Closing day success

Today was the pheasant closer in south Idaho.  I headed out after lunch today for a few hours to some property north of town that I had gotten permission to hunt.  I figured it was the last day so I'd better get out there and make the most of it.  We didn't hold back any, we covered every little patch of cover we could find.  It had snowed a few days ago so we saw a lot of tracks, we knew they were around.  We had a few get up but they were well out of range.  Finally we had one flush out of a small piece of cover we were working.  I feel fortunate on this last day of the season that I was able to harvest a nice rooster.  Unfortunately Kati tore up a few pads while out in the snow today so I'll have to wait till this weekend to get back out to the chukar hills again.

Taylor gets her deer mounted

Got my daughters mule deer back from the taxidermist.  They did a great job.  I offered to pay for half of it and she paid for the other half.  The rack now resides in her room.  She's very proud of it, as are the rest of us for her tremendous accomplishment.

Back in the hills

After an extended hiatus from the chukar hills I was finally able to get back after them this week, and oh how I've missed them.  I can't believe in only one short month chukars, huns, and quail will be closed.  After that it will be ice fishing and possibly some coyote hunting till spring bear season.

This outing was quite a change from the last time I went chukar hunting back in September.  I was lucky to get into the high 70's then, and the heat whipped both the dog and I very quickly.  We were usually done hunting by around 11am.  Today there was snow on the ground and it was easily in the low 20's with the windchill.

What a difference the cooler temperatures make though when hunting.  I'm not a big fan of the cold, but I am a fan of not getting wiped out because of heat exhaustion and it takes it's tole on my dog as well as she covers a hell of a lot more ground then I do.  She kept it up the whole hunt without showing any signs of fatigue.

It was a good days hunt and we covered a lot of ground and got into a couple covey's of birds but I couldn't connect on them as they were too far away when they flushed.  Kati was impressive as usual with working the cover, and was able to smell the birds at 100-200 yards away and we moved in on them, but they were skittish and let loose to flight before we got close enough.

We were able to have the wind in our face from the beginning of the hunt which helped us tremendously when we were working the area.  I was also able to work on the infamous "whoa" command.  Finally success on this command after many years trying to implement it.  I called out this command from 10 yards to 150 yards and got the same result...my dog holding fast till I released her from it with the "ok" command.  Very exciting stuff considering this is my first dog that I have trained myself.

As if getting outdoors isn't enough the added bonus of having a gun dog by your side just makes it that much more enjoyable.

An all year long committment

Anyone that works out and actually expects results knows that it isn't something you take lightly and do sporadically.   It's an all year long commitment.  Something I learn quite frequently because I find I usually need to have a goal to keep me going, and usually that goal is some kind of hunting season, and when the hunting season starts I usually stop working out.  The perfect setup for a fail.  Since Taylor's deer hunt ended I've only been hunting pheasants, on fairly flat ground, no chukars, no high country big game hunting.  I've also been getting out of good eating habits since it's the holidays, and have noticed the pounds packing on.....the same pounds that I have worked so hard to get off.  As you may remember from a previous post called Exercising and eating well I've been trying extremely hard to get these excess pounds off that I have managed to put on the past 10 years.

Everyone needs their own wake up call, one that gets them going and motivates them to make some life changes.  I had mine this past Monday when I realized how crappy I felt from not eating right and exercising, and the scale showing it.  So now it's back to it again, and even in a short week of being on track I feel a hell of a lot better, and have dropped a few pounds.  It's even harder now then ever with the holidays.  So many treats and cookies around the house, even me baking some of them.  It takes some extreme discipline to have some boundaries.

One piece of exercise equipment I use is the Weider Total Body Works 5000.  The first thing I like is it's inexpensive, the second best thing I like is it stores very good under the bed.  You can read to your heart's delight about all the things you can do with it, but in a nutshell it uses your own body weight for resistance.

From spring to fall I usually do quite a bit of walking, but in the winter I don't get real excited about walking in the cold so I hit the exercise bike instead.  I currently have a Schwinn® Airdyne® Exercise Bike that I use.  It uses air resistance which eliminates a lot of electronic nonsense, gadgets, and gears that could break down.  So like the Weider, there is less of a chance it will malfunction and break down.

So these are just a few pieces of equipment that I use to keep up my fitness during the year when I'm not outside getting exercise.  Compliment these with actually getting into the outdoors and I think they lay a good foundation for keeping yourself in somewhat decent shape, more so then laying around watching TV and eating fast food as much of America does these days.

Not the only hunter

I haven't been chukar hunting since my daughter got her deer, but I have been out about every weekend chasing ditch parrots.  Unfortunately I haven't been able to put any in my bag.  These past few years have been terrible for snow down here in the valley and the roosters love to run when there is no snow.  There does seem to be someone hunting though that has had a bit more luck then me.

I never ran into the culprit but I wasn't the only one that was wondering who had done it.

I have a long break coming up so hopefully I'll get out after some chukars again, and even better maybe some ice fishing if it stays cold and starts producing some solid ice.  I like about 6-inches to give me a warm fuzzy, I'm not a fan of thin ice, especially when I'm taking kids with me.  I know somebody that will be pretty excited to get after some red legged devils again!

A day like no other - part two

We rambled along a four wheel road out through the sage brush to an area I had marked on the map while I was scouting on Google Earth the week before.  It looked promising, it was a huge area of bitterbrush and juniper surrounded by a vast plain of sage brush.  As soon as we started hunting it looked like exactly what would hold some game, there were a lot of rubs, and fresh droppings all over.  It was easy to see that the deer were spending a lot of time in this area.  Fortune smiled on us as the wind was in our favor as we headed through the brush.  We spent the next few hours working our way out through the scrub brush, glassing carefully and often.  It's a tough thing trying to keep the hopes of a 12 year old alive.

As we stopped for another glassing session I picked up on some movement along the treeline, it was well over a thousand yards out, but it was enough to put a smile on my daughters face, and give us both a second wind.

As we watched I saw another deer come out to join the first.  At this point I'm wishing I had a spotting scope, as my 10x42's weren't getting me zoomed in as close as I would've liked to have been to see if it was a buck or not.

We decided to move in closer, and were able to cover a third of the distance.  The wind was still in our favor and the deer still had not been alerted to our presence.  The problem now was that it was all open sage brush in between us and them, there was no way we could make it to them without being seen.  As we watched them they moved back into the brush.  We decided to backtrack and circle around them and try to come in from them from another direction.  When we finally caught sight of them it ended up being a doe and her two yearlings.  We searched hard and long for any signs of a buck but saw nothing, so we continued hunting.

On the way out we saw the same doe and yearlings, but a buck was silhouetted on the horizon about 75 yards back from them.  Taylor was getting set up with her bi-pod as he stepped out into the open and stopped and looked at us.  Taylor dialed in on him and fired a shot, and his ears perked up.  I could tell it was a miss.  As she chambered another round he took off.  I whistled to him loudly and he stopped in his tracks after he was about another 25 yards.  As he looked like he was ready to take off again I let loose with another whistle, and he decided to do a very strange thing...he ran back to where she originally shot at him.  This time she was ready and let loose with another round.  This time he jolted and I knew that she had hit him.  As she stood up and we started towards where she had shot him she was full of emotion.  I can only imagine how many feelings must have been going through her mind and body as all of this had unfolded easily in less then 10 minutes even though it seemed like forever!  I threw the scope up as we headed towards the area to see if I could see him anywhere and I saw antlers on the ground.  When I let her know she was more excited then I had ever seen her in her entire life, and I don't think I've ever been more proud of her.

As we walked up to him we could see he was a nice buck, nicer then we thought he was when we first spotted him.  He was a very nice four pointer, and fell well within her original criteria for what she wanted at the beginning of the season.

It was well after dark when we finally made it back out to the main road and were heading home.  My wife hadn't heard from us in almost 24 hours as there was no cell reception in Grand View either.  I'm sure she was very surprised when I sent her back a picture of Taylor with her deer.  We made it probably a third of the way back home before Taylor was out like a light.  It was a long weekend for her, lots of ups and downs, and lots of emotion, but she was a trooper.  She's a tough girl, and when it came right down to it she get's the job done.  She's made her mom and dad very proud of her.

She's already talking about spring bear hunting, and wanting to get an elk next year.  I think you could say she's already addicted to hunting.  That's my girl!

A day like no other - part one

Our third weekend of trying to fill my daughters deer tag had us doing an overnight-er out of a nearby town.  Only nine more days of the season remained.  Even though this was a trophy deer hunt that she had drawn we never really looked at it that way.  We were looking for a mature buck, and her criteria to start off with was four points or better.  There is no doubt there are some good sized mule deer in the unit we were hunting.  The problem was the weather this year wasn't quite cooperating like it should.  The weekend before saw some extreme cold temperatures and snow in the higher elevations, which was a good sign as it gets the deer on the move, and gets them migrating more south into where we were hunting.  Unfortunately that weather didn't hold and it warmed up again.  All the deer we had run into had been herding up and contained one or more bucks in them, but finding those herds was tough as they seemed extremely spread out.

To say our first day was unproductive is in understatement.  We hunted a few different areas and saw absolutely no deer the entire day.  I could hardly believe it myself as we have seen deer every day that we have been here hunting.

We did see some of our usual buddies though.  Interesting seeing so many of these birds around while we were hunting.  These birds are magnificent, and if you would like to learn a little more about them then you can start here, sage grouse are pretty interesting birds.

My daughter was still in good spirits though as the day wrapped up and we were headed into town.  If your ever in Grand View, ID I recommend the Owyhee Restaurant, they make a great homemade pizza, as my daughter can attest to, unfortunately that's all I can recommend from that town, maybe we were just hungry...I may never know.

The next morning had us up bright and early in time to get to a spot we had seen deer previously.  We got to our vantage point a half hour before any sign of light.  In our favor it had snowed lightly the night before.  We glassed a herd that had a decent buck in it and decided to make a stalk on it, but in the end things didn't work out unfortunately.

These harvester ant hills out in the Owyhee's are everywhere, I had no idea what they were till I came home and my wife remembered what they were from one of her nature classes she had taken.  It would have taken these guys 18 months to two years to build this mound, I feel bad now for having destroyed one to see what it was, at least they have job security now when they come out of hibernation in the spring.

Stay tuned for part two.

Weekend two

Our second weekend of hunting found the weather changing, cold and snowing.  This is good news for the rut and helps get it going, and gets the animals moving.  It was in the teens as daylight broke, and with the wind chill it easily was in the single digits, and there was a light snow.  Sounds like some great late season hunting to most of us, not so much to my 12-year old daughter.  She agreed that ice fishing was much more enjoyable.

The cold weather had the game moving though, we ran into about 25 does, two bucks (a 2-pt, and a 3x4), a small herd of elk w/ no bulls, and a flock of about 20 sage grouse during our day of hunting.  These birds are pretty big, it's overwhelming to come upon them out in the middle of nowhere in the sagebrush.  Here is one just sitting out in the sagebrush.

Here are the marks another one left as I flushed it and it took off across the open sagebrush.

I managed to grab some video of this one flying away.

We ran into a nice rub out in the mahogany brush, if this was a monster muley I'd like to meet him.

It was a fairly miserable day being cold, and me with the on sought of the 24-hr flu coming on.  It was about everything I could do to keep from hurling all day with the nauseous feeling I had.  But we braved through it, like you have to do when your hunting.  We saw quite a bit of game so it was a good day in the end, and once again my trooper made it through with a smile on her face.

Unfortunately the next day we both had to stay home because the 24-hr flu hit us hard, the two of us were the last ones in our family to get it, so hopefully that is the end of the epidemic in our house that has gone on for the past few weeks.  We're on our road to recovery, and we'll be back at it again this weekend.

Let the fun begin!

My daughter was lucky enough to draw a control hunt for a trophy deer hunting unit this year in her first year hunting!  I know people that have put in for this unit for years upon years without drawing.  She isn't taking it for granted, she knows how fortunate she is to have drawn this tag.  As luck would have it the 24-hr flu decided to swing it's way through our household the week before opening day.  First my 3-yr old son got it and puked his guts out for, well.....more then 24-hrs, I think it ended up being two days.  Next up was my 6-yr old son who was lucky enough to only get it for the 24-hrs.  No need to stop there, now it's my wife's turn.  She actually doesn't end up puking, but nauseous and uncomfortable could pretty much sum it up.  I've been playing with a cold for the past week or so myself, but it's been manageable.  The day before we are heading up for our hunt my oldest daughter gets a cold.  She is tough as nails so I know when she actually acknowledges that she is sick, then she is really sick.  The next morning she is looking a little better so about mid morning we decide to go ahead and drive down to our hunt area and get at least a half a day in.

We spent the afternoon hiking around and glassing some areas.  If you live in Idaho and have never made it to the Owyhee desert lands, I would suggest you make the trip.  Especially if you live in central or north Idaho, you will be amazed at the scenery.  You will have thought you had just transported to Africa.....that's what it reminds me of, it's amazing.

We didn't see any shooters, but we bumped one small herd of elk out of the mahogany brush, one lonely sage grouse milling around, which is pretty cool because I've never seen one before.  We ran across a lot of sign for them too, so I know where I'm headed next year if we are lucky enough to get a season again.  We ran across one herd of mule deer as we were headed out that had a large 3-pt, and a decent 4-pt in it with at least a 24-in spread.  Considering how dark it was getting making a play for the buck wasn't an option so we let him go and headed out.

We had a good day, saw some game, and some new country.  We'll be back at it this weekend.  She's excited, and so am I.  She's a real trooper and I'm proud of her for giving her all when she's out there.

Tag soup for me

Anyone that has been hunting for a while knows these words well.  It's not the words any of us like to use, but the reality of it is...it happens.  Today is the end of the regular deer hunting season in south Idaho.  This isn't quite how I had it planned out three months ago, but as fate would have it one of the large wild fires that hit Idaho this year was burning in the area we were going to go hunting.  So our elk season got scrubbed, and I ended up having to explore new hunting areas down here in southern Idaho for deer.  It was a little frustrating at times, but the positive things that came out were that I had learned some new hunt areas and explored some beautiful country.

I found some nice rubs in one area but I couldn't find the culprit.

I found myself in a heard of elk with the bull bugling his head off within yards of me.  I glassed up a huge black bear boar that was roaming looking for his next meal.  I came across countless haunts that ruffed grouse called their home.  So even though I wasn't able to fill my tag I came out with a lot of useful information on the area.

Hunting season is far from over though.  My daughter still has a late season controlled hunt tag to fill, I have a doe tag for central Idaho to fill, and there is still plenty of bird hunting left to do.

Youth pheasant opener

The weekend before last was the youth pheasant opener.  I have permission on some property north of town that I have taken quite a few pheasants out of in the past.  We headed to this spot to see if Taylor could bag her first bird.  We covered quite a bit of ground and got some birds up but they were all out of range.  Without a good snow to hold them they were running for the hills.  The only shot that Taylor would have had on one was when we were almost back to the rig and she unloaded her gun.  I walked over to a lone sagebrush and a nice rooster gets up and flies dead away.  It was a fun hunt never the less and Taylor's first bird hunt with shotgun in hand.

Close encounters

Last weekend I had my first close encounter with a rattlesnake.  Literally my next step was right onto it.  Luckily it had started rattling, but that's not what I thought it was, I thought it sounded more like a couple dragonflies mating.  That kind of wrinkled paper sound of their wings.  I'm sure it was because it only had four rattles on it that it wasn't as loud as I would have thought it would have been.  The point is...it stopped me dead in my tracks, but I was looking in the air, not at my feet.  Luck was on my side though and I happened to look down right before I stepped and saw it coiled up with its head reared back, it was not happy.  I think the cold was also in my favor though and it was a little sluggish.  Kati was coming up by my side and I grabbed her collar and pulled her back.  She was upwind and didn't smell it or I'm sure she wouldn't have had anything to do with it.

No bird hunter is a fan of rattlesnakes.  They pose a serious threat to the hunter and the dog especially.  If you've never seen a dog that's been bitten by one just Google it.  It's not a pretty site.  I've heard that if they get bit on their feet they have a lot better chance of surviving then if they are bit on their chest or neck.

It wasn't a huge rattlesnake, but I'm sure it would have done plenty of damage if we wouldn't have gotten lucky and been made aware of it's presence.

If you've been reading this blog for a while then you know I've taken my gun dog through snake avoidance class a few times.  I was curious if she remembered her training so I let her have a smell.  I was glad she had not forgotten.

Another day in the hills

Fortune has favored me already as I have had two great back to back weekends of upland game hunting.  Not full bags of game, but there are far more rewards then just putting birds in your bag.  Those that have been there know that of which I speak.

First things first, we needed to get some boots on the pooch.  Her feet where mostly healed from the weekend before, but I think we've both learned our lesson...her feet are just not tough enough to hunt without boots in chukar country.  This is one instance that I am glad she is a submissive dog.  I've seen a few dogs that just fight and fight against anything they don't want to do, luckily.....that's not my dog.

It doesn't take too much equipment to the boots on.

I use Lewis Dog Boots.  These are the best boots I've used for my dog.  They come in vented for the warmer months, and non-vented for the winter.  Trust me, don't waste your time with other boots.

I have never, nor will I ever understand someones methodology behind shooting signs.  It's a national past time for signs in rural areas to have bullet holes in them.  It just is what it is.....stuff people do.

It was crazy warmer then it was the previous weekend.  There was no natural water available so I took 4 liters with me.....hoping that would be enough.  Chukar country was looking mighty inviting, and we were ready to head in.....

Not a hundred yards and we busted our first covey of chukars.  No joy for me though as my first shot was too far, and my next shot a few minutes later had too much delay.  What I mean by delay is that after we broke the covey up we caught up with a few strays, except they didn't want to fly, they wanted to run.  And Kati ran one of them straight into me.  Not five feet from me this chukar stopped and stared right at me for what seemed like minutes, but was of course seconds.  Such gorgeous birds!  Then it got up, and I had to wait till it got out there a ways, not quite like throwing up and shooting.  So I missed.  If only I would have known before the next five miles that this would be the only covey I would run into!

Shade was few and far between, brush in the dry creek bottom was about the only thing we could find to take a nice break in.

When we got back after our round trip I decided to investigate the area we busted the covey out of when we first came in.  Kati found one lonely chukar hiding out under a sagebrush.  I'm thinking it was the one that almost ran into me, as it flew in this general direction.  Not so far this time though.  This picture was taken at home by the way.  Believe me, no green out in the chukar hills!

One thing for certain that I learned on this day, I would have gladly taken 6 liters of water with me!  And that hill I climbed down when I left the car was a mountainous beast on the way back!  I was one happy camper to get back to the rig and dive into the cooler for my trusty friend!

Kati jumped in her kennel, sucked down some water, I put her kennel fan on her, and that wrapped up trip number two for this year.  The weather is finally cooling down here now, and that is good news for those that venture out into the grassy, rocky, sagebrush littered wasteland in search of the red deviled bird.

Days of the dove

Dove hunting seems to get more fun with each passing year.  More then anything though it marks the end of summer and the beginning of fall, which is my favorite season! I really enjoy that I can do it close by our house, and I am able to take any of my kids with me, no matter what their age.  It's usually only a few hours so their attention span stays pretty intact, and they love fetching the birds after you shoot them.  You don't need to take your dog with you either since it's usually pretty close quarters shooting.  Luckily the best times of the day for hunting doves are the early morning, and late evening hours as they are migrating back and forth between their water and food sources.  I say luckily because it is usually still pretty warm in September, at least here in Idaho.  Although most doves I see are on the side of the highway, on power lines, and even just sitting in the middle of the road.....mornings and evenings are usually prime times for them to be moving, and the most advantageous time to harvest them.

It's usually annoyingly hot at the beginning of September so keeping hydrated is a must part of your dove hunting gear.

I use #8 shells for doves, and this year they worked great.  Doves are extremely tender and fragile and it doesn't take much to bring them down.  I'm not too particular about brand, whatever is on sale usually works fine for me.  It's more about accuracy in my opinion.  I've shot lots of manufacturers and I haven't noticed enough difference to worry about it.

I've never used decoys before but this year I thought I would give it a try since they weren't that expensive.  I got a pack of Edge Clip-on Doves, and a pack of Edge Fourpack-o-Feeders Doves.

Our first outing with these was very impressive, doves landed right with the feeder decoys on the ground, and sat right on the barbwire fence with the clip-on decoys.  Even though the decoys were roughly double the size they had no problem sitting with them.  We had a good time that evening watching the doves come in.  Is was truly unbelievable seeing how well these decoys worked.

The cows even got pretty interested in what was going on until I told them one of their buddies was in my freezer.....true story, I bought some beef from a co-worker whose land we were hunting on.

A few weekends after this hunt I ended up getting a Mojo Voodoo Dove to complete my decoy arsenal.  This amazing decoy sealed the deal, doves were coming in like crazy.....in fact it was almost too good.  The Voodoo attracted them by simulating a dove landing, then when they got in there they landed with the clip-on or feeder decoys.....but they were landing too close, to us, and to the decoys.  Some of them landed not 10-feet from us and sat in the tree just looking at us.  Just make sure and set these up plenty far away from you if you use this setup or you might not get as much shooting in as you would like.  Make sure you have your spread adequately placed for optimum shooting.  They come in quick, I hadn't even gotten back to my seat the first time I put the Voodoo dove out before they started coming in.

So that pretty much wraps up dove season for this year as we are busy in the final days before big game season getting our rifles dialed in.  I'm already looking forward to the opener next year though when the days of the dove once again bring us full swing into fall.