Did someone mention 6 for 6? Now that just brought back another red letter memory! About 5 years ago my buddy, with his English Cocker, and I, with my Griffon, hunted an abandoned 100 acre apple orchard. It was tucked away and did not get much hunting activity and was a magnet for both grouse and woodcock. That’s the good news…the bad is that it was severely overgrown and full of bitter sweet and wild roses and tough, even by New England standards, on man and his best friend. But this place was made for a dog that could point and his little buddy who would furrow underneath the prickles and flush whatever was hiding.
We would hunt this covert only once or twice per season and would run the rows, my buddy on one and I would be in the next with dogs coursing their way through. My buddy is an incredibly good wing shot. I am not, even after 40+ years of hunting and clays I’m a B+ on a great day and more frequently a C+. Within 5 minutes that little cocker booted 2 woodcock from underneath apple trees and my buddy took them with one shot each. 5 minutes later he took a third, again with a single shot. No sooner had I started to feel left out when my pup went on point. We called the cocker around and he flushed the bird, which was just swinging behind a thicket of dead apple branches and bittersweet when I shot. Thinking I was behind the bird and late, I was pleased when the griff brought the plump hen back to me. My friend couldn’t help but saying, “Gee…that’s 4 for 4, now you have to get the next 2 with one shot each.” He knew darn well that was jinx talk. Anything he could do to psych me out was entertainment for him. We kept hunting. About 200 yards later at the end of the orchard my pup went on a hard point. Now I’m nervous. There was plenty of open sky and little excuse for missing. I took one step and a woodcock went up. As I shot and the bird came down- phew! On the shot a second bird exploded 15 feet to my left and headed away. With feet tangled in underbrush I did my best to quickly replant my body in the direction of the birds flight. I shot and unbelievably to me the bird folded and crashed over a stone wall in a open pasture. The pup proudly made both retrieves. I was so stunned by my actually having shot the second bird that I had to be reminded by my buddy that we had each taken our limit of woodcock- 3 birds each with 3 shots each. And nothing tastes better than chopped woodcock breast meat in an omelet with some cheddar.
Again, my thanks to all of you for your fond hunting red letter memories and so pleased to hear that old Parkers are still bringing meat to the table and sweet dreams for our hunting dogs…
|
Threaded Mode