doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com A day well spent. Bobwhite hunt

I went bird hunting on my lease near Hedley, Texas yesterday. It was a cold, still day. It snowed Christmas day and there was still some left in the shady spots. It was about 15F when I started and got up into the twenties. Wind 5 to 10. The birds have been severely stressed by two years of drought. I didn't kill a wild bobwhite last year and just a few this year.

My shooting student Joe Wood had declined to go as he said it was too cold. I told him he might just as well come out of the closet and start wearing a skirt. So anyway I was by myself.

I first hunted the Sand Burr Pasture. About 100 acres of sand burrs, grass, mesquite and some nice patches of ragweed. Booted up and put out six year old Molly and four year old Belle. All of my dogs are French Brittanys. Walked about fifteen minutes and Belle went missing. Headed up the hill where I last remembered seeing her. She is really good about checking in every couple of minutes unless she finds birds. She had been missing about ten minutes when I finally found her on point. Actually Molly found Belle and I spotted Molly backing her:



Belle has the prettiest point of all my dogs I think. The Field trial judges score her lower because she has her head pointed down instead of her nose pointed in the air and her chest stuck out. I think it is more dramatic and attractive the way she does it:



I walked in and flushed a covey of about fifteen. My little Fox 16 brought down a hen. Belle picked it up and started the retrieve but Molly had gone on point a few yards away and Belle backed her with the bird in her mouth:



You can see the bird in Belle's mouth in this edit:



I flushed the straggler and fired into the air as we had already taken one out of the covey. After much persuasion Belle acceded to my request that she finish the retrieve before she headed off after the escaped Bob.



Here is the Fox with the hen. It is an A grade sixteen, 26" barrels, factory choked cylinder and mod. It weighs 5lbs 11oz. I shot 2-1/2" RSTs spewing an ounce of #8s. The stock dimensions are 14-1/8 x 1-5/8 x 2-5/8.



About thirty minutes later Molly found another covey on the opposite end of the pasture:



I flushed a covey of about fifteen and again the Fox brought one down. This time a Bob. Molly made a very nice retrieve. I whoaed her and snapped this:



And then she finished the retrieve:




Note: I broke this into two posts as I had exceeded the website's pictures-per-post limit.

Then back to the truck. I put up Molly and Belle and booted up four year old Red and two year old Ginger. Red and Belle are littermates. We drove about a half mile North and began hunting an old CRP field now used for grazing. It has love grass knee high, weeds over my head, and a sprinkling of mesquite and ragweed. As we were walking in the field a trio of mourning dove flew over. We have a short winter season on Dove and I was able to bring one down. It took two shots for me to get the lead right. Red did a good job of finding the dead bird and digging it out of the thick love grass:


We didn't find any in the CRP field so I headed us East along an tree line with a nice crop of ragweed underneath. Red was careless and flushed a covey. I scolded him and he pretended to be ashamed and sad - for about seven seconds. The singles flew out into a field. Red went on point:

If you notice Red has his head in the air and the field trial judges score his finds higher than Belle's. But I still think Belle has the prettier point.

Red and Ginger found three coveys on their watch.

Ginger backing Red:


Ginger on point:


Red on point:


It was altogether a wonderful day. I didn't a get picture of my one year old Buddy but I let him run wild and he put on quite a show and the Bob Whites have started teaching him that they can fly faster and farther than he can run. He is not convinced yet though. We moved five coveys, some of them more than once. Sometimes I shot in the air on the covey flush and then hunted singles. I only took one bird out of each covey. The cold makes it so much better for the dogs, both in scenting condition and comfort. I had on a rayon TShirt, a nylon fishing shirt, and a good quality fleece jacket and was still cold sometimes.

I hope the birds come back to their old number soon.

Best,

Mike

Nice pictures Mike.....looks like fun with your dogs......

Best,

Thanks for sharing your day, Mike. Great pictures; I felt like I was there, wish I had been...Geo

Just lovely, pups and the Fox as well

Sounds like it was a great time. Good to hear you have quail this year.

I'm in AZ hunting quail with a friend and the question came up: what's the difference between a French Brit and the other line of Brits?

Thanks for all the kind words.

The French Brittany's legs tend to be shorter relative to their trunk.

A local French Brittany breeder says that the American Brittanys have had long legs and drive and endurance bred into them and necessarily gave up natural retrieving and the love of hunting dead in the process. I can't tell any difference in my Frenchies and the American Brittanys at NSTRA field trials.

My French Brittanys are excellent house dogs and all six are lying about the basement floor as I type this, including two intact males. All except Belle are avid hunters of dead and wounded birds and I sometimes have to grab Molly's collar and pull her off of looking for a dead bird.

American Brittanys cannot be shown if they have any black fur or have black noses. Most French Brittanys have black noses but not all of them. I don't show my dogs.

American Brittanys were bred from French Brittanys. My dogs are registered in the AKC as American Brittanys and have another set of registration papers as French Brittanys issued by the UKC.

I am going again tomorrow.

Great post Mike. Good looking dogs, gun and day.

Wonderful PE Mike, one of the best I've seen for some time. Great hunt with some great dogs and a very nice Fox I must say. Excellent all the way around!

Good Show!

Greg

What a GRAND day...Thanks