1st day out EVER hunting the uplands with a 20 ga. Cross your fingers NO porcupines!

Jay

Jay

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Hey Guys;

My shoulder has been killing me lately... So, I picked up a nice laminated Rem 870 in 20 ga with a 26 inch vent rib barrel off the EE. Nice little shotgun, functional & lighter than either of my 12 ga hunting guns. (Baikal MP153 and Benelli Nova)

I'm going to go hunting upland game with Nos today... I have not had the opportunity to do the aversion training with Nos, but his is now accustomed to wearing the Dogtra 2500TB collar & I am hoping that Nos WILL NOT get into a porcupine! I actually don't think he is hunting for porkies, just that when he runs across one, he sees "RED" and, well, we all know what kinda trouble that got him into before!

Pics to follow, hoping to get into a mix of grouse, rabbit, woodcock... After we are done hunting, we are setting up our deer stands... Gonna be a busy day! Pics to follow if we are successful!

Cheers
Jay
 
Good luck! I was going to go for ducks this morning but my inner wimp didn't like the -5 morning air - need more adjustment time. Instead, I made a coffee and stood in the back yard watching the sun come up. Got buzzed by a few woodcock, so I'll be "joining" you, so to speak.
 
looch said:
Good luck! I was going to go for ducks this morning but my inner wimp didn't like the -5 morning air - need more adjustment time. Instead, I made a coffee and stood in the back yard watching the sun come up. Got buzzed by a few woodcock, so I'll be "joining" you, so to speak.
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That's funny, I had the same inner wimp telling me to wait until mid morning to do some small game hunting. Grouse, squirrels, and bunnies beware!

Good luck Jay, my dog has been stuck twice, I feel your frustration!
 
looch said:
Good luck! I was going to go for ducks this morning but my inner wimp didn't like the -5 morning air - need more adjustment time. Instead, I made a coffee and stood in the back yard watching the sun come up. Got buzzed by a few woodcock, so I'll be "joining" you, so to speak.
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He he, we made the decision to hunt upland today because we need to get the deer stands up. Life got in the way of getting them out before today... So, bow hunting next weekend is it!

mvarley84 said:
That's funny, I had the same inner wimp telling me to wait until mid morning to do some small game hunting. Grouse, squirrels, and bunnies beware!

Good luck Jay, my dog has been stuck twice, I feel your frustration!
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Thanks! Unfortunately, for Nos, it's him killing the porcupines... I'm sure the porkies wanted nothing to do with Nos... Silly Drahthaar!

Treestands are at the door, stuff is ready to go!

Cheers
Jay
 
Well, we had a good day, Nos did not get into any porcupines! I got one crack at a woodcock & MISSED... Poor Nos! After about 2 hours of running the mutt, we put him in the truck & concentrated on setting up the deer stands...

Problem is, the spots we found were so thick, we decided to check the hardwoods & the leaves on the ground had obscured the deer trails! No treestands were placed today!

What we did find was two MONSTER porcupines in trees... We spoke with the farmer & he went back & took care of them.

I have mixed feelings on dispatching porcupines. Yes, the farmer wants them gone because they damage his trees in his woodlot, & I wanted them gone because Nos might get at them if they were on the ground next time... But, I would just prefer if Nos would leave them alone! Here's hoping the eventual aversion training will spare future porcupines!

Cheers
Jay
 
Empty here too - put up 2 grouse about 3 minutes in and that was it. Piper flushed a flock(?) of turkeys and I about crapped myself, but no more upland game. Later I sat in the river until end of legal light and frustratingly watched 4 ducks paddle around about 200 yards away.
 
mvarley84 said:
That's funny, I had the same inner wimp telling me to wait until mid morning to do some small game hunting. Grouse, squirrels, and bunnies beware!

Good luck Jay, my dog has been stuck twice, I feel your frustration!
Click to expand...

When I used to live in the same city and hunt with my brother, his favourite line on this subject was " Any ******* can get up in the dark and get their limit.....it's the mark of a skilled hunter to begin after a sensible breakfast and coffee at 8:30 and still limit out."

He didn't always limit out but he ate well! LOL
 
You may end up dispatching a lot of porcupines if you want to keep NOS from them. A vet I knew many years back told me he made a small fortune off porcupine/dog encounters. He said from what he could tell you could have one of two dogs, the first one getting stung avoiding anything to do with porkies afterward, the second he said almost seemed to get a case of revenge against them and went after them every chance they got. He said he had dogs so intense on getting porkies that several owners just had him put them down because the vet bills were getting way out of line with what they could afford. He told me of one fellow who had his dog in 7 times in one year!! I hope you can get him to avoid them for his, yours and the porkies sakes.
 
My wife decided to join Rook and I this morning for a soggy upland hunt. Nada again, but the funny thing is when we got back home and the phone rang. It was my mom wishing us a happy anniversary - we had both forgotten.
 
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