Perfect Timing

With a plan to leave at 8:45 to go pheasant hunting, I woke up and drank coffee before I made my way to the garage at about 8 knowing I was well ahead of schedule.

After a long wait, the gravel crackled under the tires of Sara’s car as I walked into the driveway. I opened the door and looked at Ryder, who was sitting in the back seat. He seemed to come to the realization we were going to hunt as I placed my gun and orange vest on the seat next to him.

It seemed like the ride was never going to end and the mix of rain and snow didn't seem to help the cause. Ryder would whine a little bit here and there but when we made it to the stoplight where we turned, he began to recognize his surroundings and began whining louder and louder knowing that we were soon to be hunting.

This is what we had hoped at least, as we pulled into the parking lot full of vehicles. It didn’t take long for us to notice everyone was still sitting in them. Instantly we knew what they were waiting on. 

So we too sat in the car and after about forty-five minutes, a game commission truck rolled down the lane with a trailer full of bird crates. Everyone began getting ready and a couple of minutes after the truck came back out of the gated road, dogs filled the parking lot. 

Sara and I got ready just in time and began walking back with everyone else and all of their dogs. About halfway back one of the men ahead of us recognized me and we talked for the remainder of our walk. Just as his dogs made it to the first thick patch one of them went on point. 

We watched intently as they began loading their guns and a hen broke out of the brush and soon came tumbling back down.

So we parted ways and took the left side of the road. After going through the first patch shots began ringing out and birds were seen flying everywhere. We started into the second patch and a rooster could be seen running. 

Ryder's nose wasn't lying when he hit the scent cone following the bird, but my eyes knew better than to let him continue on the scent as the bird had already made it 75 yards and didn't seem like he was going to stop.

I called him off and we swept to the left of the field, where a rooster had just landed. We made it to the ditch filled with birch trees and a couple of pines, and that rooster too could be seen running on the other side of the ditch. 

Just as I had started to call Ryder off thinking he smelled the bird that was running, another rooster flushed and my gun came to my shoulder. My finger met the trigger all too soon as the shot went sailing over the rooster's back.

I bent over to pick up my empty and just as I had stood back up, Ryder put up a covey of birds. With a group of hunters about 100 yards away Sara wasn’t presented with a good shot as they flew away. One of them landed in the tree straight above where they had flushed and when his wings finally met the air Sara’s shot went just over his back just as mine had.

 We began to work over the hill seeing that the group of hunters headed in that direction had turned back. Upon making it to the bottom, Ryder began to get a little giddy and I just so happened to see the bright-colored rooster laying up in the dark wet ragweed. Ryder smelled him and was working off to the left. Upon saying his name he looked up and I stuck my hand out and said “Back”, he went straight to where my hand pointed and practically stuffed his nose under the bird before it got up. 

My gun once again met my shoulder as the bird cackled, and once he got away from the dog my bead swung across and my finger squeezed folding him.

I quickly got my bird into my back and once again resumed our original plan to go around a grove of pine trees hoping the couple of pheasants we had seen go that way would be held up in them. 

We made it around the trees and Ryder went into the field of ragweed and flushed another covey. The birds all climbed and most went in the opposite direction too far away for Sara who waited on the other side. One of the roosters broke back my way and I once again swung my gun and as it cracked feathers filled the air. 

I unloaded my gun and grabbed my second rooster placing it in my back pouch. As I made my way to Sara, who saw a rooster lying down in the field by her. I sent Ryder around the bird and when he flushed it, the bird flew right between Sara and I about head high once again prohibiting a shot. 

We worked our way back to the woods where we had seen some birds and Ryder flushed a hen that had only flown about 10 yards and landed. With Ryder hot on her tail she began running and trying to fly but she was injured and Ryder quickly caught her.

We quickly took care of her and Sara claimed it knowing that it was hurt and wouldn’t have made it anyhow. We continued hunting through some young timber heading up to a field edge. Ryder once again began to get excited, two hens broke out at the top of the hill as we tried to hurry behind him. One of them landed and I called him back and tried to get Sara into position to shoot. 

I circled the bottom side as Sara made it to the edge of the woods and when he flushed the hen a rooster flushed as well both flying overtop my head. Just as quickly as we had begun walking another rooster went out crashing through the treetops yet again the wrong way for Sara to shoot. 

We continued hunting and when Ryder finally flushed another hen, he ran behind it and it never became high enough to shoot without potentially hitting him. So we continued walking as I picked up empty shells and wads laying around. With no more birds flushed, we made our way back to the car and headed home, lucky to have shown up to hunt on the right day.