A FAMILY SHOOTOUT

What would a family pheasant shoot be without offending someone and their dog. Grandpa teaching the nephews the B$#@h word on accident, and the five year olds repeating it (we tried to explain that it means a female dog). Family anything wouldn't be complete without some wrestling. All in all it was a wild success.

It kind of goes against everything I believe in to shoot pen raised birds. But when your family is mostly city slickers and I have the responsibility to get all my nephews addicted to bird hunting I figured the best way to get them hooked is to get them on birds anyway I can. Well I think it worked i've got some brothers, brother-in-laws, and five or six nephews really loving this bird hunting stuff. I bought twenty birds and set them in the hills behind my brother-in-laws house. Then we released the dog.

These are my nephews Jed and Spencer, age 13 and 12, with their first pheasants. I didn't think they would shoot so straight but these guys are shooters. I think the first pheasant is pretty awesome and unforgettable.

The highlight of the the hunt didn't even include a gun. We had four boys that were too young to carry guns but they proved to be great bird dogs. Jake is nine with dark red hair, we don't really no where that came from since no one in his family on either side has red hair. The last pheasant that went down hit the ground running and Jake chased that bird a hundred yards or so before diving on top of it and wrestling it to death. Everyone was screaming "Get it Jake" "Dive on it!". I've never seen a kid smile so big in my life.

By the looks of the smiles in this picture I think a new family tradition was born.

Mother Chukar

Who said the weather couldn't be too nice? My best friend Landon, our three dogs, and I went on a Saturday afternoon Chukar hunt. The weather was gorgeous, fifty degrees and the ground was moist. We had just one problem absolutely no wind. There were birds everywhere and they held really tight, so tight we had to step within yards to make them fly. We could hear them clucking, but the dogs couldn't pick them up because the air was shockingly calm. This hunt had one point. But two great retrieves.

Lady with a great retrieve.

The valley in the background is where we parked and then we climbed. Luckily I watched the new James Bond friday night. I figured if Bond can run for that long chasing a villain I could definitely climb a mountain chasing those Mother Chukar. They are lucky I only call them Mother Chukars and not something else after that hike.



Five hours of climbing, scrambling, and running we got two Chukars, one each. But hey the weather was gorgeous!

A South Dakota Blizzard of Birds!

My dad only hunts once a year and it is our annual pheasant hunt in South Dakota. He lives for it. This year we went with some neighbors, my Uncle Dan and My cousin Jordan from Oklahoma. It was quite the occasion. Here are some pictures.

Day one was 28 degrees with snow and sixty mile an hour winds. The birds held like a puckered up butt hole. It was great the dogs had some great points.


Day two was 28 degrees snow and thirty mile an hour winds.


Day three was 24 degrees, breezy, with deep drifts.


We got lots of pheasants and even shot a handful of Sharpies. I even shot my first Prairie Chicken.