Ithaca 37
New member
My hunting buddy called at 7am and said he was too sick to hunt, so I took off with Scout. As we got close to Oregon I could see it was raining so I turned back into Idaho and headed for a new spot I noticed a couple weeks ago. The rain went around us and there was some humidity and a light breeze. Good scenting conditions.
About 300 yards from the truck Scout throws her first point and I could see we had the birds in a good place. They'd either have to fly over my head or fly straight up to get past some rimrock. I had the plug in (OR requires a plugged gun so only three shots are possible. I was in ID but too lazy to take the plug out when I parked the truck), so I put a couple more shells between the fingers of my left hand and walked in for the flush. Chukars took off everywhere and three decided to commit suicide by flying straight up the rimrock. I shoved in the other two shells in time to get two late flushers going over my head and Scout thought it was raining chukars! Five birds down in about eight seconds! Scout got them all and we went after them again. She pointed a single and I got it, then another point and two flushed. The first one dropped outta the sky dead and the second dropped a leg and sailed down the hill to a bunch of bushes at the creek bottom. I knew that one would be easy to get so we headed that way after the retrieve and Scout points the bush where the wounded chukar was. She knows when a bird smells wounded and usually goes in after them, so I was wondering if we had something else in there when about 50 quail exploded out!
One squadron flew past me on the right and just as I pulled the trigger they curved left and the shot raked along the whole left side of the formation and three fell! I got another with the second shot and blew the third shot on an easy one because I was so astonished at what was happening. Scout gets the four quail and the chukar in the bushes and we've got our limit of eight chukars and four quail, too. Quail limit is ten. I've got twelve birds with ten shots and nine more shells left. I usually have twenty shells on me when I leave the truck.
Real fast we get three more easy quail and then a fantastic lucky shot on one going behind me. Two to go and five shells left. Scout points a bird real close--about four feet from her nose on a steep slope---and when it flushes I'm in a bad position and when I try to turn and swing I lose my footing and fall. I seems like I can't miss today so I keep the gun on my shoulder as I'm falling and get the shot off before I hit the ground. It looked good when I slapped the trigger but I couldn't see what happened afterwards, but here comes Scout with her tail wagging and a bird in her mouth.
With only one more quail to make my limit I decide it's been too easy so far so I'll only shoot a @#)(# quail on the way back to the truck. Next point was a hen and a @#)(#, but by the time I knew which was the @#)(# he got behind some brush and I missed him. Two more hens on the next two points and then Scout locks up on a big bush and five birds come out. I spot a @#)(# right away and miss him with the first shot, get him with the second!
18 birds in my vest and one shell left over! The whole hunt took about two hours. Too easy, actually, but after what I've been through on some other hunts I'll take an easy one once in a while.
Scout hardly got warmed up. I'm sure she'd like to go again tomorrow but I gotta get some work done before I leave for the annual whitetail hunt on Friday.
About 300 yards from the truck Scout throws her first point and I could see we had the birds in a good place. They'd either have to fly over my head or fly straight up to get past some rimrock. I had the plug in (OR requires a plugged gun so only three shots are possible. I was in ID but too lazy to take the plug out when I parked the truck), so I put a couple more shells between the fingers of my left hand and walked in for the flush. Chukars took off everywhere and three decided to commit suicide by flying straight up the rimrock. I shoved in the other two shells in time to get two late flushers going over my head and Scout thought it was raining chukars! Five birds down in about eight seconds! Scout got them all and we went after them again. She pointed a single and I got it, then another point and two flushed. The first one dropped outta the sky dead and the second dropped a leg and sailed down the hill to a bunch of bushes at the creek bottom. I knew that one would be easy to get so we headed that way after the retrieve and Scout points the bush where the wounded chukar was. She knows when a bird smells wounded and usually goes in after them, so I was wondering if we had something else in there when about 50 quail exploded out!
One squadron flew past me on the right and just as I pulled the trigger they curved left and the shot raked along the whole left side of the formation and three fell! I got another with the second shot and blew the third shot on an easy one because I was so astonished at what was happening. Scout gets the four quail and the chukar in the bushes and we've got our limit of eight chukars and four quail, too. Quail limit is ten. I've got twelve birds with ten shots and nine more shells left. I usually have twenty shells on me when I leave the truck.
Real fast we get three more easy quail and then a fantastic lucky shot on one going behind me. Two to go and five shells left. Scout points a bird real close--about four feet from her nose on a steep slope---and when it flushes I'm in a bad position and when I try to turn and swing I lose my footing and fall. I seems like I can't miss today so I keep the gun on my shoulder as I'm falling and get the shot off before I hit the ground. It looked good when I slapped the trigger but I couldn't see what happened afterwards, but here comes Scout with her tail wagging and a bird in her mouth.
