Hunting on the HiLine 2014, Volume 4: A Nice, Big Rooster!

Today I bring you a belated post of our last hunting excursion of the season. 

While my family was here, we took them up to the Lost River WMA for some game bird hunting. The day was pretty nice, with the temperature right around 30 degrees, minimal wind, and sunshine. The hunt was lead by Harvey, who stomped, sniffed, and pointed his way through the brush along the riverbank.  Jeff was right behind him, then the rest of us followed along behind. 

Right way, Harvey got on scent. Jeff was the only one carrying a gun, so he stayed right with the dog while the rest of us were occupied with the task of crossing a barbed wire fence. Of course, that's right when Harvey pointed and flushed the bird. I looked up just in time to see the bird fly up and Jeff take his shot and nail him cleanly. A nice, big rooster pheasant! 

Harvey shot over to where the bird landed. By now, I was over the fence but my family members were still in progress. Not to say they take a long time, but just that pointing, flushing, and shooting a bird only takes flashes of seconds. So, we missed Harvey's retrieval process, but Jeff tells me we still need to work on Harvey's soft mouth. If we were really serious about hunting him more often, we also probably would never play tug-of-war with him with his dog toys as that only reinforces the same behavior with game birds... and no one wants to eat pheasant that's been the "rope" in a tug-of-war match. 

Harvey did relinquish the bird fairly quickly to Jeff and I placed it in the backpack. We spent another hour or so hiking around looking for birds, but never did find any more. 

Later in the weekend, we enjoyed the meat in one of our favorite preparation styles, something I call Pheasant Poppers. Unfortunately, I have no pictures, but I'm sure you can imagine. You cut the usable meat off the carcass, then cut into small bite size pieces. Place a jalapeno slice on top a piece of meat, then wrap the whole thing with bacon and put on a skewer. Repeat until all meat is used. Then grill until done! So simple and delicious! If you're averse to pheasant, or don't have a hunter in the household, or bird season is over (which it IS in Montana), then you can use chicken or any other type of poultry you'd like. There's just something about bacon on the barbecue, too... YUM!

So, that's a wrap for Hunting on the HiLine 2014! We'll be back again next fall with more hunting adventures! Until then, hopefully there's something on PrairiePonderingsMT that will keep you hooked. Stay tuned for tomorrow when I'll be launching a new weekly series on the blog! Can't wait for you all to see what it is all about! 

Hunting on the HiLine 2013, Vol. 1

We got off to a late start on hunting season this year. We skipped bow season entirely and started with pheasants a few weeks ago. Jeff drew fewer tags this year and with deer numbers down anyway, that's probably OK.

As per usual, I did not put in for any tags. The animals Jeff shoots on his own are enough meat for two people (more than enough!), and I really don't care to shoot. I've never taken any hunters' safety courses and I'm not super comfortable with weapons. Most of all, I just like to hike and be outdoors, so I'm more than OK with not having any tags to fill. I'll continue to scout with Jeff and help him clean and butcher what he harvests.

This year, we've gone bird hunting with Harvey twice so far. He has really matured into a nice hunting dog in his third year. He listens to our commands much better than he ever has before and he doesn't take off so far ahead of us. He also has learned not to chase after the birds he's flushed for quite such a long distance. We are also learning how to read him better. The way he sniffs and crouches seems to be different if he's on a hun or a grouse than it is if he is scenting a pheasant. We suppose it's because the different birds leave different amounts of scent behind. I am quickly becoming convinced there is no better way to hunt than to work with your dog.

Is he pointing with his back foot raised? Or is he just stalking and I caught him in action?

Harvey brought us a hun Jeff shot. Good Boy!

Another nice point.

 Pheasants have been coming back a little bit this year, but so far we have only shot a handful of huns, or Hungarian Partridge, and one Sharptail Grouse. There are TONS of huns and grouse around.  Every time we go for a walk, it seems, Harvey is on the trail of a group of huns. Bird season lasts into January, so we should still have plenty of time to find a few pheasants. We'll continue to enjoy working with Harvey in between searching for deer. More on deer hunting in a few days as the Hunting on the HiLine 2013 series continues!

The scenery can't be beat!