Pheasant Hunters - Charles Page 2
Jon, John, Jon Jr. and rest of MAHA Crew, Thank you all for another great year of pheasant hunting. I know that in this era of rising farm prices, securing quality hunting properties gets increasingly challenging. I appreciate all the hard work you folks do.
I also want to express my appreciation for the Update Pages. The past two years have brought difficult work schedules for me, so I just didn't get out as much as I'd like. Of course my wife reminds me that "getting out as much as I’d like" would probably involve me living for three months in the tall blue stem CPR fields. Nevertheless, attending daily to the Updates Pages allows me to live vicariously off the other members while I toil away at life's more mundane responsibilities.
But I also took several tips off those pages this year. I poured over the bird forecasts and as recommended in the Updates, I shifted a bit to quail hunting. In the past those little shell-burning rascals have left me frustrated and I've opted for the larger target of a pheasant rooster…my shooting percentage goes way up when I'm after pheasants. This seemed like a good year to detour toward quail. My two Wirehaired Pointing Griffons regularly located three to four coveys per day and on one magical day in early January we put up seven coveys, four of them on one quarter section of land. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that even with all that opportunity I still didn't take a daily limit, but I did landslide good business for the ammo company. I prefer to think of my poor quail shooting ability as good conservation. To top it off that was a quarter of pasture that had not been grazed this year. Hunting such pastures was another tip from the Updates Pages. That particular quarter has been in MAHA for at least five years and over the years I have just rolled on by thinking "not enough cover." My new motto is: "Live and learn, but don't forget to read the Updates pages." We have some masterful members in this organization. I know you management folks remove specific locations from the Update entries, but there is no shortage of solid advice on what to do when your boots do hit the ground.
We didn't ignore the roosters and in fact, despite the rather dismal forecasts we had a very good year on pheasants. In closing I wanted to draw some comparisons between two pheasant hunts this year which really brought home what I enjoy about hunting this beautiful bird. Our first hunt this year wasn't until after Thanksgiving. In three days we had our gentleman’s limit of roosters by 10 am each day. All the birds were taken over beautiful points. Exciting? Yes. Memorable? Of course. Picturesque? Check out some of the photos. If I had to be truly honest, my dogs are probably about average, but the work of an average bird dog is still something to behold.
But the hunt that stands out for me this year was a two day hunt on the last weekend of the season. It was too warm…in the sixties…too dry…poor scenting conditions and of course the birds have been chased and pushed since mid-November. The only roosters left were the real sprinters and wild flushers. At the risk of anthropomorphizing, all that were left were the smart ones. We still saw plenty of birds, but in two days my dogs had three rooster points and that was with hard hunting. Fortunately we finished the season with all three in the bag and I felt more joy and satisfaction with those three birds than the nine we took in our first hunt.
For example, in the last field we hunted, a field of thin short blue-stem CRP, the dogs got busy along the windward edge. I surmised from their work that the birds were running the edge. As they worked, the Griffons made several loops out in front attempting to block, false pointed for a few seconds and then would take off again as I came sprinting up (wheezing might be a better descriptor and let me tell you that a man of my age and body shape ought not be sprinting or wheezing). As we approached the end of the field, the older of the two dogs froze well downwind from the field’s edge. The younger one locked up in honor. As I closed in on the scene two beautiful roosters lifted off about thirty yards ahead. I had anticipated a longer shot and had switched my selector to the full choke barrel and managed to knock down the closer of the two. The other bird left the area cackling. Despite my shortness of breath, it was beautiful and as I recount my hunts this year for friends and family, that’s the scene I'll be drawn to describe over and over.
The birds were smart and doing what they do best: evading. The dogs did what they do best: locate…point…attempt to block…stay off the bird a bit more than early season birds. And I managed to add my part as well. As much as a modern hunting team can…we had truly earned that rooster. Earning such a seasoned and wise rooster pheasant is the reason I love hunting them.
So again, thank you all for another great season. My Griffons and I will rest and recoup. I'll make an attempt to improve my conditioning. We look forward to another year. Charles
