Spring Training

This spring was a lot of fun I found a great little grouse honey hole and was able to make it out for chukar runs. I took a few videos but none really turned out well the one I posted is about 7000ft and both dogs were holding the grouse. If you listen you can hear the bird and then Rips bell and Louie yelp in excitment.

The pointer in the pics really threw it down and taught Rip a lot. She is starting to come along more every run. Louie also had some great grouse finds and solid points all in all it was a great spring training year. Now the birds are all nesting so I leave them alone for the next few months.

Been crazy around here, finishing up school and trying find the time to take the dogs out. I get them out regularly but not as often as I would like. Louie is doing really good, starting to figure his birds and this spring has become deadly on pheasant. Rip is a running SOB. I was scared at first thinking that she was almost to much dog for me, but the more I work her and build a relationship the easier she handles. I did pick up a Tracker system in case I do lose her. The Tracker is fun to use takes a bit if playing with but I am getting it figured out. I am learning that the only thing holding her back from being a really great dog is me and my lack of experience. So I may send her to a pro this summer to mold her into all that she can be.

It is getting backpacking time and my dad has started to call me everyday about ideas of where to go, what days to go and what to eat. He always does around this time of year. I love the talks because I am thinking about the same things. This years trip were going to one of our old haunts which I have always loved. There is a really nice fly fishing stream that ill get to play on with my new flyrod.

More stuff from this season

Rips First Birds

Rip is going on 4 1/2 months and I have been so busy I haven't been able to do a bird intro until this weekend. I was not sure what to expect but I figured whatever happens ill make it fun and let her just do what she does. So I went and planted some pigeons and let her at um, no check cord no nothing this is just all pure instinct and fun. Needless to say she brought the noise and laid down solid points on her first birds.

One of her points of the day.

She held long enough for Jill to snap of few.

I had to kick the bird up to get it to fly....look how graceful I am!! Rip looks cool.

And she is off to the races

I got a few more pigeons that I will use to finish up her gun intro and after that she is on a diet of wild birds only!!!

Grouse

Grouse hunting started a few weeks ago we have made it out a few times and had some success. This year because we seems to have a good hatch and I have seen a lot of birds. Louie seems to finally be figuring these tricky buggers out.

Louie at the Basin, We had a good hunt and managed to bag one bird. I missed a big blue which would have been awesome. The Basin is really steep and when the blue got up I was so out of breath I could barely mount my gun. So we droped down into a canyon which held some Ruffies.

Ruffed Grouse

We have also been hunting The Corral which is one of my standard coverts that is a ton of fun to hunt. This year I have been hunting it a little different then years past and have been having success getting into birds. Last sabbath I was able to put two birds to rest, the grouse gods were good to me. I manage to get up about 5 flushes that day and connect on 2, not bad for me.

Dogs & Tools

My dogs are great dogs, at least I think they are. Louie is my first dog, he is a Braque Du Bourbonnais...I know right, everyone says what??? basically he is a French Pointer or a Bourbonnais Pointer. He is very intense and hunts hard. When I got Louie I think there were only around 550 BdB's in the US, that was a little over 2 years ago.




Rip is My second dog she is still young and my special little girl. She is an English Setter that is coverdog breed on her mom's side and shooting dog breed on her daddy's. She is cute as can be almost all white with a little orange on her ears. I am hoping by mid November that she will be out with us chasing birds.

Tools

Tools are almost as fun as dogs, but not quite. I love reading and talking about hunting gear what people are driving, shooting and what the latest technology there is in the dog hunting world...right now the Garmin dc30 is taking the hunting world by storm, and dammit I don't have one. I keep telling myself one day.This is the kinda nerdy stuff that birddoggers get into and its addicting.

What I am shooting is a CZ Ringneck 20gauge. I like the gun a lot. It handles well and is light weight which is nice when your hauling the thing around for miles. http://cz-usa.com/products/view/ringneck-201a-single-case-hardened/



I love my ecollar!! They are a true gift to dog training and hunting. I run a TriTronics Classic 70 G3EXP. It has just enough for what I need and is really basic which I really like. I love the tone option which I use most to recall Louie. It basically is a really nice whistle that I can contact Louie with a mile away. http://www.tritronics.com/remotetrainers-G3fieldseries.html


I like my vest a lot also it is a Mother Tech Day Pack. It has plenty of storage and I like the bladder option, because I can use the same bladder for my camelback and for hunting. The thing I am not really fond of is how difficult it is to put birds in my bird bag you almost have to put your shoulder out of joint to reach back there. I usually have to have someones help. http://www.mothertech.net/hunt_day.html


Good boots are the most important thing a birddogger can have, besides good dogs. I had Irish Setters which after a season started to leak really bad and fall apart. Chukar hunting just ate them up. This year I wanted to try something tough and stiff so I went with mountaineering boots. Damn they are stiff and I hope they are tough we will see. I got a good deal on a pair of Lowa Clevedales which are super blue and rad! http://www.lowaboots.com/catalog/ShowBoot.cfm?StockNum=2100256025&Category=1&Type=M

I'm going to blog anyway

I have been thinking of making a blog for quite sometime, I look at other blogs that are dedicated to dogs and hunting...(that's what this one is going to be about). Most are filled with great photos of limits taken and good looking dogs pointing their birds. I am afraid that because I am a horrible shot, that not many limits will be taken by me, and that my lack of photography skills will drive most away, but I don't care I am going to blog anyway.

Here are the highlights of last season