The forecast called for rain on Thursday, the third and final day of our Tennessee hunt. But as of 11:00 Wednesday night there hadn’t been much wind let alone rain. Yet unfortunately, the forecast was enough to discourage the hunter and dog supposed to fund with us day 3. Didn’t matter, we were going hunting.
We figured we hit a good number of lower areas on day 1 – lower meaning wetter. Still more than 2,000 feet. Day 1 was good, but not great. So on day 2 we decided to get high. Go high.
We were in Tennessee last week because we couldn’t just let the ruffed grouse season peter out with a whimper. We’re Serious man! Honestly that’s true, though the decision was easier because:
We recently got an email about a new website – bringbackbobwhites.org – for the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI). Checked it out, looks important but we weren’t sure what it means to hunters. So we asked NBCI communications director John Doty a few questions, here they are with his answers:
We keep kicking around an article we read sometime back about the role of hunting preserves, highlights of which are below. Both of us have done the preserve shoot thing, but it’s not even close to being up there with matching human brains against bird brains in the wild. Still, with the continued loss of […]
I (Jay) am as expert about dogs as I am about astrophysics – which is to say, I don’t know much. But I’m learning as fast as I can. And since I’m in the market for a dog – or dogs plural if my kids have their way – I’ve read a bunch about the […]
Next week we’ll be in that well-known grouse capital…Tennessee. Yep, the Tennessee season is open through the last week in February, and since we’re unwilling to wait until October to beat ourselves silly again, we’re going to hoof it around the spring-like temps of the Smokies and try to get lucky. With the birds.
And some things we don’t understand… Woodies don’t exactly have a rep for being good table fare. We’ve seen a few guys almost drool over the thought of woodcock prepared so-and-so way, but most comments have been along the lines of the old brick joke: Prepare woodcock, put in oven with brick, when the bird […]
If you haven’t heard yet, SportDOG Brand recently announced the new TEK 1.0 system, the first remote dog training and tracking system ever. In other words, GPS plus training, and also a competitor to Garmin’s Astro system. Interesting. From the SportDOG announcement: “The new system is available with GPS tracking capabilities only (TEK 1.0L) or […]
If you tried buying these pants this season based on our recommendation in Serious Grouse Hunting, Book 1, you were SOL because LL Bean was sold out of them. Jay learned that before the season even started, after sacrificing his pair of these pants for tests by WL Gore related to the book. He figured […]
We uplanders talk a lot about dog names, not as much about gun names – you have names for your guns, don’t you? Here’s a good story (condensed version) about a gun named “Bo Whoop.” First saw it discussed in the Autumn 2010 issue of The Upland Almanac, but the whole story is
Have you seen the new Discovery show Sons of Guns? It’s about a bunch of guys (and one gal) who fix, refurbish, custom-build and sell firearms out of a shop called Red Jacket in Baton Rouge, LA. Anyhow, I (Jay) watched it last night and the main project in the episode was producing a custom […]
LL Bean makes some of the best upland gear ever (wearables, if that’s a word), in our opinion, and lucky for all of us they keep developing more. Following are the upland products that caught our eye at the recent SHOT shooting industry trade show – meaning they’re not available yet, but will be this […]
What Dog(s) Am I Getting? One thing I didn’t expect to learn so much about Pheasant Fest was dogs.
[A little lighter post today….] Any Serious bird hunter knows that chasing birds is all about beer and T-shirts. Seriously, though, sometimes it really is about, shall we say, taking the chill off and advertising the fact that you are among the hunting elite, a bird-chaser extraordinaire. And for those such times, the pheasant-loving brethren […]
You guys know that being Serious means staying on top of the latest and greatest gear. Which we do – except in the case of Federal Premium shotshells. This is one party we’re embarrassingly late to.
Every gun (and ammo) manufacturer that should have been at Pheasant Fest wasn’t (that’s a hint for all you slacker manufacturers…). But of those who were there, the following guns got my attention and here’s why:
[Jay was at last weekend’s Pheasant Fest – all Fest posts are by him.] You’re a bird-hunter, right? A Serious one – Serious as you can be. So here’s the bottom line: Do not miss next year’s Pheasant Fest. I’m typing this in the Omaha, NE airport, on my way back to scenic New Jersey […]
Day 3 dawned gray and cold. No big deal, about the same as day 2. Our clothes were surprisingly dry (not an ounce of moisture in that hotel room), and as we left it started to snow. We were happy about that because a fresh snow meant the ability to track grouse.
Brendan’s brother Sean, a regular hunting compadre of ours in Maine, joined us for the remainder of the trip. We were psyched to have Sean there. He’s a good shot, sees birds with some kind of Superman X-ray vision, and with three guys we can cover more ground WAY more efficiently – and the covers […]
Just read this article on hunting ruffies in MN this year. So much of it, while well-intentioned, is wrong. Here goes: > The good news is, counts were up 34 percent this spring in parts of northern Minnesota. Counts remained stable in southern Minnesota. This COULD mean that there’s more easy birds (young ones) early […]
Lessons from 2012 Maine-NH Hunt
Don’t know if we’ve fully recovered yet from our not-quite-a-week of hunting Maine and New Hampshire for ruffies and woodies. We all actually bailed 2 days early, having put in 5 consecutive days instead of our usual 7. Felt like wimps about it, but hey, we were BEAT…from 5 days of the most brutal hunting […]
No Grouse Comeback in SW Penn?
Sounds like ruffed grouse will never be as much a part of the landscape of southern Pennsylvania as they once will. “Never” sounds ominous. Permanent. But that’s the conclusion of an article by Bob Frye in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Why should you care if you don’t live or hunt in PA? Reasons: > Pennsylvania is […]
Hey: All Ruffies Drum Differently!
Did you know that? Not until now…. This info won’t help us hunting, but it’s interesting – and makes sense. Here’s more, from newscientist.com: Male ruffed grouse are the first animals known to make unique non-vocal sounds. Humans and many other animals, particularly birds, can be identified by their voices. But no one had looked […]
Ran across this quote from an article about Iowa’s pheasant count: > “I haven’t even gone pheasant hunting the last couple of years because the birds just weren’t there,†said Tim Wolf, a 61-year-old bank president who lives in Waukee. YES THEY WERE! They most definitely were there. Maybe not like this… > “But I’ve […]
Top 10 Reasons To Go to Phez Fest
Pheasants/Quail Forever’s Pheasant Fest/Quail Classic is coming up soon at KC, MO (see info in right column), and just in case you’re thinking it’s too far or whatever, here are the Top 10 – really just 10 of many – reasons to go. We’re doing it Letterman-style, 10 to 1. 10. What else are you […]
Across the Pond Bird Follies, Vids
Ah the UK, the land that gave the world 17 pieces of silverware on the table, animal rights and other questionable stuff. Okay, it wasn’t all bad – that’s where our bird hunting came from too. But it’s different here…or there, depending on your perspective. Here’s some recent bird news plus some interesting vids. Katie […]
Do Congress, Tea Party Hate Pheasants?
We make it a point to try not to get suckered by political hoo-ha, so that’s not what this is about. We ran across a blog post on the Discovery-owned treehugger.com titled “Why Does Congress Hate Pheasants?” and a related one, “Do Tea Party, Heritage Foundation Oppose Hunting?” Interesting stuff, written by the same gent, […]
Quail, the most beleaguered of our beloved gamebirds, is getting a helping hand in Kansas. Or rather, a bigger helping hand. The state just announced that it’s “launching a new quail restoration initiative aimed at making a difference in declining bobwhite quail populations at a landscape level.” Here’s more: > Includes the designation of two […]
Worms and Birds: What Else Don’t We Know?
Believe we’ve talked about this at least once, but a recent Wall Street Journal article on the plight of Texas quail got us thinking about it again. Here’s the applicable stuff: …Rolling Hills Quail Research Ranch, a 4,700-acre spread an hour west of Abilene. Last month, researchers there found that the levels of parasitic worms […]
Top 10 Reasons To Go to Phez Fest
Pheasants/Quail Forever’s Pheasant Fest/Quail Classic is coming up soon at KC, MO (see info in right column), and just in case you’re thinking it’s too far or whatever, here are the Top 10 – really just 10 of many – reasons to go. We’re doing it Letterman-style, 10 to 1. 10. What else are you […]
Lone Star Outdoor news recently carried an article on a speech given by Dr. Dale Rollins of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch near Rotan, Texas. Seems that a major threat to quail, at least in the Lone Star state, may be an eyeball worm. News to us! Highlights: > Especially mysterious were the continued […]
