NH Grouse Hunting Update: 10/16
Another amazing day of grouse and woodcock hunting in New Hampshire’s Great North Woods today. The weather was unsettled today - 40s, cloudy, and sometimes a little rainy, but that didn’t seem to affect the birds and the way the dogs were able to scent them.
Today I had friend and long time client Paul O’Neill along with me, and he had a great week of hunting with me last year in Vermont, but we are hunting New Hampshire this week, so I hoped for similar results. The action this morning was pretty hot, as Monty kept a good range and was pointing with some regularity. We started contacting birds immediately out of the truck and at certain times it seemed that we were at the epicenter of grouse activity in this cover.
Within about an hour and a half, Paul had two grouse in the bag (one was an excellent point from Monty), and several other misses on woodcock as well. When Monty started ranging out a bit too far, I put him up and brought out Rudy for some close work. He did a good job too and found a couple more grouse and several more woodcock, but none of them offered good chances for Paul.
Today I had friend and long time client Paul O’Neill along with me, and he had a great week of hunting with me last year in Vermont, but we are hunting New Hampshire this week, so I hoped for similar results. The action this morning was pretty hot, as Monty kept a good range and was pointing with some regularity. We started contacting birds immediately out of the truck and at certain times it seemed that we were at the epicenter of grouse activity in this cover.
Within about an hour and a half, Paul had two grouse in the bag (one was an excellent point from Monty), and several other misses on woodcock as well. When Monty started ranging out a bit too far, I put him up and brought out Rudy for some close work. He did a good job too and found a couple more grouse and several more woodcock, but none of them offered good chances for Paul.
We moved to our afternoon cover around 1:30 today, and gave Monty a second chance to redeem himself. He did that and more, as he pointed several grouse back to back, made a nice retrieve on one bird that Paul winged, and an awesome find of another downed bird that Paul thought he had hit, which sailed off after his initial shot. It was great for sure, and Paul is my first hunter ever to have limited out on grouse - by 2:30 PM!
Monty pointed another grouse on the way back to the truck for good measure too ...
Monty pointed another grouse on the way back to the truck for good measure too ...
