Our plans for sharpies and Huns got put on hold for a few days. A stiff cold front kicked the waterfowl migration into high gear, bringing a tremendous influx of birds and we have been waterfowl hunting.
Yesterday we went upland hunting with Grouse and Huns as our objective. We had quite a day that came to an early and unexpected end.
After waterfowl hunting for a few days the dogs were gassed up and ready to go. Our day was the kind of day a bird hunter from Texas dreams about, until it came to an abrupt halt. When we got out of the truck it was downright nippy. 14 degrees, with 25 mph wind out of the NW and snowing sideways. Our concern about the scenting conditions were unwarranted. Today the dogs were like a pair of sharks in a swimming pool. The weather put the birds in predictable locations, and those were the type of locations we put the dogs on the ground. In the howling wind and snow they held better than usual for the dogs. Although we were not shooting pheasant and they were 2/3 hens, the dogs pointed 23 of them. We let them fly today and stayed after the Sharpies and Huns. Six large coveys of Huns were pointed. An estimated 15-20 birds were in each covey. The dogs also managed to point 4 coveys of sharpies and numerous singles.
We were having a hell of a good time till my buddies shorthair went through the ice on a small pond and could not get out. My hunting partner broke ice out to him in navel deep water and drug his ass to where he could get his feet under him. The dog was fine. My hunting partner on the other hand was damn cold. Thankfully we were only about a mile from the truck. In the time it took to get back to the truck his clothes froze solid. After about 10 minutes with the truck running, his britches thawed enough that he could get at his boot laces and get out of the frozen clothes. We both had an extra set of clothes in the truck and everyone was ok, but we called it a day. We ended up taking 5 Huns and 4 sharpies between the two of us. The first bird of the day was a hun on the first drop of the day. As an afterthought we took a cell pic of the hun before driving to another location. As it turned out, it was the only pic we took. It is a low quality photo but will always remind us of the day he went in belly button deep in 14 degrees to get his dog. Asking my half frozen hunting buddy to get back out of the truck for a photo shoot would most likely have resulted in severely burning my ears....,so this pic of me at the truck without my gear or dog is a sobering reminder of a near miss on an otherwise quite memorable day.
(Tap image for full photo)
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Willie T
by Willie T » Wed Oct 23, 2019 12:57 am 
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