2000 Dec 17 CA DFG Family Phesasnt Hunt
Home
I signed up for California Department Fish & Game pheasant hunts.
I was lucky and was drawn a Family Hunt. That week-end our Family inclued
my husband Wesley Elsberry and our friend Jeff Rhine and his Vizsla, CH
Mahrhill Anton Of Acro JH (Andy) Blackwoods Linden Farli JH NA NAJ FMX
UPT3 (Farli) and I. The DFG hunts are put-'n-take with the birds paid for
by Game Bird Heritage funds and sponsored by Pheasants Forever. Farli and
I have been participating as dog/handler guides since 1998 during the months
I'm in CA.
While I've hunted with hawks since 1981 and learned to shoot from my
father growing up, I've never really gun hunted before this season.
Last year I got as far as carrying a gun a few times while hunting in El
Centro CA area, but did not raise my gun on the few wild flushes I saw.
Farli has really enjoyed the DFG hunts and is steadier and overall has
better manners when I'm a dog handler for others to hunt than when my attention
is partially on the hawks. She also loves to retrieve and retrieving is
seldom part of hawking with Harris Hawks. So I've been practicing on clays
and got some more experienced folks to take me gun hunting.
While I've been out to El Centro several times to gun hunt wild pheasant,
only two shots (on wild flushes) were possible, and I (& my companions)
all missed. So to date I've my entire bird shooting experience is two pheasants
from the women's hunt and three pigeons during training (plus shooting
at and missing two wild pheasant a couple of training pigeons). Wesley
hunted doves years ago with his father, but no other gun hunting. Fortunately
Jeff Rhine knew what he was doing.
Wesley, Jeff & I arrived a little after 7 am to check in.
Wesley was not feeling well so he rested while Jeff and I visited.
Then after most folks were checked in they had a safety and rules lecture.
After the lecture, each hunter needed to demonstrate that they could handle
a gun safely by shooting a few clays under the supervision of a hunter
safety instructor. Once the practical safety test was completed,
each person received a smiley face sticker and could then get their field
assignments. Everyone passed the safety test that morning, but I
know they will fail anyone they don't feel is safe. This time the safety
lecture also stated that the fields were full of badger holes. We were
warned to walk carefully to avoid injuries from falling in. Also if a pheasant
escaped down a badger hole - the pheasant just became home delivered dinner
for the badger - no sticking hands in to retrieve birds - might loose fingers
in the process. Wesley took a photo of a badger hole for good measure.
While the hunters were checked
for safety, the volunteer dog handlers were planting birds. None of the
fields were in immediate sight of the check-in area. They don't plant them
earlier as they plant 2 pheasant for each person that actually signs in
and will hunt the field. If for some reason there are any no-shows,
they won't plant those birds. The extras (if any) will be used to
fill in for fly-aways during planting or if someone has trouble finding
any birds in their field.
Below are photos from our great day. And beyond that is my story of
what happened (and I'm sticking to it <G>).
All photos by Wesley R. Elsberry, copyright 2000.
Since we had brought Farli
and Andy we were NOT assigned a dog/handler guide. We were shown our field
on a map. Our field was the second to the left as the dirt ranch road ran
north. It was about 15+ acres and much longer E-W than N-S and so
had a short road front. There was a hill with a car door set in the top
near the road. A gully ran the northern edge to join a drainage along
the Western edge opposite the road on the E side of the field. Hills rose
on the other side of the drainage in the distance. The entire field was
covered in about knee high dry grass with some variation of height and
thickness. There were a few small weedy areas or brush, but minimal.
Wind was mostly from the SSE. We parked on the N edge of the field
and started in just S of the small gully that marked the boundary between
our field and the next.
Both dogs topped the hill
before the humans and were out of sight. As we topped the hill, Andy
could be seen working, but I did not see Farli. Jeff spotted her below
a swale rim to the N. I went into flush and had a bit of trouble finding
it, but did flush it to the W and Jeff shot and hit the bird. Andy
retrieved to hand. Farli stood steady and I heeled her off
for a meat ball.
We continued down the hill
and the dogs drifted S so we had left an unhunted area along the N. gully.
Part way down the hill, Andy come on point. Farli backed without
help from me, although Jeff's "whoa" to Andy may have reminded Farli to
stop. Jeff flushed the bird down hill to the SW and I killed him with a
shot from my 20 gauge. This time I sent Farli for the retrieve and she
was delighted to bring it to hand. It always takes Farli a minute or so
to get a good grip on the pheasant. She is doing so much better than when
first asked to retrieve pheasant in 1998, but still takes a bit to get
a good hold on these big birds. The pheasants for these CA DFG hunts are
huge, I'm glad Farli is getting the hang of it.
As we continued along the
down slope, we heard the shots from the field S of us and they hollered
for us as they missed and their pheasant was flying along a line just E
of us. Jeff turned and shot for a hit. Andy again retrieved.
While Jeff talked to a member of their party, Farli had continue hunting.
She had crossed the imaginary line into the field south of us. I
was about to call her back when she stopped on point. I walked down
to where Farli could see me off to here left. One man from the other
hunting party came down and I flushed for him. I walked back next
to Farli before releasing her for the retrieve. The groups dog handler
complemented Farli on her manners and we all agreed that it had be a good
exchange of birds. The two groups moved their separate ways as they
continued E toward the road and we moved N back toward the gully.
We crossed the center section
of the field from S to N and approached the gully. Andy slammed on point
at the edge of the gully pointing toward some weed/bushes. I guess
I need to study botany <G>. Farli came around and stopped near
Andy also intent on the weedy bushes. As Wesley was the only one that had
not shot, he had priority on this bird. Jeff and I looked and kicked about
in the bushes searching for the bird. Jeff had Andy to relocate and he
shifted, but seemed uncertain. Farli did not seem confident either, but
both appeared birdy. Jeff found the pheasant in a hole under a bush/weed
when he picked up the bush/weed and flipped it to lean a different way.
He nudged the pheasant into flushing to the S and Wesley took first shot
and missed. I tried to shoot, but had my safety on <foolish grin> and
by the time I got it off, the bird was out of range. The pheasant flew
to the next field and we did not follow.
We turned S to travel along the fence between us and the deeper drainage.
The deeper drainage would be a good place to go during the clean up hunt
as I expect some of the pheasant drifted down there.
When we reached the corner
post on the fence (marked with survey tape) we turned back W toward the
road. I walked along near the boundary by keeping an eye on the tall
boundary marker on the road. I did have to remind Farli to stay to my left
as she saw no reason not to hunt both sides of my path. Actually
after the first hour we were allowed to leave our field, but as yet had
seen no reason to leave our area.
As we approached the road,
Farli checked into the corner, then we turned north to get more water for
the dogs. We did have a nice light breeze, but it was hot. Both dogs panting,
folks in T-shirts and thinking shorts would be more comfortable. Then we
started out for the section of the field we had not covered. Andy
struck a nice point further down wind and fairly near the swale where Farli
had found the first bird. I called Farli to get her to turn and see
Andy. She did turn and hunted back to the N. She turned and
stopped on her own this time. I moved around with the plan to flush
down hill, but then saw our neighbors to the south were there. So, Wesley
and I moved around to stand ready to shoot up hill. Jeff volunteered
to flush for us as he had shot his limit. He moved up, found the
bird and announced it dead. A spaniel from the group N of us, came
up and checked it out. He sniffed and returned to his person when called.
Both vizslas stayed steady throughout. Jeff picked up the dead bird
and we continued on. After a bit more hunting we decided to go back
and walk the boundary gully after a quick stop at the car for more water
for the dogs.
The gully approached ground level near the road,
but gradually dropped to be at least 30 ft below ground level. Jeff
and Andy went to look along the bottom. Farli and I followed, but
Farli kept running up either side and into the fields. I finally
convinced her I wanted to hunt the gully not the surrounding fields.
Part way W along the gully, Farli came up the S
side and pointed into more of those weed/bushes. Andy joined her and once
more we had a search in the weeds. This time the pheasant refused
to fly and just ran a bit. I caught and tossed him, but he still did not
fly, so we sent Farli for the retrieve. We have photo's of Farli and her
live pheasant. I put it in my vest. We continued along the gully,
Jeff took the bottom and I the S edge, encouraging Farli to work the gully
with Andy. I managed to slip trying to walk the side of the steep
bank- the pheasant thought it good time to leave the obviously unreliable
transport. Farli brought him back again. After that I chose
more level ground to walk.
Jeff climbed up out of the gully (quite a steep climb
at that by then) when we reached a fence that crossed the gully before
it opened into the drainage running N-S on the W side of the fields.
We continued S along the fence line. We saw a man with two flushing
dogs (dalmatian & lab) working the drainage. As we continued along
the fence line, Farli took an interest in the other side of the fence,
which was now further back from where the land fell off to the drainage.
She skimmed through the barb-wire fence and hunted the area. Poor Andy
tried to run that way and bounced off the fence.
Farli locked up on point
on the far side of the fence. I went up to flush and did not find
the bird at first, looking at Farli I thought it might have moved..
I asked Farli to relocate. Farli came forward a bit, but would not move
far. I found the bird in the thick grass against the fence. As I
moved toward him, the pheasant flew through the fence and Wesley got him
cleanly with the first shot. Since he was on the correct size of the fence
we, had Andy retrieve the bird. Farli was heeled off and given some meatball
for holding steady, and cooperation when Andy retrieved.
We continued S for a bit
further (well past our neighbor's field) and then back toward the road.
By then Wesley had had enough. Andy was also slowing down in the
heat. Farli was a bit slower, but seemed to take the heat better
than Andy.
We then head back to the check in area to report
on how our hunt went and how many birds harvested.
Farli got one more opportunity
for bird work. I helped a group in the afternoon hunt a bit. When I went
to the van to get some more water (it was even hotter in the afternoon),
another group flushed a bird. Farli went to where the pheasant had disappeared
in the thick cover. She started to track down wind. I called to her
to "whoa". Farli tracks well, but always seems to flush the bird
at the end of the track. She has not learned when to stop and point as
part of a track and has not learned to go around and stop the pheasant.
So I called her to one side and we circled the thick stuff and then I allowed
her to find the pheasant again. She stopped on a nice point. I was
able to let the hunter get ready and flush for him. I did have to
remind the man that retrieving was Farli's job. Once the man stopped
heading for the pheasant, I sent Farli to fetch and she delivered to hand
as usual. The man had blasted the pheasants head off. Good
thing it was a head shot as he fired with the bird too close. We hunted
a bit more for the other group, but did not find any more birds.
Farli, Wesley and I returned tired from hour outing and Farli dreamed
of pheasant hunts past & future
