Yesterday, I spent the day bird hunting with my 10 year old son, my OLDER Brother, and a new Friend..we had a great time and got sore from all the walking, got to see some good dog work and a few great points and 1 double retreive. This was the only time in my life that I went bird hunting with a man a BOLT ACTION shot gun and he out shot me too...I blame it on the weather and the his youthful speed....It was great...that was the Good News...

The first Bad new is that last night my bird dogs right front foot swelled up twice as big...I think maybe he ran stob up into it..thank goodness for Triple Antibotic Ointment...he is doing better this morning...Still not wanting to put much weight on it...

And the worst new of all is .. a hunting buddy of mine was out on Fonda Mt. yesterday grouse hunting...about 2ish both his prize bird dog got killed. For those of you that know Fonda Mt. you know how rough it is...app. they got out in the road while making a long cast and a truck ran over both of them...the driver never stopped...losing old dogs like this is like losing family...and great hunting companion, a true friend...

bill,

man i had a great time. and that bolt action 20 gauge is something else...not a bird gun by any means but its what ive been shooting best with. definately going to bass pro this sunday to pick up a new gun...either over/under or semi auto. and dont act like you shot bad, you and your brother both made some great shots.

sorry to hear about busters foot. you know i think he may have hurt it a little bit when i had to wade down in that huge thick of blowdowns and briars....he was kinda laying between two logs down there but he got up fine. it was thicker than thieves down there...im glad hes feeling better though. we hunted the guts out of the dogs, ill say that. saphire didnt have to leave her kennel one time to pee the minute we got home, she slept til morning.

and man talk about being sore! i feel like ive been run over by a coal truck about 10 times....briar gashes all over my legs...but it feels great! it was good to get into the grouse woods, watch the dogs work, and meet some new friends. hopefully theyll be many more hunts in the future brother! seeing the dogs work together over those quail was fantasic. even though saphire made a few mistakes here and there, i was pretty pleased, especially considering the wind was howling and rain/sleet blowing in our faces. and your dog did great man, hes an incredible pointer dog. wish we would have got some pics, definately next time!

and im terribly sorry about the dogs. upland bird hunters and waterfowlers definately have a super strong bond with their dog, much more so than a regular dog owner....youre right its almost like family. ive hunted fonde quite a few times and youre right, its a terrible road and a lot of the time people are going way, way too fast. hope your buddy is doing ok.

i'll holler at ya soon man!

FLUSH EM AND CRUSH EM

Sounds like you all had a great hunt! Did you move any grouse? Keep me updated and I'll come down for a hunt w/you two soon.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend...I can't imagine how hard that must be on him. Like you said, not only did he lose his hunting dogs, but friends and companions as well.

Pace

there is an old saying...be aware of the man with one gun, for he is deadly.....Buster is doing a lot better...he is back running and putting his weight back on it...I was sore too...killed would be better use of words....but it was fun...the quail was a great way to end the day..Wayne was the buddy that got his dogs killed....he has had extreamly bad luck last year...give him a call....

Hey Pace,
I would love for you come and Hunt with BCO and me....we hunt hard and in beatuiful county...if we find birds that is great, however we don't rely on luck to find bird....we take luck with us...

ill have to give wayne a call later on. you know, for not knowing him that long i really admire him. hes a good guy and seems really interested in helping me learn the ropes when it comes to dogs and shotgunning. man...really hate to hear he lost his dogs. youre right its been a rough year for him, hes a tough one though.

and yeah pace come on down! im gonna try my best to go this weekend, even though it looks like both rain for saturday and sunday figures, my 2 days off and its raining.
when i catch a break in the rain i guess ill go, gonna try and go to basspro this weekend too and get a new gun. for a big fella i get around ok in the grouse woods i guess. the other day youd have thought i was in peak physical condition, lol which is far from the truth. like bill said though i paid for it the day after. feeling ready to go today though!

I will for sure give Wayne a call....I can't believe what he has had to go through in the past year.

Yeah, just let me know ahead of time. I'd like to come down! Oh, and I know what you mean about being tired after a hunt; I could barely walk after two days of hunting last week. I'm moving, on average, about 3 or so birds a day. They're hard to find right now, but it'll get better as we head into Feb. They should start to bunch up some soon.

Hey Pace,
BCO and I had no problem finding birds...in fact we finially just quit because we were to tired and cold....and we thought it would be best to leave some for next time....

Yeah, I hear ya ....gotta leave some seed! I look forward to hunting w/you guys.

Hey BCO, have you decided on what gun you're gonna get? I still suggest an auto for the grouse woods! lol

dunno, thinking about this franchi semi auto i saw at dicks last weekend. definately going to get a gun saturday, then hunting sunday hopefully!

great news fellas, the weather is supposed to be a LOT nicer this weekend than first predicted. they changed it from a solid chance of rain sat and sun to partly cloudy and 68 on sat and a 30% chance of rain on sunday. guess im gonna hunt saturday morning, pack up and go to basspro on saturday evening, then hopefully hunt sunday as well. need to get out on the ATV too...i aint rode the thing in almost 2 weeks now!

Franchi makes a heck of a gun; they use the same Inertia system as Benelli too! I'm excited for ya....I love new guns!

Hey guys, New to this thread...sounds like ya'll have got some really great dogs and some even better (and tougher) places to hunt. I have a 3 year old Black Lab named Lucy, I would get rid of my wife before I'd sell that dog, she stays in the house, rides on the floor in the truck and we duck hunt together every chance we get. I am currently working her hard in field trials here in Tenn. She is doing an outstanding job! I'm very proud of her, she is the one doing all the work, All I'm doing is yelling commands, blowing a whistle and wavin' my arms around like a maniac!! lol...I can only imagine the grief that fellow is feeling about losing his dogs, man thats a tough one...

I use alot of Beretta shotguns for bird hunting and skett / trap shooting. I have a Beretta 687 EELL O/U that I know I have run 100,000+ shells through on varoius skeet ranges all over the Southeast. Bennelli's are very tough guns as well, great for geese and turkeys.

Welcome Dan! I've always loved labs...I like watching those events on TV where they throw the dummy off the end of a platform and measure the distance of the dog's jump; not sure what's it's called, but it's cool!

Yeah, I know the one you're talking about, kinda like a long jump competition for dogs, never tried it with Lucy, I think she would get confused. When we do our Trials testing, I use a dummy launcher that shoots a 12 ga. blank to launch the dummy, it'll go about 300', but its hard on the arms, man does that thing kick!

I ran out of blanks the other day, so you know, had to take the ol' pocket knife and cut the BB's off of a few shells just above the wad, worked just fine. Ruins my AA cartridges though, I reload everything, only shoot AA's.

BCO, Did you get you a new gun? I have never even heard of a bolt action shotgun...That must be something special...I have been trying like mad to find a really nice O/U .410, those are really hard to come by. I have a Baretta with the 3 barrel tube set, so I can shhot any guage shell in my skeet gun, but I have never seen a bolt action shotgun..thats cool.