First woodcock for me and for Ambi

J

Jon Zuccolo

Active member
It was a first for both me and Ambi the springer (*short for Ambulance). Ambi is about 1 year and 2 months old, and has hunted birds but so far we have been very cautious about over doing the shooting. Seems he doesn't care one bit, and just wants birds to rain down...

We hunted hard for about 4 hours and covered about 3-4 miles of swampy river bed. It was about the turn around point by the time that we hit the first bird, and Ambi had to swim across a channel and find the teal that went down in reeds. Actually a pretty tough retrieve since he didn't mark the bird, and he made it look easy. His second retrieve was a few minutes after we missed a couple easy ducks... A woodcock that I hit dropped right into the water. He marked it, picked it up, brought it to shore and then dropped it and looked at it think he may have grabbed the wrong bird since there was an awful lot excitement from this hunter. :)

It may have been a tiny woodcock, and it may have a bit too much dog slobber on it, but its my first, and it was great!


 
Congrats! It's great to see a photo of a springer doing what they're bred for. I don't think there is a better combination upland/waterfowl dog than a springer. (I'm sure my snobby pointing dog purist friends will differ. LOL)
 
Jon, Nice work! Not a lot of woodcock down here but we do get a truck load of snipe when the conditions are right. I had a wiemaraner that I lost last year, and the dog would cast back and forth into the wind. When she would wind them she would fold in half like a taco. Sometimes the birds would hold . Most of the time they would flush, but it was the prettiest thing to see her do her magic. I didn't even go once last year after losing my girl. Maybe this year I will go again. After 10 years of hunting with her somehow I don't think it will be the same. Thanks for posting and enjoy your dog and your hunts together. Jeff
 
Yeah, the biggest problem with dogs is they don't last long enough. I've never lost a hunting dog, but I still sometimes have a dream where I find my dog "Peppy" the boxer who died over 20 years ago. She was the best dog ever!
 
Thanks for that photo and story. Your grin says it all. And boy, is that dog "profiling" or what? Cleopatra on her barge couldn't look more regal:"you can have Egypt,woman, I rule the woods and waters." May you have many many years together!
Bill
 
Jon, I sure liked that picture of the two of you. What a well earned bird that you finally got. After seeing the background in the picture, you more than earned my respect as a hunter who has the drive to get it done. Good job.
Al
 
Oh I should have mentioned, Ambi is my buddies dog. Just a year and a bit old, so yesterday were his first real hunted bird. I've been helping a bit with the training, for example thowing dummies, or planting birds, but this was Ambis first real hunt. My friend was just ecstatic at how well his dog hunted for 4 hours.

My dog, Moose, is just a bit too unpredictable in the woods yet as he's only 6 months old still, so I left him at home. He was quite mad when I came home with Ambi and some birds, so as a peace offering I took him to a local pond for some black ducks. He saw some ducks and went into hyperdrive thinking he might be able to catch them, but actually had a fair passing shot on some lessers, and got one. Right place right time, and we were both happy with the outcome...

So here's Moose with yesterdays hunt.

Here he is flapping his ears trying to catch up to the long gone black ducks.



Here he is pretending to be a duck whisperer...


And here he is, dry and safely at home, watching over "his" birds and boomstick.



What a character Mr. Moostache is!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top