More Of The Same

I was able to get out and hunt two days this weekend and like always, we had a good time. Friday I hunted with my buddy Justin and we got into some birds right off the bat, but then spent the rest of the hunt struggling. Funny how that can happen. I had the opportunity to hunt some new country, and I always enjoy that.

Sunday I hunted with my friend Paul. We hunted an old tried and true spot and put a woopn on them. I played around with a GoPro head mounted video camera and got some cool video. I will post that when I figure out how.

The dogs hunted really nicely all weekend long and I could not have been happier with them. They were pretty beat last night, so I was happy to see that they looked refreshed this morning. I am hoping that they don’t both come down with Kennel Cough, but that is another story. Apparently it is supposed to get cold, and I am really looking forward to that. I got buzzed by another rattle snake on Sunday and I will be relieved to not have to worry about those for the rest of the season.

When your dog does this, you had better be ready. It’s on!

Jay

Local Birds

It is hot here in Northern Nevada, and rather that make long road trips to only be able to hunt for a few good hours, I spent this weekend hunting close to home. There are a bunch of birds within an hour of town if you know where to look for them, and that is lucky for me, as I am going to be spending a lot of time hunting close to home this year. My wife is due with twins in just over two weeks, so for the most part that will keep me close to town for the rest of the season.

Do you ever have a day in the field where everything you do is just unlucky? All day it just seems like you make the wrong move and nothing ever really works out? Well that happens with dogs too. Cash had one of those days yesterday. He never necessarily did anything wrong, but he just kept having bad luck. As many great days as he has, yesterday was just one of those bad days. No big deal, it happens to all of us from time to time, dogs included.

I was lazy with the camera and did not take many pictures this weekend, but I took a few here and there.

Cash retreiving.

P-Dog making a retreive.

Cash with another one.


Jay

Waterfowl

My co-worker/friend Paolo and I got invited to go duck hunting here in Northern Nevada by our good friend Darin Elmore on Wednesday, so we took Darin up on the offer. Paolo and Darin are waterfowl hunting nuts, and I grew up hunting waterfowl, but for me it had been maybe 8 or 9 years since the last time, so it all felt new to me again, and that was really fun.

There were a ton of ducks in the area and we shot a good number of birds. Darin’s retriever named Cash (He also has a dog named Cash) was the star of the day, finding our birds and doing all the hard work. He is a great dog, and whether we are chukar hunting or waterfowl hunting I and am always happy to be around him.
Big thanks to Darin for the invite and the hunt.

Cash retrieving a Redhead.

Cash in the Blind, waiting patiently.

Darin and Cash – Primetime hunting.

A Redhead.

A pair of Greenheads.

Jay

Heat, Blood, and the Chukar Partridge

As excited as I am to be hunting upland birds this time of year, it is this early part of the season that I like the least. When the temperature drops, snakes go to bed, and you can run your dogs all day long with out fear of either heat stroke or snake bites. I could care less about hunting birds while they are on water, I am ready for cooler weather, and longer days in the field.
It was unpleasantly hot this weekend, not just for me, but more importantly for the dogs. We killed birds and had some good times in the field, but it was stressful. Between keeping a close eye on the dogs as to not allow them to over heat, to worrying about snakes, to dealing with a faucet of a cut on Porter’s leg, to seeing Cash urinating blood, stressful is how I would describe my weekend of hunting. Despite all that, the dogs had a good time and were brought home safe.
Attached below are a few pictures from the weekend. The first picture is of another great Nevada sunrise, and the next two are of me giving the dogs some extra love at the end of a hunt. (Cash is such a goofball.

 

 

Jay

Owyhee Desert Bird Hunting

There is a place in the Owyhee Desert in Oregon that I hunt every year that I consider to be one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen. I was introduced to this place about 8 years ago by my friend Hank, who is no longer physically with us because of an illness. It was there that I met a group of Hanks friends that along with him have been hunting that general area since the late 70’s. In fact back in the day they used to fly their planes in and land along the river. These are a great group of guys, this is an absolutely amazing place, and I feel really fortunate to have the opportunity to travel there every year.

The hunting this year was really good, but not the best that I have ever seen it. Between Chukar and Quail there were lots of birds to keep your attention. I took a bunch of photos this year, so I will let them help tell the story:

Another scenic view from camp.

Cash on point in the perfect place.

Some kind of desert lizard.

Cash making a 100 plus yard water retrieve on a quail. Not bad for any retrieving dog, yet alone a pointing dog.

The moon coming up over the ridge.

Cash retrieving another one.

Cash on point.

Porter pointing a single bird that is holding tight.

Porter making some retrieves.
Jay