Day 1 in Wisconsin

It started out pretty nice at 55 deg. Boy, it got hot in a hurry. Ace and I and Dennis and his Lab, Gracie, took off down a great grouse trail. Within an hour, we had 5 flushes over points. The birds are definitely here! It was a technical problem that kept the game bag empty. Ace was finding the birds and holding them off the trail in the thick cover. He has a Garmin tracking collar on him, which worked as advertised and I am extremely pleased with. The problem arose when the beeper collar he has on, which I can turn on and off remotely, started turning itself to very minimum volume all on its own! I can still find him OK, but the beeper would have allowed me to get there much earlier and the birds wouldn't have moved so far. The birds are there and the dogs can find them- if only the equipment would be OK. Thankfully, I have another beeper. We'll see how the afternoon goes.

OH! Get a Garmin Astro! It is the best thing going for bird hunters with a dog that gets out more than 20 yards. I've used it now in Montana and now in the Wisconsin grouse woods. It works!

Great Grouse Cover!

Ace is whining and pacing and sampling my coffee. The sky is blue and the temp is 55. We are on the way to one of my secret coverts.

Opening Day!

Sage Grouse

Here's the Ace-man with a Sage Grouse. Huge bird that it is- they fly well and they will hold tight for a pointing dog. Ace did a great job on this one! I'm getting the "What's the big deal?" look right here.

Day 4

We got up very early and decided that we'd be waiting for the birds when they got to the fields to stuff themselves with grasshoppers. We've determined that 90% of the birds are full of them. It was a great day! We shot Sharpies, Sage Grouse, Hungarian Partridge and had a great time doing it. The dog work was exceptional for such a hot day! We had to knock off at 1 pm due to the heat, and watched the temp rise to 95 degrees. Right now the wind is howling and the temperature is dropping. Tomorrow the high will only be 65! Bring it on.

Day 3

Hot!!!!!! We hunted hard until about 1pm then we took a break that lasted the rest of the day. Bandit is a hard hunting little Brit that is get his hunting legs under him. Yesterday, he did really well and here are the pictures to prove it. Today, he managed to point 3 bulls and 1 meadowlark. To his credit, he wanted to have a go at the bulls..."I can take them, boss! Really!" he said. Ace is hunting with his usual style and excellent sense of where to hunt and where the birds should be. Bo ran for a while in the morning and I'm rooting for him to find a bird......

Day 2

This is what the well dressed, Montana, Sharpie hunter is wearing these days!

Weather: windy and drizzle- 50 deg AM with clear and sunny 70 deg PM

Bo hunted in the morning and we stayed out for about an hour. We didn't find any birds, but he looked pretty good. He's not gettting around that much anymore, but just because the body ain't willing doesn't mean you can't try.

In the afternoon, I put Bandit on the ground and headed off to the hills. after about an hour of wlaking through alfalfa fields, we heased to the tops of the hills. Once over the top, we worked down some coulees. Finally, Bandit locked up! About 30 yards away 7 birds got up and we dropped 2 of them. Later on, he found a 20+ bird covey and we chased those for hours. He was great! We ended up with my 3 and Terry's 2- all found and pointed by Bandit. He's really coming along!

First Day

We started out hunting in areas I was familiar with from the last few years. The birds are here, but not in the numbers of the last few years. When we would get 15-30 birds in a group last year, now we would see only 8-15 birds. There is green everywhere- lots of food for the birds, but a wet, cold spring, right at their nesting time, cut back the population significantly.

The dogs are great, but out of shape like me! Bo is showing his age, and I think his hearing is suffering, too (although it may be that "man disease"- selective hearing). Ace is powerful and classy and finding all my birds. Bandit (Ace's pup) at 1.5 years old, is full of vinegar, but is still working on that first lock down point. He found a few groups of birds yesterday, but "assisted in putting them to flight" as we say. He is showing great promise though and I look for him to put it all together today or tomorrow.

Water is a major consideration for the dogs (and hunters). We water them at the truck constantly and carry two water bottles with us every cast. I'm also using an energy replacement powder that I am evaluating. We'll see how that works.

Day One

We found our motel to be a cozy, charming, fixer-upper- "as is".

Can you spot the Sharptail Grouse in the picture?

Way Up In N. South Dakota

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How tall is the corn?

The picture doesn't do it justice. It's every inch of 8'.

The Mecca for Bird Hunters

You have GOT to love this place!

Video of Soth Dakota Interstate

South Dakota Interstate. Flat, flat, flat!

Cruisin'

Sun is coming up over the Iowa hills on my right. The Missouri River is on my left with Nebraska past that. I would sell a bird dog cheap for a Venti Starbucks right now- or perhaps Pete's Coffee. I'm approaching Sioux City, IA and rumor has it there is civilization there. Coffee!!!!

Traveling Companion Ready for a stop.

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Just made it to Iowa!

Right as the sun is setting over Nebraska on my left and Iowa on my right. Its time to find a soft bed!

A little of a late start.

I was shooting for 0400. Twenty minutes isn't too bad with all the buffoonery that goes on last minute. This should be a good trip. Old dog, young dog, prime dog- one of each. My thanks to Glen Bahde and Sam for the loan of Bandit.

Birthday Present

My #1 dog got me this pillow for my birthday. It fits nicely with a saying I have on my wall at work- "Lord, let me be the person my dog thinks I am."

Peaches passed away on Friday- a good, solid dog.

Here is Peaches (Julias Southern Peach) with a limit of Blue Quail in NM last year and nailing a sharpie in MT. She was known as a "deliberate lady" and was just a solid bird dog. Not a lot of flash, but I could put her on the ground and she would go about her business in a determined and focused manner. She died way too soon of kidney failure last Friday at 10 years old- young, I think, for a dog.

Not long now!!

This time of year, I count down the time by grass cuttings. 4 weeks to go means 4 times strapped to the lawn mower cutting grass. Hunting buddies want to go even earlier, around 4 Sept. That's really tempting. The temperature in MT is hot enough, but we can break in the heat of the day....maybe 4 Sept doesn't sound so bad.

Snake Vaccine

Red Rocks snake vaccine is a great security blanket for guys like me who hunt MT in the fall. I know the big rattlers are there, even though I've never seen one. I try to avoid the places I think snakes would be- rock outcroppings, etc. I'm hoping when one of my dogs gets too curious and takes a hit, the vaccine will give us enough time to get to a vet. Heck, I hunt an hour or more, usually, away from any town. I always put the vet number in my phone and I have injectible steroids and benadryl, but this vaccine really makes me feel a lot better. One problem is Ace reacts to the shot. I called Red Rocks Biologic, the manufacturer, and talked to them- very friendly. Ace is that 1% dog that does swell up. Actually, he doesn't swell up due to the shot reaction, he swells about a week later with an abscess. then I drain it and give him some antibiotics and we are good to go. None of my other dogs (5) react. I still think it's worth the effort. Of all my dogs, Ace is the one to stick his nose where it doesn't belong.

Running up and down the coulees of MT in Sept, you know we are passing some snakes, but we've never seen any. Just lucky, I guess and I hope to stay that way.