Open Weekend Pheasant Hunt

Rebel's First Hunt...

Sunday I took Rebel on his first hunt. It was really warm and after about an hour we took this pheasant. Rebel did really good for his first time out. He stopped when he smelled this bird but the bird flushed right away. I shot it and broke its wing but when Rebel got to where it went down the bird was gone. He did an excellent track on this bird and after about 75 yards he locked on a hard point and I told him to fetch and he grabbed the bird as it tried to get away.

Another good day...

Opening Weekend Pheasant Hunt

Opening Day Pheasant Hunt...

On Saturday afternoon I took Odessa out hunting in the afternoon after most of the hunters went home. She put up three pheasants but two of them were too close to other hunters to shoot. Finally on the third one we were in an area by ourselves and she locked in a solid point and when it flushed I shot it.

A good start to the season...

Elk Camp '09

Well the elk hunt for '09 got off to a crazy start. I set my alarm on my cell phone to wake us up about 1-1/2hrs before it got light. I wanted to make a pot of coffee, eat and relax before we headed out. As I was having my coffee by the woodstove I saw it was starting to get light. I checked my watch and it said we should still have 1 hour before light. Then I realized that I had forgot that we were in the Pacific time zone and my phone had reset back 1 hour. We hurried and got ready and made it out just as it was getting light. We only saw hunters that morning and that night both of us were way underdressed and froze our tails off. Then next morning we worked a ridge that I had taken my spike bull off of last year. We heard a bull elk call three short soft calls in the canyon below us, but he did not respond to my cow calls. I knew we couldn't go after him so rather than push him out of the area we headed back up the ridge hoping they would make there way over the top later in the day. That night Erin sat on her bear bait and I sat in my treestand on that ridge. A little before 5pm I heard a branch snap and then another. I knew it was either elk or the free ranging cattle in the area. After a couple tense minutes the first cow elk came over the ridge and this bull was third one in the group. He stopped behind a tree for a second and when he came out I shot. He stopped at the shot and then turned away and took two steps and stood there. After a couple seconds he started to lean to the right and I knew he was done. When Erin got over there and saw him all she could say was "how the heck are we going to get this thing out of here". His body was huge and lucky for us he got hung up on a downfall or he would have rolled into a deep canyon. I feel extremely lucky and blessed to take such an awesome elk. I am also glad there was someone there to share it with.

Elk Camp '09

Elk Down.....

Shot this bull at 5pm and by the time we finished taking pictures we had about an hour before it got dark. We had our game bags but we didn't have any frame packs with us. In an hour we managed to bag up 2 hind quarters 1 front shoulder and a loin with all the meat from the side that was lying up. I took the front shoulder back to my treestand and carried up the tree and left it there overnight. The 2 hind quarters I had to bear hug and carry them up the hill to the logging road about a mile from camp. We walked back to camp with the loin and our guns and gear to get the frame packs. Then we walked back to where we left the hind quarters and picked them up and carried them back to camp. The next morning we got up and day break and cut up the rest of the elk and carried it back to camp. From the time we first started cutting to the time the last meat was hung was probably a total of 8 hours. I sure was glad Erin was along this year, not sure what I would have done without her help. She packed out a front shoulder and a hind quarter more than a mile back to camp.

Elk Hunt '09

Elk Camp '09

Here are a couple pictures from outside and inside the camp.

Bear Bait

We have a bear hitting our bait, unfortunatly I had the trail cam set too high so we did not get good pictures of the bear.

Pictures of us headed down to check the bait and me making a funny face trying to see if the trail cam is working.

Grouse Hunting

Another morning of Grouse hunting and the dogs face off with some cows in the high country.

Grouse Hunting & Bear Bait

Took the dogs up Grouse hunting and put out a bear bait for Erin. The dogs got quite a workout going up the steep hills. Mom and Brutus sleep after a long day.

Rebel Training

Odessa & Rebel

More pictures from training.

Odessa on point and me shooting the bird.

Rebel Training

Rebel Training

In September we took Odessa and Rebel out to the Owyhee's and planted some Chuckar to give Rebel some work before his NAVHDA test. His test was later that weekend and he did great. He scored a Prize 2 (103).

Rebel

Newest Member of the Family

Meet the newest member of our family Rebel. He is six months old and so far things are going very good. This is Erin's hunting dog.

New Kennel Area

With our ever expanding family some of the dogs are going to have to stay outside. Erin and I used the horse fencing to build an area for Odessa & Rebel.

Bear Hunt 09

Spring Bear Hunt '09
Well we finally connected with a bear on Saturday night. We got in the stand at 3:30 pm and shot this bear at 8pm. Erin was facing the bait and I was in a stand behind her facing the other direction. I had my gun resting on the tree when I heard something behind me. When I turned and looked there was a bear staring at me at about 15 yards. It ran off but came back in about 5 minutes later from another direction. It could smell us so it would not come all the way in to the bait. I wanted Erin to get a shot, but when the bear turned to go away she told me to shoot so I took the shot. The bear dropped in it's tracks and we had a lot of work ahead of us getting it out to the quad and cut up.

Bear Hunt 09

It's been a long spring of learning bear hunting, but I think we're hooked on it!
And we still have the fall season to fill Erin's tag starting August 30th.

Lil' C Graduates!!!

Congratulations Court!!!!