30 More

Saturday it was just Tony, Carnoski, and I hunting and we had 5 dogs on the truck -- Little Thudd, Bee, LJ, Trash, and Trip.  This time of year we often find grouse bunched up in spots that have food and we walked walked into one spot where there were 8 spread out over a 20 yard area right out on an open landing.  Friday we had a group of 10 in one spot.  It was a great day of grouse hunting.  Including the bunch of eight and the two the Little Thudster pointed we had 10 in the first cover.  On the bird I shot for Little Thuddy he retrieved it to within three feet of me.  He's turning in to quite a grouse dog.  Bee was up next with a couple of nice finds and a couple wild flushes for a total of 5 more.

LJ was the third dog out of the truck and got to point what was the dumbest grouse I have ever seen.  We had just left the truck and were walking on a 4-wheeler trail when I saw a grouse standing on a stump in the brush next to the trail.  I pointed it out to Lloyd and Tony and then called LJ in.  He flew by us with out winding the bird that was still on the stump.  It finally walked off into the brush and I called Lj in again and sent him directly on the line the bird had taken he immediately got birdy and then pointed about ten feet in.  Lloyd took the right wing and Tony was on the left.  The bird was walking around in front of the dog like a throw-down quail at a trial on a rainy day.  When I flushed it, the bird flew right at Tony who spun around and knocked it down going away.  LJ's next find was on a bunch of four grouse that he had to relocate on.  His third find was on a single grouse, which I didn't see but the boys killed it with both of them claiming they hit it.  Unfortunately we don't have instant replay.

Trash was next with probably the find of the day as she was 125 yards away when the Garmins went off.  The bird had moved on her and she pinned it on a relocation.  I was out of position so there was no controversy on who killed this one. Lloyd gets full credit.  Trash went on to have another grouse find and a woodcock.  Trip was last out of the truck and ran in a cover that has seen a lot of pressure.  In spite of that she handled four grouse finds one of which was a pair and we had one flush wild.  That gave us a daily total of 30 grouse and 1 woodcock.  Not a bad day for three old guys in their 60s.

Back at it today with the Big Thudd and another truck load of dogs.