Got to go to Southern AB this past weekend on a pheasant hunt. Normally I only hunt waterfowl, grouse and deer so the opportunity to shoot some roosters was jumped at.
This late in the season the pheasants have been heavily shot over and the hungarian partridge were flushing at 200 yards.
I was hunting with a friend, John, and his two German wire hairs Rocca and Georgia and took my lab Poacher along to expose him to a different kind of hunting.
Friday morning we started out on one coulee and flushed a pair of huns and a hen pheasant. It was a half hour hunt that saw not a shot fired. We then moved to a weedy strip along a canal and there we jumped a flock of huns and managed to scratch one down with a broken wing. The wind was howling and for some reason none of the 3 dogs could find the bird. After 10 minutes of looking, I saw the grass move nearby where the bird had fell. I walked over to the spot and, after a short chase, picked up the wounded hun. We flushed 5 pheasants here but none were roosters. Flushed about 50-60 huns but all were flushing at 80 yards and beyond so we never shot.
Moved to another large coulée at noon time and watched two hunters and their chocolate lab hunt from one end of the coulee to the other. They put up no birds. My friend said, "That lab's not hunting, he's out for a walk. Let's wait till they pack up and give it a go." We started at the top of the coulee and immediately flushed a pair of hens and a hun. The two GWP then went on point and began moving about rapidly obviously on hot scent of a bird moving right under their noses. I moved in and a big rooster flushed from my boot toes and rocketed towards the top of the coulee. I missed the first shot and both John and I smacked him simultaneously on the next one. One very dead rooster hit the ground with a thump and Rocca brought him to hand.
We moved further down the coulee and put up 3 large coveys of partridge -- all frustratingly well out of range. At the end of one draw a small cluster of willows looked promising and proved to be so when 5 hens got up from within its confines. Backs turned and out of position we almost missed seeing the rooster flush from behind us. John was the only one of us in position to shoot and, off balance, missed with both barrells of his Beretta O/U.
We watched to see where the bird went down and then followed him up. Before getting to the vicinity we hit a depression that had obviously contained water earlier in the year. The dogs immediately got birdy and before they could even go on point a big rooster jumped from the depression and motored to my left. I swung just ahead of him with my SBE and tumbled him with a load of sixes. Another big rooster got up at the shot and fell to a single shot from John. A hen took off as we were collecting those two.
The last bird of the day was nailed after a perfect point by Rocca. Poacher who had been basically been around for the ride up to this point acted as a blocker and prevented the bird from running. It flushed and I caught up to it on the second shot. One of the days roosters was a particuarly nice 2 year old rooster and is destined for my wall.
We hit the same area again the next morning and flushed another 4 roosters and 10 hens collecting two of the roosters. Also in a first for me I shot my very first cottontail rabbit (no pic--Bugs is headless). Poacher by this time had caught onto the game and was actively hunting with Rocca (Georgia aged 10 was retired for the second day) working with her to help hold birds and then flushing them on command.
Hard to believe that two guys and a dog could hunt that coulee and not even put up a bid and we could then follow right behind them and put up more than a dozen birds and then do the same the very next day.
A great hunt that I will try to repeat in the future.
This late in the season the pheasants have been heavily shot over and the hungarian partridge were flushing at 200 yards.
I was hunting with a friend, John, and his two German wire hairs Rocca and Georgia and took my lab Poacher along to expose him to a different kind of hunting.
Friday morning we started out on one coulee and flushed a pair of huns and a hen pheasant. It was a half hour hunt that saw not a shot fired. We then moved to a weedy strip along a canal and there we jumped a flock of huns and managed to scratch one down with a broken wing. The wind was howling and for some reason none of the 3 dogs could find the bird. After 10 minutes of looking, I saw the grass move nearby where the bird had fell. I walked over to the spot and, after a short chase, picked up the wounded hun. We flushed 5 pheasants here but none were roosters. Flushed about 50-60 huns but all were flushing at 80 yards and beyond so we never shot.
Moved to another large coulée at noon time and watched two hunters and their chocolate lab hunt from one end of the coulee to the other. They put up no birds. My friend said, "That lab's not hunting, he's out for a walk. Let's wait till they pack up and give it a go." We started at the top of the coulee and immediately flushed a pair of hens and a hun. The two GWP then went on point and began moving about rapidly obviously on hot scent of a bird moving right under their noses. I moved in and a big rooster flushed from my boot toes and rocketed towards the top of the coulee. I missed the first shot and both John and I smacked him simultaneously on the next one. One very dead rooster hit the ground with a thump and Rocca brought him to hand.
We moved further down the coulee and put up 3 large coveys of partridge -- all frustratingly well out of range. At the end of one draw a small cluster of willows looked promising and proved to be so when 5 hens got up from within its confines. Backs turned and out of position we almost missed seeing the rooster flush from behind us. John was the only one of us in position to shoot and, off balance, missed with both barrells of his Beretta O/U.
We watched to see where the bird went down and then followed him up. Before getting to the vicinity we hit a depression that had obviously contained water earlier in the year. The dogs immediately got birdy and before they could even go on point a big rooster jumped from the depression and motored to my left. I swung just ahead of him with my SBE and tumbled him with a load of sixes. Another big rooster got up at the shot and fell to a single shot from John. A hen took off as we were collecting those two.
The last bird of the day was nailed after a perfect point by Rocca. Poacher who had been basically been around for the ride up to this point acted as a blocker and prevented the bird from running. It flushed and I caught up to it on the second shot. One of the days roosters was a particuarly nice 2 year old rooster and is destined for my wall.
We hit the same area again the next morning and flushed another 4 roosters and 10 hens collecting two of the roosters. Also in a first for me I shot my very first cottontail rabbit (no pic--Bugs is headless). Poacher by this time had caught onto the game and was actively hunting with Rocca (Georgia aged 10 was retired for the second day) working with her to help hold birds and then flushing them on command.
Hard to believe that two guys and a dog could hunt that coulee and not even put up a bid and we could then follow right behind them and put up more than a dozen birds and then do the same the very next day.
A great hunt that I will try to repeat in the future.
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