Grouse hunting dad's old trails
My brother and I made it out for some grouse yesterday. We went to an area that my dad used to hunt in the 70's. We had made one symbolic trip shortly after he passed away 20 years ago. We couldn't find "the trail" but we found a few others that would suit our purpose. The first bird flushed as we pulled over to gear up. Good sign/ bad sign? Down the trail we go. First bird up was winged and a runner. Took about 10 minutes (seemed like an hour) to find it, it had hunkered down at the base of a tree. A quick look and, it appeared that a lone pellet had broken one wing. The next number of birds all managed to dodge our shots including one that I still can't figure out. It was open, flying straight and while I didn't see/hear it until it took off I still was kicking myself for missing. As I was doing this 5 more birds flushed at about 10 second intervals but they all went deeper into the spruce and we never had a shot.
We had four more flushes and we each got one to make it a 3/12 day. Turkey dinner today is going to have some special appetizers.
Broken wing
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps189528c7.jpg
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps5752d908.jpg
My brother with our dad's Ithica 20 gauge.
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...psba8d3df0.jpg
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps1390c488.jpg
More leaves on the trees then I expected and the birds seamed to flush a lot more quickly then I remember. Maybe they knew we were from the south. Busy couple of days but may get out again on Monday.
Great day! The only thing missing was dad.
My brother just sent me a scan of a photo from that day 20 years ago. The hat and the gun are the only things that still fit me. Although the hat is stretched out some.
Same Ithica
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...ps725414ee.jpg
