Between Archery Seasons. Now that the early archery seasons are over I don’t shoot my bow as much as I normally do, I drop down to shooting twice a week for a couple of hours per day. During this time of the year I spend my weekends that I have off either catching up on the chores I have neglected or hitting the field chasing pheasants with my dog “Buddy”. We normally try to go out to the nearest release site at least one morning every weekend for a few hours, usually Sunday’s (so we can lie around and watch the Seahawks game after we get home). Buddy is my 10yr old lab that I originally bought to become my duck hunting partner, but it turned out he hated the water. Ever since he was a little puppy he would walk around mud puddles so his feet wouldn’t get wet, I try every summer to get him to swim in the bay with me Buddy took to pheasant hunting real fast, it turned out he has a great nose for the birds.

Our routine starts Saturday evenings, I get out my shotgun, my blaze orange coat, and fill up a large water bottle for Buddy. Once he sees the gear he knows that the next day he’s going hunting. Buddy acts like a kid on Christmas Eve, constantly checking all night long to make sure I haven’t moved my gear without taking him with. Sunday morning my alarm clock goes off and he is up and waiting at the door to go. This is the same alarm I use during the week to wake up to go to work with, but on a normal workday he is still asleep when I leave the house. We normally arrive at the release site about 30 minutes prior to start time, enough time to get the gear ready and let him sniff and mark his area (multiple times). 8 o’clock comes around and Buddy is all business. The release sites are usually pretty crowded and 1st thing you always hear is someone trying to chase back down their dog that takes off after a bird. Bud and I usually try to take an edge of a clear cut and work slowly behind the mass of hunters. A lot of birds are passed up by people and their dogs moving through too fast. We also get a lot of birds that fly to the edge of the cut when someone misses them in the center of the field. Not only do we stay back and to the edge for the birds, but we do this so not to catch any stray birdshot from other hunters. We don’t get our limits every outing but it is great exercise for both Bud and myself and it is a great time to spend a Sunday morning with my dog doing what he loves to do.

Some basic rules to remember when going to a release site:

Don’t rush out in front of the pack; you’re liable to catch some birdshot from the hunters behind.

Make sure you know what’s in front of you when you’re shooting a bird. Always shoot “up”

Get a dog collar bell to keep track of your dog in the brush

Wear plenty of hunter orange to be seen by others

Butch