Reggie, Belle and I had a grand time out in Nebraska. This was Belle's first time hunting Nebraska and Reggie's first trip away from everything he has ever known. The first day on the road the poor fella spent the entire 500 mile trip drooling...it was like Niagra Falls coming out of his mouth. And who knew that there were so few actual rest areas in Missouri and Arkansas? He got to experience a truck rest stop for the first time. He was not impressed with all the sounds and smells at all. I am glad that I brought a big knotted rope toy for him because his first hotel stay was about as nerve wracking for him as well. The next day, either the antinausea meds kicked in well or the distraction of the knotted rope to chew on made his travelling life a lot easier for him. I am happy to say that over the course of the week, I did not have to give him any more antinausea meds and the waterworks didn't put in another appearance.
We made it to Nebraska in time for a quick afternoon walk. I kept Belle close and Reggie immediately found a dried up cow patty to haul around. He did attempt to get Belle to play with him with it but not surprisingly, she had no interest in it.
I wish I could say that my shooting was stellar this trip. It was not. So, I didn't come home with many birds but I also didn't use a lot of shells either.
The first few days of the trip, Reggie spent a lot of his time glued to my leg. No biggie. I was not putting pressure on him to do anything other than to hang out with me and gain some confidence. By the end of the trip, he was beginning to range out and run with Belle. He'd run with her and try to get her to play and then run straight back to me. He also began ranging out a little more and exploring around me even when Belle was off doing her own thing. It pleased me to see his confidence growing about being out and about in a new world.
The first few days were HOT. We hunted the mornings and then explored in the afternoons. Initially, I was going to hunt the dogs separately but with the heat, I didn't want to be leaving one in the truck. Our first morning that we were there, I was checking out an Open Fields property and we had a BIG flock of prairie chickens fly over. Right into legally huntable land. But they also flew in amongst the cattle on that property. I am leery of hunting around cattle in general and I didn't know how Reggie would handle them. Belle has hunted around cattle before and knows to leave them be. I explored that property by truck and saw that it was broken up into about 4 or 5 large fenced off sections. So, we hunted the section next to the cattle.
We ended up hunting that property two mornings in a row. Belle did a great job finding sharptails that chose not to cooperate and a big covey of quail that cooperated beautifully.
Reggie had his first skunk encounter. I was pleased to see how interested he was getting in something, until I smelled the skunk. I looked around and the little striped beauty was cocked, locked and ready to let'er rip. I immediately called him off and we headed off in a separate direction. I knew that if Belle got a whiff of the skunk, I'd be dealing with a stinky mess. She has a thing for small mammals.
A short time later, I crest a hill and see both dogs out maybe 50 yards and a big ole 8pt following somewhat aggressively. Reggie was already coming back to me but either Belle didn't know the deer was there, or she didn't care since she sees deer frequently back here at home. But not deer that big. And the deer have never showed interest in her. He was following Belle around and it kind of struck me as semi-aggressive but also curious....a what the hell are you kind of thing. He would stop and watch her and if she got kinda close he'd come after her. As soon as I saw that he was going to keep that up, I called Belle in to me. I was reminded of a few stories of dogs getting dead from deer and I didn't want some rut charged buck deciding for sure that my dog needs to be taken care of.
Good thing I did. He kept coming. The wind was in my favor had I been a deer hunter. Eventually he hauled butt when I started hollering at him to go away. Again, we changed directions entirely so that that deer could have his section of the property and we could be in another. I kept an eye out for him the rest of the morning though.
Reggie got to have his first feathered lesson with the quail Belle found. I forgot the term that the trainers used for hunting dead so he just kinda watched me as I looked for my quail. I called Belle in to hunt dead and after Belle pointed the quail I shot, Reggie and I did dead bird drills and I let him carry that quail all around. He liked it lots.
Afternoons were spent exploring and there was lots of neat stuff to see. Lots of mallards and geese too. Although not many on places where I could actually hunt. I wasn't going to be there long enough for me to spend the time to track down landowners to see about permission to hunt some of the potholes, but I strongly considered it. I also had considered getting a new camera prior to the trip but decided not to since I had also upgraded my GPS tracking system to include the Garmin inReach service and a new collar. I wish that I had just gone ahead and gotten the new camera as my old one began having issues on the trip. Ah well. My cell phone did an okay job for the majority of the trip.
As I said, the first few days were hot. The snakes were out and about in force. I saw the biggest garter snake I'd ever seen.
And a bull snake that hissed at me.
After talking with fish and game and getting some advice on which WMAs to explore for chickens, we did that the next couple of days. Those were tough hunting days. The winds were really blowing. Belle found chickens, sharptails and pheasants but I could never get close enough before they were spooking. I did almost step on a sharptail that I missed with both barrels. I'll blame the wind for that. It was blowing so hard it just blew all my shot away. This summer, I had a gentleman fix Steve's Browning that he had broken the wrist on. He kept it together with electrical tape and Cuties stickers. At least until that no longer worked. So, this hunt was the first trip to see how well the fix would hold up. I had been warned that because of the nature of the break, there was a possibility it might not hold. I am happy to report that so far, so good.
Rarin' to go
The cold shoulder
Because I didn't get close enough, quick enough to her to get the birds
Traffic jam
The end of the trip came far too quickly. And sadly, the day I was heading out was PERFECT hunting weather. Wind was not supposed to be strong and it was nice and cool. Ah well.
I wish I could say that I shot the Nebraska slam (pheasant, quail, sharptail and prairie chicken) while I was there, but that's hunting sometimes. Belle certainly found the Nebraska slam in the short time we were there. I didn't go out with the mindset that that is what we would be trying for but did think it would be cool if it worked out. So, it did kind of work out....
We made it to Nebraska in time for a quick afternoon walk. I kept Belle close and Reggie immediately found a dried up cow patty to haul around. He did attempt to get Belle to play with him with it but not surprisingly, she had no interest in it.
I wish I could say that my shooting was stellar this trip. It was not. So, I didn't come home with many birds but I also didn't use a lot of shells either.
The first few days of the trip, Reggie spent a lot of his time glued to my leg. No biggie. I was not putting pressure on him to do anything other than to hang out with me and gain some confidence. By the end of the trip, he was beginning to range out and run with Belle. He'd run with her and try to get her to play and then run straight back to me. He also began ranging out a little more and exploring around me even when Belle was off doing her own thing. It pleased me to see his confidence growing about being out and about in a new world.
The first few days were HOT. We hunted the mornings and then explored in the afternoons. Initially, I was going to hunt the dogs separately but with the heat, I didn't want to be leaving one in the truck. Our first morning that we were there, I was checking out an Open Fields property and we had a BIG flock of prairie chickens fly over. Right into legally huntable land. But they also flew in amongst the cattle on that property. I am leery of hunting around cattle in general and I didn't know how Reggie would handle them. Belle has hunted around cattle before and knows to leave them be. I explored that property by truck and saw that it was broken up into about 4 or 5 large fenced off sections. So, we hunted the section next to the cattle.
We ended up hunting that property two mornings in a row. Belle did a great job finding sharptails that chose not to cooperate and a big covey of quail that cooperated beautifully.
Reggie had his first skunk encounter. I was pleased to see how interested he was getting in something, until I smelled the skunk. I looked around and the little striped beauty was cocked, locked and ready to let'er rip. I immediately called him off and we headed off in a separate direction. I knew that if Belle got a whiff of the skunk, I'd be dealing with a stinky mess. She has a thing for small mammals.
A short time later, I crest a hill and see both dogs out maybe 50 yards and a big ole 8pt following somewhat aggressively. Reggie was already coming back to me but either Belle didn't know the deer was there, or she didn't care since she sees deer frequently back here at home. But not deer that big. And the deer have never showed interest in her. He was following Belle around and it kind of struck me as semi-aggressive but also curious....a what the hell are you kind of thing. He would stop and watch her and if she got kinda close he'd come after her. As soon as I saw that he was going to keep that up, I called Belle in to me. I was reminded of a few stories of dogs getting dead from deer and I didn't want some rut charged buck deciding for sure that my dog needs to be taken care of.
Good thing I did. He kept coming. The wind was in my favor had I been a deer hunter. Eventually he hauled butt when I started hollering at him to go away. Again, we changed directions entirely so that that deer could have his section of the property and we could be in another. I kept an eye out for him the rest of the morning though.
Reggie got to have his first feathered lesson with the quail Belle found. I forgot the term that the trainers used for hunting dead so he just kinda watched me as I looked for my quail. I called Belle in to hunt dead and after Belle pointed the quail I shot, Reggie and I did dead bird drills and I let him carry that quail all around. He liked it lots.
Afternoons were spent exploring and there was lots of neat stuff to see. Lots of mallards and geese too. Although not many on places where I could actually hunt. I wasn't going to be there long enough for me to spend the time to track down landowners to see about permission to hunt some of the potholes, but I strongly considered it. I also had considered getting a new camera prior to the trip but decided not to since I had also upgraded my GPS tracking system to include the Garmin inReach service and a new collar. I wish that I had just gone ahead and gotten the new camera as my old one began having issues on the trip. Ah well. My cell phone did an okay job for the majority of the trip.
As I said, the first few days were hot. The snakes were out and about in force. I saw the biggest garter snake I'd ever seen.
And a bull snake that hissed at me.
After talking with fish and game and getting some advice on which WMAs to explore for chickens, we did that the next couple of days. Those were tough hunting days. The winds were really blowing. Belle found chickens, sharptails and pheasants but I could never get close enough before they were spooking. I did almost step on a sharptail that I missed with both barrels. I'll blame the wind for that. It was blowing so hard it just blew all my shot away. This summer, I had a gentleman fix Steve's Browning that he had broken the wrist on. He kept it together with electrical tape and Cuties stickers. At least until that no longer worked. So, this hunt was the first trip to see how well the fix would hold up. I had been warned that because of the nature of the break, there was a possibility it might not hold. I am happy to report that so far, so good.
Rarin' to go
The cold shoulder
Because I didn't get close enough, quick enough to her to get the birds
Traffic jam
The end of the trip came far too quickly. And sadly, the day I was heading out was PERFECT hunting weather. Wind was not supposed to be strong and it was nice and cool. Ah well.
I wish I could say that I shot the Nebraska slam (pheasant, quail, sharptail and prairie chicken) while I was there, but that's hunting sometimes. Belle certainly found the Nebraska slam in the short time we were there. I didn't go out with the mindset that that is what we would be trying for but did think it would be cool if it worked out. So, it did kind of work out....
