Quick trip to Paducah

Well, after last weekend's woodcock trip to Louisiana, Brownie and I had healed up just enough to drive down to the family place near Paducah, Texas and give it another shot. We met my uncle and cousin and their young pointer Lilly and hunted on Saturday. We put up two coveys, one was a huge group of 40 or 50 birds that is always up at the top of the hill and the other was a small group of 8-10 that we found in a draw up north in pretty wild country. Lots of birds up there, lots of pigs and not a lot of shots to go along with them.

My cousin Matt and Brownie work the south pasture late in the day.

Brownie covered some serious ground in this new area that has just been cleared of mesquite and cedar this summer. A little work and this should be quail heaven. And it's secluded enough and surrounded by heavy cover that it might even keep the poachers away.

Brownie gets real serious about some birds. It's really interesting, you can tell the difference in a false point and the real thing if you can just get a glimpse of his face.

This dog..... good lord.... this dog... I don't even know what to say about this dog. They have given up on an e collar and just decided to go with the Garmin. I have never seen a dog get 300 yards away in 15 secs. Somehow she seems to do it. Great dog, good breeding... just maybe she needs to come equipped with a horse. Sweet as can be though. She's gonna be a great dog when she learns all the tricks.

Absolutely, hands down, the best time of day to be out in Texas. Just beautiful in the late afternoon.


End of the day back at the trucks... Lilly even showed back up eventually ;)


The long road back to town. This is really beautiful country... and despite what folks say, I think I would be willing to drive an hour to get to a steakhouse in order to live there. ;)

Cracklins and Double Guns


Well, after getting an open invitation for five years I finally took my friend Felipe up on a woodcock hunt in South Louisiana. Brownie and I loaded up and made the 11 hour drive down on Friday, hunted Saturday and Sunday and then made the drive home today. It was really an unbelievable, although long, weekend.
Saturday we had a bit of bad weather and some really heavy cover, but Sunday was just more fun that a man should be allowed to have. It took Brownie (my English Setter) to catch onto what exactly Felipe's GSPs were so excited about, but he finished the day really strong with two rock solid points and held the birds till we got there to flush.


If only our marksmanship had been better. I have heard all the jokes about the difficulty of shooting woodcock.... but good gosh... I did some really horrible shooting! Good thing I am a bit better with the camera.

The land down there is beautiful and after the winter we have had in Tulsa is was good to see at least a little bit of green in the woods. We hunted some WMAs and also the Catherine sugar cane plantation (Felipe's wife is a stockholder and direct descendent of the original owners)

I learned a ton on the trip thanks to Felipe and his crackerjack German Shorthair Pointers Gypsy and Roscoe. Although I expected the trip to be a one time deal, I will be putting it on my calendar every year for the forseeable future, as well as seeking out some possible places locally to find woodcock next year.