A little over a month later we were on our way back to North Dakota for the Pheasant opener. Imagine that! Actually everything had worked well the last trip with 5 dog's and 3 guys sharing the same accommodations. Having never met Phil before I enjoyed his quick wit and conversation. He also liked to cook and always had coffee going in the morning. Phil had been a salesman for commercial masonry supplies for years which is how Tom knew him. He also was always up for a cold beer at the end of the day and I loved watching his demeanor change with each beer he drank! It was like putting money in the jukebox. Just sit back and enjoy the show! Phil was about 10 years ahead of Tom and I in age and in good shape. Having been a Ruffed Grouse hunter from way back he was also a pretty good shot on most days!
So we settled in once again on arriving in Prairie Pothole country. Tom's dog Ida kenneled in the garage. Phil's dog Moca a Weimeraner shared his room in the house as he had strict orders from his wife to take care of her dog! So I felt better that my crew of 3 Setter's never got out of my sight staying in the house as well.
On the last trip over the course of the week we had seen quite a number of pheasants. In fact on one run I had to heel the dog's out of a field due to the number of young birds that were in it. This was due to re-nesting which occurs if the birds loose a brood for some reason. This country also is shared by 3 species of upland birds. Pheasants,Sharptail Grouse and Hungarian Partridge. It's common to find 2 of them in close proximity but sometimes all 3 species will be sharing the same general area. This makes the prospects and anticipation of mixed bag hunting very exciting.
I had put on a lot of miles with the Setter's the last trip and learned a few thing's about them or at least had experiences which reinforced what I thought I knew. In regards to running them together we could really cover some ground and I loved it. It was just a beautiful sight. They watched each other and would converge if it appeared another dog was birdy. Otherwise they just continually worked the cover which I let them do as this was big country. It wasn't uncommon for them to get out 2 or 3 hundred yards ahead depending on the cover. This suited me fine as I like to keep moving and quickly learned how to keep an eye on all 3. I would choose areas conducive to this but otherwise would choose which dog I thought would be appropriate for a particular run and also tried to be fair with rotating them. Mick was very smart about handling birds and would not leave an area if he thought there were birds there. He would also hold steady no matter how long it took me to get there. This was important because I would sometimes end up with multiple dog's on point at the same time. What a problem to have! Molly amazed me with her stamina and drive. This dog had so much desire to hunt it brought tears to my eyes sometimes when she would work to pin down moving birds. Also having the most prey drive she was the best at recovering down birds not having any problem putting the "Kibosh" on down birds trying to escape. Now Beau I knew from seeing him surf the wind around the farm had promise but I wasn't prepared for what I saw he could do on the open plains. Being a taller dog he always moved with his head high and consequently always into the wind. This allowed him to use his long legs to just cruise along covering huge amounts of ground until he picked up even the slightest scent. I watched him many times come to a majestic pose holding birds not wanting to alert the sentry's of a covey. Beauty,style and finesse. This dog had it all. And to think I was calling him a clown just month's earlier. Wow! It would have been so easy to break this dog's spirit with the wrong handling.
Now having dialed in so to speak on the talents of the Setter's the last trip I would continue to run them together even though I knew still being in the learning process we would bump birds occasionally. I didn't care. This was a pursuit of perfect moments. A pursuit of those times when everything comes together in perfect harmony. I was amazed and excited at how often this was happening.
After a couple of days hunting locally we decided to travel 45 miles SW to scout some new area's. I enjoyed these foray's into the countryside. It was relaxing to just ride along taking in the scenery all the time watching for good bird cover. On the way to our destination we drove through another small town larger than the one we were staying in and I remarked at the fact that several homes had sprinkler systems running with bright green lawns. This was more of a farm and ranch area with more prime crop acres.
We arrived at our destination 8 miles south of that little picturesque town and choose the areas we would hunt. I took an area with some tree rows and wheat stubble in between and let the Setter's out. My plan was to hunt these rows up and down and allowing the Setter's to cross into the wheat as they would. They were birdy about a hundred yards down the first row and I knew we had birds ahead but with all 3 dog's on the ground they tended to push each other and I had to keep up. These tree rows were a quarter mile long and went up and down a hill. So I had my work cut out for me. 3/4 of the way down the first row they crossed over into the wheat and started working the next row. Obviously the birds had ran out and across the wheat so I followed. It was very dry with the temperature in the fifties and bright sun at mid morning. Finally I had a dog on point with Molly holding steady and Mick and Beau spotting her and moving in to honor. I hoped I could get there in time as I had about 50 yards to cover slightly uphill of course! I would later learn to avoid these scenario's as the birds just had to much of an advantage. The birds held and I flushed a group of Hen's. We proceeded down that row and once again the dog's crossed over the wheat stubble in between the rows. Half way down Mick in the lead suddenly turned his head into the direction of the tree row and locked up. Beau pulled up twenty feet behind him with Molly close behind also paying homage to Mick's good work. Again I had about 40 or 50 yards to go to catch up but this time they were on the downside of the hill anyway! I softly moved by Molly and Beau to Mick just hoping to get close enough to position myself for a shot through the cover of the brush in the tree row. I walked by Mick and kicked the branches on the ground. Nothing. He was rock solid still so I moved ahead keeping in mind I had to pick a lane to shoot as well when the Rooster bolted up and to the left. I made a shot as he moved from left to right and brought him down!. I quickly moved through the brush with all 3 dog's as Mick pinned down the bird as it flapped about. Job well done! But I was heating up after that cat and mouse game and took a moment with the dog's on down command to recoup.
We had two more tree rows to go with 80 acres of CRP bordering on the west side. So we had our work cut out for us. Heading back up the hill it wasn't long before the dog's were birdy again along the tree row. There was lots of heavy grass and brush in the rows but getting the birds pinned down wasn't easy let alone getting a clear shot. 2/3 of the way up the same thing happened with the dog's crossing the wheat tracking the birds to the next tree row. This time they all converged on the same spot locked on point. I moved in and nothing flushed. The dog's re-positioned farther down and locked up again spread out in a string with Beau in the lead. These birds were obviously moving ahead. Beau was about 6 feet off the edge of the tree line pointing into it A very pretty sight. I moved ahead of him and nothing flushed but the dog's still held their positions so I knew we had birds someplace between them. I came back up toward Mick and then birds started just going up all along in front of us. Hen's and Roosters. I got my bearings and picked out a Rooster and brought him down on the second shot. However he was a runner and Molly shot through the brush and the chase was on! Luckily he was still well within the wheat stubble and not yet close to the CRP. She caught him with no problem and proudly displayed her prize to the other dog's. I was getting quite a workout!
We still had most of that last tree row to go and the CRP so after a break with the dog's again on down command and a drink from the water bottle all around we resumed our run. We were a hundred yards or so into it when Beau tracked scent out into the wheat and came to a cautious point. I walked up and nothing was there but the dogs had scent here and worked into the edge again along the tree row. It wasn't but a minute and Mick was rock solid with his body rigid pointing into the brush. As I moved in being fairly close this time the other dog's were locked up behind me watching in the wheat stubble. I never had problems if it was Mick's point of course in terms of the other dog's encroaching. Again I was challenged to position myself to get a shot through the brush. This was the last tree row with wheat stubble in between the CRP on the other side. I walked in front of Mick and kicked the brush. Nothing again! He wasn't changing his mind so I moved in farther having to use one hand to move away branches. I hate having to do this as a flush at that moment makes you vulnerable. I kicked the grass again. Nothing. I turned to look at Mick and tried to follow his eyes back. As I turned forward a covey of Huns screeched from the brush! I quickly fired. Missed. Then got my bearings and brought down a bird on my second shot. How exciting was that Pups! We recovered the bird in the wheat stubble and I had watched the covey as it landed in the CRP so we took another break before seeing if we could add to our now mixed bag with another one of these beautiful birds.
With temperature in the 50's and bright sun I had to be careful with the dog's so I took them down to the end of the tree row and into the bottom of this area to a waterway and let them get wet and re-hydrate. That's the nice thing about North Dakota. Most of the time there's water nearby.
The wind was coming from the southeast so we entered the CRP from the northeast corner making a loop around from the west into the wind in the approximate area I expected the Huns to be. At first the grass was heavy then I saw that there were some thin spots as well as some high spots coming up. It didn't take long for Mick to come to point in the grass. I didn't know what we had as we had moved quite a few birds the last couple hours and this was really more pheasant cover than anything else. I moved right up to Mick intent on a spot in front of him and moved forward. It was the Huns! They took flight into the wind and just hung there a moment it seemed. I could see all the colors they displayed clearly as the sun caught them before they turned with the wind. Again I missed my first shot and brought down a bird with the second but what a sight that had been.
After we recovered our 4th bird now having 2 Rooster's and 2 Huns in our bag we worked to the end of the CRP and shortly thereafter the truck pulled up with Tom and Phil. We shared our replays of all the moments of our runs as we always do and let the Setter's take long drinks from the water bucket. We clearly had scored big having had two points on Huns as we all considered this to be a bonus on any day. It is not uncommon to see them but their population numbers are drastically lower than the peak numbers in the 90's.
And so it went. Round 2 in North Dakota. Lot's of miles walked. Lots of opportunities for great moments and great birdwork! On the way home we stopped in that little town I had talked about earlier and picked up a six pack of Long necks. The first bar had a sign that said"closed due to a lack of help". We were puzzled by that but didn't think much of it. However later I would find out exactly what it meant. The beers went down to easy and didn't last many miles as the sun was setting behind us. As I turned around I couldn't help but think how beautiful it was.
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