A friend who has a young pup and I went out for a morning of Pheasant hunting. He was wanting to get the pup some field experience and I,.. well it was bird hunting so I was easy and got both Gunner and Daisy out for some excercise.
Last night, early this am we got about an inch of fresh snow so tracks would be fresh. Kevin got the pup Duce out an I let Gunner down first. We traipsed over 80 acers of Reed Canary grass, Willow patches, Cattails, marsh edges (including floating my boots...again
without ever finding a fresh track.
Gunner was feeling the effects of the tough cover and at 13 he has a right to. We headed for the truck to put Gunner up and get out Crazy Daisy when we cut fresh tracks on some edge cover. We put up a hen on our way to the truck.
Daisy hit the ground running and we managed to find, point,and flush seven hens but no roosters. Daisy was working a fresh track with Duce right on her tail. We worked this track for over 100 yards playing a cat and mouse game as Daisy would creep along ever so slowly. Duce was doing his best and he shows promise as he kept up and was sniffing the track also. He even honored a point Daisy had made but the bird was a crafty one and was using his legs not his wings, but Daisy perservered and we kept on "our "track.
The track was leading to a cut hay field so we knew the moment of truth would soon appear. About ten yards from the cover ending hay field with Daisy and Duce hot on the scent I spied the quarry, a rooster was tucked up tight agains some weeds trying to stay hidden.
We let the dogs work out the track and Daisy locked in on him. I went in for the flush and he rocketed straight up. The bird fulushed between Kevin and myself so neither on of us could shoot. When he cleared Kevin I soiled my right barrel, Kevin shot, I soiled the left tube, Kevin shot again. We stood there and watched as the only rooster of the day sailed away to land in the Willow thicket where we started almost three hours previously. Dumbfounded all we could do was laugh at ourselves and compliment on the excellent dog work that got us so close yet so far.
We decided that he had played fair and he won and we didn't go after him but turned to look for another opportunity.
Merry Christmass Mr. Pheasant....perhaps we will meet again
Unscathed
Threaded Mode