Bird season 2024

[mastercaster]

Extremely slow start for us in regions 2 and 3. Seeing a fraction of the birds I have in previous years. Surprising considering how much sooty calling there was this spring. My pointer has been getting on some older scent but hasn't had much to get excited about. With a mild spring and summer, I'm wondering if there's ample food supply to keep them dispersed

We had the wettest spring on record this year which is devastating on the chicks. It was cold, too. I fished the Region 3 and 8 lakes 14 days in late April through May and got pi$$ed on all or parts of every day I fished. Fortunately, the fishing was good,,,,lol. I've crossed paths with a decent number of family groupings this grouse season (been out 7 times) and even though I'm getting limits the biggest family grouping I've seen so far is 5 birds. Generally you'll see twice that in good years that have dryer springs. I thinky spruce grouse may be a little hardier than ruffies because I'm seeing 3-4 times as many of that species. Most of the ruffies I've seen have been singles or couples.

[Bustercluck]

I tried out some pheasant hunting last week. I had the pleasure of following a fully finished trials dog for an hour or so after my dog was too tuckered out. What a treat that was. Apparently she came third in canadian something or other earlier this year. The dog did it’s thing until it picked up a fresh scent, then the handler blew a whistle and the dog stop and waited for a command while we got into postion, another command and it was flushing, paused after the flush and waited for a retrieval command. Hunting in anopen field for pheasant is quite a big learning curve for the dog compared to chasing grouse in thick bush.

[ACB]

Wild Pheasants are a totally different game for the dogs. There's definitely a learning curve. But once they figure it out it's fun to watch.

[mastercaster]

I'd be careful about hunting your dog with a loose chain collar on. They can easily get hung up on snags, etc. Learned that the hard way back in the early eighties with my first Brit. She was in some heavy cover and when I heard her starting to scream and yelp in there. I had to bust through some heavy brush, scratching myself up, and falling a couple of times but I got to the dog who was hung up on a fairly thick stick to release her before any damaged was caused. Not sure if she ever would have been able to release herself if i hadn't come to her rescue.

It scared the hell out of both of us. From that point on she always wore a tight flat leather collar in the bush while hunting or hiking.

[Bustercluck]

I'd be careful about hunting your dog with a loose chain collar on. They can easily get hung up on snags, etc. Learned that the hard way back in the early eighties with my first Brit. She was in some heavy cover and when I heard her starting to scream and yelp in there. I had to bust through some heavy brush, scratching myself up, and falling a couple of times but I got to the dog who was hung up on a fairly thick stick to release her before any damaged was caused. Not sure if she ever would have been able to release herself if i hadn't come to her rescue.

It scared the hell out of both of us. From that point on she always wore a tight flat leather collar in the bush while hunting or hiking.

Thanks for the tip. I’ll be sure to grab him something next time i’m picking up some food. I’m debating a shock collar as well… I might screw him up more at this point though. I’m tossimg around the idea of trying a few hours with a dog trainer too.