Empty Encounters

With a plan to wake up and pheasant hunt my alarm sounded and sent me diving into my clothes and hustling to the Keurig. Only pheasant hunting a couple of times this season had me itching to get out and watch the dog work. 

I made quick work of my morning ritual and before I left I remembered to grab a few extra shells as I knew my vest was running low.

I pulled into Sara’s as daylight began to break and prepared Ryder for our morning venture and as I prepared my own vest I counted the shells in my pocket and made a joke to Sara about how 8 shells would probably be enough for the rest of the season. 

 With all of us ready, we left, and we were unable to forget Ryder was in the back seat. As he too was excited his whines persisted until we got a little way down the road and he finally seemed to calm down. 

As we slowed down to make a left turn he looked out the window, recognizing where we were. Knowing that we were almost there his excitement once again was heard over the sound of the radio. 

We pulled into the parking lot only to see one truck parked there,  so we got ourselves prepared and made our way around the gate and down the limestone road just hoping to find a bird. 

As the timber opened up into fields, we decided to go left and try some new areas that we hadn’t before hunted. 

We made it off the limestone about 20 yards and as I walked past a cedar bush I heard a rustle. Just as my mind was registering what I had heard Ryder turned on a dime and ran straight into the bush flushing a hen out the backside. She was a little too far by the time she turned into my sight, but my finger was itchy and the gun cracked as she flew off. 

Flushing a bird that quickly in that type of cover we knew we needed to turn around and go along what is seeming to become our regular route. 

Sara trailed us on the path at the top side, knowing the small thicket we were heading into wasn’t going to give us any shots while walking through it. Ryder and I went through what seemed like a wall of brush and after about 30 yards I heard wings going and a hen escaped out the top side too low for Sara to shoot with the dog being hot on her.

After calling Ryder back down we hit a small dry spell and as we neared the end of the strip the sound of wings once again signified a flushing pheasant and as I looked up a rooster was climbing out of the brush. Tangled in the brush I finally got my gun up as he leveled out and started his escape. My gun once again barked and another bird flew off unscathed. 

Sara was able to see where the birds had landed and as we began heading that way we decided to hit another section that was filled with treetops and ragweed. Sara once again trailed on the top side as Ryder and I both scurried through the brush. 

About halfway through the section, his demeanor changed and he took off and began circling 30 yards behind me. I slowly started to creep in and finally, his nose landed him on the bird as a rooster came out of the brush straight for me as he started to come overtop my barrel swung across him and a shot rang out. In panic mode that I had once again missed, I hurriedly turned around and dropped my bead on him as he headed away. The gun went off and the rooster came barreling to the ground giving me a little relief that I hadn’t once again missed another bird and let it get away. 

We continued on and hunted along a strip of pines with the dog acting up a few times letting us know that birds must have been there earlier in the morning. 

We cut over the hill into a tall grassy field and after going about 100 yards Sara and I both had our eyes fixated on a small stand of pines that had treetops and other brush throughout it. 

I figured a bird would run out of them so Sara stood near the end and as I got the dog down to the other end he instantly was acting birdy as I tried to cut around to the other side of the pines, he must have seen the rooster and began to run.

I got to the other side of the pines just in time to see the rooster run out with the dog right behind him as he took to the air. I yelled “over the top” and as the rooster got out of sight Sara shot but did not connect. As I yelled over and asked if she hit it, another bird broke out at the end and went down over the hill. 

After regrouping, I went to the bottom of the hill where we had seen the rooster land and the dog and I took the side hill around through a couple of stands of small trees. 

We made it almost to the end and as I called for Ryder to come back down to me a bush shook and a rooster broke out the other side of it. My gun came across him and two shots left him flying away as well.

 I was beginning to get irritated and I was also running out of shells leaving my joke made at the house to not age very well. 

We began our loop back to the parking lot and started to work across another side hill covered in some small pines and ragweed. Just as we started, the dog put a rooster up right in between us and as he went up he turned over Sara’s head. She spun around and shot but thankfully missed or the bird would have landed in a big pond and we had already forgotten to bring a towel for the dog. 

He landed not too far away at the other end of the same strip of pines and we hunted along the rest of it and turned up towards the limestone road to go to the car. Just as we had turned, the dog picked up a scent and a rooster came running out of the pines and flushed straight into the sun. I thought for sure I had him, but as my gun went off I was blinded by the sun but could still see clearly that I had missed the rooster. 

With only one shell left in my gun, we cut up to the limestone road and decided we would hunt alongside it the rest of the walk we began through a small field of grass, and as the dog and I crossed over a ditch I saw a rooster running down it. I told Sara to get to the end of the ditch and I grabbed the dog until she was ready. 

I sent the dog and he knew instantly where the bird was. As the bird flushed it turned and came across my side and as my gun swung across him my finger met the trigger and the bird folded. With a second rooster in my back, we meandered back to the car and headed home with a pocket full of empty shells.