Et tu, Brute?
It's pretty good when everything works out as scripted, and we were fortunate to have that exact situation happen this morning while grouse hunting in Pittsburg, New Hampshire.
- We had a great point not too far ahead of us by Monty;
- My client was able to get to the dog and in to shooting position quickly;
- The grouse held unusually well for the point;
- When the bird went up, Matt made a nice shot to bring the bird down.
We had a great morning of grouse hunting, and in just two hours we contacted eight grouse, at least six of which were pointed by Monty. Working methodically and slowly (maybe he's finally wearing out this season), he pinned several of the birds, and two of them gave Matt excellent chances (he connected on one). While we didn't see any other bird hunters out there this morning, we have seen some muzzleloading deer hunters (or their vehicles) out there in the last few days. Make sure you and your dogs are wearing plenty of blaze orange right now and don't forget that the rifle deer season begins next week on Wednesday, 11/11 - it will be a good time to take a couple of weeks off from the grouse woods.
We concluded our morning by taking Matt's 7 month old pointer, Brutus, out for a training run in the grouse woods. Armed with the training pistol, we led Brutus through the cover, and he did a great job of boldly attacking some heavy cover for the first time. Brutus hunted with confidence, and even bumped a grouse that we saw at the last moment. He had no reaction to the firing of the starter's pistol, and then went back to searching for birds.
In a short time, Brutus definitely looked "birdy", and his gate slowed dramatically. When a grouse launched out of a nearby clump of short spruce trees, Matt was positively giddy with the realization that he may have a possible bird hunter and hunting buddy on his hands. We saw the light flicker in Brutus, and it was exciting to watch him encounter his first two grouse - we may have another member in our hunting party next year …
