poiint ,I came in below and saw his eyes move to his left ,I knew the bird had moved ,I told Chip to release and he relocated about twenty yards to his left ,my right ,his eyes were fixed as only a bird dog can ,and as I moved in towards those bulging brown eyes a beautiful long tailed Rooster burst from cover giving me a beautiful right to left rising and crossing shot ,one shot from my CHE 20 Ga. and he crumpled , in a minute Chip arrived with a gorgeous Rooster ! Already a great day and not out even forty five minutes ! We repeated this a few more times on Hen birds minus the shooting and finally Chip started slowing down and creeping ,I knew he had made game ,he was turning across the front of me at about twenty yards ,angling right to left when he finally stretched out like a cat ready to pounce ,I circled around the high side figuring the bird was right under his nose and would flush to the open side ,but I ended up between Bird and Dog ,The big Rooster busted up behind my left shoulder and swung around left to right really flying with the wind at his back ,I swung that old Parker as fast as I could to get ahead of his beak and slapped the trigger ,I don't know which one of us was the most suprised ,the Rooster or me when the feathers looked like a balloon bursting and he hit the ground about forty yards down field ,I got Chip on him quick ,a lot of commotion fast ,we recovered the bird stone dead about ten yards from where I marked him . We moved and pointed a total of eleven birds in a little less than two hours hunting . A great day out and I almost didn't even go ! Russ