Monday, December 26, 2011

A Grouse for Copper and Elin

My second season has been a quiet one with only several wild flushes to show for my wanderings. Today I headed to a southern covert close to the Maryland border with Copper to try our luck. Multiflora rose, blackberry briers and autumn olive cover much of the mountain side.


With the wet weather we've had this fall the springs and seeps were running full.








This covert has some stone fence rows that would rival New England covers.

Coppers beeper suddenly switches to point mode and I see her "cat walking" after a running grouse. I move to circle around her as fast as I can manage in the steep and rocky terrain and she locks up on point with a multiflora rose bush between us. As I take a step toward the bush a grouse flushes straight for my head. I duck, turn and fire the right barrel and then the left as the grouse sails down the mountainside and see the bird cartwheel down with a broken wing. Copper sees the grouse fall and catches it as it flutters down the steep slope.





Elin, my 16 ga. Husqvarna hammergun with the first bird I've taken with her.







Copper poses happily with her bird.

We had several wild flushes and one more point that I couldn't reach in time for a shot, but the day goes down as a success with a burning memory of Coppers point and my killing shot.











6 comments:

Matt Ortiz said...

Great job Rick!

Ed said...

Way to go Rick...and the old WV girl gets the job done! :)

ruff hunter said...

Awesome job, Rick!! Was wandering when your second season got underway....

Gary Thompson said...

We can share in celebration you and I. After several years of searching, I managed to find a Male Greater Prairie Chicken yesterday in Easter Colorado. If only I would have taken it with a hammergun, that would have really been something.

Greyphase said...

Thanks for looking everyone. Taking a grouse in a long time favorite covert with a near 100 year old hammergun over a solid point by a setter in her twilight years will be a memory that I'll carry for the rest of my life.

LostintheUplands said...

Thanks for taking us along Rick, and good to see you got into'em