April Pheasant Hunt/Bar-B-Que

[Wild Willie]

BDR & Mayfly - I put you in BDR's group because I thought you and Luci and MIsterMom and Daisy could benefit from his knowledge. Don't worry to much about your pup's lack of experience regarding the number of points she has experienced. I've got a feeling that BDR's Charlie will be leading the way for Luci, Daisy and Spinach's dog Macey. I like the team dynamics but we can always bump you and Luci to Group #2 if that makes better sense.

BDR - I will refer all questions regarding the lunch to Spinach since he has taken charge coordinating the lunch. I think folks are bringing hamburgers, buns, brats, buns, pop, potato salad, plates, deserts, chips and utensils. My guess is to bring a big thermos of steamy hot coffee. Thanks for volunteering to pick up Mayfly's birds to ensure we hit the bird count. We can just wait and see if that will be needed. Mayfly - don't worry about your guest backing out...that is something out of your control and if everyone shows as promised we will be in great shape!

[Wild Willie]

Mayfly - forgot to mention that the morning session is from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. Would be nice if everyone would show up around 8:30 am. Lunch and clinic from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm. Afternoon groups go out 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. We can all huddle in the big old diary barn next to office to stay dry encase of the forecasted hit and miss rain showers.

[Dancing Bear]

Spinach, sorry I'm still in, haven't got a for sure from my buddy, left him another message and will let you know by tomorrow. I'll be there and will just jump in with whoever whenever if he isn't going to go.

DB IBOT #68 Trying to figure out which scattergun to bring!

[spinach]

DB, I was beginning to worry about you, I figured the triangle swallowed you up. I'm happy to see that your still in. I'll be at the hunting grounds at 08:00 am Sunday setting things up for the day, I'll see you their. If anyone needs directions to the shooting preserve I posted them on the second page of this thread. See you all Sunday. Spinach.....

[This message has been edited by spinach (edited 04-15-2004).]

[setterguy]

Willie, don't know about anyone else but I would sure like to get some breakfast that morning. The place or time doesn't matter to me, Perkins in Elk River is just as good a place as any. 7:30 still a good time? Just leave a post here to confirm.

[Wild Willie]

Setterguy - me and my son Luke will be there 7:00 am. That should give us about one hour to order, chat, drink some coffee and eat before continuing our journey north to Princeton. I would like to be at the farm a little before 8:30 am to help everyone get introduced and ready to go out by 9:00 - 9:15 am. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the weather will cooperate. I am really looking forward to meeting everyone and their dogs.

[Dancing Bear]

Another buddy fell into place and he has a springer that will be along also, we'll just do whatever we don't worry about much but count us in for at least 6 birds.
See you around 8:30!

DB

[BDR]

Looking forward to tomorrow! Had to drive to Granite Falls yesterday and stopped at a WMA for 1/2 hour and took a couple pics.

[Mayfly]

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow myself. I'm nervous about how Luci will do. It will be motivating as far as how much more work i'll have to do with her before the fall. I just hope she doesn't screw things up for other people. Should be a great day!! The weather doesn't sound too nice but I will tough it out!

See You All Tomorrow

[BDR]

Mayfly- don't be nervous. All dogs learn and make mistakes. My 5yo will not hunt perfect tomorrow but if we have fun and learn something it was a perfect outing.

I was actually thinking about this today. Of course I want my dog to look great and impress people. But the fact is he makes mistakes, I don't hit them all but we have fun and bring home birds. Thats really what it is all about. Tomorrow could be a great learning day for all.

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I'd rather be skunked than follow the crowd!

Brian Rogers

[spinach]

I think we're all a little nervous about how our dogs will perform. My 4 year old Macey will also make mistakes and probably embarass me as well. She is no trial dog and never will be but thats not I want anyway. When we hunt together she gets the job done, she finds and retrieves birds, she ranges close and doesn't spook birds but sometimes she gets a little too close and thinks were out for a walk. At the end of the days hunt I couldn't be any happier with her. Some of the very serious guys might think different but I could care less because she does get the job done and she is like a 3rd child to me. I guess what I'm trying to say is who cares what others think as long as it works for you and your having fun . Lets just all go have fun and try and learn a thing or two from each other. See you all in the am..... Spinach....

[spinach]

I just realized we had over 124 posts to this thread including the thread from the Upper Red Lake forum.

[mistermom]

Hey! I'm just thrilled to have a dog this year. I didn't think it was gonna happen. I'm not too worried about Daisy. I just hope she doesn't do something real bad like run a couple a miles away.... We will see tomorrow!

mm

[Wild Willie]

Hey guys - good Lord only knows how our dogs and pups are going to react with nearly 100 birds running, flying, and hunkering down. I'm 100% positive that all our dogs are going to have a great time! No need for anyone to be nervous. Those of you who have older dogs know exactly what those of us who have younger dogs are experiencing. No explanation, no excuses and definitely no apologies necessary.

I just got off he phone with Rick. He had a very busy day today with two large groups. Tomorrow it will be him and his helper Greg at our service. Each hunter will need to let them know whether or not to split their birds up for the two sessions. I know Jeffyo24 (Group #1) will want all 15 planted for the morning. Rick said the hens were holding tight today but the roosters were really on the run. The quieter your group is the better your chances. Dogs that know how to creep with running birds and work at a slower pace will probably do better than those that work fast and range. He is going to experiment with putting binders on the roosters legs to handicap them just a bit. Again pay attention to the heaviest cover in your assigned area.

That's all for now. See you at the farm!

PS - my question to you is...why do my post seem to be twice as long as anyone elses? I need to learn how to use shorter sentences.

[setterguy]

Just wanted to extend my thanks to Willie, Spinach, Rick and anyone else who helped in putting the day together. It was a great day, I got to see a bunch of nice dogs and meet a bunch of super guys. I hope that you guys didn't get too wet this afternoon..Again thanks for all the work you guys put into planning the event, Kenai and I had a great time. Could this possibly be the first annual FM pheasant hunt?

[Dancing Bear]

We also had a blast,thanks to all that put it together, great group of dudes and dogs.
I'm in for next year for sure.

Thanks again,

DB IBOT #68, kinda sore in the legs today???

[mistermom]

I'm in for next year too! It couldn't have gone better. It was a great group of guys and dogs. Daisy seems to have some potential. She did great. I was really impressed by Luci too. Same age as Daisy and did even better.

mm

[superfish2]

I would like to extend my thanks to everyone who put this together. It was nice to put faces to names. That slough wore my dog out I think she is still sleeping.

BTW...How many birds did you guys pick up in the afternoon, and did you even find those chuckers?

Setterguy Do you happen to have prices on the tri-tronics sport 60 and and sport 2 dog 60?

[BDR]

I also had a great time sunday. Saw some great dogwork! had fun watching Macey, Buddy, Daisy, Luci. These dogs worked together great, I wish I could have called off Charlie a couple times when he didn't back Macey and stealing retrieves, for that I apologize. I hope to get out with you guys again in the future. Thanks to Wild Willie and Spinach for a great event. All the Dogs showed they are going to be great hunting partners for you guy's.

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I'd rather be skunked than follow the crowd!

Brian Rogers

[spinach]

To all who attended the first annual Fm pheasant hunt;, Wild Willie, Bdr, Labs4me, Mayfly, mistermom, Setterguy, Dancing bear, superfish, diezel, jeffy045 and the roughly 20 or so guests. Thankyou all for making this event a great time, I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet you and see your hunting dogs. Bdr "charlie" was very fun to hunt with and it was great for Macey to hunt with a more experienced dog and I'm sure she learned allot from charlie. Mistermom "Daisy" did a great job, she stayed fairly close and definitely has a great nose I think I remember seeing her point at least once and she looked great. Mayfly "luci" was also great, she just needs to get out as much as possible and you will have a great hunting partner. If any of you guys ever wants to get out for the day give me a shout. For those of you that did not hunt the afternoon session you sure missed a h%^*^& of a storm it got really windy around 3:00 pm and started to rain and hail so we sat in the barn and had a couple of cold beverages and waited it out. We finally made it back out at 5:30 pm and hunted until 7:00 pm and bagged around 15 more birds or so. I do have a little bit to brag about, When we decided to go back out and hunt again around 5:30 pm we jumped in 3 seperate trucks my Dodge, Bdr's Dodge, and Labs Ford I was first driving down the muddy road leading to the back of the farm and made it without much problem, so I looked in my rearview mirror wondering where the others were only to see labs truck stopped and buried up to the bottom of the doors in mud (he wasn't going anywhere) next comes Bdr not having much trouble and then he stopped in front of Labs to jerk him out. That didn't work and he even broke the jerk strap in the process. I drove back to them (again with no problem) and stopped to see what we could do to get Labs out, Then Bdr had to turn around and he got stuck. So now we had both Labs and Bdr stuck in mud up to their door panels. Were all laughing at each other because we knew we had a big problem to solve. Now Rick the farm owner comes down the road on his 4 wheeler and has a few words for us because we were such idiots, "why didn't you guys take the blacktop road around back where you wouldn't of gotten stuck" "Duh" both me and Wild Willie looked at each other and couldn't even comment because we felt pretty stupid. So Rick told us to go out and hunt and He would pull them out with his tractor afterwards. So I jumped in my truck and drove back to the farm (again without any problem) . After the hunt Rick pulled the 2 trucks out of the mud and we sat around drinking beers and all laughed about it. What a great day. See you all again. I would like to get together this fall for a wid hunt somewhere if anyone is interested. Any thoughts or comments, Where could we go and when? Does anyone have a secret honey hole south or west we could go to? Spinach.......

[BDR]

Spinach- A fall wild hunt would be great. I wish I had some private land to set some thing like that up. I do have some great public land spots I would be willing to give up for a get together

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I'd rather be skunked than follow the crowd!

Brian Rogers

[Mayfly]

Fall, it seems so far away but before we know it wil be here.....

Thanks to everyone that came to make this past Sunday possible...And especially a thanks to Spinach and Willie for getting this off the ground. I had a great time! I met a lot of good people and it was great seeing some great dogs working out there! Luci also says thank you...She loved it. From morning to evening I could see changes in her. She learned a lot. In the morning hunt she jumped a rooster and we shot it down but the bird was still alive, she was under it when it dropped and the bird ran into some grass and hunkered down. Luci got up to where the bird was and she froze on a point, I wanted her to grab and retrieve but she wouldn't. I went over to find a rooster starring her right back. I admit the bird did look a little intimidating. This happened a couple times. She hesitated to pick up the bird. Over lunch I took a dead rooster and threw it for her a couple times and she retrieved it just like her dummy at home. Later in the afternoon a rooster was flushed and Luci was on it, I shot and missed! The bird didn't fly far at all and Luci was on it. The bird hit the ground running and Luci was on it! She eventually picked it up and brought it to hand! That is my success story of the day...Thank you.

I will be back there again. What a great place to get a pup on some live birds and some live shooting.

[Diezel350]

As others have said, thanks to all who put this together. I had a great time and so did Duke my "little" lab. I enjoyed meeting everyone and look forward to doing it again. I only wish I could have stayed for the afternoon hunt but the boss had other plans.

[Wild Willie]

Hey Guys - just wanted to take the time to thank everyone for showing up, showing patience in th morning with the slow start and for the sportsman like attitudes I knew each and everyone of you would display.

Setterguy - I really enjoyed watching Kenai. I know you will find it hard to believe that as I was dealing with Buddy on the check cord, I was paying close attention to how she was working. You two make a great team. I also noticed and appreciate your gentle nature with her and your soft/quiet approach when greeting all the other dogs you came in contact with. Hopefully some day we will get a chance to hunt together when things are not so chaotic. I think you know what I mean!

BDR - Charlie is a great looking dog and I enjoyed watching him work after we buried your truck in the gumbo. I especially enjoyed his retrieves...no hesitation and back to you with style and grace. I think he and Buddy could develop into the dynamic duo someday. All I have to do is teach the Budster how not to hunt only for himself!

Mayfly - What can I say! You and Luci are on your way! Great looking pup with all kinds of potential. Keep Luci on birds dude and you two will be a awesome bird finding team!

Mistermom - Ditto for you! Six month olds and birdy as ever...great looking pup! Thanks for walking all the way around the pen and kicking that rooster up for us. I know it was a long walk...you and Daisy get the assist!

Spinach - Macey is steady as ever! Getting better with each and trip out! When the birds are spooky and you need to work stealthy... Macey is the dog! Hardly ever hear a loud correction command coming from you aimed at her! What can Brown do for you...find birds!

Labs - dude what can I say! I had my head up somewhere it shouldn't have been when we went out late afternoon! I will never forget the look on Rick's face. I think you saw it too! Wish I could have walked with you to observe your dogs in action! I believe you were the only guy using a whistle that day. I know it was sloppy wet in the afternoon. The farm isn't always that way...we will have to try it again soon when it's drier!

Superfish 2 - never did find those darn chukars. We slushed our way thru the bogs like you late in the afternoon after the thunderstorm...that was some wet and tough terrain! We worked around the lime green tags pretty slow...but came up empty handed. We did pick-up a couple of hens and a rooster in the corn.

Dancing Bear - you were not at all what we expected. I envisioned a big 6'6" burly dude with long flowing shoulder length black hair and covered with tattoos. Someone not quite as hansom as you truly are! Thanks for showing and for all your kind words, wit and sense of humor! We need to get together and do this again!

Diesel 350 - All I can say is you won't need to bring your hip boots next year!

Jeffyo45 - great success rate dude! I didn't think your team was ever going to come in for lunch...thought you got lost. Rick thinks that Superfish and Diesel were launching their birds into the L-field for you and your guys. Great to see you there and I trust you all had fun...I'm thinking you guys went 13 for 15?

Over all the FM group scored approximately 60 out of approximately 100 birds. Rick said that overall we should be happy with that considering the extreme weather conditions. Hot, dry and still morning hunt. Cool, wet and windy afternoon.

Hope I didn't miss anyone! Thanks again for such a great turn-out. Seeing all those trucks at the farm when me and Spinach pulled up was big relief. Only one no show, awesome, you guys rock!

[superfish2]

Well it's good to hear you guys picked up some more birds. Diesel350 and I only flushed two more birds then we came back with. We didn't hit the corn all that hard, we could see one hen running in there but it got pretty close to the house.

[jeffyo45]

I was very pleased with our success rate. I don't doubt that we picked up a few birds from other fields as well as lost a few to other fields. We saw a couple of them run across the blacktop road at the very west edge of the field. Oh well that is how it goes. Our two dogs each caught a rooster on the ground as well. That was in the grass so I think they were trying to hold tight in the cover. Once again that is how it usually goes at the game farm. It's even worse on hot days. The birds just really don't want to fly. We figured since we started an hour later and weren't staying for the afternoon we would hunt an extra hour. That's why it took us so long to come in. Thanks very much to the guys who organized this and to those who brought food and refreshments. My father in law forgot to grab the venison brats. I apologize for mouching. I owe those who brought stuff big time. I would be happy to repay them however they see fit. That is a fine operation they run there. Plenty of good cover for the birds. Sorry we weren't able to stay and socialize a bit longer. The in-laws had stuff going on that afternoon. Thanks again.

[setterguy]

Willie - Thanks for all the kind words, it was a pleasure to meet so many guys that love thier dogs and the sport of bird hunting. Again, it was great to meet all you guys and hope to spend some more time in the woods/field with you in the future.

[mistermom]

I like the fall idea too! My Dad's farm is close to the area we were at (7 miles east of Cambridge). It is pretty decent hunting for pheasant with bonus grouse and ducks too.

I don't know if I would want to give my Dad's place the "pounding" like a group our size could do, however. I'll have to think about it. The other thing we could do is just grab a really big WMA at 7:00 in the morning and make it "ours" for the day. It would be fun!

mm

[spinach]

Hi all!! Im just nosin' around through my husband's bird site and I think all you guys seem like a fun group to hang out with and I guess.... hunt with too! Pat said he had such a great time time on Sunday.... it almost made me jealous!! He actually told me I could go but dogged me at the last minute!! Anyway maybe next year you guys can make it a wife/girlfriend thing. Then we can all hang out and chat while you guys are catchin' birds !!
Oh by the way, BDR your dog Charlie is so beautiful. Pat (Spinach) was showing me pictures last week. I cant wait to see those pictures you took of Macey!!
Anyway just thought Id say "Hi" to all that went on Sunday and maybe I'll get invited next year !!!!
Mrs. T

[Guest]

Spinich and Wild Willie, and Crew

Still feel bad for having to drop out of the hunt, was all primed for it. As every one seen in the news that weekend, that was the reason I was not able to attend. When I dropped out, the search was still in the planning stages and not yet made public so I couldn't give the reason for not attending.

I did see a few posts back, about hunting some wild birds this fall. Any one interested in chasing ruff grouse on miles and miles and miles of logging trails. Also spending a day at a game farm (to make sure we do get some birds) let me know. It would have to be a weekend thing, or a 1 day. what ever works out best.