2022

[orhunter]

Willie: At that speed, the pattern should be quite nice.

The kid's lump has reduced in size all on its own and appears to be going away. Keep an eye on it is all can be done. Think she'll be fine. Now I gotta make another plan. That may take some doing....

Edit.... Have you tried coating wad and shot with Motor Mica. That's what I did but no idea if it actually did anything that affected pattern. Reduce pressure and increase velocity was the goal. Increased velocity doesn't always work out with large shot charges.

[Willie T]

Willie: At that speed, the pattern should be quite nice.

The kid's lump has reduced in size all on its own and appears to be going away. Keep an eye on it is all can be done. Think she'll be fine. Now I gotta make another plan. That may take some doing....

Edit.... Have you tried coating wad and shot with Motor Mica. That's what I did but no idea if it actually did anything that affected pattern. Reduce pressure and increase velocity was the goal. Increased velocity doesn't always work out with large shot charges.

Orhunter, I have not. In my 20’s if I push an open ounce and a quarter much faster my patterns blow out. Too much choke with the heavy load has the same effect. With this heavy load and bigger shot I choke IC/Mod. It is plenty fast and has some reach. In the 1970’s before I knew anything about nontoxic shot or loading, 20 gauge 3” magnums were commonly 1165 fps and were darn effective. ,

Glad to hear your pup is doing better. A bird dogs life is rough and tumble. Seems like the harder they run the more apt they are to get nicked from time to time.
Willie

[J D Patrick]

Good stuff AG - good stuff

[orhunter]

Willie: Yea, the 3" 20 with a long shot column is a tricky beast to deal with, speed will kill the pattern and tight chokes make it even worse. Same for any gauge but the 3" 20 is the worst, the 3 1/2" 12 is next in line. Steel shot compounds the issue. My steel duck loads are 1300 fps, shoot fantastic through a Briley Mod. choke. We don't need speed to kill a duck, big shot (2's) and a great pattern are deadly. Same load works excellent on Snow Geese. I gotta find a heavier than lead (not TSS, Hevi-Shot or Bismuth) for the 28. TSS is too spendy for everyday upland hunting.

[AverageGuy]

Good stuff AG - good stuff

Thank you JD.

How's your season going so far?

[AverageGuy]

Snow chased us off the mountain on our last day of hunting Chukar.



So we drove to Oregon to hunt with a Friend who wanted to see Spud in action prior to breeding to him.

Spud's first drop produced lots of action but the cover had been graze so badly that getting into shotgun range was mostly impossible. Spud's steadiness was impressive to say the least as he held point on multiple coveys running off in plain sight as I went into flush.

Spud and I's first Chukar in Oregon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhtaagoeLlI

Spud with the retrieve!



Another OR Chukar retrieve for Spud with scenery



Tess with her first Oregon Chukar



Valley Quail were next! Spud with our first!



Tess with her first Valley Quail!



They are Beautiful!





The coveys were big and once we broke them up the dog work on singles was excellent.



We rolled into the home place this afternoon. Excellent trip with Dogs getting points on Pheasants, Prairie Chickens, Sharptails, Sage Grouse, Chukars, Huns and Valley Quail.

Duck and Pheasants open tomorrow locally ...

[Willie T]

You guys are killing it AG.
Moon is putting it together on the prairie. Limit of pheasant and pointed a covey of Huns today. Retrieve and hunt dead is good. The Huns were nice work. Pointed from around 50 yards with the head up high in the wind. The pup has a long way to go but I’m liking him.
Willie T

34918AD5-0254-4BC4-811C-B1D2A3BF44E0.jpeg (460.55 KiB) Viewed 2761 times

[AverageGuy]

You guys are killing it AG.
Moon is putting it together on the prairie. Limit of pheasant and pointed a covey of Huns today. Retrieve and hunt dead is good. The Huns were nice work. Pointed from around 50 yards with the head up high in the wind. The pup has a long way to go but I’m liking him.
Willie T

34918AD5-0254-4BC4-811C-B1D2A3BF44E0.jpeg

50 yard head up point on a covey of a Huns is why we walk behind them. Good job Moon!

[Willie T]

Moon’s development on the prairie continues.

008A7716-2435-48F9-BFD0-D3AC46E1D32E.jpeg (125.39 KiB) Viewed 2659 times

[J D Patrick]

Good stuff AG - good stuff

Thank you JD.

How's your season going so far?

well, it's been going OK for me
I spent a little more time training my young Kelty for her tests than I did poor Earl
Sept we went to northeastern Colorado a few days to see if we could find the elusive sage grouse - no luck - then on to the Armbruster in Utah and tested Kelty (she passed just fine) then we headed to south Central Wyoming where we chased sage grouse in the AM and I glassed pronghorn after it got warm (I had a tag) - we found the grouse after a few days and had a blast working them - I don't try to shoot many as their numbers are down, but I just love seeing them. I did shoot a few - here's Kelty with her first

IMG_3181a.png (369.84 KiB) Viewed 2627 times

I found a decent pronghorn - the season in this area had been open for 2 weeks before I got there, so bigger ones were likely culled out, but I was happy with him and it was a fun stalk

IMG_3179.PNG (365.51 KiB) Viewed 2627 times

then we slid over to SouthWest Wyoming to deer and grouse hunt - we had fun - sucked on the grouse, but got a nice muley

IMG_3620.jpg (994.44 KiB) Viewed 2627 times

we got home after a month out west and I had a long list of "honey-does" that I barely scratched
We had two hunt tests the weekend of 21-23 Oct (a HZP and then a VGP back to back) and now I am back in Wyoming

Tomorrow the dogs and I head out to chase pheasant and sharptails - then we link up with some folks and chase elk for a few days - if I get lucky early we will head to LA for the "youth and veteran weekend" for waterfowl to help out at camp

come 12 Nov it waterfowl comes in for real and the dogs and I are chasing them

may head somewhere in December or early January (besides my 'go to's of NC, SC and LA) but defnitely have plans for Southern NM in late Jan/early feb for quail and javelina

hopefully we get some meat!!

[J D Patrick]

I have to get a real camera that I can have handy, cause I bury my cell phone (to paranoid of losing it while hunting - not for the replacement cost, but for the pain of missed work calls)

[AverageGuy]

Man JD, That is making the rounds! Keep up the good work. We need to meet up in the field sometime.

Had a little excitement here last evening. Now the dogs and I can back after the birds next week!



Here he was at 2am on camera yesterday morning. Big mature, heavy horned buck. An arrow through the heart, heard him crash in the tall grass and walked right to him. Got Tess out and did some dog training before I dressed and loaded him.

[orhunter]

Nice job Kent. Wondering when we’d see the deer photos. He’ll look good in the freezer.

[AverageGuy]

Thank You, Harvey. I really enjoy archery big game.

Been hunting close to home the rest of this week now that our seasons are open. Some people poo poo em, but I love a good wild rooster hunt in good grass cover. The point and relocate pursuits are opportunities for a dog to show what they are really made of, as are cripple bird recoveries.

Spud and I yesterday




Tess and I this morning in a driving rain. Two shot double off a her point. First bird up was a hen, then a rooster flushed and it was not close, dropped it with my first shot but it did not look dead, dropped another one dead with my second shot. Tess got on the first one immediately and brought it in, then she found the second one. Both of us were soaked to the bone, so I headed her towards the truck and home. Heated seats in the new truck felt really good about then!

[Willie T]

Nice buck AG. Count me in on liking to hunt big native grass prairie. I’ve been running Moon in that type of cover to let him learn to handle running birds. How much pressure to put on the birds to get them to sit down without busting is a fine line. I hunted waterfowl with Moon Thursday in that same weather system that you and Tess got wet in.
(Tap photos for full images)

229198D8-BDD4-49AB-A62F-A73D30B593BF.jpeg (168.79 KiB) Viewed 2469 times

73AC8E9C-6D9A-467F-9FDF-53382DE3B18B.jpeg (100.25 KiB) Viewed 2469 times

17BDBEB8-BD91-45D6-8927-2986C4F16816.jpeg (99.91 KiB) Viewed 2469 times