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Wednesday
Nov052008

Roosters!

DateWednesday, November 5, 2008 at 11:36AM

'Tis the season.  We have a full harvest moon on the way, cool fall temps, pheasant season is well underway and now, with the corn finally starting to finally come out of the fields, the hunting forecast looks pretty good. Here's my only catch;  My wife Katie is 8 months pregnant and the baby is due, essentially, any day now. Holy smokes.... I'm coping.  How?  Well right now, I'm trying to get outside as much as I can.  Last night I was bass fishing.  A few nights before that it was fall muskie hunting.  Saturday, I walked a few fields with my hunting buddy, Rob Swendra.  Rob's a great hunting partner. See, he's in the insurance business out in the Dassel and Cokato areas. That mean he's friends with a lot of locals and those folks are happy to give Rob hunting access on their land. Like I said, Rob's a great hunting partner. Saturday, we walked into the field right after 9 and didn't see a single bird.  We still had corn up around us and I figure they birds were still fat and happy out in the standing fields. On the property we were hunting, we found one strip of corn and I volunteered to walk it.   We watched quite a few birds get up, although we didn't have many shots at them. I never got a change to try and pull the trigger.  Field number two proved a better option.  Rob and I went to visit Ron Beckman, our other hunting buddy.  "Hey Ron, want to go hunting" No luck. Ron was too busy trying to get 240 acres of corn out while the combining was good.   Can't blame him. During harvest season, getting in the field during decent weather is what the game's all about.  Anyway, Rob and I took Ron's dog, Rio, to the field.  Rio is, without a doubt, one of the best dogs I've ever hunted behind.  As soon as her collar and vest were on, Rio bolted to the edge of the habitat and locked up.  "Rio, hunt 'em up!"  One hen up.  Back and forth Rio worked, not more than ten yards out front of Rob and myself. Her wagging tail went stiff and the dog locked up a second time.  Hen number two.  Almost immediately after, Rio broke down a fence line and a rooster popped up too low to shoot.  A few moments later, Rio locked up a fourth time and I quickly worked into position to shoot should a bird flush. Sure enough, a rooster flushed and I took in on a clean crossing shot at twenty yards.  A first-year bird with short spurs, but a very long tail.  A beautiful bird.  The rest of the afternoon, we would flush only two more hens.  No matter, I got to walk a field with friends, the sound of combines in the distance, and the periodic pop of a shotgun off in the distance; Just what I love about fall.   A side note, shinny buddy Mike Grzeskowiak dropped me a note this week that he and son Luke were out for Luke's first pheasant hunt that same day.   They were down walking fields in LeSueur at Traxler's.  When I asked how the hunt went, Mike reponded with a few pictures.  Based on what I see from Mike's errant slapshots on the ice, I'd say son Luke was the guy hitting the birds on this day! Way to go guys. I'm glad Luke had a great day in the field.

 

AuthorBill Sherck | Comment6 Comments |

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