Grousen in the Rain

[brittman]

Watched the weather Sunday and with the Vikes playing late decided it was a good idea to head north for a little afternoon grouse hunt. Well even the radar was wrong. What was supposed to be no rain, was mist with occassional showers mixed in. Weather report said 6mph winds, well no it was more like 15.

As we drove North we noticed a whole lot of traffic coming back to the cities from MEA weekend.

Got to the gate and a grouse ran across the trail and flushed. Good sign or jinx?

It was a good sign. The birds were mostly running close to the trails which was good because even though we were wearing good rainproof pants, it was wet.

Better yet, most ruffs held extremely well for my main Britt. She had point after point holding the birds until we were on top of them. Ruffs being ruffs, many flushed deep into cover, but we managed to take home 4 birds in a 2 hour walk. Moved about 12 different birds total.

Called it around 5:30. With the low clouds it was getting dark pretty quickly.

[JJK]

I like hunting in a mist and Sunday was warm which made it nice. We moved like 8 woodcock and only walked for 1 1/2 hours. Would've walked more, but my dog jumped a deer. After he ran through the e-collar burn and I couldn't hear him yelp any more, it was time to wait. He must be loud on sight and gets out of hearing distance quick. Just started yelping when chasing deer. 45 minutes later I hear the beeper and call him back. It was late in afternoon, so we only had time for 1 more short run. Had 1 bumped and 1 pointed that I couldn't get to before it fulshed, darn it. Still a nice day to be hunting.

[brittman]

How old is your dog?

Every one of my Britts has chased deer at 1 years old. I think about setting up a situation (borrow collar, let dog out when we see deer), but they have always cured themselves. No issues with chasing deer at 9 months or 2 years old and above. Birds seemed to cure all evil?

[JJK]

16 months old, I'll have to turn up the juice when he's chasing. With one dog I had it took almost 2 hunting seasons of burning him with an e-collar before he stopped chasing deer. When he finally got it he would ignore deer scent. Agreed, with time, birds and burns his desire to chase deer should fade away.

BTW thanks for the report, you guys did well.

[rkhinrichs]

yea hunting in the rain, never seems like the best idea but i have had some really good days of hunting for grouse and phesants, maybe they think its ok to come out, actually i shot my first grouse in the rain!