16ga.com ~ View topic - An Indiana Story(2006): Sandhill Cranes, Turkey Day Roosters

Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 787 Location: Indiana

We are very fortunate again this year to have our son come home for Thanksgiving. After sleeping late and partaking of the traditional Holiday meal, about 3 pm this afternoon he and I decided to visit a couple of gamebird havens just down the road to see if anything was home.

The temperature today was about 57 degrees--very unusual for Northern Indiana this time of year. It felt more like early October, really, being sunny with a cloudless sky. As we worked a CRP tract next to a cornfield in our first cover, the dog became quite animated, moving swiftly in ever-widening circles as he does with a running bird. He was out there maybe 40 yards and I thought, "well, so much for a shot at this one". But nothing flew, and with my son on my left, working the weeds next to an irrigation ditch, we progressed cautiously into the center of the tract.

All of a sudden, the dog bounded back toward me as if drawn by a rope. He roaded up to my right, stealthily moving the last few yards, and froze within 15 feet of my position. I encouraged him forward, and upon my spoken word, a rooster noisily took wing through a tangle of weeds directly ahead of me, heading straight into the sun. Though I should have been ready, it took me a second or so to mount and fire; I saw the bird drop and struggle for the cover of some foxtail to my right. But my dog had been witness to these events and as he bounded into the cover I heard the rooster's wings batter in death and within seconds, Pal appeared with the dead rooster in his jaws. Judging by the stubby spurs, this was a bird of the year.

Ethan and I continued to work the remaining cover, flushing a hen in the reed canary grass on the far end of this farm, but we found no more roosters here.

There is better cover just two miles to the north, and as we drove down the irrigation lane on this 180 acre farm to our jump-off point, we could see that the corn stubble was literally gray with hundreds of sandhill cranes !
We have never made it a practice to shoot these birds, but we enjoy watching them take off and land and we love their distinctive call. We watched them for several minutes and then, noticing that twilight was approaching, we headed for the north end of this very heavy CRP cover which features a swamp with high grass on the south side, a small channel which holds water in the middle, and a high bank dropping down into cattails on the north side.

I told my son I wanted him to have a good chance at a bird, so we split up; I took the dog into the high grass on the south end and worked my way northwest toward the bank to the north. Pal jumped into the cattails, his tail thrashing madly in the weeds, and I saw him pause briefly---then pounce. The rooster angled diagonally away from me, too far for a shot but toward my son, on the other side of the swamp and out of sight but not out of hearing...I called "Bird!" and as the pheasant flew over the east edge of the swamp, about 25 yards high, I heard his first shot and then the second, which arrested the rooster in flight, the sun catching the cloud of feathers as that shot found its mark, the momentum carrying the dead bird well into the adjacent corn field. I could hear Ethan yell, "Ho---what a shot, huh, Dad?" The 16 gauge Citori and #6 Remington Heavy Game Loads had been viondicated....

You can imagine that it was a very satisfying walk back to the truck this Thanksgiving evening, and I wish you had been there to share it with us. It's a wonderful time of year.

*Last edited by brdhnt on Mon Feb 28, 2011 5:38 am; edited 1 time in total*

Wolfchief,

Your post brought back many memories.

It was traditional for my Dad, uncle and I to hunt my uncle's family place just SE of Kouts Indiana every Thanksgiving morning. We would get up early, hunt until about noon then head back to the traditional Thanksgiving feast with all of the family. Lots of rabbits, a few quail and the occasional pheasant. Your post brought back lots of memories of days gone by. My Dad and Uncle are gone now and the family farm is a part of a larger corporate farm now, but it still survives in my memories.

Thanks

TMB
________
Weed

Member Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 3438 Location: Illinois

Dang ya just gotta enjoy Wolfchief's stories-----just like you were there--thank you sir Wink

Member Joined: 01 Feb 2006 Posts: 450 Location: Indiana

Well expressed my friend, I could see in my mind every word.
Also brings back my younger days with my dad, uncles and cousins on Thanksgiving day. Just my cousin are left but it seems they never have the time although they are retired and not a damn thing to do.