I am still trying to figure out how to hunt larger game.
I hunted small game, particularly ducks for 35 years.
I have never been one to go with Norm. He always seemed boring to me.
So, I never owned a labrador. Always had "other" breeds.
My last was a wachtelhund with the call name of Quaid. He was a special dog by all measurements. Not much taller than our lab dog basset hound, but longer and built like a dang otter. Interesting thing about wachtelhunds is that on hair, they will bark like a beagle, but on feathers they are quiet as a mouse.
Anyways, in Quaid's third year you could start to see the switches being turned on in his head. He started to know the smell of Ballistol, understand that the click of the safety meant business and he had to use his nose to retrieve for most of my sub par shooting kills.
Our time was spent mostly hunting out of pirogues in small brakes of cypress in central to north Louisiana and usually by ourselves unless number one son could meet us from school at LaTech.
We had big ducks move into one brake that was a pain to get to, but Quaid and I discussed a strategy and agreed we could get in there to kill our birds.
Took six hen decoys and after beating through palmettos, got to our spot.
We killed our birds in no time. Six shots, six birds. I over kicked my coverage that day.
While I was getting the decoys loaded, Quaid jumped a cottontail. So I loaded up with number 4 shot and sure enough, bunnies being bunnies, he circled right back to me. I shot the rabbit and Quaid delivered him to hand. I was congratulating Quaid for his stellar work and sure enough, another bunny made a poor decision. We dispatched him as well.
On the way in we rode through a food plot with turnips planted in it. I pulled a mess of turnips.
That night the camp had smothered rabbit with turnips, and duck breast seared in the black iron.
Was the first time I thought of myself as a hunter.
