Last trip of the 2008 – 2009 bird hunting season.  Texas starts on the last Saturday of October and runs to the last Sunday of February. 

I made this trip with our head buyer, Jonathan.  Jonathan owns a female German Shorthair named “Chick”.

She gets to go with me more than Jonathan does (since she doesn’t mind riding in the dog trailer) but every once in a while we take him along with us.

We headed over to my Aspermont lease first.  The drive to Midland is pick much for one haul, so I like to head to Aspermont first.  We run dogs there a day or two and then head southwest.

While Midland has mainly Blues with a few Bobs, Aspermont has Bobs with a few Blues. 

We get many more of your traditional “covey rises” at Aspermont and the birds don’t run any where as much.  It is a little more relaxed.

We first ran Em and Chick.  Chick found one covey and  two singles.

Next we ran Click and Richard. Both ran well but we didn’t find any birds.  Johnny walked up two singles.

The next brace was Sage and Stud. They found 6 coveys total. Sage found three of them and Stud found two.  The last group got up wild. 

Sage did a real nice job on his coveys. He also had 2 singles.

Stud ran well. When he streched out he found two coveys. Held both until we got to him. Very Em like….

Ran Chick and Richard on the hill close to camp. We have really bad sandspurs in this area and we had to boot the dogs.

The Ruff Wear Dog Boots did a good job but the socks did not work for me.  I could not get them to stay in place.  I may try either vet wrap or wrist bands for the dogs that have rubbing issues.

Richard found 1 covey. He also nice job on finding a winged bird.

We ran Sage by himself  north of 448. No birds.  Early afternoon it got to hot to hunt and we called it a day.  We packed the truck and headed southwest.

2/20/2009 Midland

Ran Em and Chick first morning.  Em found a nice covey. Both dogs found singles and worked them well. Killed 1 bird.  Walked up 3 more coveys.  It was very windy and the dogs were having major issues locating birds.

Ran Sage and Click next.  Click had a nice find. Killed one bird.

Ran Stud and Richard.  Both did great. Stud had 3 covey points and 4 singles.  Richard had 2 coveys and 4 singles. Killed 6 birds.

2/21/2009 Midland

Ran Em and Chick. Wind was blowing about 35 mph. Really had no plan of seeing anything so we checked a new spot.

4 coveys later and 11 birds in the bag we headed back to the truck.  Both dogs pointed nultiple coveys and singles. The found all our dead birds and did a really nice job.  Chick is doing really well for a dog with very little experience.  She has a lot of natual ability and is a good overall bird dog.  Our GSP’s  come from Wildrose German Shorthaired Pointers and I have been really pleased with all of them.

Stud had a really good day with mutiple finds on coveys and singles.  He needs some work on ”steady to shot” and “steady to kill”  issues but he is finding birds.  I can fix his manners in the spring.

Richard and Sage also had a really nice round.  It was a really good day.

2/22/2009  Midland

Last day of the 2008 – 2009 season.

Ran Em and Chick. Em made a 800 yard cast and went on point. By the time we got there the birds had moved.

She relocated and found them again. We killed 2 on the rise. She picked up one. Good way to end the season with her.

Richard and Click have hurt feet and are done for this trip.  The sand has been tough on them this year.

We made the last round with Sage and Stud.  Sage found 1 covey. Stud found 2. Both did really well.

We had a really good season.  It was nothing like 2007 – 2008 as far as number of birds, but it was easily in my top 5 of all time.

We ended on a high note with this trip.  I have a bunch of training to do in the off season and I am ready to get it going.

Steve Snell

www.gundogsupply.com
1-800-624-6378

Post from: Steve Snell's Gundog Blog

Quail Hunting – Last week of the 2008-2009 season

1/23 Midland

I came over early before meeting up with the SportDOG boys.  I spent the day hunting with in the Quail Buggy.

We found 7 coveys.  While I was originally not a big fan of hunting out of a vehicle, I have changed my take on it after doing it a few times.

There are a couple of really big advantages, especially if you hunt with really young dogs still in training, or if you like to run older dogs.

I do both.   The advantage with young dogs is that you can put them on the ground for how ever long it takes.  Once they get the bird contacts that they need, you can put them up.  It might take 10 minutes.  It might take an hour.

Once you have had success, you are much better off to get them up and let them think about it.  If you have to leave them on the ground while you are headed back to the truck, you stand the chance of them screwing up something or running into a bad situation where the training falls apart.

Since you had success and put them up, you also have the opportunity of running themn again once the other dogs have been on the ground.  It’s win – win.

The advantage for older dogs is similar.  Em is 12 now.  She still loves it and still finds as many birds as the next dog, but she just can’t go as long.  I can run her for 30 minutes and put her up.  I can run her multiple times of the day and give her long breaks between.  If I feel she has had enough, we load her in the buggy and let her relax.  It’s hard to take short rounds when you are hunting on foot.  The buggy fixes this problem.

I also hunt in the heat.   The buggy lets me carry more water and rotate dogs faster.  It’s a big advantage it certain parts of the world.

1/24/2009 Midland

Hunting with L and S.  Kiled 21 birds. Lost count on the number of coveys.  Everyone had a good day.

1/25/2009 Midland

Bad hot today.   Ran Em and Richard first.  No birds.   Ran Click and Sage.  Found 3 coveys of blues.

1/26/2009  Midland

Hunted South East section for the first time.  Found 5 coveys.  I was really pleased with the size of the coveys especially for this time of year.

2/10/2009-2/13/2009 – Midland

 It was me, my brother and Sam.  It had been years since the three of us had traveled together and we had a blast.  Rob came out to shoot photos for the website and do a few product videos.

 Click here to see all the pictures.

It was a good week for the dogs and we actually got a bunch of work done.
Steve Snell

Post from: Steve Snell's Gundog Blog

2009 Midland Texas

Hunted for the first time with longtime firends and suppliers Chuck and Blanche Johnson.  The Johnsons own  Wilderness Adventures Press where we get many of our books including the popular and really handy Wingshooter Guides.

Chuck and Blanche have also written a mighty fine cook book – Savor Wild Game Cookbook  and Training The Versatile Hunting Dog – a guide for training and bringing out the  natural abilities, desire, search, pointing, and tracking in the versatile breeds.

Chuck also writes the Versatile Dog column for the Pointing Dog Journal.  You can read about his trip to Texas in the November December 2009 issue.

Chuck brought two of his fine German wirehaired pointers.  It was their first trip to hunt Texas Bobs.  I was very pleased with how they ran and handled their birds.  

The first day out was pretty typical Texas.  Hot and Dry.  We were only able to make a few rounds and did not move any birds.  It was my first “shut out” of the season.

We headed back to town and will try again tomorrow.

1/22/2009 Aspermont

Ran Em and one of Chuck’s GWPs. Em really needs a couple of  days off.  She  hurt her foot and I had to carry her back to the truck.  She just turned 11 and is really starting to show her age.

We ran Richard and Click. Richard found two coveys. Click got to back a couple of times.

Richard did a really nice job.  I think many of  his issues in the past whave been from a  lack of maturity. He still has a way to go, but he will make a fine bird dog.

Ran Stud and Sage.  Sage found one covey.  I killed one bird on the rise.  Stud found it and retrieved to hand.

Stud ran much better.  I really love the new SportDog 1825 high stim collar.  It’s the only collar I have found so far that will get Stud’s attention.  The thing I have to be most careful about is making sure I reset the collar back to medium before I put it on another one of my dogs.  It’s really easy to switch it back and forth between settings.

I worked Roxy on a few blind setups just to keep her sharp and then ran the pups.  The heat finished another day early for us. 

That’s just part of bird hunting in Texas.

Steve Snell

Post from: Steve Snell's Gundog Blog

Quail Hunting – Aspermont, TX 1-21 to 1-22-2009

First we ran Em and  Preston’s  young German Shorthair “Penny”

Em found 3 coveys and about 10 singles and small groups of birds. Penny found one covey and a single.   6 birds killed. Lost one  These seem like pretty low numbers for the amount of birds we found, but anyone that has hunted blues knows how tough they are to kill.

We had really nice weather and dog work.

Next we ran Stud and Richard.  We found either 2 coveys or one really big one.  Sometimes with Blues it’s hard to tell.  Running little buggers.

Richard had a nice point. Stud also had a couple of good finds.
Killed 6 birds.
Click and Katy. Found 2 coveys. Couple of nice points. Killed 7 birds. 

Ran the pups – Merle and Cash . Both did much better about going with us and running to the front. Both are turning and coming better. Flushed one single with Cash

Merle runs a little bigger than Click.

Steve Snell
www.gundogsupply.com
1-800-624-6378

Post from: Steve Snell's Gundog Blog

Quail Hunting 1/20/2009 Midland, Tx

Hot,  dry and windy.  Not exactly the perfect conditions for quail hunting but pretty common in West Texas.

Ran Em and Roxy. Found two coveys of Blue Quail.  Killed four birds.

Ran Click and Sage on a road covey. Found another group of birds in the field.

Sage had 2 nice points. Killed one bird. He was steady to wing and shot but not kill.  His desire to retrieve can get the best of him at times.

Ran Richard and Stud on another road covey.  Richard got on the wrong side of the birds and never smelled them.

Stud is still a problem. He does not seem to understand the way I need him to hunt.  It is a constant struggle to keep him in foot range,

Ran the puppies Merle and Cash together. I won’t make that mistake again any time soon.  Both will be big runners and need a bunch of control added to them.

Steve Snell

www.gundogsupply.com
1-800-624-6378

Post from: Steve Snell's Gundog Blog

Quail Hunting 1/19/09 Midland, Texas

First day hunting prairie birds.  This is also my first hunt in the state of Nebraska.  We started our hunt in the Nebraska National Forest.  It is called the “Sand Hills”

Prairie Birds include both the Sharptail Grouse and the Prairie Chicken.  Unlike the Chukar, Pheasant, and the Hungarian Partridge, the Sharptails and the Prairie Chickens are naive birds.

Ran Em with Ted’s dogs. She did really well. It was her first time out since her TPLO operation.  She ran well and paced herself. She covered the ground and got birdy a few times but did not find anything.  I left her on the ground longer than I should have but she has not shown any problems so far. I will not make the same mistake tomorrow.

Ted’s dogs Dottie and Vegas had a nice point on a group and Ted killed one bird.  We had a few get up wild but didn’t go any good with them.

This is really tough country to hunt. Sand Hills is correct. It’s up and down and the ground is loose. Walking on the sand isn’t as bad as I expected but the hills are tough. You can’t get in a big hurry.  It’s a bit like boot camp for the bird hunter.  If you really want to see what kind of shape you are in for the upcoming hunting season, come out here and walk the Sand Hills for a few days.

We ran Sage, Click, Stud and Richard. I have never had all of them on the ground at the same time. They did pretty well. Vernon kept up with Click and Richard.  I ran Sage and Stud.  Stud really stretched out. He’s running big but he’s turning when I tell him to and he’s checking in a bit on his own.

No birds but Stud found some birds way out they were gone before we could get to him.  Sage got birdy a few times but could not come up with them.

We were done at 11. It was too hot to  keep running dogs.

On the drive out Ted stopped to watch a 5 foot Prairie Rattler cross the road.  One of the issues that you can run into bird hunting this time of the year is rattle snakes.  We do what we can to avoid them but when it’s hot they will be out moving around.

I wear snake protection for myself and and I get my dogs the Rattle Snake Vaccine from Red Rock Biologics.  It’s something I strongly recommend for folks that hunt in the west.  I have not had a dog bit yet, but I know folks that have and the vaccine has made a big difference in saving their dogs.

We drove up north to see some other Federal lands. We got to see a few ducks, geese and 4 Tundra Swans

Vernon found a good flat spot to run a few blind retrieves with Roxy and Max.

We called it a day and regrouped for tomorrow.

Steve Snell

Post from: Steve Snell's Gundog Blog

9/17/09 Hunting Prairie Birds in Nebraska