It’s the eternal problem of bird hunting all over the country from September to February.  Not only can you not expect good roads, you should plan on mud, snow, sand, and rocks.  Let’s go over some items I carry and a few things that are just part of the truck.  First, 4-wheel drive. I know you could drive all over dirt and gravel from Montana to Arizona in your 2WD vehicle. I’ve done it. I had a 1989 F150 with a positraction rear end that went everywhere. Until it didn’t. I met a nice Georgia farmer with his tractor that day. Every truck I’ve had since then was 4WD ..read more

Jade (JD) 10 mos.    JD and me- AZ Desert Maybe it's just me, but puppies seem to be getting smarter.  OR, I suppose I'm not. This little demon might just be the end of me.  She is 100% what I asked for from the breeder.  Like an idiot, I said "big runner, on the ragged edge of control, tough, smart".  You know the adage, "Be careful what you pray for, you may get it."   She is not two years old, yet.  But, she just finished her second season hunting 6 western states.  I put no pressure on her at all.  What she learned was ..read more

I came across this picture of my Brit, Cap, from NM 4 years ago. We were hunting Gambel’s Quail around an old corral. The initial cast was away from the corral, up in the hills. The whole time, Cap kept slowly working toward the corral, and I would call him back. Eventually, I told my partner I was going to swing down that way. I saw probably 100 quail in several coveys over the next hour. Cap knew where they were. The issue here is that there was plenty of old, low-slung barbed wire in the area. His tracking, pointing, and retrieving took him over and under a lot of it. I did not see whe ..read more

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  The Book When I was growing up, my father would regale me with stories of coon hunting in the swamps of southern Mississippi.  He would tell me about the dogs, "They are not pets, Randy.  Don't touch them, and don't call them or try and tell them what to do.  There is only one "dog man" on a coon hunt.", the people, the swamps, and the challenges of coon hunting in the '40's and '50's of the last century.  He was a Naval Aviator during the early '40's.  Later, he was a young man with four children looking for work after the war.  He would tell me o ..read more

Blue injured his right rear leg after a run about a month ago.  The vet diagnosed CCL tear (equivalent to an ACL tear in humans).   I am a huge believer in Medical  insurance for my dogs.  As luck would have it, CCL surgery is one of the exceptions on the policy.  $3500 (+or -) later, he's been fixed up and is home for therapy.  He had TPLO surgery. The doctor carefully explained all the different methods to fix the tear, and we chose this method.  So, all is good now and he should be ready to go in about a month.  Caution is the name of the game, and le ..read more

    The old dog and I put out on a day that was cool, as the sun was about an hour above the Montana horizon.  This was a special spot.  Last year, he and I moved 16 coveys of Huns and Sharptails in the alfalfa fields, along the creek and below the hills that rose up from the north edge of the water.  He moved slower now, but still watched me and bounced around, and woofed at me to hurry up.  All he needed was for me to take a step in the direction I wanted to go, and he would move out, nose up, quartering in the wind, searching for the scent of whatever game-bird this particular pie ..read more

It's been over a half-century since this boy spent any time in a tent.  This hunting trip, I decided to revert to the basics in order to save a little money on the ridiculously sky high diesel prices across the country.  In light of the fact I would drive over 6000 miles, a little saved at the pump could be significant.  Waterproofing, ease of setup, comfort, and cost were all factors in my choice of tent.  I found several I thought would be perfect, but they would take two people to erect. I ended up with this tent by Magellan.  Not only was it amazingly easy to erect ..read more

Unfortunately,  Blue tore his CCL a few months ago.  One month before we were due to leave for Wyoming and Montana. Throughout the process of diagnosis, surgery, $$$$, etc., one bright point was when the vet told us about the Lick Sleeve.  It replaced the Cone to keep the dog from licking the incision site. What a great product! It's so simple, and works so well, I'm amazed I'm only hearing about the now.  Blue out of TPLO surgery.  The incision is inside the knee.  Blue with the sleeve on- no cone! It's made from a slick and tough fabric th ..read more

I loaded the dogs and drove to meet friends, first in Wyoming, then in Montana. I waited a little later in September to try and avoid the stifling heat.  To a large extent, I succeeded.  The first week I camped up in the mountains at 7500', hunting for Blue Grouse.  We were very successful, and I learned all over about camping in the cold! Then we drove to meet 5 other friends for Sage Grouse, Chukar and Hungarian Partridge.  The hunting was exceptional, but best part of this portion of the trip was the food! With at least three "foodies" in the party, we cooked our birds i ..read more