Hunting Season 2017

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.― Albert Camus

By Dog Willing Publications

September 20^th, 2017

Early Days

For the first time in nearly 20 years, Lisa and I find ourselves with only one dog in our home. Fortunately, Léo is proving to be up to the challenge, and with the help of his hunting buddy Kolbi, we've already had some success in the early days of the 2017 season.

Chasing Grouse

Quality grouse shooting cannot be evaluated by numbers any more than diamonds can be measured by the pound. It is not a process but a reflection – a reflection in the gunner from the dog he shoots over and the gun he carries, and above all a feedback from the grouse. When these things happen well, looking back at end of day is to be as content as it is given a man to feel. — George Bird Evans

un bel épagneul marron et blanc, taché de feu

L'homme se plaignit à Dieu. Et Dieu lui répondit:

— J'attendais ta réclamation, et je gardais précieusement dans le creux de ma main une parcelle du souffle divin que j'ai mis en toi et que j'ai appelé ton âme.

— Qu'en voulez-vous faire, Seigneur? demanda l'homme. - Un chien plus intelligent que celui-là. Et Dieu montrait le ramoneau. Le lendemain, en s'éveillant, Adam vit auprès de lui un bel épagneul marron et blanc, taché de feu. Le chien avait l'oeil mélancolique, et il vint caresser tristement son premier maître.

— Qu'il est beau! murmura l'homme en passant la main sur sa robe soyeuse et lustrée. Et comme Dieu apparaissait:

—Pourquoi donc, Seigneur, demanda l'homme, ce superbe animal a-t-il le regard si triste?

— Ah! répondit le Créateur, c'est que j'ai mis en lui un peu de l'âme humaine, et qu'il est plus près, comme intelligence, de l'homme que de l'animal. Seulement je lui ai refusé le don de la parole, et c'est de là que lui vient sa tristesse, car il ne peut pas toujours formuler clairement sa pensée.

Ce n'est pas un chien que je te donne, acheva l'Esprit céleste, c'est un ami. Le premier chien que j'ai créé avait un instinct, mais celui-ci est doté d'une âme.

Les Chiens de chasse, récits d'automne par M. A. de Ponson Du Terrail, 1863

Lisa's on fire!

After the 2014 hunting season, I wrote the following:

Lisa and I spend a lot of time in the field chasing game. For years, I carried a shotgun to put meat on the table and Lisa carried a Canon camera to put photos in our picture albums. Then, last February (2014), she said: “I think I’m ready to be a ‘real’ hunter now.” So she purchased a sweet side by side 20 gauge shotgun and practiced shooting clays at the local trap and skeet club.

Then, over the summer she studied and prepared for the hunter’s safety test and passed it in August with a grade of 100% ! And finally, just two days before the season opener, Lisa got her very first hunting licence at the age of … (redacted by order of management).

Lisa's very first season as a huntress turned out to be a huge success. I posted an entire photo album of the highlights here. Yesterday marked the first day of Lisa's 2017 season. And boy O' boy did she ROCK IT!!!

As my nephew and I missed everything we shot at, Lisa kept crumpling one bird after another! She put three plump snipe in the game bag with her first three shots. Two more shots and a sharptailed grouse and a woodcock were brought to hand by Léo.

Tonight, thanks to Lisa's eagle-eyed shooting, we are having a feast. Armagnac flambé snipe on toasted home made bread and Ginger stir-fried grouse with basmati rice.

Note the pride in Lisa's eye in the photo below...and how well CJ manages to smile through the shame that comes from shooting a box of shells for a total of zero birds ;) As for me...I just stayed behind the camera, quietly weeping at my own piss-poor shooting, but smiling from ear to ear for Lisa!

The French Invasion continues!

This week our friend Dillon Grose and his Braque Français (Pyrenean type) Duke and Milo travelled from south of the border to hunt the fields and woods with us. It's been a bit too warm and windy, but we've managed to find a few snipe, sharptail, woodcock and some ruffed grouse. Dillon even bagged a White-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) which Duke happily delivered to hand, proving that French dogs are not just for birds!

With a Manitoba winter around the corner, are you allowed to complain about an autumn being too hot?

I think not.

Waidmannsheil!

Why would a hunter from Saskatchewan drive 8 hours to hunt in Manitoba?

Woodcock!

And the occasional bonus Sharptail!

TIMBERDOODLES!

So the woodcock flight is in and the birds are holding tight. Of course you want to bag a few birds for the dinner table, but you also want to get some pictures of your dog on point and maybe even a photo or two of birds in flight.

So do you take your gun and camera with you? It's possible, been there, done that...with mixed success. A far better solution is to let the best shot in your hunting party carry the gun while the not-so-great shot carries the camera.

Spoiler alert: Lisa carried her gun. I carried my camera.

I want there to be woodcock forever flying over in October, and solitude, and Hunter’s Moons. — George Bird Evans

ROOSTER!

Bird numbers may have been as low as the temperatures in North Dakota this year, but our annual pheasant hunt was still a blast! Braving howling winds and sideways snow, we headed out each day and Léo did not disappoint. He's not even two years old, but he made the transition from Manitoba grouse and woodcock to wily prairie roosters like a seasoned veteran.