Clair Kofoed and Dave Brown (right) heading in from an impromptu evening goose shoot in Saskatchewan.
I am posting this ahead of other reports (Michigan, Prairie Chickens, Montana...) while it is fresh in my mind. I just returned from a week of bird hunting in Saskatchewan at the invitation of Dave Brown. Dave maintains an outfitting operation in Cabri, Saskatchewan and invited Clair Kofoed and I up for an 'end of the season' hunt - a casual event that was most enjoyable for all of us.
The Hungarian (grey) partridge is a sporting bird, and is nearly perfect for hunting with pointing dogs. And we found Saskatchewan to be a Hun paradise - rolling wheat fields interspersed with prairie islands and brushy draws. This is the finest partridge hunting I have yet experienced. We moved as many as 10 coveys a day and in some very beautiful cover.
We found the waterfowl hunting to be very good, even though we spent 80% of our hunting time chasing Huns and sharp-tailed grouse. We took both geese and ducks. Geese were incredibly abundant - snows, Canadas, and white fronted geese were overhead in huge numbers every morning and evening.
Dave runs a string of pointers and Brittanies, and he hunts his very stylish and capable bird dogs two at a time. They find a lot of birds, but neither Ted or Clair's setter Thorn suffered in comparison.
We finished the hunt with a Wednesday evening game dinner of Huns, Sharp-tails, mallard, sprig, and both snow and Canada geese that Clair prepared over a smoky alder wood charcoal grill. Wine, sourmash, Scotch and cigars were also on the menu. Great times with old and new friends. Thanks. Dave Brown!
Glad to hear that you had such a great time - I want to hear more details over a drink some time. What gun did Clair shoot at the geese? There is a 10ga Lindner on the Web, quite reasonable, and I'd buy it if I hunted waterfowl more. Seems like a Clair type of gun.
ReplyDeleteSaskatchewan is a great place. We returned in late September for a great goose and duck hunt. It is a very wonderful land with great people. I wrote about our adventure at www.hunteatlive.com as well.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a delightful time!
ReplyDeleteHow did you cook the sharpies and huns? Would love to get into some -- wonderful birds for the table!
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