Friday the 23rd, fourth day of our hunting trip...
I decided to go back to the property we hunted the first day.. Started off a little slow then Moe found some in some grass. We were pushing them and trailing them just fine, and Moe got a little too close and bump them, he looked back at me with that surprised look again, he did a little chasing this time and I think he was surprised I didn't shoot.. They were close enough but I decided not to... Told him he was a bad boy several times, and we moved on.. Crossed the next fence and it was heavily grazed not very tall grass, Moe was winding some more birds and trailing a little.. We proceeded on trailing for probably 200 yards and I looked up to the next fence and there's this sharptail sitting on the top wire of the fence, surprised the heck out of me first time I'd seen that.. Proceeded on figured there were more close by, sure enough there were about 20? But we didn't get within 200 yards of them and they flew off, but there's always a straggler so we kind of hot footed it up there.. Taller grass on the other side of the fence so I figured the straggler would be in there, if there was one.. Not very far into the taller grass Moe starts trailing I'm thinking all right here we go, we got one and we did Moe locked it down and pointed it (perfect).. I went in to flush it and when it flushed it stayed right on the grass line I pulled down on it and almost pulled the trigger, but it was the wrong flavor a hen pheasant.. Grouse and prairie chickens like to gain quite a bit of altitude at first flight... While we're messing around with the hen pheasant and telling Moe he's a good boy... Our straggler gets up across the fence out in the wide open and flies across the nearby pond... Dang bad luck again... We move on... The first group we bumped, I got to, kind of, sort of, watch down so we headed in their direction... They were also in heavily grazed grass, and they bugged out early on us.. Hoping for a straggler we hot-footed it up there, but none to be found.. On we go to some taller grass, and where we had found birds before.. Push through quite a bit of taller grass, and Moe found one (not a good point, they won't hold still for him in that tall grass) but I managed to kill it... And we're on the board, a long ways from the truck.. running low on water we push on to a tank that has a barry hydrant, fill up with water.. I decide to push on farther because I'm not sure we'll find two on the way back to the truck.. At the next fence line I bump a bird and kill it.. Finally we're on our way back to the truck.. Wind has picked up quite a bit since we left the truck, and getting warm.. We have to go back by the tank so we fill up with water again.. Probably go three quarters of a mile, in what I consider perfect grass for Moe to nail them down in.. He winds what turns out to be two, and locks them down pretty good and I kill one... Was a pretty good feeling to have 12, last year we ended up with 9 total.. Told Moe he was a good boy and headed towards the truck..
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