Mocha's first foray afield - 09/21/20 07:15 PM
We are in Nebraska, chasin' chickens in the SE corner of the state. Met up with KGB, who I hadn't seen in ten years or so. Kirk had some kind of a rifle shoot yesterday, so Mocha and I went out alone. Staying with Steve Voss, and since I am legendary at losing things, especially myself, he hand drew a map of a walk-in hunt area we had success at years ago, and of which we had some great video of Scapa on point and Steve dumping one of the two birds that got up.
The map was simple and easy to follow, and after I loaded the gun and collared the dog, we set out. HMMMM- beans (as in soy) planted everywhere. No posted signs of any kind, especially the walk in ones. I let Mocha run around a bit, and then we headed back. Turns out the map was off by a mile (literally).
Today, with map corrected, we met Kirk at a rendezvous point and in half and hour we were boots on the ground. Lots of water under the bridge since then, but by chance e both had on our Flatwater 2013 hats.
Back to the truck for water and a tummy rub:
We then moved to an area of private land that Kirk had permission to hunt, Mocha pointing a meadowlark and a small finch:
He locked up on some shorter cover, nose stuffed into a 10 - 15 mph headwind. Everyone, including Gin, Kirk's setter, thought he was on another tweety bird. So I was convinced the only shot I would have was with the camera, taking pics while walking to him with the gun held under my armpit. I got within a few feet of him coming in for a close-up, when out from under his nose exploded a big ole chicken. The bird was dumping ballast as it rocketed away nap of the earth, right in line with the dog so Kirk had no shot. I nearly dumped some ballast myself when it launched, but instead I gently dumped the phone in the grass, swung on the bird only to hear "click." Sometimes the Ideal will not go into battery with a reload, but I have never had it do that with a factory load. Would have been great to bring it to bag, but he still got lots of praise for pointing his first chicken, and I had another humbling story to tell.
Mike
The map was simple and easy to follow, and after I loaded the gun and collared the dog, we set out. HMMMM- beans (as in soy) planted everywhere. No posted signs of any kind, especially the walk in ones. I let Mocha run around a bit, and then we headed back. Turns out the map was off by a mile (literally).
Today, with map corrected, we met Kirk at a rendezvous point and in half and hour we were boots on the ground. Lots of water under the bridge since then, but by chance e both had on our Flatwater 2013 hats.
Back to the truck for water and a tummy rub:
We then moved to an area of private land that Kirk had permission to hunt, Mocha pointing a meadowlark and a small finch:
He locked up on some shorter cover, nose stuffed into a 10 - 15 mph headwind. Everyone, including Gin, Kirk's setter, thought he was on another tweety bird. So I was convinced the only shot I would have was with the camera, taking pics while walking to him with the gun held under my armpit. I got within a few feet of him coming in for a close-up, when out from under his nose exploded a big ole chicken. The bird was dumping ballast as it rocketed away nap of the earth, right in line with the dog so Kirk had no shot. I nearly dumped some ballast myself when it launched, but instead I gently dumped the phone in the grass, swung on the bird only to hear "click." Sometimes the Ideal will not go into battery with a reload, but I have never had it do that with a factory load. Would have been great to bring it to bag, but he still got lots of praise for pointing his first chicken, and I had another humbling story to tell.
Mike
