Tommy's first horseback placement

I ran Tommy in the Open Derby stake yesterday at the Santa Clara Valley Bird Dog Club trial at the Narbaitz Ranch near Little Panoche, California. This was his first trial, and he placed second in the event. He handled fairly well, ran big, hit more objectives than the competing dogs, and did well for a 15 month old dog. 

Tommy's sire, 2X CH Jetsetter, just won the All Age championship at Inola and finished Runner- up Champion at the Region 8 Open All-Age Championship. He is now qualified for the National Bird Dog Championship at Ames Plantation in February. I will be rooting for him, Allen Vincent (his trainer/handler) and Jim Michaletz, his breeder and owner.

Ted ran in the Twer Walking Shooting Dog Classic, but went with the second bird he found after the flush and shot. A 'tame' bird right under his nose was just toooo much after all the wild bird hunting we have done this fall. Back to the training field.

Rosie and Ted

Pete snapped this photo of Rosie and Ted pointing sharptails across a gully in Montana. Rosie on the left, Ted on the right. Pretty, eh?

Tommy gets his legs

After picking up Tommy from Summer camp in North Dakota on September 20th, I headed to Lewistown, Montana. I had the pleasure of hunting with Joe Augustine and his friend Florida Keys guide Lenny Moffo. Joe had his setters, Ranger, Jacey, and Sugar and I hunted Ted most of the time. I very much enjoyed the days I spent there. I ran Tommy a few times and found that he is living up to his breeding by running big and fast.

Later, when Pete Houser and his friend Bruce joined with me in the Malta area, I put the Astro on Tommy and turned him loose on a couple sections of sharp-tail ground. His first cast was to the left and forward where he stopped to point, then put up a covey of sharp-tails at about 800 yards. He then veered right, continuing out past 1000 yards and moved across the front crossing to a small ridge which he took back to complete his cast. I watched this in awe, and with some anxiety about his willingness to return. But he came back and was rewarded with a drink of water and back into the truck, since I decided that I need to thoroughly yard break him before I can handle him in open country.

I'd love to post a picture, but the fact is that I do not have a lens long enough to capture that blazing white dot waaaaaay out there. I think Tommy will be a good bird dog and trial dog, and I will hunt him when I get the handles installed.

Chaos Theory Applied

As my mathematician friend Pete Houser explains it, Chaos Theory tells us that the results of random interactions are not predictable. So it is with bird dogs when hunting. The interaction of bird, dog and hunter are not predictable. Add more hunters and dogs and the predictability of a successful outcome further diminishes.

Recently I was able to observe exactly how Chaos Theory applies to bird hunting. One of our setters found a covey of Huns on a knoll and went on point. A second dog backed the point. Meanwhile we had three hunters walking the hillside – one above, one on the level of the pointing dog, and another below the knoll. Things started to unwind when the pointing dog relocated forward to about 30 yards from the covey. The backing dog moved forward, ahead and below the pointing dog. Meanwhile, the three hunters moved forward on different lines of approach. The hunter below saw the pointed dog and moved rapidly up directly towards the expected location of the birds, hoping to be in position for a shot on the flush. The birds were running and the dogs moved up, egging each other on to advance. The birds blew out with only a single bird taken on a long shot by the hunter approaching from below.

From my point of view this was a failure that probably could have been avoided. Instead of presenting five separate threats to the birds, we could have approached the point together from the same direction and, had the backing dog been completely staunch, we would have presented only one or two threats – and from the same direction. The birds likely would have held a bit longer under reduced pressure and offered us all a shot on the flush.

Consistently thinking through the approach to a pointed dog and helping the dog to control the birds is critical to teamwork and a successful outcome. 

Further, it is my opinion that tactics used by dogless hunters – walking parallel some yards apart alá cornfield drive tactics – have no place when running a brace of pointing dogs. It suggests that we do not believe that the dogs will properly cover the country and find the birds. 

Example: a few days later I was walking my setter through a likely area when he went on point as we crossed the wind at 90 degrees. The sharp-tail he was pointing was about 100 yards up wind on my right – exactly where another one of our group had decided to walk. The bird was flushed and shot by the walking hunter, who had no idea that the dog was even pointing it. Yes, we got the bird, but without the pleasure of the dog work.

Net on this is that by co-operating and running our dogs correctly we can all – dogs included – have a more rewarding hunt.

Huns

While this year showed sparse populations of chukars, we did find some reasonable coveys - not what we had hoped for, but reasonable.

The good news is that Huns seem to have held up very well, especially in NE Oregon, where we had good dogwork and shooting on numerous, good-sized coveys of Hungarian partridge. They are simply a hardier bird than the chukars. 

The photo above is by Clair Kofoed, and was published in Grays Sporting Journal 2008 bird hunting issue. I sniped it by scanning the page... my 'fee' for being the model. Hope I do not get a 'lawyergram' asking me to remove it, since it is a terrific photo.

Getting Ready...

I have been flogging away, preparing for the Fall trek to birds in beautiful, faraway places. Guns serviced, dogs vetted, trailer updated with new electrics and some shelving, truck tuned and tires checked and rotated. Lists and sublists of things to prepare and pack get written and rewritten. The actual departure date seems to come on so slowly, then it is suddenly just a few days away. The new Garmin updated DC30 collar is supposed to arrive by Wednesday along with a kit of new collars, first aid items and such. 

I will probably hunt with Joe A, and Gundogdoc in North Dakota after stopping at Randy Anderson's camp this coming weekend to pick-up Tommy. Then we'll head for Montana where Pete and his friend Bruce will met me for a week or two of dogs and birds on the prairie. From there we'll probably head West to Oregon to visit some old friends and hunt chukars, Huns, and grouse. With luck, we may fish for steelhead as well.

By the end of October I need to head for the barn, and prepare for some up-coming field trials one of which our club is hosting on November 8th and 9th. But I will be heading to Arizona in December for a week or two, where Ted, Tommy, Jesse and I hope to learn all about Mearn's quail.

Fall is indeed a great time to be alive and moving through the West at no particular speed.

Dove can be an "upland game bird"

I spent Monday & Tuesday in the Imperial Valley hunting dove with a couple of good friends. Good meals, good drinks, good times, but boy was it HOT.

We spent some time over a beer talking about dove hunting styles. The traditional "dove shoot" strikes me as being just that: mostly shooting, with much less emphasis on hunting. Find a good corner, preferably in the shade, then hang out until the birds start to fly. Often it is too hot to even think about bringing a dog. When the sun sets retire to a big barbecue dinner with 20 or more buddies. It's a great time, but only loosely related to most upland game hunting.

Our hunts in the Imperial Valley are more active and I think are a lot more fun. We actually had several different distinct hunt styles in just a couple of days:

1. Monday, first 2 hours: traditional dove shooting. We posted on the edge of the chaparral and pass shot as the birds moved into the fields. Not a lot of birds (thunderstorms had sent many south) but everyone took 15 to 20 shots; results varied :) Had some variety in the bag - a few white wings, but no collared dove.

2. Monday, second 2 hours: started walking the chaparral, jump shooting birds that were roosting in the higher trees. My favorite type of dove hunting, with a tremendous variety of shots. A few close flushes, but more angles and dropping birds. Lots of strategy as a buddy and I planned attacks on each likely clump of trees.

3. Monday evening: More walking the chaparral, but now with LOTS of birds, some jumping out of the trees, and some coming into the trees to roost. This raks as one of my all-time favorite dove hunts.

4. Monday evening: beers and grilled dove, followed by Oban. Definitely traditional.

5. Tuesday morning: A really interesting hunt. The birds roosted in the chaparral over night and then decided to leave for Mexico, following a small canal. We had big flights of birds coming through fast, 40 to 70 yards in the air. Akin to driven pheasants? We knocked down a few but no one could brag about their average. Next year I'll bring my Model 12 with 1-1/4 oz of #7.5 shot and a full choke.

I read in the paper that some folks in the Imperial Valley at a good field shot their limits in less than 20 minutes. I'm sure they enjoyed themselves, but I'll head for the chaparral every time.

Next weekend I'll head for a spot up on the Laguna Mountains. Since it is over 5,000 feet the temperature should be 30 degrees cooler than it was in the Imperial Valley. The cover is mixed pines and oaks with good dove feed on the ground. That jump shooting is really a hoot. We never take a limit - half that is doing well - bit I can almost pretend that I'm hunting blue grouse in Montana.

Take care,

Pete.