Spring Snow Goose Hunting

Well, after getting the pup to 500 points it was time to have some fun! Generally, I start snow goose hunting in South Dakota, but it was later this year, so we actually went straight to North Dakota. I'd planned to hunt snows for at least three weekends, but for one reason or another, I was only able to make it out for two of them. The first weekend I headed out with my dad and Arlie. Crammed in my dad's truck, we headed west and did a bunch of scouting. All the water made it extra tough getting to the birds even when you did find them. We ended up with 12 on Saturday I think. Certainly could have been worse, but I definitely expected better. Sunday, the weather turned against us. Rain overnight and it was still raining hard when we got up. We didn't have a very good field and with the rain decided it wasn't worth trying to set up. So, we tried to do a little sneaking but couldn't find anything worthwhile. We cut loose on one flock, but they were quite a ways out and came up empty. So we decided to head to town, have some breakfast and hang it up for the weekend.

I got out again the next weekend with a buddy, who also guides for Lone Drake Waterfowl Outfitters, and got after them again. We met up with a couple other guys after we found a field so there was four of us. It only took 3 vehicles driving around for a day and a half. But it turned out alright - I think we shot 48 that night. We already had a field lined up for the next day too. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a blizzard. This winter just won't quit! We never set since all of our decoys were windsocks and would have been filled with snow in no time. Mid day a couple of us put a sneak on some geese that were piling in to a field just down the road from where we were parked. There weren't very many close enough for us to get to, but it still turned out to be worthwhile - 23 geese down. We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the trucks staying warm. Meanwhile, lots of geese continued to use the field we were planning to hunt. So the next day we got out there early to greet them. Surprisingly most of them were adults and not juvies as we expected. They didn't come in very well, though that was partially due to the snow and our difficulty hiding. But enough of them came close for us to shoot 88 of them throughout the day. No doubt we lost at least a half dozen more that sailed off or something, but that's just how it goes sometimes. And of course Elsi had a great time chasing cripples all weekend. I think the only thing she didn't like was having to retrieve a couple that were all of about 15 yards out in the water. Ah the life!

500 Points!

Well, we did it. We ran a lot of tests this spring, but we got 'er done! After the first couple weekends, the weather warmed up a bit, the snow melted, and the dogs ran a bit more freely. We ended up running Key City HRC, a new club that started up in IA next. They've got a great club going there and put on a great test even with the storms that rolled in on Sunday. Both tests went fine on Saturday. Sunday was one of those spring rainy days that you don't really plan to go outside all day. But we had tests to run. So, when we got a clearing, the judges got things rolling quickly. Elsi ran second and got a low flier right out of the gate. I guess after being pent up and not getting much to retrieve on Saturday, it was just too much and she thought she had better just catch it herself. When we got to the second test, the weather was threatening once again. We ran early, and got half way through the test when lightning was spotted. Back into the clubhouse for another weather delay. An hour later, we got back out for the second half of that test and got through it ok. So, 3 for 4 down in Key City, meant we still needed 15 more points, which meant 2 more (upland) passes. On to Big Wapsie.

The last upland test of the spring around this area is Big Wapsie's, typically the last weekend of March. They are an older club, and also run a good test, though they are struggling with membership lately. They have wonderful grounds and some great people there. And, the nice thing is, it's fairly close to home. A couple friends went down to run their dogs as well and hopefully rack up a few points themselves before the summer training got underway. Saturday turned out to be a nice day and the dogs were ready to roll. Some of them a little too much - Elsi included. Actually, she ran the test just fine aside from being deaf. The cover was pretty tall and fairly thick, which is a good thing for uplands of course. But not a good thing for a deaf dog trying to run hunt tests. After the second bird flushed and flew away, she was steady but figured we should keep hunting - I think she wanted a retrieve. By the time I could get her corralled back in it was too late. That kind of stuff just doesn't fly for HRC finished level control. On to test number two. This one went better, but I could still tell she was on the edge. It certainly helped that she got to pick up a bird on the first flush, however it would have been much better if it had been the second one! In any case, she passed. Just 5 points away! Guess we have to stay for Sunday.

So, Sunday comes. I was able to convince Pat to stay and run Sunday even though they had planned to go home after Saturday. Well, it was interesting, that's for sure. In the first test she looked eerily similar to the first test on Saturday. Not good - the saving grace was that the direction she decided to 'keep hunting' was the way we were going. So although it certainly wasn't ideal, it turned out ok. Honoring off lead - barring anything crazy we'd just done it. I'd entered both tests of course though, just in case. So we headed over there to run that one. Man she was getting loose. First bird, she didn't look good but got a rerun on a technicality. I was sweating bullets. Second bird gets up and flies away, OK no problem. Back to the first bird for the rerun, and it gets up and flies off too. Dog stayed, got her back and went to honor. Felt a lot better after that. Should have some insurance there. And that's the way it went down. After the rest of the dogs ran, we picked up our ribbons and thanked the club.

All things considered, we got it done. Things went downhill a bit at the end - She went 6 for 8 over the last two weekends. Not the same consistent 4 for 4 weekends I was used to, but for being deaf and getting a total of 2 training sessions during the whole spring season I guess I can't complain too much. Now the old girl can retire. She'll spend the rest of her days hunting, playing frisbee, and just relaxing. Speaking of which, we missed out on a lot of the spring snow goose season running all these tests. Time to get after that!

More uplands

It's been quite a while since I posted. Things have been busy, including some life changes - job and otherwise, but I'm still kickin - and hunting! I was able to get in a quite a few days afield last fall chasing ducks and I'm getting ready to get back after the snow geese in South Dakota as they make their way back north.

But first, I've got some work to do with my pup. I'm not a field-trialer or anything since I just got my dog to hunt. I've gained a ton of knowledge and experience with the retriever clubs that I've been a part of over the years. Mostly though, I stick to the HRC venue. The picture at left is from a regular test at Bong Recreation area a few years back. I never really planned on "chasing points". But as I've casually kept running my dog in tests, I realized that I had a legitimate shot at earning 500 points with her at our local Hunting Retriever Club, LLHRC. So last winter I decided to go for it. I ran a few more upland quads and she did pretty well, so I got busy in the spring and ran a few regular tests. They didn't go as well, due mostly to her hearing loss. So, I'm back to uplands. We've run a few already this winter and we're on the home stretch. We ran our home club, Horicon Marsh, and Dakota HRC. So far she's 8/9 in those tests. The only failure was really a handler error. Hopefully in a few weeks I can let the old girl hang it up - and it's all just fun hunting after that!

Long Drives, Uplands, and Duckboats

I had a boat of mine up for sale for about a year. When I finally found a buyer, he was in New York. Seeing as I had bought the boat from a guy from Jersey, I agreed to meet him part way as long as we could combine it with a weekend that I could run some uplands. We ended up picking this past weekend - Horicon Marsh had their upland tests and that was pretty much on the way. I had gotten the boat out of storage 2 weeks before and had slowly been getting it ready to go, so no problems there, except I couldn't find the title. So I had to go to the DMV and get a duplicate (which didn't arrive in time of course). The 4WD was out in my truck as well, and I'd been too busy to look at it myself so I ended up bringing it in. They found the problem and had a decent price on getting it fixed, but also found that the rear U-joints were shot. So I had them fix the 4WD and then spent most of the day Friday replacing U-joints before I headed out. By the time I left it was 7pm and I knew it was going to be a long weekend.

After a few hours sleep, we showed up at the test. Elsi's normally very reliable so I wasn't too worried, but the lack of training since the last test which was 4 weeks was still a bit of a concern. The tests Saturday went alright. She had a low flush on each of the tests, getting feathers on both of them. So those were tough but she did stop after chasing each bird for about 15 yards. All in all though she did well, her line manners were not up to par, but certainly good enough and we earned a pass both days.

I didn't get to run as early as I had hoped, but I still got out of there before noon. So then it was off to drop the boat off. After a quick raid of the lunch buffet - a delicious spread of homemade dishes by members of the club - I headed out. But seriously, this test is worth going to just for the lunch - and the blueberry pie was incredible! Anyway, we were off. Through Milwaukee, Chicago, and across Indiana. I met the guy about 6 and the sale went off without a hitch. I was glad to make the sale, but certainly sad to see it go as well. The black brant is a great boat. Someday if I have room for 3 duckboats I'd like to have one around. Meeting someone for the first time after you have both driven cross country just for a boat is certainly unique. But duck hunters are a different breed. And generally, they're good folks. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and a cup of coffee before parting ways. So it was back on the road. I got back to WI late of course, but still managed about 7 hours of sleep.

So came Sunday. Usually, I can relax a bit more on Sunday. The few tests Elsi has failed have all been on Saturday, and for whatever reason she's usually a bit more relaxed on Sunday. Odd, but it seems to be that way. Well, not this day. She was pretty amped up for some reason. And her line manners were, well pretty bad by my standards anyway. I got on the list to run early, 2nd in one test and 6th in the other. So the first test she gets a low flyer for the first bird again, traps the second one and then another low flyer for the replanted one. The gunners didn't have great shots at either, so she ended up with two flyaways, getting some feathers on both and the typical chase before stopping. I'm getting frustrated with this now and seeing what we need to work on. The honor was ok, although I did have to reheel her, she was only a couple feet out. On the bubble for sure. The second test, by contrast went very well. 2 more flyaways, but they flushed nice and high and she sat promptly. She wouldn't however sit at heel for the honor, but she stood nicely and barely moved an inch. I didn't stick around to find out how it ended as I knew I was heading to Montana as soon as I got home. So it was a long weekend, I think I ended with about 1300 miles when I rolled in. Just in time to unpack, do some laundry, repack, and hit the road. But at least it should be a nice relaxing week.

Painting Goldeneyes

Well, painting drakes anyway. I've been pretty busy with work so haven't been able to get as much done on my decoys as I was hoping. But I'm making progress. After working up a paint scheme for the drakes a few weeks ago (with some help from Randy) I found that oil (and alkyd) paints don't keep well - even in covered containers. I've only been able to get around to painting on the rest of them a little here and there. So here it is probably about a month later, and I'm just finishing them up. Most of them anyway. Somehow I didn't get one sealed when the others were, so it's significantly behind the curve. The most annoying part of the process is how many coats of white I need to cover well. I think I'll try basing in gesso next time to see if that helps.



I had most everything base coated and the whites done prior to the weekend. I had some work to do so I opted to stick around home, planning on getting some painting in too. I was able to finish up the rump, back, and the stripes/side pocket lines on all (but the one). I also got one head painted only to find that I had forgot to put a darker base on and the green we mixed up was drying up (odd since it was all oil, no alkyd or ronan colors mixed in). So it didn't cover well and looked terrible. I got out my test board and put a very dark grey base on and then tried the green again. I'm still not sure that it's going to be quite the same as the original, but it's very close at least. So, last night I had some time to get some paint on the heads of the rest of them. There's just a couple small things left - paint the bills, tail feathers on a couple, scrape off the eyes - and then I'll finish keeling and weighting them. But, at least they're looking like Goldeneye now. Next up... sealing and painting the hens. At least there's only 4 of them!

Pass shooting pheasants at the Game Farm

Last Saturday I headed out to a game farm SE of the metro with a guy I used to work with. He runs Springers and somehow got a pretty high opinion of my dog which he proceeded to pass along to several of his hunting partners - who were also along. I'm not sure how this happened since he had never even seen my dog, much less hunted over her, but nonetheless she had something to prove. And, coming off her illness I wasn't sure what to expect. Sure she had done well at the test the week before, but that is a pretty short workout compared to an afternoon hunt with 7 guys and a few dozen birds. As it turned out she did well, I think she is still a little out of shape, but all in all I was pleased. We combed the field a few times and put up all of our birds, only letting one get away. The dogs (2 springers, a pointer, and my lab) all worked well and we had some pretty good shooting all around.

So afterward we are standing there at the corner of our field discussing what to do next and watching the two other groups next to us. Now, for perspective, we were standing basically at the corner of our field almost in between the other two and down in sort of a valley as the fields all were up on some sort of a hill. So 7 of us standing there with 4 dogs running around and the guys hunting these other fields start putting up birds. The first one comes from the field south of us and flies directly at us and presents us with a 15 yard crossing shot as it tries to land in the field right by us. Well, he gets pounded a few times - and before we can decide what to do another one comes at us, this time from the field east of us. It might have been a bit smarter, but not much. This one gets to about 35 yards and banks across in front of us and 4 or 5 of the guys in our group empty their guns as it flies away and lands by the south field. And whether they missed, or their dogs were too far out or whatever birds continued to want to fly past this spot. After one such bird flew a little out of range but then landed in the middle of our field, a couple of us went and got him and then we decided to call it a day. Good times all around, decent prices on birds, and next time I'm bringing a lawn chair to pass shoot the bonus birds.

Finally - Some Decoy carving

After the upland test Arlie and I headed up to northern Wisconsin to get some carving instruction from a World Champion decoy carver - Randy Tull - who happens to be a member of our retreiver club. We didn't get there until about 4:00 or so on Saturday, but were able to get quite a bit accomplished by dinner time. I worked on finishing up carving the hens for a Goldeneye rig I'm working on and Randy helped Arlie with some Canvasbacks we had all started a while back. By Sunday afternoon, he had one about ready to put eyes in and seal, and another one getting close. I finished up all the hens except one (a squaker), and only have a little bit left on that one. So all in all it was a pretty productive trip. I've got all the drakes in various stages of paint, with one of them finished. So the rig should be done before the snow melts if I can keep up with it.