All day every day. If it is hot, we rest and water frequently. If it is cool, we take fewer breaks. When we break on a hot day, we take a good long break in the shade with water for the dog. When it is hot, I take my boots and socks off at the breaks. When the socks are dry, the dog is generally ready to go also. I stop hunting if it gets close to 90 degrees because we spend most of the time in the shade trying to cool down. Below 80 it is manageable, but unpleasant. Less than 70 and we are hell on wheels. If the snow gets deep we cover fewer miles, but still stay out all day. If I were to pick perfect weather, it would have rained lightly the night before, stopping about 3:00 AM with a gentle and steady 5-10 mph wind, clear skies and temps around 45 degrees.
Half the time I'm hunting the canyons of the Salmon, Snake, and Columbia for Chukar. The other half I hunt broken scablands for quail and pheasant. I'm running two dogs, an English Pointer and a Chesapeake.
If we hunt all-out, the dogs are only good for about 4 days before we need a rest day. If we take 1-2 days off, we are good to go for another 4 days.
The terrible duo:
