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Good day hunting
JasonV
Member Posts: 2,482 ✭✭✭
Love my Standard Poodle. Best hunting dog ever. Her name is Little Ann. She is 1 1/2 years old.
Unseasonably warm in SD but we managed to find roosters despite the heat and lack of proper hunting snow
formerly known as warpig883
Comments
No idea why the picture went sideways
Nice !!! 😀
Jason, many of us dream of a hunt like that. Thanks for posting.
@JasonV here you go.
Pheasant under glass coming up.
burdocks give the dog grief? I had a wirehair that took a while to clean up after a hunt in SD
A buddy of mine has an all black standard poodle that he hunts with. Amazing dog! He always gets clipped with a Mohawk haircut. Badass lookin' poodle!
Those pheasants bring back memories of how it used to be here in southern Idaho when we had thousands of birds now very lucky to even see one you guys in SD are very fortunate.
They can if we get into them. I found the best way to get them out is to let her do it herself. She gets her teeth under them and works them right out quicker than I can get them out of her curls.
It was 35 degrees which is about perfect for walking. And the dogs don't overheat.
The place we hunted is private land with no stocked birds, just naturally reproducing birds. (Although technically every pheasant in the country is stocked or the descendent of stocked birds). On Thanksgiving there were 15 birds shot in this spot so we didn't think there would be anything in there.
Probably saw about 40 hens which is great.
There were 5 of us so needed 15 birds to limit. We got 7 and should have had 4 or 5 more.
We hunted about 2 hours or maybe 2 1/2. My knee hurt and another guy got his eye scratched by a branch so we called it quits but if we had kept going we had a good chance of getting the 15 we needed.
I was happy with what we got. Usually late season pheasants are so skittish they fly when you get within a mile of them so it was a great day.
I was shooting a new model Browning A5 16 gauge. I am very happy with it. Shot summer sporting clays league with it as well. 1 1/8 oz of 5 shot was the loads I was using.
Typically at this time of year everything is froze and there is know on the ground but the water is still liquid and temps have been above freezing.
We had three dogs. A 9 year old lab, my 1 1/2 year old poodle and a 1 year old Golden Retriever
The 9 year old lab is an absolute machine when it comes to finding and retrieving birds. If his tail is doing a circle there IS a bird there. And when a bird goes down dead in the thick cattails or is on the ground running into thick cover we call him over and he always finds them. I was watching him today and noticed when a bird flushes his eyes never leave it- just watching for it to fall. If it doesn't fall he puts his nose down and keeps hunting.
The lab is doing a lot to train my poodle and the Golden Retriever is still playing/hunting but getting exposed.
My poodle last year was at the stage where she just followed on my heels. Now she is out in the brush hunting and I am happier than a pig in a puddle with her. She stays in range and comes when I call her and that alone is great, nothing worse than a dog out in front of you 100 years getting birds up or chasing a deer.
We finally got some birds shot over her and she saw the lab retrieving today so she finally know s what we are doing. She is a retrieving fool with the practice dummy so it is only a matter of time and more hunting practice now. She listens really well and is a smart dog. We worked with hand and voice signals getting her to go left and right when she is out looking for the throwing dummy and she picks up on that pretty good but I need to practice it more with her. I have thrown three throwing dummies at once and she brings them all back so that is a fun trick to show people.
I really enjoy watching the dogs work. For me it is the best part of the hunt. When the lab goes through cattails it is like a dozer, just get behind him and he blazes a trail for you to follow. When the poodle goes through them she is like a snake.
Will probably only get out one or maybe two more times this year. We are hoping for some snow because everything hunts better when it is white out.
The pheasants are getting made into sausage. Grind with some fat and spices- so good!
The way the poodle is looking at the birds reminds of a story my grandfather told me.
He was a rabbit hunter. He had a beagle named Hobo. Back in those days a dog never rode in the car they rode in the trunk.
One time after hunting he was in a hurry to get going. He put Hobo and the rabbits in the trunk.
He said when he got home all he had was ears and tails from the rabbits.
JasonV, you are a fortunate man.
I’m very envious, Pheasant hunting is high on my fun meter.
Mule