June 2009 Updates page 3
5 June
The Limits Just Happen
My passion is pheasant hunting! To me, there is no other game species in the world that compares to a wild rooster. I respect them and I prepare each year like I'm going to war when I hunt them.
I'm like other MAHA hunters. I hunt pheasants alone with one or two dogs on the ground. Some people have verbalized to me that you cannot be effective hunting pheasants with pointing dogs; let alone being a solo hunter. No one told my two shorthairs this.
To some standards, not necessarily mine, I'm successful based on my harvest. Limits are not my objective when stepping in the field. I just want to witness my dogs perform what I consider to be "good dog work." The limits just happen.
Ironically, the older my dogs get and my focus on dog work is defined, the bird contacts occur more and more frequently. It isn't because of the bird numbers. It is because my dogs have learned and grown to hunt and handle wild flushing, running, back tracking roosters by hunting them. The only thing I did was keep my mouth shut and follow them.
Don't get me wrong, I trained my dogs. They live in my house, play with my kids, and they are part of my life. I titled both of them and have participated in some of the "dog games" but I hunt them - a lot.
The expectation to take a young dog in the field and handle a wild rooster, or even wild quail, is unreasonable if he's only pointed a few pigeons in traps. The dog needs to learn through exposure to wild birds and an owner willing to let him learn. If the breeding of the dog is suitable for hunting, he will produce more and more birds the more he sees. Understanding that the learning curve will take a couple years based on the amount of exposure.
When your dogs figure it out, you cannot put a price on the feeling you get from seeing YOUR dog lockdown a running rooster and your hand is the first man to ever touch that bird when he retrieves it to you. Then, the role is reversed. The test is then to see if YOU can measure up to his standards where missed shots on staunchly pointed roosters are like missed field goals in the last three seconds of the forth quarter.
Thanks Bryan.
4 June
Hi Gents,
After a rough, wet week, the sun came out and the birds are finally working again. The good news is that I got another bird (attached). The bad news is that I spent too many hours chasing him in soakin' wet clothing...
Thanks, Jerad
