Fall bird season

[Dmac]

I've been taking advantage of this cool Nor Cal weather (mid 70's) to put in lots of work with the dog, retrieving, swimming and running the hills at the cabin in preparation for the coming fall upland season. His weight is already spot on at a lean 74 lbs, so I increased his feed slighly and adjusted his protien upward a tick. Cash is ready to rumble, now I am wondering if I started just a bit too early : ( Oh well, we're having fun and he's down and out by 9 o'clock and it's nice to have an hour or two to get things done.



Cash's first quail hunt at 9 months old


First mixed bag of chukar and pheasant at 10 months


This was his very first rooster, he loves them ditch chickens

[GulfCoast]

Sweet! I love chukkar, but I hate climbing mountains to kill 'em!

[Dmac]

Ha ha climbing can be a real pain, especially in loose rock. Most of last years chukar came from birds I raised in flight pens, while they provide good training for the dog they are not true wild birds. I release birds on my property usually in groups of 7-14, I leave them alone for a few days and then we go out and hunt em up. This year we'll be doing 3 wild chukar hunts in Nevada, a trip to the "Breaks" in Idaho for pheasant and hungarians, and then to South Dakota for a pheasant pilgrimage. Looks like I posted the wrong pic above, it should've been this one



I spent the better part of last year buiolding my pups confidence, about 70% of our hunting was over birds I raised (pheasant and chukar) the rest chasing wild pheasant and quail. This year will be 50/50. I have backed off the number of pheasant and chukar I am raising, just 125-150 of each (I sell a good portion) in the next few years I hope to just raise enough for early season training and cut back on the time taking care of them.