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Post by Kt29 on Sept 4, 2007 14:35:29 GMT -5
This is day one of my journal. Nearly all outdoors activities since this spring have centered around the training of my lab pup Dakota. She was born on Valentines Day and I brought her home April 10th. A lot of folks have asked if she will be ready to hunt by next year, and my answer is alway no. She will be hunting this fall, and indeed she already has. She has been in the field at least once a day and mostly twice a day since I got her. September 1 was our first official hunt and it was for Doves. I do believe that this will have been the most exciting day I will have a field this year. When she sat by me and watched the doves come in was like having one of your kids come along for the first time. When that first dove went down and I sent her out to retrieve it, she did not hestitate for a moment. What an absolute thrill. It has been somewhat akward going out without my old yellow lab. He is now 12 and its just been to hot out to take him along. He is a great dog and I really miss him not being along. I'm having to face the reality that he may not hunt anymore. When it cools down later on in the fall, I will start taking him along. I will let him decide what he wants to do. He may just sit in the truck, but that's OK, he has earned his stripes. That brings me to today. I've now completed all my work contracts for the year so I'm now free to do as I please. That in itself is another great feeling, which though is somewhat tempered by my wife's work list. Dakota and I left the house at 7:00 as it was warming up fast today. We are hunting a small stock dam in a CRP field just a few minutes away from the house. The walk in to and from the dam constituets most of our training. She is responding very well now to whistle commands. Fortunately their are alot of pheasants in the CRP we walk through to the dam. She very nicely put up 8 pheasants on the trip in. Still six weeks away yet from the start of pheasant season. Sitting by the dam is more like duck hunting. Doves coming in over the hill to get water. Dakota has been real good about staying in our blind, she seems to have a lot of patience, something the old yellow lab never had much of. Not alot of doves flying this morning, but we did get five. Dakota had no problem marking and retrieving them. One dove fell into the dam. I was anxious to see how she would handle that retrieve as she has not been in any water since she fell out of the boat way back in May. She made a full out staight line retrieve and swam out to the bird like she had done it a hundred times. It was great. Hopefully we will get back to the central part of the state later on in the fall and get some ducks. I'm sure we both will enjoy that. On our way back out, she put up one nice rooster. She's really young for sure, but she has no problem getting the job done.
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Post by Kt29 on Sept 5, 2007 13:49:36 GMT -5
Left the house at 7:00 this morning along with Dakota. Traveled a few minutes out to our training/dove hunting area. Had a brisk wind this morning out of the NW, and temp. in mid 60's. It was very comfortable to be out. Worked her down the valley to the stockdam we've been hunting doves at. Not alot of birds around this morning, but she did find one nice young rooster. Will be nice one of these days to be able to shoot them. We've been concentrating on whistle commands for about a month now, and all the effort is reallly starting to show. Being able to get out into the field everyday with her is giving both of us alot of confidence in each other. Not alot of doves flying this morning, but the ones that were were zipping by at a pretty good clip with the brisk winds. Only managed to bring one down that Dakota did a good job on marking. It landed in some very heavy tall grass. It took awhile to locate it, but she never gave up on it. She is very patient while sitting in the blind. Let her take a nice swim in the pond then we worked our way back up the valley to the truck. Hope it starts staying cool like it was this morning.
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Post by Kt29 on Sept 6, 2007 17:42:04 GMT -5
Woke up to a nice gently rain this morning. Something that we really needed. Temps. about 60 and very little wind. Rain quit at 10:00, so took the pup out for a good two hour training session. I'm thinking that training session is also doing alot of good for getting me in shape. When I got home I decided it was a great day to do some shooting. Loaded up the old lab and my newbuilt 6MM and the .223 and headed the short drive to the range. Finally made a scope swap between the 6MM and the .223. Tried it last year but the Mueller scope tube was to short to fit on the long action of the new enfield 6MM. Finally solved that problem buy getting an extented weaver front base for the 6MM. Worked like a charm. Didn't have many shells loaded up for the 6MM as still in the load development stage, but had enough to get it back on paper OK. This gun will be work in progress for awhile to come yet. Still need to put a new stock on it yet, hopefully by this fall. Got the Savage .223 on paper in no time, what a treat that rifle is. Not often I get to shoot on a day with no wind, but today was it. Was perfect for doing a 300 yard zero. True to form, after 6 shots, had her printing back inside of my inch and a half bull. Haven't done any prairie dog shooting since March, so am anxious to get out, especially since it's a lot cooler out now. Brother-in-law is planning on coming out first of next week to help me reduce the population a little. Was also the first time I've been able to be out alone with the old lab in a long time. With the advent of the cooler weather he has been alot perkier, and also probably didn't miss at all the pup constanly hanging off his ears. After our first walk down to check out the 300 yard target, he disappeared over the hill on me. Walked over to see what he was up to. He was just sitting there watching two small muley bucks that had been camped out down the valley below the 300 yard target. What a treat to see them. It was just great to spend most of the day out doing things I enjoy after the long hot summer we've gone through.
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Post by Kt29 on Sept 8, 2007 20:20:12 GMT -5
Well, today was the opening day of sharptail season. Wouldn't you know it, a storm blew in last night. Rained heavy all night and still raining this morning. Was really anxious to get out with Dakota on her first real hunt. Finally about 10:00 the rain started slacking off. Decided we would go out no matter what. Was a couple of down sides to deal with though. First, more than likey the sharptails had pulled out of the fields to go feed, and second the roads to my hunting areas would mostly be impassable due to gumbo mud. As it turned out, the roads were impassable. Was able to get within walking distance of one field, but it was not that great of a field. But in order to get out we went to it anyways. After about 10 minutes of walking the field, spotted the sharptails flying out to feed in a stubble field. No hope of getting up on them in the field. Was alittle bummed out, but new this could be the case. Worked Dakota for another 10 minutes, and would you know, she got really birdy. Now being she is only a six months old, getting birdy for her could lead to almost anything. She really went to work. It was great to watch. And then up it came. A nice sharptail. It must have been sleeping went the others went out to lunch. I kinda froze, somewhat in disbelieve and pretty much thrilled that she had found it and put it up. Finally would up shooting at it, but in the 25 MPH wind it was gone in a hurry. Our first real test and I was the one to blow it. We hunted for another 20 minutes till it started raining hard again. Was enough for me, but she was lovin it. Made our way back to the truck and headed home. Was proud of that little girl. She did great. She worked in close and remembered all her whistle commands. I couldn't have been any happier. No birds but a great day anyway.
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Post by Kt29 on Sept 13, 2007 15:58:34 GMT -5
Been a few days since I've been able to update journal. Had a Fireman's fund raiser all last Sunday and my truck was in shop all Monday. So Tuesday morning Sept.11 was able to get out again. Dakota and I left the house at 0730, Temp. was 40 with little wind. What a great morning to get out. We were able to get to one of my favorite sharptail areas. Dakota was eager to get going once we got there. She is growing into quite the hunting dog. Wasn't long and she was really birdy. But wouldn't ya know it, she was into a flock of pheasants and that season doesn't open for a month or so. But know matter to her, she really worked those birds. Out of the seven birds she put up, two were really nice roosters, that most people could have easily shot. This area never used to have pheasants in it, so it was nice to know that they were there. After that bit of excitement, we moved on, and about ten minutes later she was birdy again. Up came two nice sharptails, and two nice misses. As the birds were slow to get up, I was alittle apprehensive of shooting at them that close over her head. In reality they were probably OK to shoot at, but I'm pretty cautious yet. Don't know if she will jump up to get them, or quite what she will do. Time and experience with her will iron things out. After putting those two birds up, she came right back and was birdy again. She put up two more birds that were safe two shoot. Just shot at one and down it came. She was on it immediately. As the picture shows, she was alittle tentative at retrieving it. Was alittle bigger than the doves she retrieved. She perservered though and brought it in to hand. That was another great moment. I do believe she will be just fine in the retrieving department. That was the last of the birds we found this morning. We headed home with a pretty good feeling about the hunt. After lunch my brother-in-law, Bob, showed up. We loaded up the truck with our .223's and headed out to the range to check out his rifle to make sure it was within prairie dog shooting accuracy. After a time at the range, we headed over to a nearby dog town. The dogs were out in full force and we found a good spot to set up and proceeded to shoot dogs for three hours. What a beautiful afternoon to be in a dog town. Was about 65 out and little wind. After we ran out of all the ammo we took along we loaded up and headed towards home. But just after we pulled out of the dog town I spotted a sharptail sitting at the edge of a woody draw. We stopped the pickup and got out our 20 ga.'s and pulled a sneak on it. As is usually the case, one sharptail turned into about two dozen. They were going everywhere. I saw Bob pull down on one and miss. I pulled on one and dropped it into the draw then pulled on a second and dropped it into the draw also. I looked over as Bob shot again and watched two drop with one shot. As I went down to retrieve my birds, more birds were still getting up, but I had used up my two shots, anyways I now had my limit for the day. We found all four birds. It was a great way to end the day. Wednesday Sept. 12, Bob and I headed out in the afternoon to another dog town. What a change from yesterday. Temps. were nice, about 75, but the prairie winds were at full song today. There were plenty dogs to shoot at, but hitting was a completely different story. Even laying on the ground with the bipods, it was very hard to keep from rocking back and forth, much less having to guess the windage. All in all it was very challenging. I would guess the winds were in excess of 35 MPH. We did not lower the dog population very much today, but we still had alot of fun trying.
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Post by Kt29 on Sept 14, 2007 16:15:05 GMT -5
The frost was on the pumpkin this morning. Was 26 degrees at 7:30 this morning. Dakota and I left the house at 8: 00 for some more training/sharptail hunting. Had clear skies and no wind. It was a very nice bird hunting morning. On the short drive out to our hunting location, had to slow down for a flock of Huns sitting in the middle of the road. They quickly flew off. Was the first flock of them I've seen out this way this season. When we got to our hunting spot, I put Dakota's Sportdog E-Collar on her for the first time. She was so excited to get hunting she didn't even notice she had it on. She is doing pretty well with her commands, so I figured this would be a good time to introduce her to it.. Will let her wear it for a couple of mornings before I start using it. She does have occasions when she goes whistle deaf, usually when she puts up a jackrabbit. Hope to have this corrected in the next week or so. She is a fast learner , so it may not take that long. About 20 minutes into the hunt she got real birdy. She worked a small grassy area over pretty good, and finally put up a nice sharptail, which I actually brought down. She got on it right a way and did a much better job of retrieving this one than she did the last one. Not alot of birds in the field this morning. The last couple of days have been terribly windy days. As it was so nice early this morning, I would imagine most of the birds left early to feed. Did see several going into a grain field to feed as we were walking. Probably need to get out at sun up tomorrow and try that. We stopped on a small hill to rest and have some water. Watched a small buck antelope walk up to a hundred yards of us. He finally had enough and took off. After another 20 minutes she got very birdy again. She worked a small area hard for five minutes and finally put up another sharptail. It got up right in front of her and never gained much elevation. I passed on shooting at it. When we got almost back to the truck, she went into action again. Again she worked this area over very aggressively for five minutes or so, and put up a hen pheasant. She's 7 months old today. What a treat to have her.
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Post by Kt29 on Sept 15, 2007 11:26:58 GMT -5
Had a nice outing this morning with Dakota. Temps. at 39 degrees, little wind and blue skies. Had seven antelope watching us as we got out of the truck. After I put on Dakota's collar and grabbed the 20 ga., she immediately went into action. In a few minutes she put up a nice rooster. Was alot of promise for the morning hunt, but no sharptails. As these are mostly training sessions for her anyways, spend some of the time getting her used to the E-Collar. She did get very birdy one more time, and worked the creek bottom over pretty good, eventually putting up an owl that was buried down in the grass. I'm sure the sharptails were around, but with all the endless prairies, they can be hard to locate at times. She is getting alot of valuable training it though and well as getting me in shape for the upcoming pheasant season.
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Post by Kt29 on Sept 17, 2007 12:49:40 GMT -5
Was warming up very early this morning. Dakota and I left house at 7:00 again to get out and get some more field time with her before pheasant season. Sharptails have been hard to find of late. I know they're out there, but not having much luck finding them. So much country to try to cover to find them. Finding pheasants is relatively easy in comparison. They generally use a different habit and tend to hang out in the same areas, whereas sharptails seem to be wereever they choose. One just has to look very hard. Dakot as now worn the E-collar for four trips out. She has shown no resistance to it at all. Today was her first real test on a jackrabbit. When she put the jack up I gave her a whistle comeback, when she didn't respond I used the E-collar. She responded immediately and came right back. That was a very good feeling to know that it will work. She went right back to hunting and was very attentative the rest of the morning. No birds today but a very good training session. I believe we are both learning how to work together very well. No substitute for time in the field with her.
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Post by Kt29 on Sept 18, 2007 13:26:30 GMT -5
Another morning of chasing sharptails and getting Dakota more field time. Cool, breezy and overcast this morning when we left the house at 7:30, a perfect morning to be out. Noticed when I crossed the Heart River, just down from the house, how fast the Ash trees are turning their fall colors. Was a doe and two fawns standing by the river. Fall is definetely here. About 20 minutes into hunt, Dakota did get birdy. She worked area over for a few minutes and put up a sharptail right in front of me which I managed to hit. Their was nothing tentative about her retrieve today on this bird. She handled it like a Pro. I new she would come around fast. She's all business anymore when we go out. But that was it this morning for finding anymore sharptails. She did work over one low spot on the way back and put up a hen pheasant. Used the E-collar very little this morning. Got back to the truck at 9:30 just as it was starting to rain. Another good morning in the field.
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Post by Kt29 on Sept 20, 2007 14:27:31 GMT -5
Took off yesterday and traveled to the central part of the state to the Scheel's store there. Stocked up on essentials for the coming hunting seasons. Think I have enough shotguns shells to make it to the end of the season now. Picked up alot of gun cleaning supplies and powder for the rifles. Still looking for a folding saw to replace the one I lost last deer season, but wasn't able to find the one I want here. Will be going out to Idaho in a few weeks, so will do some checking out their for it. Dakota and I left the house this morning about 10:30 in search of more sharptails and to get more training it. Went up north of the house a few miles to a spot I hadn't hunted yet this year. Drove by that way last week and saw some pheasants going into that field, but it has also been a good sharptail field in the past. When we started out from the truck, Dakota was instantly on to a bird. Being it was so close to the road I figured it was probably a pheasant so I stood by and watched her work it. Wouldn't you know it, she put up a sharptail. I was totally unprepared for that. Goes to show how thinking can get one into trouble. Finally got it all together and got a shot off, it finally came down but was not a very hard hit. Before Dakota got their it was up and flying again. She watched it get up and I let her give chase. It came down again in about 40 yards and she was right on it. She grabbed it right up and brought it back. This was a very good save on her part. The next 40 minutes or so, she was busy putting up pheasants. What a great training morning for her. Can't beat live birds for training. She did very well on all her whoa's and comebacks, except for one big rooster which she continued to chase after she put it up. Had to use the E-collar to get her off it. I was really surprised to find only the one sharptail in this field. This has seemed to be the case most of the time so far this season. Working all these pheasants this morning was more than worth it though. We only stayed out an hour this morning as it was warming up pretty good again.
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Post by Kt29 on Sept 21, 2007 16:57:10 GMT -5
Another nice day to be out in the field. Left the house about 2:00 and headed southwest a few miles to try out another spot for sharptails. Dakota had been pestering me for hours to get going. Partly cloudy this afternoon. Temps. 62 with strong breeze out of northwest. We seem to be in our same bird scenario today also. Ten minutes into hunt, Dakota was on a bird and put up one sharptail which she made another nice retrieve on. Other than that, no more sharptails. She did put up 4 or 5 meadowlarks though. Guess she's not to picky yet what kind of bird she puts up. She hunted very well again today. My shooting seems to be improving as my confidence in her grows. First few times out, most of my focus was on her. Lately I've felt alot more comfortable with her and my shooting is starting to show that. Didn't use the E-collar today at all. Hunted for about an hour than headed home.
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Post by Kt29 on Sept 24, 2007 18:42:02 GMT -5
Just kind of a crappy day out today, weather wise. Temps. 47, heavy overcast with alittle mist, and winds out of northwest at 30-35 mph. Haven't had the pup out for a couple of days, and she was bugging me to get out. So in spite of the less than great weather, we went out about 3:30 to look for a bird. It was somewhat brutal out. I even resorted to putting on my gloves. Not acclimated to this cooler weather yet. Dakota was anxious to get going and had alot of pent up energy to get rid of. Took her a few minutes to get rid of some of that energy, than she was down to the business of hunting. She behaved very well today, did not have to use any corrections with the E-collar. She worked one pheasant and put it up nicely, but no sharptails today in our hour or so hunt. It truly amazes me how at her age she can be all business when in the field hunting, and when we get home, she is just a rambunctious little pup yet, always looking for a way to get into some sort of trouble. Wish she would stay that way forever. I love it. Hoping for a nicer day tomorrow to get out and do alittle more serious hunt.
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Post by Kt29 on Sept 25, 2007 16:53:43 GMT -5
Today was probably our most fun day afield yet. Weather was alittle nicer today. Temps. at 55 and blue skies, but the winds were still blowing 25-30 mph. Dakota and I left house about 11:30 and headed south a few miles. Did not find any sharptails in this field, but Dakota worked one rooster nicely and one hen. We hunted hard but that was it. When we got back to the pickup I watered her down good and we took a little rest. Across the two-track from where we were parked was a small acre or so grassy area between two stubble fields. Decided to check it out. We know more than got into the field and Dakota was on to something. Up game a nice flock of huns, maybe a dozen or more. Woundn't you know it, they immediately swung with the wind right over the top of my pickup. Now I wanted to shoot bad, but not bad enough to take out my truck. Watched them fly about 300 yards back over a hill we had just walked. I knew that they probably landed again just over the hill, so we took out after them. It's a neat feeling when you go looking for them, knowing that they are somewheres around. It wasn't long after we topped the hill that Dakota got really birdy and I knew we were close. A couple more minutes of searching and she found them. She put them up nicely, but they immediately swung with the wind again, making for some tough shooting at these little rockets. My first shot I thought I hit one so I put the second barrel back on it to make sure. Seemed like I led it about 8 feet. Between it flying and the strong winds it came down about 75 yards later. Dakota didn't see it fall as there were so many other birds that she was watching. I marked the bird and we set off after it. It wasn't long and she had found it. What a nice treat to get one. Dakota had another good day in the field. What fun it is to have her and hunt with her. What a lot of work though to get to this point, but all worth it. We loaded up and went home.
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Post by Kt29 on Sept 27, 2007 15:27:59 GMT -5
Left the house at 7:30 looking for sharptails. Blues skies, 45 degrees, 15-20 mph winds. Nicest morning we've had in a while. Dakota was itching to get going. Since I've taught her to go fetch my boots, she's always fetching them. Guess I have to watch what I teach her. Went south a few miles. Nothing the first part of the hunt. She finally got birdy, but the bird flushed about 25 yards in front of her. No shot on it. On the walk back to the truck she did get birdy again. She worked a fairly large area pretty hard. Several times I thought about calling her back but decided to let her go. It was good practice on using her whoa commands, which we had to do several times when she was searching. She resonded well to the commands. After what seemed like an eternity she put up a sharptail. I made a nice shot on it, at least, the second shot was nice. She made another good retrieve. This hunt also taught me a lesson. As I had almost given up on her a few times during the search for the bird, I learned I need to start having alittle more faith in her. One things for sure, she doesn't give up on a bird. What a good girl. Worked our way back to the truck. No more birds. Spent a few hours on the way back, stopping at the various ranches I hunt at for pheasants to get permission to hunt there for the upcoming season. I was pretty sure everything would go OK getting permissions and it was. Treat these folks right time after time and your're always welcomed back. Was a day well spent.
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Post by Kt29 on Sept 30, 2007 19:28:31 GMT -5
My son and his family were here for the weekend. We had a wedding to go to yesterday so no hunting then. This morning was alittle slow going but he and my grandson and I got out about 10:00 this morning to look for some sharptails along with Dakota. We were pretty cramped for time as they still had a 400 mile drive to get back home so he could get back to college tomorrow and the kids back to school. He was pretty excited to finally get a couple of hours to go hunting, and I was excited to have he and my grandson along. We hunted first field pretty hard but didn't put up a bird. I was pretty disappointed as I really wanted him to get some shooting. Decided we would try one more field before we had to get back. Shortly into the field Dakota got on to a bird and put it up very nicely for him and he made a good shot and Dakota a good retrieve. That made me feel good. On our walk back to the truck took alook at a small field a hundred yards to the south. Decided it wasn't much out of the way to check it out. When we got up to the field several birds flushed wildly about 50 yards ahead and flew east and landed. We decided we didn't have enough time to chase after them and had better keep going west back to the truck. A couple more birds flushed far ahead of us and that was encouraging. It wasn't but a couple of minutes and Dakota was going wild. Birds started getting up everywheres around us. After many trips out only finding single birds, finally hit the jackpot. Logan my son knocked one down first shot, I watched Dakota getting on it while birds were getting up around me. Finally took a shot at one and knocked it down. My son emptied his gun, but all misses. Dakota had her first misque of the season. She got to my son's bird and other birds were still getting up around her and she left it. I'm sure she was having an adrenalin rush as we were. It was her first time into a flock of birds. I wasn't disappointed at all though. She still has alot to learn, and this is just another step in the learning curve. She will be fine. She recovered well though and all the birds were found. It was a great end to the hunt. Just wished we would have had more time. My grandson was really excited and ready to do more. When they come out for Thanksgiving will have more time to get alot of pheasant hunting in with them. Man it was great to be able to hunt with him again, even if it was for a short time. Rest of the day is being spent packing for our trip early tomorrow morning back to north Idaho to visit our youngest son. That is always an adventure. Hoping to climb into his CJ and find a bear or two. Was a great day today. Back in a week or so.
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