Took the pup and my boys for a stroll on some nearby public land this morning. Remi stayed busy and put up one covey in a chest high thicket, the stars aligned and I managed to knock one down. Too high brush or too many birds flushing at once for her to mark it, took her to the area it fell and I gave the " find the bird" command. A few minutes and much snuffling around later she came forth with her first wild bird. I know it's only one little Bob White however being her first wild bird and she being our first gun dog, plus having my three little boys in tow made it a very big deal to me!

Of course these guys wanted to take a hero shot.....

Very cool. Four big smiles in that picture.

Thanks LowerRiver, there was a fifth behind the camera too!!

Great to see all the two and 4-legged youngsters out hunting!

Awesome!! Congrats to the wrecking crew!

Thanks gentlemen, stay tuned for more. We've got a week off, plenty of shotgun shells and clear instructions from Momma to stay out of her hair!

Just awesome... Thanks..

Smiling Here!!!

Better than a limit by yourself without a dog. It's a real "big deal", about as good as it gets.

I couldn't agree more 43Shooter! She put the covey up again this morning for us ( I blatantly missed) then flushed a single on the second pass ( which I again missed) .... Dragging three little dudes through the bushes AND watching for a flush is tricky business 😂😂

Congrats to all!!!!

Now you have said you are new to the game, so something to read about. You shouldn’t be repeatedly breaking up the same covey. Two, if you start taking Birds, then you can gun a covey down to where it isn’t a covey. Doesn’t seem to be too many other wild coveys they can assimilate into.

An isolated covey of Quail is a fragile group. You are not the only predator working on them. A friend of mine who knows Quail says, “Quail are strange in that it is easy for them to find a way to die.”

battue,

Thanks! We found these birds on public land in Eastern North Carolina we're likely to never hunt again ( work moves us around every few months). I thought about leaving them be after the first day but made a decision towards the side of working my young dog on wild birds. We'll likely not mess with them anymore this week ( gonna try our hand at woodcock after this big storm) then it's home to Florida for Christmas and on to Eastern Tennessee where hopefully we can find more wild birds to harass! Hopefully we didn't bother them terribly, thank you for that information as in my opinion teaching conservation goes hand in hand with teaching hunting.

Took it easy yesterday and beat up on pen raised birds at the preserve again....

Great pics.

Thank you sir, wish I'd had the pheasant before the one pictured above on video. It jumped low towards the wife's side, she peppered it and it continued to fly low. Remi took it 100 yards or so across a mowed cotton field, plucked it out of the air and brought it straight to momma still squawking. Wife promptly informed her that dad handles all the still live birds 😂😂😂.

Good girl!

Way to go dad! here's what it looks like in about 30 years or so . . .

OrangeOkie,

I pray you're right!

Great pics. Looks like everyone had a great time. The learning will continue for your dog and your young ones, and I suppose for you as well. Just being part of that is wonderful then there is the table fare!

Congratulations to all. Dogs are such fun!

You might want to rethink that gun placement in the picture, tho. Makes me nervous, propped up like that on a smooth flat surface. Presumably it is unloaded, but that won't prevent damage if it falls.

Las,
Thanks for your concern, it is most definitely unloaded and if I remember right the lower pipe stuck out a little further making a " corner". A minor fall would only add to that old battle axes character marks!

Azshooter,

Thanks, training this dog and hunting her together has been a great experience for my family. And the table fare has been excellent!!

Yeah, I look for corners or intersections for that, having had one or two fall when not so.! And I don't buy expensive guns when cheaper ones work just fine. One of my favorites is a Savage-Fox SXS (pre-curser to the 311) that I got with my first Lab, over 40 rears ago. Shoots like a son of a gun, despite the spray on varnish and press checkering.

No need to remove those dog scratches the Lab put on it sometime in the first week I had it...and that much reason not to. He was a great dog!

I never buy anything fancy, it'll just end up banged up. That applies to guns, clothing and pick up trucks.

Somehow missed this thread earlier. That is great to see. You're going to be buying a lot more shotguns soon. And great seeing the young pup doing well for you. Keep after em!

30338,
Already bought one this Christmas. The boy has earned it this year, picking up dog related chores, hunting rough cover and weather without much complaint and doing well in his studies......

Awesome! Enjoy the wonderful times!