Thanksgiving Day hunt

Wild horses at Fort Hall, 11-27-8

My wife usually has to work on Thanksgiving Day and we normally have our Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. So while she was hard at work, I took the dogs and went hunting at Fort Hall.

Bald Eagles, Fort Hall 11-27-8

I came close to getting some ducks and Pheasants, but no luck. We flushed a pair of ducks in a small stream, but they were nearly out of range when I shot and about all I did was sting it. I spoke with a deer hunter for a few minutes and he gave me some good areas to hunt.

When I stated that I was hunting both ducks and Pheasants, he told me that he quit hunting Pheasants a number of years ago. Apparently there was a train wreck with a number of casualties. By the time he and others arrived as a rescue crew, some Pheasants were picking at the bodies; he’s never hunted or eaten Pheasant since.

I took his advice and hunted some sloughs and twice, flushed large flocks of ducks that saw me before I saw them. However each time I hunt Fort Hall, I learn more about the area and how to hunt it.

Just as we were leaving, a flock of 8-10 Pheasants, with at least 2 roosters, flew into some willows. We went after them and flushed 3 hens but we never found the roosters.

Swan at Fort Hall, 11-27-8

Training for the percentages

Below is a “Pass Along” article from Just Labs magazine.

If your retriever is just your hunting buddy, the chances that she’ll need to be perfect on a 300-yard blind retrieve are pretty slim. She may see only one or two in her hunting career, and even at that, you’re probably going to either get the boat instead of sending her on a 20-minute swim, or you’ll walk out there with her to make sure to get that bird.

So what kind of fetches does she do most often? Look back over your hunting journal from last year (and keep detailed notes for the coming season), and record the length, obstacles, and conditions of each retrieve. Then, in the off-season, set up your training to mimic those situations she’ll encounter most. I call it “training for the percentages.” Here’s how my journal looked from last year:

80% of our hunts took place from a boat in immediate swimming-depth water; 15% were in “potholes” or ponds; 5% in fields
There were 32 total fetches for the year;
25 of the fetches were “Decoyers” — fetches fewer than 40 yards, bird in the decoys; this accounts for 78% of the total; 15 were marks, 10 were blinds because the dog is in a boat blind; in 5 instances, there was a double-retrieve, and there was 1 triple;
5 of the fetches were “Drifters” — fetches in the 50-75 yard range, bird beyond the decoys; this accounts for 16% of the total; 1 was a mark, 4 were blinds; all were singles;
2 of the fetches were “Sailers” — fetches greater than 80 yards, bird hit in air and sailed far away; this accounts for 6% of the total; both were blinds and singles.

So what did I do with the information? Well, almost 80% of the time, my dog is going to get a fetch under 40 yards and in the decoys. That’s where she needs to be solid, so the vast majority of our training and conditioning exercises are done from a boat and amongst a spread of decoys — and a lot of short blind retrieves because the dog is concealed during the hunt and won’t see the splash-down. Also, there should be some doubles and a few triples thrown in. Likewise, in proportion, are longer fetches in which she must navigate a spread of decoys; and, finally, long blinds over 100 yards.

It’s common knowledge to train using the distractions of hunting to get your dog used to them — blind, gun, dark clothes, duck calls, excitement, etc. But don’t forget to train for the distances of hunting as well. It doesn’t make much sense to train and train and train so that your dog will nail the one 200-plus-yard blind she’ll see during the year, but, because of neglect during the training season, she flubs up the 40 fetches she’ll have at 35 yards in the decoys.

You’ll still need to train for those “extreme” instances so that you don’t lose those birds, but don’t train for those at the expense of getting her perfect at what she’ll see the majority of the time.

JL is pleased to announce the launching of our new Online Storefront, where you can shop for JL apparel, Lab calendars, beds, and banks, training videos and DVDs from our other publications, and more — you can even catch up on any back issues you may have missed! During checkout, your customer number 0 will come in handy.

Please do us a tremendous favor and forward this e-mail on to your Labrador retriever-owning friends.

Disappointing hunt

Sophie and Dakota partridge hunting, 11-21-8

I took the dogs and went looking for partridge today, but came back with nothing more than an empty tank of gas. I did see an elk, a number of antelope and 7 deer, all of which would have been easy shots had I been hunting them, but that wasn’t the case.

Dakota and Sophie eating a well-deserved lunch, 11-21-8

There really isn’t much to report other than the fact that Dakota lost her collar. We hunted, had lunch, hunted a little more, and came home. A couple of weeks ago I bought a handful of snacks at the Army surplus store: dry roasted peanuts, dried cranberries and cinnamon breakfast bars. So for lunch, I had package of each; along with coffee and one of my survival bars, it did a good job of filling me up. Of course, Sophie and Dakota got their lunches first.

On abandoning dogs

A recemt article in the local newspaper discussed a growing trend in people abandoning their dogs. This abandonment is due primarily by to the economic problems the country is going through and people cannot afford to care for their pets; many cannot afford the fee it costs to turn a pet in to the animal shelter, so they are simply abandoned. Unfortunately, the local animal shelter has no steady source of income and must rely on fundraising for their funds. Last year, they euthanized nearly 900 cats and almost as many dogs, and are currently having problems providing food for dogs, cats, and horses as well.

Speaking of which, we rescued a dog from starvation yesterday although she is now at another animal shelter; we don’t yet have the facilities to properly rescue dogs ourselves. This dog that we called “Jesse” (she seemed like a Jesse) found us while visiting with our nephew and his family. She is a Lab/Collie cross and seemed to be a very calm and gentle dog. And completely emaciated. Our nephew didn’t believe that any of the neighbors owned her, so we loaded her in the car and bought a couple of packets of dog food at the store, then took her to the animal shelter.

The volunteers at the shelter figured she was about a year old and were about as heartbroken over her condition as we were. They took her in with the hopes of nursing her back to health and hopefully finding her a good home.

Hunting at Fort Hall

Sophie and Dakota at “The Bottoms”, Fort Hall Reservation

I obtained a Waterfowl and Pheasant hunting permit for the Fort Hall Reservation and spent a few minutes getting acquainted with the area this morning. There are 3 types of hunting permits available at Fort Hall, but along with the hunting permit, there is an extra $175 (at the time of this article) of which $100 is refunded at the end of hunting season provided that you do not incur any citations or commit any violations while hunting. Anyone who wishes to accompany a hunter – but not hunt themselves – must purchase a Trespass Permit or risk being arrested for trespassing.

I’m still getting over a head cold that I’ve been battling for the past week, so we only hunted for about an hour. The Wildlife Biologist was making his rounds and visited with me for a few minutes; since this was the first time I’ve hunted at Fort Hall, he gave me some good information and answered some questions I had.

I’m not sure when I’ve seen such an abundance of wildlife in such a short time period, which included: hawks, muskrat, porcupine, swan, ducks and geese, and a number of free-roaming horses. The dogs flushed a Pheasant right next to me but the willows were so thick that I never did see it. A big rooster flushed several minutes later but was well out of range, and although Sophie and Dakota didn’t get a chance to retrieve, they didn’t waste the opportunity to do some swimming either.

Hunting solo – A Pheasant Hunter’s Notebook

The following is a “pass-along” article from The Pointing Dog Journal.

From A Pheasant Hunter’s Notebook
by Larry Brown

I spend a good deal of time hunting alone, so I don’t have many opportunities to work clever maneuvers. However, I have found one tactic that does put an occasional extra bird in the bag. For lack of a better name, I call it “reverse logic.”

Conventional wisdom has it that you should work cover in such a way that you cut off the birds’ opportunities to run. The draw that comes to an end in the middle of an open field is one example. Another is the waterway that has good cover on one farmer’s ground, but has been cultivated right up to its banks on the adjacent farm. You push to where the cover ends, and somewhere near that end at least one or two roosters should sit tight.

That approach works well early in the season. Eventually, however, the birds become accustomed to hunters coming after them from the same direction. Try going against conventional wisdom by pushing back into the cover. Logic may tell you that you are working the birds so they can run on you, but occasionally the novelty of the approach seems to confuse them.

Using this tactic in Iowa usually means an approach along a barren fencerow or across an open field to reach your destination, then pushing the cover out to a ditch road. Get ready when you hit the ditch. Although ditches often have good cover and the birds could turn left or right and keep running, they frequently elect to sit tight.

Working slowly and thoroughly in heavy cover is preferable to charging through the brush at breakneck speed. In thick stuff, even a good dog needs to take its time. If the birds are not moving much, there are a lot of potential hiding spots that must be checked. On the other hand, if you are into birds that are moving, the dog may lock onto one, trail it, and miss others. Either way, by moving too fast, you and your dog may miss birds that are holding tight.

How many times have you almost stepped on a bird when your dog was hunting elsewhere? This is often not the dog’s fault. Quail hang out in nice, tight coveys. Grouse are found scattered for the most part. If you are into a woodcock flight, you can push a lot of birds out of a small area, but they don’t usually move around that much, leaving confusing scent trails for your dog.

Pheasants, on the other hand, can be found in large but loosely knit bunches. Just try to sort out tracks, even in fresh snow, in a piece of cover inhabited by plenty of birds. This is what your dog is trying to do with scent, and why he may appear to miss birds. If you do flush a bird, you’ve probably found one that your dog hasn’t gotten around to yet. Give him the time he needs to work the cover.

You can order Larry Brown’s A Pheasant Hunter’s Notebook from the new PDJ Online Store , where you can also shop for PDJ apparel, upland guides by your favorite PDJ authors, training videos and DVDs, and more. During check out, your customer number 0 will come in handy.

Please do us a tremendous favor and forward this e-mail on to your pointing dog friends!

Pheasant in Mustard Sauce

I found a good recipe at BackwoodsBound.com for the Pheasant that I shot last weekend.

BackwoodsBound.com gave me permission to reprint the recipe, and I made several minor substitutions to it:
1- First I deboned the Pheasant and used the entire bird rather than just the breast halves.
2- I’m not much on salt but I like pepper, so I reversed them and used ¼ teaspoon pepper and 1/8 teaspoon salt.
3- I didn’t have a clove of garlic but we have a bottle of ground garlic; I used about 2 teaspoons, which are probably around 3-4 cloves.
4- I used probably 1 to 1 ¼ teaspoons of dried marjoram.
5- Rather than rice, I ate the Pheasant with couscous and drizzled the sauce over both the bird and couscous.

Pheasant In Mustard Sauce

2 boneless, skinless pheasant breast halves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons Dijon Mustard
3/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
Hot Cooked Rice

Sprinkle pheasant with salt and pepper. In a skillet over medium heat, brown pheasant in oil and butter on both sides, about 6-8 minutes.

Combine onion, garlic, broth, lemon juice, mustard and marjoram; add to skillet. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until pheasant juices run clear.

Serve over rice. 2 servings.

In the Hand: Knowing What You Shoot

The following is a “pass along” article from the Retriever Journal.
Pass Along RJ
October 08

In the Hand: Knowing What You Shoot
by Jason Smith; Illustrations by Chris Smith from A Field Guide to Upland Birds and Waterfowl.

Determining the sex and age of gamebirds is a way to find out precisely what we took from the wild. It’s another form of respect for our game – it shows a willingness to learn about the birds and to pass on that education to others we hunt with. It makes us pause a few minutes after receiving the bird from the dog, inspecting it for age, sex, maybe what it was eating, instead of stuffing it in the coat and rushing to the next likely looking covert. If anything, it makes us slow down, take it all in, appreciate what has, in a way, been given to us.

Ruffed Grouse

Sex: The condition of the black tail band on a ruffed grouse is not an accurate indicator of the sex of the bird. Although an interrupted band usually represents a female and a complete band usually signals a male, there is too much overlap – especially in young grouse – to rely on this characteristic. Instead, look at the rump feathers at the base of the tail on the grouse’s back. Pluck one of these brown/gray/red feathers. You should notice one or two white dots along the shaft – or rachis – of the feather. Two dots equal a male, one dot shows a female. This characteristic is reliable after the grouse are about 13 weeks of age, which they should be during the hunting season. The length of the central tail feather can also be a clue, but unless you’re carrying a ruler, stick with the dots on the rump.

Age: As with almost all upland gamebirds, the best way to determine age in ruffed grouse is with the condition of the wings, especially the primary feathers. Most immature upland gamebirds do not molt their outer two primaries when they get their new flight feathers in late summer. They will keep these primaries throughout their first year and molt them the following summer. Therefore, with wing in hand, inspect the outer primaries. Are they narrow, ragged, frayed, or worn at the tips when compared to the other, newer primaries? The pigmentation on these flight feathers may also look a bit faded. If so, it’s probably a juvenile bird. If they are more well-rounded and smooth along the tips, it’s an adult.

Also, if it’s early season and that outer primary or the one next to it is just a stubby feather (about half the length of the other primaries), then the bird is just getting in that feather. And since it doesn’t grow these feathers until it is at least one year old, you can assume you have an adult. However, if the third primary from the end is short compared to the others, the bird is most likely a juvenile because this feather is one of the last flight feathers a young bird will grow.

If you’re a subscriber, you can read the rest of this article in the subscribers’ only section of our website at www.retrieverjournal.com. Register an account and create your own username and password by using your Customer Number 0, and click on “Features” to read more about how to age and sex different upland gamebirds.

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Note: A Field Guide to Upland Birds and Waterfowl (Product Code: RJ 143, $20) is available from The Retriever Journal Book Room. Please call 1-800-447-7367 to order.

Please do us a tremendous favor and forward this e-mail on to your retriever-owning friends!

Blog restructure

I restructured my blog to make it a little easier to navigate:

1- Links to other blogs were removed from my “Recommended Resources” page and put in my Blogroll;
2- “Recommended Resources” page still contains links to other sites that I recommend;
3- The “Scrapbook” page was renamed to “Scrapbook Photos”;
4- I created a new page, “Scrapbook Videos” which contains all the videos that I’ve posted.

A recommended blog

I received the following email and after checking out the blog, recommend that anyone interested in hunting, fishing, or simply enjoying our National Forests add this site to those blogs you read on a regular basis. In order to keep these traditions alive and maintain our heritage, we must be aware of issues that affect them.

Compliments on your blog. I’m a little new to the blogosphere, but was wondering if you or your readers would have any interest in my blog. I’m an attorney who works on legal issues affecting hunters, fishers and all users of the National Forest system. I do a lot of work for the Ruffed Grouse Society. My blog www.nationalforestlawblog.com covers all aspects of legal news and cases affecting the National Forests. If you’re interested I would be greatful if you added me to your blogroll.