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Last year, my lovely wife put up with a lot. I picked up a nice little 1936 vintage Greifelt O/U and a new lab puppy. Over the last year, I've been working with the pup, though not nearly as much as I had hoped due to work commitments and other issues. Still, she's a smart dog, and had a lot of the basics down so I was fairly confident she'd start to put it together once we got into birds.
Sage Grouse are a bird that aren't terribly hard to hit. They're big & slow, like B-52 bombers. They hold nicely until you're just about on them, then they flush wildly. Perfect for a young dog that doesn't know it's hind end from a badger hole. The challenge with sage grouse is in finding them. There's a lot of miles to walk to find the covey, and then if you bust them, you're walking even longer miles to catch up. They used to be much more plentiful in the west, but a variety of issues have reduced populations to the point where opportunity is severely reduced. It's a shame, as the bird used to be incredibly plentiful and hunting opportunities were lengthy & bag limits generous.
Here's a few shots of Greta's & the Greifelt's first birds & the country you find them in:
Big Country:
sagies8.jpg
The Kent Bismuth shot in the 1 1/16 #6 load is perfect for grouse:
sagies7.jpg
Young dogs playing before the hunt:
sagies6.jpg
Greta & the Greifelt with their prizes:
sagies9.jpg
Sage Grouse are a bird that aren't terribly hard to hit. They're big & slow, like B-52 bombers. They hold nicely until you're just about on them, then they flush wildly. Perfect for a young dog that doesn't know it's hind end from a badger hole. The challenge with sage grouse is in finding them. There's a lot of miles to walk to find the covey, and then if you bust them, you're walking even longer miles to catch up. They used to be much more plentiful in the west, but a variety of issues have reduced populations to the point where opportunity is severely reduced. It's a shame, as the bird used to be incredibly plentiful and hunting opportunities were lengthy & bag limits generous.
Here's a few shots of Greta's & the Greifelt's first birds & the country you find them in:
Big Country:
sagies8.jpg
The Kent Bismuth shot in the 1 1/16 #6 load is perfect for grouse:
sagies7.jpg
Young dogs playing before the hunt:
sagies6.jpg
Greta & the Greifelt with their prizes:
sagies9.jpg
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