Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game A little late season trip to Georgia

Folks,

For the 7th year in a row Jorge, myself, Jorge and our spouses traveled the Chateau De Hatari for a late season GA plantation bird hunt. Alas, our good friend Zeke is OCONUS on work so he and his spouse didn't make it but Hatari had a local friend Ken who fit right in for the hunting portion.

This is more than a hunt and is a weekend with good friends. We started with going to a show on FRIDAY PM of a highschool classmate of Jeff's, Wynn Varble accompanied by his two friends. Max D Barnes and Gary Hannan. A couple hours of funny stories of country music and life in a really great venue. Very enjoyable.



Off we went in the am to https://www.burntpine.com. A first class operation as we've seen in the past. We split up into pairs with a guide and dogs each. We do a morning hunt and the weather could not have been finer with clear skies and temps starting in the high thirties and finishing up in the low fifties. Jorge and hunted with a guide using two mature English pointers, a learning pointer and a Boykin flusher. Yes, I texted my wife this pic and she said "steal her"



We had a good morning with the birds flying well in a variety of situations. Some hold overs had covey'ed up so we had a couple rises of 6-7 birds and the fun of hunting singles. It's a mixed bag so we mostly had quail but bagged 6 chukars and 3 pheasants too.



Hatari and Ken had a similar enjoyable morning. It's one of the first times Ken's shot birds over pointers and like all of us agree, the dogs really are the most fun.



So another great trip with great friends. If the good lord told me the only hunting I could dog for eternity would be upland over dogs I'd be good with that. Great thanks to Mr and Mrs Hatari for again putting up with our household invasion with good humor, although his Norweign Elk Hounds looked a little forlorn that the suppliers of all the extra tummy and ear rubs were leaving.

Thanks for posting, Pugs. couldn't have said it better myself. This was out seventh year of doing this. A truly wonderful experience. The dogs were SUPERB. Two English Pointers and the Boyken. A true exercise in teamwork.

Just awesome guys.. Thanks for sharing.. Love to do that some time soon, but not sure they allow pump guns!!!!

Looks like and awesome trip. Nothing better then hunting over great dogs.

Big fun! One of the best weekends every year.

Hunting over dogs is relaxed and social. We were once again blessed with great weather. Just one week before we had 3" of snow on the ground, which would have nixed the hunt.

Shucks, I missed it! Looks like y'all had fun though!

Awesome. I'm sure all the dogs were wonderful, but I'm partial to the flusher myself. Got two of them myself at the house. Bird crazy those Boykins!

Excellent case of enviousness here! Nash Buckingham had nothing on you fellas!

Living large boys, living large....Two thumbs up!!!!

Its pretty up that way, always a nice drive between Macon and Athens going through national forest, etc. Great hunt!

This trip looks like it was a blast! It reminds me of our South Dakota pheasant hunt this last fall. Good friends and good dogs! You sure can’t beat those Boykins. I sure miss mine.

It's the first time I've hunted with this combo and it sure works well. The little Boykin really reminded me of how our beloved lab Finn acted around birds. Very deliberate in close as to not startle the birds until she was ready to pounce and flush them.

The Parker 20 is new to me and it took a few shells to get my swing down but after that it worked well,. I've always brought a 28 and while it's my favorite, it's choked mod/full and you do have to wait for a bit to let the birds get out there. The 20 is skeet./skeet.

Looks like a great trip. good times, thanks for posting. Bird hunting around here is mostly hit or miss.....mostly miss.

When I was a boy "going hunting" meant shooting Bobwhite over bird dogs. Bird hunting still remains my favorite way to spend a day afield. Looks like you guys had a great time.

Why would 3" of snow nixed the hunt?

Late season I like a little snow to congregate birds and keep them from running so much. That is for wild pheasants, sharptailed grouse, and Hungarian partridge in ND and MT though, not quail, chukker, and pheasants in GA.

Great outing Pugs! Here it is May 14, the COVID has knocked routine in the head and plans at this point are even unsure (‘course they always are). Yet, I’m already looking forward to our gang’s — a collection of college friends and kids — SD pheasant outing mid-December.

We rarely are entertained by the weather you picture here and one year we hunted in what was really a blizzard for a day. It was interesting as the shooting was often furious as far as we could see and almost all the SA’s began to fail. It was not “gentleman, bob white weather”. But “plains’ pheasant weather”? Yes.

I think we are going on seven, eight years of building tradition also. Almost seven months yet.