Pheasant Season Opens With A Bang

Photo: l to r Duane, Jim, Bill, Jim; dogs l to r, Lady, Ginger, Maverick.
Opening day of pheasant and the wind was blowing. Maverick, GHS, is only 16 months old and holing his own. We were hunting a family owned farm and he was on point in the first 10 minutes. The sun was shinning and made it difficult to tell what the first bird was but nobody shot what was called a hen. Further up the field was a small patch of cattails and Maverick was working them over and up went the first rooster of the season. I wish I could say that the first rooster went down but 2 shots from my Benelli SuperNova missed their mark as well as one from Bill and several from the blockers down the field. Wish we could blame it on first bird fever but it would show it ugly head several more times throughout the day.

We pushed a patch of corn with nothing for our efforts. We pushed it again to get the wind into the dogs faces to work the next patch of field. Bill was through the field first and had rested his gun against a tree to take off a layer of clothes. When I made it to the end of the corn a rooster took off. I shot 2 more times and still missed the mark as Bill was running for his gun to fire a shot. I would miss the next rooster 2 times as well.

The afternoon gave us better luck as Bill dropped the first bird of the season with a nice shot and Ginger, lab, made the retrieve. Bill was the only one who was able to connect of a bird and he would do it again later on that afternoon. All told we would kick up 8 roosters for the day and about the same number of hens.

Nice shooting Bill perhaps we can help you next time.