A good Dog & The Perfect Pheasant Hunting Season

Tony, my Brittany had just finished his 4th season and it was one of the best pheasant seasons. My two sons’ and I have had in many a moon. We got about 40 Pheasants of the 45-season limit for the three of us. The thing I am most proud if is, Tony did not lose one bird. He had just one close encounter.

I winged this Pheasant, I marked down where it landed, and I could see it run to my right. When I got to where it fell, I called Tony in to find it. I was hoping he could track It., but all he got was confused. Then it happened, four other Pheasants in the area all flushed at the same time. I called Tony off and we finished our hunt for that day.

The next day I returned alone to the same area and just let Tony hunt. About 50 yards from where I had seen the bird fall the day before. Tony went on point. Hoping it was my cripple. I went in for the flush; the bird tried to fly, then just ran and again tried to fly. Tony was on him in flash and brought the bird to me alive. I checked the bird for angle of flight when I shot it the day before and yep the shot matched. Therefore, I gave Tony no lost bird on that one.

He really only had one other hard retrieve that season. Tony was point and I flushed the Rooster. I shot the bird and knew it was hit hard. I watched from the hill I was on, as it flew across a highway and about 300 yards into the field. Gaining altitude all the way. I knew from experience, when it dropped it would be totally dead. I marked the area where it dropped and carefully got Tony across the busy highway. I had to cross a creek and while I was doing that, Tony was already in the field hunting. When I got to where I could see him, he was on point. I went in flushed the bird and got it. He took off as if he knew where another live bird was and went on point again. However, no where near the dead bird. So I went in for the flush and bagged my second bird. We were quite a ways off to the right of the dead bird. Only good fact is we would be working into the wind to find it. Have you ever gone hunting for a bird with the hopes your dog does not find one? If Tony went on point, again on a live bird. I could not shoot it. I would then be over limit, with the yet unfound dead bird. I hate to waste game, I would rather take my chances of finding the dead bird.

Tony followed my hand command to hunt in that direction and soon he went on point. I said; “ah-ha he has found it”, with a sigh of relieve. He then released his point picked up the bird. On my voice, "fetch" command and started for me. I then gave him the whistle "retrieve to me" command, as he was coming to me. Suddenly, he just stopped, dropped the bird, looked around and took off hunting. I still cannot figure out why he did that. Maybe because it was out of sequence for him. I went over picked up the bird it was still very warm so I knew it was mine. I called Tony to “come to me“, unloaded my gun and told him, “lets go home. We have our limit.” To me good dog work is priceless.

Bird Hunting With Man's Best Friend, Is As Good As It Gets.

Written By Field Staff Member Bob