A great benefit of retirement is that you can hunt public land when most of the public is busy punching a clock, staring at a computer screen for hours. I did that for 50 years, and now I enjoy the benefit of time, as long as God allows it. On this two-day mid-week hunt, we encountered few other hunters, and the ones we did meet were super nice and in a great mood. They must be retired as well!
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Most of September and some of October were too hot to hunt if you were running dogs. Though it can be hard on the pups, global warming has made for some very comfortable hunting when we did get to go. I am not a cold weather fan, so I encourage the cows to keep farting away! Maybe we will be hunting quail in North Dakota someday. Here are some pictures from the three states we visited so far. I hope you enjoy them!
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Hunting public land is often a choice driven by economics, but it’s also an excellent option for those pursuing bird hunting objectives other than body counts or a tailgate covered in feathered carcasses. That is what preserves and expensive guided private land hunts are for! Since we hunt mostly for our dogs and to be in the open spaces with enough wing shooting to keep it interesting, hunting public land works well for us. Access is usually about free, but the downside is that often there is not an abundance of game. We are happy with the handful of birds we usually find, but the truth is that we rarely take a limit, and sometimes the number of birds is zero. Because that is the norm, the times we do get into them are extra special, appreciated, and never taken for granted.
I hope you enjoy these pics from this season’s Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico public land hunts; looking for my favorite game bird of all time!
Thinking about quail.
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We do love hunting the flyover country. The Great Plains and its small towns, where the pace is slow, the people are mostly friendly, and the food is fried. These are places rich in Western history, where we ponder the tough souls that lived and died on the land and the relics they left behind. Vast sections of public land still remain here, wild places where self-reliance is mandatory, and the beauty of God’s creation is on dramatic display. Something is endearing about the modest accommodations, the lack of opulence, the absence of pretense, and the value of functional utility in the rural West. We certainly enjoy the sparse humanity and the consequent silence of these desolate places. I do lament the dying rural communities we see that once had a purpose but are now dilapidated ruins, holding on, rotting in disrepair until they disappear into forgotten history.
I do hope you enjoy these pictures from our hunt.
Henry, on top of the world!
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We ended our bird hunting season with a three-day Arizona Mearns hunt with the great guys at Double Aero Guides and then two days on our own on New Mexico public land. This season seems to have ended about the time it began. We had hoped to return to Wyoming, but it was ridiculously cold for weeks and weeks. So down to the warmth of Arizona we went, only to find snow and freezing temps! But it was no problem; the dogs loved it and we had a great hunt. The best quail hunt in years. I hope you enjoy the pictures.
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The focus this year is hunting western public land. Vast sections of BLM land, national grasslands, and state hunter walk-in access provide abundant opportunities. So far, we have found tolerable pressure, encountering few other hunters, and bird numbers have been acceptable. I hope you enjoy these pictures from our October hunts. If you are interested, these hunting spots are all about 125 miles southeast of Houston. Hope we see you there! 🙂
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This is Henry at one week on 1/5/2021. Born Xander at the great Deutsch Kurzhaar (GSP) breeder Vom Gansehimmel in North Dakota. It has been a great pleasure to watch him grow from a mischievous puppy to a legitimate bird dog (but still full of mischief!).
Undoubtedly, one of the great joys is to see your dog grow into what he was bred and born to do. I hope you enjoy these pictures of a transformed dog on his first wild bird hunts.
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We are leaving behind a tough year. You all know what happened, so I won’t go into that here, except to say the low point was the departure of my dear hunting buddy Tex. A sweet giant of a dog, he almost made it 9 years. Tex had a great life. He hunted in 9 states, was provided with $9,000 worth of knees, and was a much-beloved member of our family. He gave us great joy, and he enjoyed life to the end. His nub of a tail wagged all the time, even when we took him for that last terrible visit to the vet. We miss him very much.
So now we move on, and thankfully our bird hunting future looks very bright! Two elements warrant this optimism.
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Birdhunter 