Our hunt at the Casanova State game production area was a
good one, even if it only produced one bird in the bag. We hunted from 2:45 PM
until 5:45 PM, hitting various types of cover to include wind breaks of trees
and Cedars, cattails, food plots, & native grass fields. Most of the birds
we put up were in the thicker grass fields.
Winnie & Jackson both did an excellent job and have
earned some rest. For the 3 hour hunt, the GPS collars registered that Winnie
covered 8.45 miles and Jackson covered 5.49 miles.
Jackson put up 5 birds, 4 of which were roosters. I shot at 2 of them, hitting 1 - but not hard enough to bring it down. The 3rd rooster was flushed as he was trailing & I had chosen not to follow him because I stopped where Winnie was on point. Jax flushed the rooster too far away to shoot, but it was my fault (not his) that he was out of range on that one. His 4th rooster flushed into the sun and came up silently & I thought it was a hen, so I didn't shoot at it. After it was out of range, I realized it was a rooster...His last flush really was a hen.
Winnie got birdy multiple times & had several points, but we failed to find a bird on 2 of them. All in all, we think she had four points on the day, two of which produced birds – one being a hen and one being a rooster. We're not sure if the other 2 birds ran away & evaded us or if there was some other factor causing those points to not result in a flush. Her final point of the day (which was the rooster Dan shot) was a lesson in persistence. She trailed the bird for ~ 3/4 of a mile, based on the GPS data. She originally found it in the grassy field, trailed it into cattails, back out of the cattails into a food plot of Milo, and it finally held tight at the end of the food plot for Dan to kick it up and shoot it. All the while during the trail, it was circling back and cutting across its own tracks to try to confuse her, which obviously didn't work. It's a good thing he killed the bird, or I don't think he would have ever forgiven himself.
Jackson put up 5 birds, 4 of which were roosters. I shot at 2 of them, hitting 1 - but not hard enough to bring it down. The 3rd rooster was flushed as he was trailing & I had chosen not to follow him because I stopped where Winnie was on point. Jax flushed the rooster too far away to shoot, but it was my fault (not his) that he was out of range on that one. His 4th rooster flushed into the sun and came up silently & I thought it was a hen, so I didn't shoot at it. After it was out of range, I realized it was a rooster...His last flush really was a hen.
Winnie got birdy multiple times & had several points, but we failed to find a bird on 2 of them. All in all, we think she had four points on the day, two of which produced birds – one being a hen and one being a rooster. We're not sure if the other 2 birds ran away & evaded us or if there was some other factor causing those points to not result in a flush. Her final point of the day (which was the rooster Dan shot) was a lesson in persistence. She trailed the bird for ~ 3/4 of a mile, based on the GPS data. She originally found it in the grassy field, trailed it into cattails, back out of the cattails into a food plot of Milo, and it finally held tight at the end of the food plot for Dan to kick it up and shoot it. All the while during the trail, it was circling back and cutting across its own tracks to try to confuse her, which obviously didn't work. It's a good thing he killed the bird, or I don't think he would have ever forgiven himself.
In addition to Winnie & Jackson, the 3 humans are
also sufficiently tired & looking forward to bed tonight. We got back to
the house around 7, & are hoping to be asleep by 9:30; because our 4:30
morning alarm will be here before we want it to be!
The video below is the rooster I missed (and 2 more flushing upon hearing my shot). I edited Jackson's trail (and me running) down to just the last few seconds - you're welcome...
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