My vizsla Gus and I hunted all day last Saturday. We first hunted stocked pheasants and chukars at Brandywine Hundred Rod and Gun Club. The weather was poor, with overnight rain and some leftover morning showers. I really don’t mind hunting in the rain, but rain screws up bird hunting–especially stocked bird hunting. We have to stock our own birds in the pre-dawn hours before our hunts (which also sucks in the rain). We have some good fields for birds, but the rain matted a lot of the grass down making for poor cover. When it came time to hunt, the birds really didn’t want to fly because they were soaked. Plus, they wanted to run from the dog because of the inadequate cover. Regardless, Gus did great. Again, he probably pointed about 30 birds, and we got a lot of shooting in.
Gus is tough as nails. I had to leave the club around 10 in order to make another hunt scheduled for 1:00 PM where my buddy John and I were guiding a bunch of guys. I went to put Gus in his travel crate, and I noticed blood everywhere. He sliced open his foot pad. I performed some quick patch work on him (thank God I carry a first aid kit) and went home. I fed Gus and myself, and went to pick up John and his pointer Huck.
Forgetting about his cut foot, Gus again did well at our next hunt at Game Creek in New Jersey. 20 pheasants were stocked, and the guys killed about 13 of them. Gus and Huck found the birds, but between slow reaction time and poor shooting, a lot of birds managed to get a reprieve. In all, it was a fun and tiring day.