Are you really going to make me hunt in these things?

An off day

We took it easy today. With Buffy, Shooter, and Noble nursing sore feet, we decided to only run Patriot and Lucy today, then head into Lubbock for a few things.

Once again, we found birds hard to come by. Patriot covered a lot of ground on his run, but the birds simply weren't there to be found. Lucy had a good ol' time when she was out, but got hung up a few times with cactus in her feet, and the cover where she was running was particularly barren, so she didn't have much luck finding birds, either. A month ago, those same spots held a few coveys, but the cover has gone way, way down after a few snowfalls, so apparently the birds simply found better places to be. Hopefully we'll find THOSE places sometime this week! :)

Going to bed now. Until next time, stay classy San Diego.

One of the locals...

The snow has started

Couple of inches expected today.

Our first wild quail

Today's hunt

Today was some tough going. We started the day with Noble and Buffy and hunted for close to 2 hours. Pickings were slim; we came across one HUGE covey, but it flushed well out of shotgun range and before the dogs saw it, and we were unsuccessful in locating it again.
We got back to the van, rested, had a few snacks, and headed out again with Shooter and Sera. Those two worked really well together and were fun to watch! About halfway through, Shooter locked up on point, with this look on his face like, "Holy crap, I got something big here!" Sera came in and backed, and I only needed to take 1 step in front of Shooter befor 15 quail erupted about 15 yards in front of me. I was still thinking "holy crap!" when I took the first shot, but got my wits together and managed to take down a bird with my second. It was the first wild quail for both me and Shooter. I made sure to have Phil take a picture right then and there with my phone!
Unfortunately, as we moved forward to locate singles from that covey, we discovered that the property line was just a short distance away - and all the quail had flown over it. Damn.

The biggest downside to the morning was that Buffy tore her front pads up pretty good and will be on IR for at least a few days. We'll see how she's feeling on Wednesday and take it from there. The ground is plenty soft, so we suspect the ice-covered snow acted like sandpaper and did a number on her. Shooter and Noble also had some sore pads; not as bad as Buffy's, but we're still giving them the day off tomorrow and only running Patriot and Lucy separately.

Anyway, we did have one short afternoon hunt over Miss TomBoy. She was a bit thrown by the strange smells that she hasn't encountered in Florida, so she was a bit off her game. We came away birdless although she DID appreciate being allowed to stretch her legs after spending so much time in her crate.

SO - tomorrow we will start off with either Patriot or Lucy. Those two aren't quite ready to be shot over, so we'll just be hoping to get them some exposure to wild birds. After that, we'll be heading to Lubbock for a few supplies.

Snow is in the forecast for tomorrow!

Frost on the atv = we'll be taking the van out for the morning hunt!!

At camp

We got into camp a little before 6. Breaking into the camper wasn't too hard, although the back gate did have us worried for a bit as it was stuck pretty good. I was just starting to wonder which window would be easiest to break when the gate came loose and all was well.
Then we realized that the power cord and hose were both locked in the storage compartment. Somehow, I managed to wedge myself through an access hole enough to grab each and slowly pull them out.

Anyway, we're all set up now, drinking our Yuengling after just finishing a bowl of Carole's awesome corn chowder. Shooter and Noble have become fast friends. Buffy is in her crate and pretty pissed off about the situation. With 7 dogs in the camper, we can't let them all run loose at once, so that's how it goes.

We're looking forward to tomorrow. The morning hunt looks like it will start off with Noble and Buffy followed by Shooter and Sera.

Oh, and this is a picture of our outhouse. As you can see, its possessed.

G'night!

Almost there...

We're about 30 miles outside of Abilene right now. The snow from last week is still hanging around, but luckily the roads are no longer icy, so the driving has been safe and easy.
2 hours to camp.

Lucy and Noble

Apparently Lucy finds Noble to be an excellent headrest.

6 point buck

This was shot on the Stout's place last night. Shot with a 243, I believe.

Please, just a little?

Shooter was a very polite little begger last night.

Touring the Stout's place

A view of WindDance Farms. Forgot to get pics of the house, which is a really cool log cabin. Maybe on the return trip.

On the road to Spur

I arrived at Phil's place last night, only to discover that Verizon has ZERO coverage around his house, so updates and pictures had to wait until we got back to civilization!
Phil and Carole's place is awesome! For anyone with dogs and horses, its hard to imagine a piece of property better suited for them. Plenty of room to run dogs and simply a gorgeous piece of land.
We hung out last night and ate a nice dinner that Carole fixed up for us. A couple of their neighbors came by to show off a 6 point buck they had shot at the back of the property. I'll post a pic of that. First time I've seen a deer that wasn't alive or dead by the side of the road. The eyes are a little freaky - as they're showing it off and moving the head around, I half expected it to get up on its own. Maybe I've watched that scene in Tommy Boy too much. :)

We had a little bit of concern this morning - we're an hour into the trip when Phil realizes that he had left the camper keys in his truck at home - the camper where we'll be staying all week. UGH. We started to turn around and go back, when I had an idea - snip the locks off the back ramp to the camper and get in that way. It didn't take much thought to realize that the cost of 2 locks and a bolt cutter were worth not adding 2 hours to an already LONG trip!
Anyway - we're on the road!

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On our way...

Test mobile post

Testing!

First post!

Alright, folks - here's my first of a couple test posts. I'm heading out to Spur, Texas the day after Christmas for a weeklong quail hunting trip with my friend Phil Stout and a whole bunch of dogs. I'll be bringing along Shooter, Buffy, TomBoy, and Patriot. Phil will have Noble, Sera, and Lucy.