Sage Grouse and Ducks

Just thought I would post a short update. My dad and I were weathered out of an elk hunt a few weeks ago and decided to head back to my place and do a little bird hunting. We headed to some BLM that has traditionally been a good place for grouse. I have a young dog that had not been exposed to upland bird hunting yet. So I knew this may be a learning hunt for her, and I would spend most of my time yelling, rather than hunting. But, I hoped to get my dad his first sage grouse. The day started off great and we were into grouse within minutes. The dog had moments of brilliance, but mostly acted like a young dog that was out for a run. Managed to get my limit and a friends limit, but my dad still had one bird left. We flushed a bird, that he was unable to shoot, but it went only 50 yards and landed. We were able to set up the situation, for the dog to flush the bird. It all went, perfectly, dog flushes, dad shoots, dog retrieves. Clearly after that the light bulb had turned on. We watched the dog hunt intentionally all the way back to the truck, and flush 2 birds all on her own. Those of you with dogs will understand this, but that moment of clarity when a dog "gets it" is truly one of the best moments in a dog owners life.



This past weekend was the duck opener for us. I had done some brief scouting, and knew exactly where I wanted to be. I was nervous seeing as it was opening day that others might hit the field by 4am. So I arrived at 3:30am. After setting up, I ended up waiting until 5:45am to see the first group. Luckily, no one crowded me and I was confident in a good hunt. Shooting time was 6:30am, and I had 6 ducks and a goose by 6:50am. I ended up waiting another 3 hours to finally close out my limit with "bonus blue-wings". The dog has always been a natural duck dog and she preformed great even with the ridiculous amounts of submerged vegetation. She did try to retrieve the two mallards I had down at the same time simultaneously, but gave up on it. We will work on that.

Love it!

Sage grouse are a ton of fun to hunt. I'm anxious to get my pup out next year. Great report.

I really need to head out west and get myself a sage grouse! It is definitely on my bucket list.

Congrats on the hunts!

You have a truly great looking Lab!

What's that dogs name?

Very nicely done!! That's a passel of sage grouse for one day! Kudos!

She's a beauty and the birds are nice too!!

Great thread. Thanks for posting it up. Glad to see a few sage grouse being brought to hand. Congratulations.
Let us know how you and your puppy do for the rest of the season.

Awesome post, always nice to see a dog "get it" at a young age that usually means you'll have a very good hunting partner best of luck.

I understand it and agree 100%. Congratulations on the shiny new hunting companion.

I got into sagegrouse when the threatened to close the season a few years ago. Great birds, huge birds.

Where was this at?

Thanks guys! She is a good looking pup and she hunts hard. Her name is Sage.

This hunt was from central Wyoming.

Super looking pup!
Thanks for sharing.