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Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1840 Location: Central ND

Absolute truth......

Today 11/7/2022, it was about 20 degrees, wind ESE 20 with a few gusts up to 30, cloudy and at the time some, light snow.

We were working east on a fairly long stretch of tall grass with the road being to the north and cornfield to the south. It varied 50 feet to 100 feet wide with some mature thickets every so often. Get to the last 50 yards and the last thicket and my GSP Marty goes silent. A bunch of pheasants go north, I can't see those birds, a rooster goes east and I leave it for my buddy's son. A rooster goes west with the wind but he is all mine and I smoked this bird at about 30 yards or so, but he took the hit and set his wings. I am thinking damn, that bird is dead, but he sails over a small rise going due west and disappears.

Ever see a 66 year old guy run? Well I was running as fast as I could for about 70 yards or so and made it to that rise only to realize that the bird could have gone into a slough, a cornfield, into the tall grass we just hunted or north across the road that is posted private no hunting. S***

Called Marty back finished the last 50 yards of that grass and turned onto the road, headed west back to the truck as the wind picked up and the snow got a little heavier. It had been a decent hunt, all 4 of us had at least one bird. My 3rd pheasant had just escaped.....S***, not very happy with myself, but happy that everyone had something. I absolutely hate hitting a bird and not retrieving it.

Marty was hunting both sides of the road on the way back. We got about 200 yards down the road and Marty went silent. He was on point right next to one of those thickets....well sort of.....kind of a weird point. Hmmmm, Oh crap, all I could think of was raccoon, skunk or porcupine. I got over to Marty just in time to see him lunge forward pulling something out of the ditch......it was that pheasant that I thought I lost deader than dead.

Ain't dogs grand?

I just know that you folks have had similar experiences. If you wouldn't mind sharing, I wouldn't mind reading about it!!

MSM2019,

Congrats on a real nice Pheasant hunt and some great dog work. We had a similar incident with my friends 1st year dog, he hit the Grouse about 35 yard out and by the time the pup searched the area no bird any where with in 50 yards. I had a young dog with me at the time belonging to one of my clients, the pointer never was a good winged bird finder. At the end of the day my buddy was up set that we lost he bird.
I told him not to worry I would bring my Small Munsterlander male dog back in the morning and if the bird was not taken by a fox, bob cat or coyote, he would have his Grouse.

We returned in the morning to the place where we saw the Grouse go down, the bird had moved 200 yards and hid under a big downed tree, still alive Sampson found the bird, dug it out from under the dead tree, retrieved it to me, and sat for delivery.

Having a great gun dog with the right genetics makes all the difference in the world when hunting, never leave home without one! I once watched Sampson my SM climb a fallen oak tree that was on a 45 degree angle held up by some other trees to retrieve a Grouse I had gunned. He was an amazing gun dog, if I would have had to live off the fur & feather I shot, this dog would have been my choice without a doubt.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Pine Creek Sampson with his true double Grouse, taken with the L.C. Smith 16 gauge Hammer Gun.

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1840 Location: Central ND

Pine Creek/Dave

Dogs are such a great part of life!!

Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 444 Location: WI

I would not be without one, and would probably give up bird hunting if not for having dogs!

Joined: 08 Mar 2022 Posts: 91

Had a hunt also this past weekend with my son-in -law & his people on their former farmland in West Virginia. Land was "a natural" and by now very "birdie" but the birds had to be released; some pheasants & quail. The dogs made the day. It was an unusual 70degrees and nothing wanted to fly. Those 2 dogs had to kick everything out and worked like hell. Unfortunately I was off and missed the first shot a few times but did manage to bag a quail & 2 pheas. But honestly, it was more fun watching the dogs.......

Gentlemen,

Most times the ownership of a fine gun dog is learned from our parents. Make sure you pass this important ownership education down to your children and their children also. In our family it has been going on sense before the USA was a country.
Dogs are very important, especially to children, they teach a kind of love nothing else can match. God put Dogs on this earth to help people understand the true meaning of love. He also granted them the incredible ability to provide safety & meals for both themselves and their human companions. Our family has never been without a talented dog, they are actually part of our family way of life, even more so now with my daughters incredible work dog, that helps her cope with her deafness and warns her of her epileptic spells. Unfortunately this Labrador Retriever will never get to hunt, God has given him a different job in our family, like the Weimar dog before him, both are/were my daughters constant companions.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

The first season with my black Lab, Katana, really stands out to me. She had been mostly trailing my setter, Bay, for a few days, which annoyed the crap out of me, but just as I was ready to accept her as a high maintenance hunter she came into her own.

I had decided to get a little duck hunting in, and on the way back to the truck a grouse went up, I shot it with a duck load and down it went on it’s back, feet up in the air. Hoping to wake up some upland instinct I called Katana to retrieve and when I looked back the bird was GONE! She did not immediately figure out what I wanted, so I got the setter to hopefully find the bird. Bay ambled through the cover, head high, then low trying to get a fix on the bird, while Katana sniffed at the ground. Bay eventually came to an uprooted tree about 100 yards from the flush spot, and went no more, but not on point. Katana sat & looked at me with a puzzled look.

I searched around and in the hole of the root ball and saw no sign of the bird, while Bay stayed in her spot & Katana sniffed around. I had taken Bay’s lack of movement as being perplexed or having lost the scent. After a good while, I cursed and started back to the truck. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Katana had gone into the rootball with Bay still standing, ears propped. I walked back, annoyed with them & myself for losing a bird, and then saw Katana, her body half disappeared in a section of the root ball that looked like a solid piece of earth. And then out she came with the bird in her mouth, still alive with a broken wing.

Looking back on it, it was almost as if Bay was training Katana, standing over the spot telling her “This is what we are after”. It’s the only thing that makes sense because Bay loved retrieving grouse, though that rootball may not have been to her liking. Katana really came into her own after that, and eventually Bay passed the torch to her as the lead dog. I will never forget day that as long as I live, and I learned that you have to trust your dogs. Sometimes they know better….maybe more than sometimes.

Citori16,

Great story about your dogs, fantastic stuff!

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L. C. Smith Man

Thanks Dave, hunting stories would be rather boring without them, that’s for sure!

And Mark, I could envision your surroundings form your story, I hope I still have the fire to run after a bird when I finally go on permanent vacation!

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1840 Location: Central ND

I could read this stuff all day. Real experiences with real dogs.

Thanks and keep them coming!!

Citori16,

The problem with being retirement/vacation age is that your time in the woods is growing short, get out as many times as you can, while you are young. My legs are really starting to bother me, my military service took a real toll on them, to many helicopter jumps in the Viet Nam era beat them up badly. I guess I am lucky however, my buddy Gunny Bowman passed away just recently. He was the last of our original Grouse Camp members, besides me. It is getting real lonesome on the mountain, especially now.

Make some Great memories when you are young, to last a life time!

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Joined: 08 Feb 2009 Posts: 1308 Location: Western WA

Brewester11,

Fantastic job with your boys and your great dog, looks like your teaching has really made a difference in your families life. I hope the boys pass down your wisdom to the next generation of your family and the dogs play a big role in their own families as they have done in yours.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. smith Man

Joined: 16 Jul 2015 Posts: 2125 Location: Hudson,Wy

Yes Mark, they are grand. I never would have found this fallen chukar on my own:

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