Pheasants

[SamuraiCO]

Went out leisurely Sat am. Hooked up with another gentleman from Fountain at my first field and we hunted until the early afternoon. We were just west of Burlington out I-70 on walk in property. We had only seen one hen until the last field in the early afternoon. His dog was finished because of the heat and he was nursing an injury. My setter managed to push a bird in front of my new friend. He shot at a going away bird and dropped a leg. I finished as it flew left to right. My dog was right on the retrieve. I gave him the hard fought bird. My pup got birdy again but we did not see anything moving into the wind and guessed the runners circled out to our right upwind. Sure enough we turned and worked the grass closer to the road. Kicked out one rooster too far to shoot. I saw a runner in the grass not 10 feet from me. Dog goes on point then starts chasing. I stayed put just in case only to have that bird bust out 20 yards in front of my dog. Made a hail Mary shot but it was too far out.

Not bad for 5 hours of hunting and talking to others they had not even seen a rooster. We also had a real nice farmer stop and ask how our hunting was going on property that was another family member enrolled in the walk in program. He gave us his name if we wanted to hunt his property in the future. He had some others on his property that day but it would give me some more opportunity in the future. Love farmers like this such a nice guy.

I was mainly out as a training session for my 6 month old. He followed his uncle through the fields, reinforced casting and the whistle command for turn and come. As we worked the fields I would shoot away from him just to get him use to the shotgun. By the time we got to our last field he didn't even flinch and raced with my older dog for the retrieve when that pheasant went down.