Hank and I hunted two more pheasants on the preserve this past Saturday. It became much more of a "rodeo" than intended... First bird, he pointed and it flushed. I was slow getting the gun up as I was trying to take a picture of the point. Ended up missing it and it made it across a wetland. We'll get back to that bird.
Second bird, he points, but breaks a bit too early flushing the bird. I go to shoot, but get a click instead of a bang. I hadn't ejected my last spent shell. I mark the bird and we start that way. It landed in a CRP tree planting, which is much different cover than the mix of milo and warm season grasses they plant the birds in. AT this point, the bird has it's track shoes on... It took a while, but we finally get in pinned, flushed, and shot. He brought it mostly back to me and it was more than a touch tenderized... That said, Hank kept in search mode and didn't seem to waver on the task. I think the wind was just strong enough for him to keep getting whiff's of the bird that he never quit working the cover. I was pretty pleased with that part as mostly on these types of deals it's a very short search for birds.
Back to the first bird. We make it over to near where I had marked the first bird. Hank did great navigating the frozen wetland. I did too for the most part, until I found a few spots not quite frozen enough for my weight... It took him a bit to work out the scent, but eventually we got it worked out and the bird pointed, shot, and retrieved. This one was less 'tenderized'!
All in all, it turned out to a a productive training day. He had to work some scent trails out and to pin down a runner. I'd call it progress!
