I have a good amount of pics from a good amount of hunting travels this year, so I will break it down to try and piece together for you a memorable season.
September started around the house, the yoop that is.
The early season consists of short hunts, an abundance of young birds that immediately fly 7 feet up into trees and look at you, or birds that will run a young dog right into bumping it...if it is one of the older dogs, they will relocate on the runners until you quit following them.
Gunner had a good opening weekend with the most finds and a grouse bagged.
The second weekend brought some much needed rain and the woodcock opener.
Gretchen loves some woodcock and despite torrid shooting, I managed to bag one of the many she pointed that morning. "Gretchen in da Moonlight", 6 years old, with her woodcock. She has also settled in as a nice dog...pure consistency, an extremely hard worker and eager to please:
Panzer, age 2 1/2 was in the middle of transferring yard and field work to the woods and didn't make this hunt as I had a young fella along with me learning how to grouse hunt.
Gunner made this hunt and provided a textbook example of how to pin a runner and I connected to close the deal. He is a nice old dog...at 10 years old, he has been one helluva dog. He has always been the one that you just needed to strap a bell on, shut your mouth, and learn a lot about hunting grouse from:
Gunner and I at the end of the day...soaking wet. I love the smell of a wet bird dog:
A decent start to the season. Next up...October in WI, MN, and Montana.
