Phil from Maine

As some on here remember I enjoy hunting with my Irish Setters.. I haven't had them out for a couple of years due to issues with my knee. I also have been trying to do some bow hunting. I keep hearing people around here complaining that there are no birds around. I told them to get out into the cuttings and you will find them. Those heater hunters are having a hard time seeing birds because of those cuttings. The cuttings allow the sun to get into the woods now so the birds do not come out and set by the road very much anymore..
Anyways I took my male Irish Setter out for a run this afternoon. It has been showering off and on making the conditions wet to say the least. Although I do not have any pics from the hunt as my camera has drowned three times to many. I wouldn't dare take the wife's and have that get drowned. So I did the next best thing and took a pic of the birds for you. We saw a total of eighteen birds which I feel is a super great day concidering we haven't been out together hunting for a couple of years.. I had two misses and four good solid hits. The birds were not holding good for Rusty to stay on point plus the fact we both are a bit rusty anyways.. Here is a pic of our prize for the day which is the limit on ruffed grouse..

Phil from Maine

No... No gun lasers at all. These will take off full throttle weaving threw the trees when they can. I was a little slow but my dog is a pointer so it worked out well for us. My female Roxie is a flusher and very good at locating birds if I need to take her out for a run. She is small tipping the scales at 45lbs. while Rusty is around 70lbs. They will work good together as well. They both use to love hunting birds.. As it shows right now Rusty has not forgotten what it is about. I do have to try and work on his retrieving skills some more though..

NEK

What a great day Phil! Man - that is some fine shooting - you aint too rusty from that two year layoff. 18 birds jumped - that is more than I have ever seen in one day in the lower 48. I have seen more than that in Alaska - but that is a whole different ball of wax.
Sure am glad you are healthy enough to get out with the Setters again.

huntrfishr

Good to hear you have a healthy population of Ruffed Grouse.
I wish we had the same but there is so few that I dare not shot them around here.
Good outing and good luck for the rest of the year.

Mite

Hey Phil, take care of that knee. Wow, 18 birds. That must have been a fun day. We are in the middle of pheasant season here but these are pen raised since West WA doesn't have the weather or land for wild ones. It's not that bad considering its only a ten minute drive to the hunting grounds.

Phil from Maine

Thanks guys.. I had a great day and everything went well except for the weather being lousey.. We saw several wood**** (timberdoodles) as well.. I have trouble hitting those little rockets so I do not even try on them any more. Prolly where an Improve Cylinder choked barrel would work best. I am sticking with my Modified barrel though. I am using the 2/3" express long range loads in number 6 off a 28inch barrel. The birds sometimes will fly down a skidder trail allowing me a little more time to draw a bead better. It works well for me as you can see.

Yeah Mite, I have to be carefull of my knee that is for sure. I had it scoped out back then and it still bothers me from time to time. But we know how hunting with what we choose for hunting dogs can be a blast. I have been missing that for quite some time now. So I had one of them out and I choose the slower one so it ould be easier to handle. The birds were not holding very good so it made for quite a few draw ups but that was it for the most part. We still had a fantastic afternoon of it though with around 4 hours of hitting the cuttings.

Those ones up here complaining about not having many birds have no real idea. They ride around on the dirt roads hoping to see a bird setting on the banks soaking up the sun. When what they need to do is get out and walk around in some of our cuttings that are a year or two old.

KT29

Its great that you could finally make it out after all that time. This was indeed a super hunt for those ruffs. They are indeed a challenge. You and your Irish did very well.

Phil from Maine

Thanks everyone...

I took Rusty out for another afternoon of hunting today.. It was quite warm and the birds were not holding up for much of anything. We did put up 12 birds today. I shot at 5 but only connected to 2 birds. We beat the brush for around 5 hours. The birds were being a bit difficult but I enjoyed it as well as my Irish Setter..

I am not sure but we did see a coyote when we were driving into the road heading to our hunting ground. Perhaps they were in there harrassing the birds some. It was a very beatiful animal that I wished I had the fire power for with me. It was a mix of black and gray for the most part. Looking almost like a small german shepard with gray and a little bit of brown mixed in the bottom of it's tail. This one makes the 6th coyote I have seen with 7 total days of hunting. The rest have not been in the area I am hunting though.

sproulman

i remember days like that here in pa. not anymore.seeing 2 grouse a day is big day now.
irish did it again.

toby and me got smoked by a 16 yr old springer on pheasants and i mean SMOKED.

no doubt in my mind now that springer is best i have seen on pheasants in over 45 years hunting.
its hard for me to say that when i like labs so much but we got our a kicked today.

Phil from Maine

I have a friend that has a bird farm that I took my Irish to. He had 2 springers until one of them ( Saddie ) got into his pantry and ate a box of raisins. He had to take his dog to the vet but the dog couldn't be saved. It was a good working dog on the pheasants as well. I took my Irish there for some training and he was quite impressed with Rusty when he turned 2. I have not been up training my dogs after that. It was cold and windy that day and we got our 4 pheasants plus 2 bonus pheasants. There is something about the Irish Setters besides looks that makes me enjoy hunting with them..