It's over.
It ended today as we exited the field, a muddy, tired, sembelence of what could have been mistaken for hunters. Chris, Pete, Dad, G-man and myself had just crashed through some rather thick grass and had only seen 6 or 7 hens.All in all, I guess it should have been expected after yesterday's success. We couldn't have special ordered the conditions any better, except that it could have been a bit colder. There was a soft wet snow that had been falling all day friday and we maybe had two inches. It was perfect for the dogs as there was now moisture to help hold scent.
Even though the conditions were perfect, things started slow. We had walked the first half-mile and turned the group at the first corner without seeing anything. I was a bit concerned at that point because we'd have normally flushed something by then. We had seven in our party as we had joined up with some of the landowners friends. The two friends all of the sudden hollered out that there was a dog down (on point). The G-man and myself caught up just as the other dog went on point, then broke a covey of about 15 quail. JS, one of the friends knocked one down and the G-man shot another. JS had a pretty poor mark on it but Hollie came to the rescue and found it. She then went up over the ridge and found the other one. Damn she's fun to watch work.
We spread back out and went west, swinging corner number 2. Again, we didn't see anything. As we started down the west edge, we kicked up a hen that flew off into the fog. A short while later, the first rooster of the day busted up from behind us. The G-man brought it down and Hollie pounced on it. However, things went downhill from there. The G-man had his foot on the bird, holding it down. When he went to grab it, he lifted his foot and the bird took of running. He shot once on to try to stop it on the ground. I saw it skitter around on a path so I fired right to where I saw the grass move. That little bastard somehow escaped us and our best efforts to find it.
Finally, we gave up and continued down the west side. The second rooster of the day got up, again from behind us, but this time it was too close to me. One shot later, I had bagged my first bird of the day. It tried to run on me, but I snatched it up before it could get away. I gave it the ol' wring its neck twirl twice. Jamming it in my bag, we continued on.
From that point, our guys on the edge had a shot at a rooster that got up, but they missed. A few more hens also came out of the grass. We had stopped because the dogs had gotten real birdy. JS and I just happened to turn around when we counted at least nine disappearing into the fog, some sixty yards behind us where we had just walked. We stood a little while longer when Browny, the other dog, got real interested in a thick clump of grass right in front of me. I couldn't tell if it was a point or not but I stepped into the clump. I kicked, (yes, I actually kicked) the hen up off the ground. The clump was thick enough that the hen had trouble getting clear of the grass. Browny was able to jump up and nip the bird in mid-air. I know the dog made contact with the bird because it tried to rain feathers for a while. All of the sudden, my bag started fluttering as my bird wasn't as dead as we had first thought. I pinned the bird in the bag, allowing the G-Man to come up and wring its neck in a more violent manner. After replacing the bird in my bag, we pressed on.
When we got to the food plot that had been planted in the corner, I did the dreaded End Around maneuver. This consisted of me running behind the line, out onto the wheat aways around up to the corner to hold birds in the corner. The move worked as we kicked up some more hens.
Hollie was working the food infront of everyone when another rooster took off. I was incredibly focused on him because I dropped him with the one shot head shot. We knew it was the head shot, because the back of the bird's head had been excavated by my shot. Within a few minutes, I dropped rooster number three with a well placed shot.
One field, three birds and the successful end to the season.
posted by Rusty @ 8:08 PM
Comments: 3
