I received a letter from Congressman Simpson (R-ID) who again reiterated his opposition to H.R. 45 (The Blair Holt Act). He also recently signed on to legislation that supports the Second Amendment and I encourage everyone to call their senators and congressment to support this legislation.

H.R. 17, the Citizen’s Self-Defense Act, asserts that a person has the right to obtain a firearm for security and defense.

H.R. 442, the Veteran’s Heritage Firearms Act of 2009, rectifies current law that would punish a World War II or Korean War veteran for not registering a war relic firearm. It provides limited amnesty to these veterans and allows them to register without fear of prosecution for thus far failing to do so.

H.R. 1071, the Firearms Interstate Commerce Reform Act, would remove several unnecessary prohibitions and would restore the right of law abiding citizens to sell firearms to those who live in other states. The bill allows all firearm licensees to transfer firearms at gun shows to any individual, regardless of home state, in compliance with other state laws and after proper criminal background checks.

I haven’t been posting much these last couple of weeks due to some computer problems, and have additional photos post. You may also notice that I haven’t posted many videos – the Micro SD card on my PI Cam Stick failed, so rather than buying a new one, I purchased a helmet bullet cam from the U-Spy store. I think that it will be a big improvement over the PI Cam Stick when it comes to hunting.

Briefly, my computer problems were thus:
We purchased a laptop, however the store was out of that model so we took the demo laptop. Big mistake! The wireless card didn’t work well and when I finally connected, a handful of viruses were installed on our desktop. Took the demo back and purchased an out-of-the-box laptop, then took our desktop in to get it cleaned up. The hard drive had to be reformatted and reinstalled from scratch.

Back to our new laptop. I uninstalled some of the useless pre-installed software such as online shopping and Internet games. They shared drivers with other (necessary) software and as a result, the laptop shut down immediately after starting up to prevent data loss. After a few days of troubleshooting and futile attempts to reinstall software from Safe Mode, I did a complete system rebuild from the recovery disk.

In any case, the problems seem to be resolved and you can expect more hunting video from my helmet bullet cam – no more video from my digital camera.

I took Mia and Elvis out with me to shoot off my shotgun and check whether or not Mia would be gun shy. Elvis was there for Mia’s moral support, and I left both dogs in the truck with the windows partially rolled down. Walking about 50 yards away, I shot once which excited Elvis and piqued Mia’s curiosity. My next shot was about half that distance from the truck and my third a little closer still. Mia didn’t appear frightened, but watched with interest.

I took Elvis and Sophie partridge hunting later that afternoon and Elvis pointed his first bird – that is, pointed and held his point for about 5 seconds before a hen Pheasant flushed from the bush he was pointing. I had fitted them with hunting boots to protect their feet from the cactus with mixed results. Sophie lost one shoe twice and one of Elvis’ boots developed a small tear along the zipper; the sage and lavas, snow-covered as they were, was still rough.

We flushed a flock of partridge but they were real jumpy and took off about 75 yards away. Elvis is beginning to develop his own hunting style and we’re communicating quite well with each other. One thing I noticed this weekend is that Elvis will stop periodically and wait until we make eye contact, a non-verbal conversation between us, and off he goes again.

I took Dakota and Elvis for a late afternoon Pheasant hunt, braving a cold wind and cloudy skys. Upon the advice of another hunter, I took hip waders and we hunted in the cattails for an hour or so with no luck. The sun was dropping but I figured there was time enough to hunt another nearby area – minus the waders.

We hunted a dry ditch bank for a bit when Elvis flushed a rooster Pheasant, but I never took the shot. In the low sun I couldn’t see any color on the bird and since it was flying directly away from me, couldn’t see its tail feathers well. I couldn’t tell if it was a hen or not until it clucked as roosters do, but by then it was out of range.

A little farther we flushed another rooster and this one I dropped. On the upside, I think my shooting problems are behind me. On the downside, we lost the bird. It must have been a runner because we searched for a good 45 minutes and finally gave up when the sun set and it started getting dark.

Last week I discussed my shooting woes with a co-worker. He thought that perhaps I was focusing on the bead rather than the bird, relating it to his bowhunting and how a person will miss if they focus on the arrowhead instead of the target. I took his advice and dropped the Pheasant with one shot, but ended up losing it since Dakota doesn’t know how to track and Elvis is just learning.

Elvis gave us a scare tonight while he was eating. He began coughing and coughed up some blood, and had some running from his nose as well. We immediately called our vet and after going through a checklist of symptoms, determined that Elvis had either scratched his throat on some dog food or perhaps bit his tongue. We kept an eye on him to make sure that he didn’t become lethargic, droopy, or continue bleeding; if he did, the vet wanted to see him immediately. However he recovered, played with Mia for a bit and then went to sleep.

We’ve been without Internet access for several days but are back online. We had our roof re-shingled on Saturday and our cables were damaged – which all ties into Mia’s first day hunting.

When the shingles were delivered last week, 2×4s were nailed into the roof to brace the stacks of shingles. The hammering scared the crap out of Mia and she hid in her crate shaking. I was concerned that this might make her gunshy, so Saturday I took her and Elvis hunting. I left my gun at home, relying on the shooting of other hunters to desensitize her. The day before, I took Dakota and Elvis Pheasant hunting but didn’t flush a single bird.

Both Mia and Elvis proved themselves to be serious hunters. Mia found a patch of feathers where something had killed and eaten a Pheasant, and later on nearly tripped over a hen Pheasant that she flushed.
Elvis got real birdy a couple of times and did a good job of hunting, finding a bush that a Pheasant had previously been hiding under.

The re-roofing continued for about 4 hours after we returned home, but the constant hammering of the pneumatic hammers didn’t seem to bother Mia this time – the exercise of hunting helped drain her energy, and rather than hiding in her crate, she slept on the bed with the other dogs.

On Sunday, I took Elvis and Mia each out into the pasture for some training. While working with Elvis, three hen and one rooster Pheasant flushed. He briefly pointed the hens on his own, as they flushed, and although he never saw the rooster, he tracked it to the spot that it flushed.

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

Pass Along PDJ
November 09

Confidence
by Steve Smith

Name me a sport where a good, confident athlete does worse than an athlete of equal ability but with no confidence. Can’t be done. It’s no different in wingshooting.

Like a lot of readers, my first wingshooting of the year comes on ruffed grouse and woodcock. The seasons open in September, the cover is summer-thick, and the chances at the birds are fleeting, fast, and most of the time, impossible. Going through 10 or 12 rounds without cutting a feather does amazing things to your confidence, none of them good. Later, there will be pheasants and ducks, and maybe a trip for prairie birds, all of which give us more time, allowing us to slowly stitch together what remnants we can find of our tattered egos.

What about you? Do you start your season oh-for-a-box-of-shells on doves? It’s interesting, isn’t it, that the hardest wingshooting challenges for almost all of us come at the very beginning of the season when we’re rusty?

What’s the best way to get by t his period in the season — if there is a good way? I suggest not getting rusty in the first place, perfectly, a lot of target shooting, and not just a few weeks prior to the season. A sporting clays course, a hand/ground trap with some friends, anything to help you wrap your mind around the fact that your gun shoots where you look, it will hit what you shoot at, and the inevitable misses that will come are not due to your lack of talent or your gun’s mechanical shortcomings. It’s the cover and the birds. The hits will come; relax and enjoy the ride.

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

My manager told me of the recent, tragic death of her daughter and son-in-law’s Pudelpointer, and I thought I’d pass it along with the hopes that it won’t happen to someone else’s dog.
Her daughter and son-in-law had the pup only had 3 months, drove to Oregon to pick it up, and it apparently had the makings for a really nice bird dog.
Then a few days ago, her daughter came home from work to find that the pup had hung itself in it’s kennel – it was devastating for the young couple.
I don’t know the details but assume that its collar may have became caught on the kennel somehow.
I recently read that dogs should have their collars removed when crated or kenneled, but check your kennels and crates as well for anything that could harm them. (Mia got 2 of her toes caught in her crate door last week while trying to push it open, but luckily we were home at the time)

Hopefully my shooting slump is ending as I went 1-for-3 today and bagged a young rooster.

I couldn’t go hunting this morning so I worked with the dogs out in the pasture, and cant’ wait to get a fence put up. As I was taking Elvis out, half-a-dozen Pheasants landed in the pasture so I decided to work with the live birds rather than wings. Our neighbor’s dog beat us to them and flushed them before I could get Elvis downwind from them.

Although the birds were gone, I worked with him a little on the scent they left behind. I then worked with Mia a little on bird wings, then let the Labs and Squirt out to run the pasture.

Sophie retrieving the Pheasant, 10-30-9

This afternoon, I took Elvis and Sophie to the local Wildlife Management Area (WMA) for some Pheasant hunting. Elvis is really catching on to hunting but doesn’t yet point. He got birdy a couple of times and then about an hour into the hunt caught scent of a rooster Pheasant about the same time it flushed. I missed the shot.

A few minutes later he caught another scent but couldn’t pinpoint the bird in the stiff wind. The bird was either running or he was having trouble with the wind, but in either case he tracked it a good hundred yards before it flushed. A hen, so I had to let it go.

Elvis checks out Sophie's retrieve, 10-30-9

We hunted a bit more before driving to another area, and spent about an hour hunting it. On our way back to the car, Elvis again caught scent about the same time the young rooster flushed. I missed my first shot, was going to let it go, then decided to take another shot. I lined it up and dropped it at about 50 yards.

Sophie did a good job of retrieving it although she hard-mouthed it a little, but I had my bird and the dogs were happy. I saved the hackles for fly tying, the wings for training, and after cleaning the bird, popped it in the refrigerator to soak in salt water and draw out the blood.

Elvis and Sophie hunting into the wind 10-30-9

The flu started with Mia last weekend, then Dakota, Sophie and Elvis, each with a brief period of vomiting and fever – only Squirt seems to have not contracted it. I spoke with friends today who told me that their dog had it but worse, forcing them to take him to the vet. Add to that a cold that my wife came down with.

I’ve been working with Elvis and Mia several times a week on pointing, using the waist cord. I don’t have any birds so I use my grouse wings, and both Elvis and Mia are catching on.

Elvis Pheasant hunting, 10-23-9

By Friday, Sophie and Elvis seemed to be back on their feet so I took them Pheasant hunting. There was a little shooting early and several other hunters got some, but we didn’t flush any roosters. Elvis flushed a hen, however and did some good work pinpointing it and later on a rooster; the rooster was a wise one and took off about 100 yards away, flying into private property.

Sophie, 10-23-9

Today I took Elvis and Dakota out onto the desert for some partridge hunting. I need to pay more attention to Dakota because she flushed two flocks of partridge. By the time I turned back towards them, they were out of range so no shooting. Dakota also flushed a hen Pheasant that would have been a good shot had it been a rooster.

An angry blow snake, 10-25-9

On the way back, I stopped for a blow snake sunning itself in the road. It must have really been zoning out because when I poured some cold water on it, it merely flinched a little. Stepping out of the truck I took hold of its tail which brought it to life, whirling around, coiled and hissing. I’ve been told that blow snakes will go after rattlers and chase them away, so I merely took its picture and left it angry and hissing, but no worse for wear.

Elvis and Dakota partridge hunting, 10-23-9

The following is a “pass along” newsletter article from the Pointing Dog Journal – which seems to apply to me right now.

Pass Along PDJ
October 09

What Happened?

by Steve Smith

Okay, it’s the middle of the season. The weather has moderated from early season hot to chilly — cold, even, if you live where I do, halfway to the North Pole.

You started out the season shooting fairly well, getting sharper as time went along and the chances multiplied, same as you have for decades. And then, you hit the slump — can’t buy a hit — and your dog’s ready to leave you for a younger man. What happened?

Well, it has happened and will happen again to me; as you read this, I may be in the middle of my 2009-2010 slump. When it does, I like to start off by blaming somebody else, because I know it can’t be me.

It’s the dog’s fault. Early in the season, my dog isn’t in the sort of shape I’d like her to be because, even though I run her every night after work all spring and summer, I only do it for at the most an hour at a time. Of course, I hunt a lot longer than that when the season starts, so Sam paces herself and stays fairly close. As the season progresses, she hardens up, and the cover thins so she can stretch it out, sometimes too far.

At this point, it’s not just the dog, it’s the birds’ fault. They are jumpier because they’ve been hunted and the cover’s thinning out; they don’t hold like they did on opening day when they were young and stupid and not as fully feathered and muscled as they are now — right in my wheelhouse. The dog is pointing them a long way off because she’s increased her range, and sometimes the bird moves before I get into decent range (I know — it’s the trainer). So the shots are longer, the birds faster, I have to use tighter chokes that are harder to hit with, and it’s not my fault.

Of course, it could be that it’s the weather’s fault. It gets colder as the season goes on. So what happens? I move slower because I’m cold — at the same time the birds are getting faster and wilder and the shots are longer because my dog doesn’t hold them close like she did early on. I have to bundle up, which makes gun-mounting less uniform; maybe my gun doesn’t even fit me when I’m dressed like a Siberian border guard. It’s not my fault.

Whose fault is it, then? It could be some combination of all of these, but depending on how long we’ve been at this, it just may be the calendar. Most of us, being both victims and practitioners of human nature, look for reasons/excuses when something we used to do easily becomes increasingly difficult. For the aging gunner, it’s worse — a lot worse. We’ve talked about this aspect of our sport before, but a recent random survey indicates that none of our readers (nor, I should add, the editors) are getting any younger. Our average age is starting to push 53 — f-i-f-t-y t-h-r-e-e. This pretty much, unfortunately, mirrors the hunting population at large. Maybe not that age, but in the process of aging.

The full article “What Happened?” by Steve Smith appears in the upcoming November/December 2009 issue of Pointing Dog Journal. If you are a subscriber, stay tuned! That issue will soon mail!

If you are not a subscriber and would like to read the rest of this article, request an issue right now! If you do so by November 25th, you’ll receive the issue with this article in it! You can request an issue by following the links below or by calling 1-800-447-7367 if you have questions. Make sure you tell our circulation representatives that you’d like the November/December 2009 issue!

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