NH Grouse Hunting Update: 10/4
This has been a familiar pose for Rosie this first week of the hunting season: on point. While she has had some solid grouse points this week, she has really excelled with her talents on woodcock. She has helped clients harvest five woodcock in the last few days, with some dynamic points, and it has been wonderful watching her be rewarded for her work.
Yesterday morning was a good one for Rosie, as we disrupted the morning routine for approximately six grouse and six woodcock. She had a couple of great points on grouse, one of which offered a very good chance for my client, but escaped unscathed for another day. She also pointed all of the woodcock she encountered, but they failed to offer shots. The cover was thick yesterday, and they always seemed to fly the wrong way or quickly put a tree between my hunter and themselves.
Overnight, we had more rain but the front cleared out today followed by crisp temperatures and a blustery wind. Nearly perfect grouse hunting conditions in other words. There were a lot of leaves falling throughout the day today (don't get too excited everyone ... there's still plenty out there), and perhaps it had an effect on the visibility of the birds we encountered. It was the best day so far of the four day old season - 13 grouse and 17 woodcock encountered over the course of the day. While we were mostly hearing grouse escape the first couple days of the season, we were actually getting some good visuals on them today. Perhaps it was the soft, rain soaked leaves that allowed us to get closer to the birds, and the scenting conditions were nothing short of perfect.
Monty was first out of the truck today and he had himself quite a morning, moving 10 grouse and 12 woodcock, many of which were pointed. He started out immediately pointing a pair of woodcock, then had a great point-track-point of a pair of grouse. One of them offered a pretty good shot for my client, but flew away for another day. Later on, Monty was simply a machine pointing many woodcock and a grouse as we hunted slowly down a beautiful hillside - we couldn't have asked for anything more. Unfortunately, they were either missed or flew in such a way (straight at clients' heads) that no safe shot could be taken. That is hunting, and my clients showed great restraint at times - no bird is worth taking a bad shot over.
Rosie hunted this afternoon, and while we didn't encounter the same number of birds (3 grouse and 5 woodcock) as the morning session, Rosie really did a great job, pointing one grouse and all of the woodcock. The timberdoodles were a little more accommodating for Rosie, and three of them fell to Bob's gun, with Rosie bringing them back to us. She has had a nice start to her third hunting season, and we should have many good days ahead following her through the grouse woods.
We have good weather for most of this week with a slight warm up late next week - more updates to come.
Yesterday morning was a good one for Rosie, as we disrupted the morning routine for approximately six grouse and six woodcock. She had a couple of great points on grouse, one of which offered a very good chance for my client, but escaped unscathed for another day. She also pointed all of the woodcock she encountered, but they failed to offer shots. The cover was thick yesterday, and they always seemed to fly the wrong way or quickly put a tree between my hunter and themselves.
Overnight, we had more rain but the front cleared out today followed by crisp temperatures and a blustery wind. Nearly perfect grouse hunting conditions in other words. There were a lot of leaves falling throughout the day today (don't get too excited everyone ... there's still plenty out there), and perhaps it had an effect on the visibility of the birds we encountered. It was the best day so far of the four day old season - 13 grouse and 17 woodcock encountered over the course of the day. While we were mostly hearing grouse escape the first couple days of the season, we were actually getting some good visuals on them today. Perhaps it was the soft, rain soaked leaves that allowed us to get closer to the birds, and the scenting conditions were nothing short of perfect.
Monty was first out of the truck today and he had himself quite a morning, moving 10 grouse and 12 woodcock, many of which were pointed. He started out immediately pointing a pair of woodcock, then had a great point-track-point of a pair of grouse. One of them offered a pretty good shot for my client, but flew away for another day. Later on, Monty was simply a machine pointing many woodcock and a grouse as we hunted slowly down a beautiful hillside - we couldn't have asked for anything more. Unfortunately, they were either missed or flew in such a way (straight at clients' heads) that no safe shot could be taken. That is hunting, and my clients showed great restraint at times - no bird is worth taking a bad shot over.
Rosie hunted this afternoon, and while we didn't encounter the same number of birds (3 grouse and 5 woodcock) as the morning session, Rosie really did a great job, pointing one grouse and all of the woodcock. The timberdoodles were a little more accommodating for Rosie, and three of them fell to Bob's gun, with Rosie bringing them back to us. She has had a nice start to her third hunting season, and we should have many good days ahead following her through the grouse woods.
We have good weather for most of this week with a slight warm up late next week - more updates to come.
