I Took Thursday Off From Work

I took Thursday off from work and went hunting.
We started out by Hutchinson, MN and were able to get one bird in about two hours of hunting.  We actually got the bird out a section that we had already worked three times.  The second time was with Fergie, my blind pointer, and she kept getting birdy but we didn't move anything.   I brought Tina in afterwards and she worked the area until she got a nice point and we were able to harvest the bird.

We loaded up and headed west to near Granite Falls.  We had two smaller parcels of about 40 acres each lined up to hunt.  We worked them pretty well but didn't move a bird and only got two soft points. It was starting to warm up to the mid - 50's so I was hunting the dogs in short stretches.  With it snowing on the opener in early October I wouldn't have guess that in ealry November that I would have to worry about keeping the dogs cool...

I was fairly dissappointed to not see any birds on these two smaller unit as they have produced in the past.

We moved to our final spot for the day.  This is a 35 acre parcel that borders a game farm.  I've alsways liked this one as it has grass, pine trees, and cattails all in one small parcel.  Tina and I started to push the grass towards the first set of pine trees. Very often we will see birds tucked in under the trees so I kept Tina a bit closer than normal.  After making it through the tress and not seeing anything I was a bit concerned but Tina went on point just off to the side in some thin grass.  A few light kicks and the rooster broke for it and the 16 ga brought him down and it was time to clean birds, load up, and head for home. 4 hours hunting 6 hours driving.

One thing that was different is that the hunt felt more relaxed than normal.  Not sure why as I'm usually huntng private land so I don't have to worry about other hunters hitting my hotspots...