Contributors to this thread:
Anyone else make it out for the pheasant opener today? Took my 18 month old female lab out for the morning and limited out. Her nose was full of scent most of the morning which always helps in the training department. It was nice to see the pheasant population up this year in at least the area we hunt.
Nice hunt, good looking lab. I will head later next week for a duck/pheasant hunt. Looks like the weather is going to change , ie, cooler, Thrusday and Friday. Paul
Nice success Quinn.
Haven't pheasant hunted yet but looking so forward to it. Waterfowl is new to me these past couple years and I've got the bug bad. It's goose for me as I haven't been able to prepare a duck in anyway that isn't way too gamey tasting. Oh well, I'm perfectly fine with goose.
Hopefully I'll get pheasant hunting opportunities this year.
Nice job Chad...was your boy hunting with you?
good work Chad! I took out my 6month old lab and we filled out too. Lots of birds this year. We only hunted two CPR land.
Nope, I'm working and going deer hunting when I get off, hope to make it out before the birds are all gone
COLOH2OFWLR,
No he had hockey game. Just a quick solo trip to work with the hound.
go elk, that's great. Nothing better for training than a successful day at 6 months.
I was in North Dakota last week and picked this one up.
Wowser...Look at the size of that thing! Swan?
With the weather this year, it has me thinking about finding ND & SD goose opportunities. As it is, it's CO and KS for us so far.
Way to go Chad. I don't have a dog, so I will head out when (Big When) we get some snow. There are a lot of birds this year.
A few of us went out. Saw a lot, but also saw a lot of hunters. They seemed jumpy for opening day. Hopefully this weekend will be better with cooler temps & hopefully fewer hunters. One guy in our group got one.
Nice Terry. What is that beast? Swan??
Tundra swan. We were hunting snow geese and I picked up a swan tag just for giggles. It was a good thing. Killed it Monday evening about 4:00. And since the geese weren't there, that was the only bird in the dirt until Wednesday! Didn't get much better, with 5 of us only nailing 11 geese and a greenhead by Friday. Even the pheasants wouldn't play. The geese started showing up on Wednesday, but it wasn't great. Temps in mid 60s all week. The swan weighed 16 lbs. and will be headed to Birdman Studios in Trinidad soon.
Todd "the Birdman" does great work down there....congrats on the swan!!
Just returned from a DUCK hunt out east. The ducks did not cooperate but the pheasants did. Limited out in an hour and a half yesterday morning. Chase the wonder dog did great.
Guess what is for dinner next week!
Nice work Paul. Chase is a beauty! Thanks for posting.
My wife and I rescued this 18 month old from retriever rescue of colorado 3 weeks ago. I have been training him everyday and finally felt he was ready for a half day in the field. He did good but i need to do more shooting around him. I have been using my old kids cap gun. My problem is they put very little gun powder in them as opposed to what they used to be. Anybody have any ideas on something with less noise than 20 gauge but more noise than my cap gun that i can shoot without freaking out the neighbors?
in training my past and present labs, I use a blank pistol.
I start with banging his metal water pan when he was a pup while he was eating. Then I switched over to a cap gun, and then later, a blank pistol while eating and started at 100 ft away, and then 50 ft and then close by. I always throw the retrieving dummy prior to him eating and can shoot the blank pistol when he is retrieving. I do not have to do any of that now except I still throw the dummy prior to him eating, morning and evening.
THe loud bang of the pot, the blank pistol and then the shot gun should produce a favorable response from the dog and he see it as a positive thing, like eating.
You need more at home training before you take him afield again as you stated. Just do it correct and do it in a good manner and just take your time.
my best , Paul.
Thanks Paul I have been throwing pheasant wings and shooting the cap gun and he is cool with that and he is connecting the cap gun bang with the pheasant wing retrieve witch is what I am looking for. He is showing good enthusiasm when he tracks down the bird so I certainly think he has it in him. I do not have a blank pistol do you know if they sell .22 cal short blanks that I can shoot out of my regular .22 pistol? With my past labs they were cool with the cap gun but the new rolls of caps have very! very little gun powder in them. I will try the cap gun when he is eating as there are less distractions. Thank you for that tip. Ron
Yes you can shoot 22 blanks in your pistol. Yes do it from afar when he is eating and then over time, move closer and then also use it when you are throwing the dummy. Actual, have some one else shoot and throw from 75 yards out so the shot will attract him to the thrown bird. Have him on a lead at your side, and then release him. Do it on very short grass so he can see the dummy hit the ground.
Edited - Good on the rescue, we have a good family Heeler we rescued. If the dog isn't afraid of a .22 blank you should be ok.
"do you know if they sell .22 cal short blanks that I can shoot out of my regular .22 pistol" I wonder if "Ramset" loads would work, aren't they .22? They come with varying powder loads too. Just throwing that out there.....love those ringnecks.
Google , 22 short blanks. Cabelas has them . JAX here in Ft Collins has them. I bet Sportsman WH has them.
Awesome info guys. Happy thanksgiving Gobble gobble gobble! :}
So much to be thankful for! This is my #1 pheasant dog. After hunting in Nebraska 3 weeks ago her left eye was tearing up all the time so we took her to the vet. Vet was shocked she wasn't showing any discomfort as her left tear duct was completely blocked ,she had big seed pods in each ear by her eardrum and she had 2 slivers in her retina in her left eye. They said surgery as soon as possible. All went well and this pic was taken 1st evening after surgery. Tough girl for sure and of course she is done for the season :{ I had never heard of seed pods in dogs ears but he said they see it all the time in hunting dogs and that we should be flushing out there eyes after each day of hunting and I had never heard that before as well.
Seed pods removed from near eardrums. Youch!
no doubt, there are some seed pods and or wheat-like seeds that can work themselves into odd places, especially the eyes, so good luck with that. Chase lost his left eye to a one ton truck, but after removing the eye, and patching the eye socket, he was good as (almost ) new. Now 7 1/2 and is still a hunting retrieving fool, just with one eye.
Thats awesome paul. Messing with a 1 ton truck could have been a lot worse of course. At 7 1/2 I bet he is in his prime and you 2 are working like a well oiled machine.
Nice to see all the bird dogs ya'll are posting. Good luck out there. Can't wait for a good snowfall to get out there again. Still have a KS deer tag in my pockets. Heading out for the last 2 days before the rifles come out.
Last week I went duck hunting and killed 4 pheasants but no ducks.
This week's trip was different and Chase the wonder dog did great as usual.
mallard coming in
mallard coming in
final swing into the decoys
final swing into the decoys
Chase doing good
Chase doing good
a limit of mallards
a limit of mallards
limited out by 8 am. A good day for sure
limited out by 8 am. A good day for sure
With blanks in a real gun (not a starter pistol) be aware that there high velocity gases coming out of the barrel. They can cause damage if anything is too close. Several years ago an actor put a barrel with a blank up to his temple and pulled the trigger. Darwin's theory was applied and he won.
Nice job Paul, nothing quite like a black lab and drake mallards when it comes to bird hunting....unless it's a pointer and ringnecks :-)
Ha, I'd take the roosters over the greenies any day of the week.
Paul is quite the specimen, but I believe his taste buds are shot!
Hey Chad, I have been waiting for an invitation to go from you. Paul
Looking through this thread sure makes a guy miss his dog. I had to put my dog down this summer. At age 13 she had a stroke and never recovered. Reading the training tips sure brought back a lot of memories.
When she was just barely a year old we went out camping on the grasslands. She was in the back of the truck in her dog crate. I had my wife shooting her new .270 about 40 yards from the truck away from the truck. at 300 yards I had a milk jug with water. Some how Bella broke out of her crate and when the wife shot the 300 yard jug she came out of the truck and retrieved what was left of the jug. It was great memory and a great lesson.
She was so programmed that a loud noise meant retrieve she broke out of her kennel and insisted on picking up a a milk jug blown to pieces. It was learning experience. One night when she a little younger my wife and I were at a pool tournament when a storm passed, she completely destroyed her crate pillow and scratched the crap out of it trying to get out. My wife assumed that it was because she was scared. The next time we had a storm she saw otherwise.
Enjoy your dogs, there are never enough hunts or days with em.
Rob, the best way to avoid the "miss his dog" is to go out and find another one. Chase is my 6th lab so the sadness without a dog, does not last too long.
Thanks for your story. I know this is an archery site but Chase and I am waiting for the greese to arrive in numbers so we can start the archery hunt, Goose Time 2017 thread on the small game conference. my best, Paul
Gotta hand it to ya Paul, you're a livin, huntin, inspirational machine.
So it sounds like geese still haven't made a very significant move down from the north yet.
Great pics. My lab has a torn CCL. He's a great dog and young. I'm trying to learn all I can about our options before we commit to trying a fix for it. He has a brace now and is benched from anything too active. Not an easy thing for a lab.
Boy Paul, I should take you up on that. I know of a place that a lab sure would go a long ways on those roosters. THICK russian olives and cattails.
Good luck on the geese.
Been to Nebraska 3 times so far this year for a total of 7 days and have put 5 limits in the truck. Bird numbers are good this year.
I agree with hockey dad, they birds are good in Nebraska! I have had a tough time in Colorado this year.
Congrats HD and Bigj nice to see. Keep the posts coming. Kid's are on break as of Friday and I hope to get them out there for a few days to chase some roosters.
More Nebraska ringnecks
More Nebraska ringnecks
Was taking goose hunting pictures then other day...you know how it is hard to get the dog to "pose " for pictures...the guy held his dog by the collar and then tossed a corn cob.... like fetch and held the dog... the dog went from not interested to looking like a calendar dog head up....shoulders tense intense look in its eyes...made a great picture...
Was able to take my 13 year old son out on the 20th. We were into birds all day. Probably the best day ever for quail numbers. Probably flush 200 birds but obviously I'm a poor shot. 2-3 inches of snow made the hunting great and tons of scent for my pup.
Anyone else getting out there before the year end? We're going to make another day trip after X-Mas.
Excellent mr quinn and son
Got out today for one last day during my son's winter break. Had another excellent day. Ended up with 9 quail and 1 rooster. Wish I was a better shot although it's a good time to be a 2 year old bird dog and a 13 year old boy. :) They're getting lot's of work on wild birds. I feel very fortunate.
Anyone else getting out there with their pups?
Good job Quinn are those scaled quail??? And I feel your pain...my shooting nemesis are pheasants
Excellent! No dog, will be heading out if we get the snow they're calling for next week.
I'm ready to head back to nebraska.... Tended to family commitments over christmas, and have one more this weekend, then its hunting time again.
Adventurewriter,
Yes they are scaled quail.
Lucy's first year of Pheasant hunting. Do well for a dog just over a year old.
Great looking pouch John! Man I really need to get back out there before you guys kill all the birds.
Did anyone make it out for the last few days of the season?
Great thread. It's awesome to see most everyone having a great bird season finally. It's been a while since there were these bird numbers. Couldn't of asked for a better year to have a 1-2 year old bird dog in training.
Let's keep our fingers crossed for a wet spring, late wheat harvest and minimal hail this year! If we get that the bird hunting should be even better this year.
We banged em up this year! My father is 80 and I spent most of my time this year huntn birds (his favorite thing) with him; time well spent! Here's the results of 2 days in KS, 4 guys. We killed over 50 roosters this year. Too much fun!
Chad, I went out last Friday and Saturday. As we know, all of the dumb birds have been shot on WalkIN areas. Did jump a flock of 20 hens on Friday, that held 5 roosters but they all flushed out of range. Very windy so you could not hear the birds flushing. Check out a few more that day but only a few hens. On Saturday, all of the weekend hunters showed up and the birds that did survive, just got smarter. I only hear one shot. Had fun tramping around with Chase.
Will and Dad did good in Kansas on private lands. Sounds like a great hunt. Paul
COLOH2OFWLR's Link
I hunted geese Sunday evening near Thornton...check out my video.
Nice video COLOH20. Always surprises me that they'll come back around in range after one of their buddy's drops.
That's a lot of birds octWill! I expect I'll be pheasant hunting a lot next season over in KS. They're all around when we're goose hunting but without a dog it's just exercise tromping around trying to flush em close.
Got my swan back from Birdman Studios last week.