Labor Day Weekend

[Ayres]

This is the first weekend since the dove opener on Wednesday. Anyone have plans to do a little bird plinking? I hope to get out late Saturday afternoon. I'm taking my wife along. Maybe we'll get some birds that way.

[grant]

Bell, Lindsay and I are going out saturday!

[sudiegirl]

eric, condor, bowen, and i are headed out to find the birds (we hope) this saturday! haven't been home to see any of these fields that we are supposed to be hunting, so hope we have birds! wish us luck!

[Ayres]

Well my Saturday turned out some bad and good news. Bad news, I only saw four dove because I didn't get out into the field until after 6p.m., and didn't get any of them. The first two I didn't see, and didn't have my 'dove eye,' until they were almost over my head and into the treeline. The third one bobbed and weaved and played with me until my gun was empty (two shots) before escaping back into the tree from which he came. And the fourth flew right over my head when I was walking into the garage with no gun on me anymore. It's a good thing dove season is over a month long, because I'm going to demand a rematch!

The good news comes from my dog. Danyelle was walking him around a mowed path towards me, and when they rounded the corner Justus shot off into the prairie grass. He hadn't done that all day long, as this grass stands about six feet tall at some points in the bottom of the creek valley at my grandfather's farm. Danyelle kept walking towards me and talking to me, and we noticed that Justus had not come out of the weeds. She hollered for him, and he came bounding out. His check-cord was snagged though, and she had to pick up the end and yank to get it out of the weeds. When she did that, two quail flushed from where Justus had been. Turns out I should be trusting the little guy's instincts already! I love it when my dog proves to me (time and time again) that his nose is better than my eyes.

[Ayres]

Ok, today was a better story. I was out at my aunt & uncle's place visiting for the afternoon, and around 4:00 I decided to get the scatter gun out of the trunk and see if the birds in the nearby partially cut cornfield were really doves. Some were, some weren't. My brother-in-law and I tried and tried to get a couple good shots off, but I was wearing a white t-shirt and he was wearing a red t-shirt. We hadn't planned on dove hunting this afternoon and it clearly showed. The doves avoided our location like the plague. I eventually got one (my goal for the weekend) after we took a step back into the 10 ft. high cornstalks. We broke down the top three or four feet of several stalks to make a window for each of us in that row of corn, and I was able to plink a dove after that.

Now it's in my freezer, waiting to be used for training. I already pinched off the wing and let Justus play with it and retrieve it (as described in the PK videos). He was lovin' it.

[tfbirddog2]

Great training aids for both you an the pup. I used them on my halfbreed to hunt dead.