Live capture and release? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Pointer
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Live capture and release? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Pointer
Been meaning to post an update on my hunting for few weeks now but while dog works seems to be going great, my shooting is too embarrassing to comment on, so I've been keeping it on the down low... Anyways, whats the harm. Might as well post something. :)
After a long week of work and booze, Saturday woke up early in the dark, grabbed the gun, vest and the dog, did my usual few hours drive to the hunting ground and off we went for a 4 hour hunt...
First 30 minutes yielded us nothing apart from few bruises and pokes from blackberry. Light break to rethink were to go next and give the dog a break.
Of we went on the next 30 minutes mission which required me to cross a very small creek covered by fallen trees, the dog crossed with no issues while I took my 10 minutes, once I am out I could not see or hear the dog. This season I haven't hunted with a bell, I tend to keep track of my dog by just hearing his running, plus he keeps in touch so bell doesn't really do me any good anyways. Eventually I find him locked on point, staring at a rubble of branches, his stickiness tells me its most likely brown quail... 4 fly out like fire works 2 shots both misses.... I mark where they land and turn back to work untouched area before I hit the same covey again, plus 10 or so minutes gives the quail some time to release scent.
2 minutes in, dog slams on point again. 4 more up, 1 shot - missed... Took 10 minutes break to get my thoughts together, so I made a decision to leave them behind and maybe hit them again on the way back to the truck. 20 more minutes of hunting, few indications but no productions, the rain came on us briefly so a 20 minute break/snack was justified.
Next on the menu was a naked cut-over heavy with ink-weed, facing the sunny side, it must hold something. From the first cast, Aki slowed down, roading for a long time , until he stops and 4 more brownies fly out prematurely (no shots). Aki confused looks back at me, he deserved a cuddle but I told him to get on and find the bastards... After few more obstacles to tackle where I almost broke a leg, I find the dog on point in a clearing... a foot forward and a brownie flies to my left pulling away my concentration while 3 more fly off down the line... F%CKKKKkkkkkk!!!!! Enough was enough, I couldn't be more pleased of Aki's work, and couldn't be any more disappointed of my shooting so I turned back towards the car...
Day wasn't over yet.
Aki finds an hen. A point followed by a produce and a couple of meters jump to give it a chase that quickly came to a halt after I blew the whistle for the first time in the day. Funnily enough, he is steady to quail but pheasant wings especially a rooster calling on the flush still give him the inclination to chase. But his work on the hen was beautiful, took me 5 mins to soak in the joy.
Not long after a rooster was pointed well away from me, a late season experienced rooster that is. Flushed as soon as I locked the gun, solid 70+ meters away, I had #7.5 in the chambers with wide-open chokes so I didn't even contemplate pulling the trigger... Tried to find him again, but the forest was too think so we went home empty handed with beaten feet....
It was a roller-coaster ride to cry and laugh at the same time...
Nice write up Pete.
And don't worry about the brownies, I'll get them for you :)
A pic from this morning:
Attachment 27743
Hahaha, just rub it in mate...Quote:
Originally Posted by Pointer
Good effort tho... Betty sounds like she's becoming a machine...
Knew you'd be good for a wind up, haven't got the opportunity to take the piss out of you this season since we haven't caught up :P
Should throw that nice pic of Aki setting in the young pines that was on FB, show the forumites the sort of country you're talking about?
You've got too much to wind me up about with my shooting skills...Quote:
Originally Posted by Pointer
FB photo??? guys Pointer & Setter FB in my signature below. Like it, post your photos. Lets get some foot-traffic through the page...
Seems like Pointer and me are the only ones sharing photos... give us a hand...
Stick the pic up on here?
Attachment 27744
A fairly young forest, that has mixture of 3-4 year old pines and some younger ones too ... A good amount of ink weed, black berry & water is present....
Quail tends to be in more naked forests rubbishy type of fallen trees that doesn't have much green grass (I guess insects are more present there)...
Pheasants are found anywhere really, more towards the ink-weed fested places, following the sun they tend to keep on the warmer ends of the hills...
we got a lot of those rubbish rows in the harvested stuff here to like a fucken sas obstacle course for dogs:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Petros_mk
suppose us poor versatile guys photo,s are about as welcome as a fart in church :oh noes::DQuote:
FB photo??? guys Pointer & Setter FB in my signature below. Like it, post your photos. Lets get some foot-traffic through the page...
Seems like Pointer and me are the only ones sharing photos... give us a hand.
i just posted one for you petros.
Go for it mate... doesnt make a difference if its versatile or not...Quote:
Originally Posted by gsp follower
Enjoyed that write up Petros....glad its not just me that misses 'flying things' (ducks),nice one mate!
Join the club mate, it becomes embarrassing when it happens over and over again...Quote:
Originally Posted by Scouser
While it gives me joy to land a bird or two, its more that I'd like the dog to get the reward after a job well done. In saying that, it hasn't affected him yet, he still is as keen as he ever was :)
Sweet....i burst out laughing at this bit....(priceless)......"until he stops and 4 more brownies fly out prematurely (no shots). Aki confused looks back at me, he deserved a cuddle but I told him to get on and find the bastards..."
Hahaha... thats a crack up, does sound a bit dodgy when you isolate the sentence....Quote:
Originally Posted by Scouser
F-ckin aye Scouser... got a dirty mind in there...Wait until Pointer reads this... I'm in for some piss take....
Nah I know what ya meant :cool:
Bloody good read petros:)
Petros_mk, neat write up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Petros_mk
Never be embarrassed by the genus Coturnix!!! Pick a bird and follow him through; that will get the quail in the stew!!:D:D
The dog will never tire of the scent...however, he'll eventually eat your arms off:D:D
Nice work @Pointer ,nice bit of forest Petros
its one reason i hunt quail a lot alone:sick:Quote:
Originally Posted by Petros_mk
no witnesses except the dog and so far he,s keepin stum:yaeh am not durnk:
one did get unlucky yesterday avo, 3 shots at a covey flush of 30 birds 1 down.
[img]http://i1046.photobucket.com/albums/...rown15/3-2.jpg[/img]Quote:
Originally Posted by gsp follower
id load yesterdays one but telecom tells me my phone,s not set up to email pics which is pretty funny cos up untill a few days ago i didnt have a problem grrrrrrr
A fairly rushed morning, started off with the wind on our back so a decision was made to walk to the other end of the forest and work our way back. Even tho the dog is old enough to know how to work the wind, it still puts the odds against him and I'm not keen to set him up to fail.
Ironically enough, walking on the beaten track with Aki on the lead 5-6 pheasants were having a gathering, and not long after 2 more were flushed behind us. Couldn't blame the dog for not picking up any scent, I worked him too far froward. But he had to be blamed for not listening to my stop whistle, I had a bit of a chat with the specialist before we continued.
No bird contact for the next couple of hours. For last I left a nice little spot where I usually find brown quail, before we call it the day maybe we can find a sparrow or two. No luck there too...
To give it a bit more irony I change the #9s for some Fiocchi #6s as we exit the scrubby quail grounds and Aki slams on point as soon as I put the gun over the shoulder.... Couple of snaps with my phone and we moved in for the flush...Not to rush things, I left the first bird go, but the second one was dead on the sights so I gave it a nudge... The specialist was steady so a pat on the head was deserved...dead brownie in the bag, off to the car and home for a beer....
Sorry for the photo quality...
Attachment 27929
Attachment 27930
Love your reports Petros:cool:
Go Aki!!! Shocking quality of fotos:D:D:D
Nice Pete
no wonder people think we,re mad spending hours and a not insignificant amount of wedge to bring home a bird not much bigger than a blackbird:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Petros_mk
They do not know what they are missing...:D
Loving the dog photos and sweet reports, keep them coming.
Friend and I drove over 2 hr on Sunday, spent 3.5hr hunting and got 1 quail. Mind you, we missed a few.Quote:
no wonder people think we,re mad spending hours and a not insignificant amount of wedge to bring home a bird not much bigger than a blackbird
the trick is to figure out why you missed them :yaeh am not durnk:Quote:
Originally Posted by GSP
everytime i think i have i manage to miss them in a different way.
so close yet so fast and manueverable the little buggers.
what gets me is the amount of non gunners who say '' you got a shotgun how can you miss ''
''fucken easily'' i reply:D
[img]http://i1046.photobucket.com/albums/...ca5746d55d.jpg[/img]
quail is about 15 ft in front and just on the edge of the right hand tire track two thirds thru the curve:killzonesmiley:
hahah... I get that quite often.Quote:
Originally Posted by gsp follower
Funniest part on Monday morning in the office I get asked "how was your weekend" so I end up getting excited explaining every detail about how the dog ran, where the birds were, how was the weather, and the final straw is when I say "but I missed everything"....
Whoever has asked me usually stands there confused questioning my sanity....
They are very cunning. They fly out when you turn your back, out behind trees, into trees where you never can see them and most amazing is their ability to land and just dissapear. We saw a covey running and it flew into 1 tree. We sneaked around behind the tree in an effort to flush them back out onto the low scrub on the river bed. Some we shot at and missed and probably half went out onto the river bed. We never found one of them. We stopped off at another area on the way home and a dozen or so flushed from manuka and scrub like a rocket heading for the really thick stuff (those huge blackberry patches ) and I was lucky to hit one and thought I might have to call my friend over with his dog to help find it as my dog didn't see it at all, but he soon came out the bushes with it. I was lucky it wasn't a runner.
I know I make the mistake, but I have figured it out that sometimes we, not our dogs, but we get too close to the covey...scenerio...dog on point (you know instinctively that it is not pheasant by the way dog is pointing) we move on up...like the lifesaving Hiemlich manoeuvre which is now deemed unnecessary, I have found that by staying back a bit and letting the pellets reach out, even I shoot better and somehow you can better concentrate of the individuals and not the mass because you can see more of the picture than just a glorious blur of grey...
i got you beat:pissed off: i know where a big covey roostsQuote:
Originally Posted by GSP
right thinks i flush them from roost trees follow and begin all time best quail tally.
uhuhuhhhhhhhhhhhhhh nah the little bastards just jumped from one tree to another so i chased them around about an acre before even i realised they,d made a dick of me .
the dog had worked it out long before and never left his pointing up the succession of trees.:D
i could hve beaned a couple every time the changed trees but that aint hunting so i content myself catching them occasionaly in the scrub or ambushing them on thier way back from a free feed .
you send the dog to flush then?same but actually taking a step back and sideways giving your self more room can help to.Quote:
, I have found that by staying back a bit and letting the pellets reach out, even I shoot better and somehow you can better concentrate of the individuals and not the mass because you can see more of the picture than just a glorious blur of grey...
your right being to close to the flush is sometimes worse than being to far away:XD:
I flush brownies each day. I must give this bird shooting a go on day too :D
Quite alimentary that, Gibo!!!! :D:D:D:D
DO YOU THRIVE ON FRUSTRATION STRESS AND DISSAPOINTMENT GIBO:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Gibo
i jest all of the above just makes the successes all the sweeter.:killzonesmiley:
Well I am married :XD: Ha haQuote:
Originally Posted by gsp follower
The other day I missed 3 of the easiest shots
That you will ever get on Cali's only to knock over
An absolute Hail Mary on the way back to the ute.
They are very easy to miss sometimes.
And the more time they give me The more I seem
To miss them
sounds like a cocker owner.Quote:
Originally Posted by gsp follower
