A Beautiful Fall Day Hunting.

    "The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it: so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it." ~ Elbert Hubbard

 

 Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

I'm about to show you a couple of videos that tell a story.  It is only a story of success from the viewpoint of walking in the woods on a beautiful fall day with the Rowdy Doodle and a gun.  

Last Christmas, Jaybo and I gave each other a GoPro for Christmas.  He uses it on his Mountain Sledding trips and I get videos of Rowdy and I stalking game birds. I just bought a nice little head strap system that goes over a ball cap and this hunt was the first time I've used it that way. 

We did not have a very good season this year.  There are various reasons for that, I choose not to go into them.  So far this year, we only have bagged three Ruffed Grouse.  While we found and shot at quite a few Woodcocks, we did not bag a single Timberdoodle.

Today, it is cold and snowy now as we near the end of November, but back in late October we had a short period of really nice warm shirtsleeve weather.  The leaves had turned, the sun was golden in the west and it was just beautiful.  

There is a roughly mile long track over near Crex Meadows that is Ruffed Grouse heaven.  We almost always flush a bird there.  To take full advantage of the track, you need to station a vehicle at one end, drive to the other and hunt back to the first car. 

Ann and Rory were going home and I was going to stay at the cabin for two more days, so I asked her to follow me over to this spot on her way home and then be ready to pick me up.  This next video is the start of that.  Ann and I discuss how we are going to meet up again, then I gun up and start walking the back up the rise to start the track.

Up near the top of the rise, I unsling my gun to begin loading it.  Rowdy comes bounding out of the woods to the right and bounces up a bird before I am ready. I was surprised because I've never seen a bird up that high on the rise before.  But it's a sunny day and grouse like to bask in the sun, so it had moved out of the shadows further up the trail and into the sun.  I hang my head in shame for the bad word I use.  It was a totally shootable bird had we just walked 20 yards closer.....

We walk over the rise after that, back down into the shadow and then back out into the sun on the other side.  It's really pretty.  Rowdy goes all birdy and charges off to my right.  I get ready and he makes the best flush with a gun I've gotten on video so far. 

Rowdy takes off after the bird but doesn't find it.  Although...he never really runs through the area I think the bird would have fallen in.  So...I let Rowdy cast about for a bit then heel him up and send him to look where I want him to.

So...final tally, we got totally skunked, but had a great time walking around in the gorgeous woods that day.

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad/Geoff

ps, If I had a better story to tell, I'd be telling it.  The gentle reader may gather from this how lousy my actual season was.....