Adventures of a young man and a dog named Dan

[deerslayer]

I have def. missed this story! brings back a lot of memories of myself growing up

[JD]

I had completely forgotten about this. Life has a funny way of making that happen. I was going through old pictures the other day at my parents and found a couple of Dan. That triggered in a whole bunch of memories, and reminded me of this story. The kids have been sick, and I have had quite a bit of time being stuck at home, so I started back into this.

[JD]

Part 14

Season of change

Dan’s third season was fastly approaching. We worked every minute we could, tracking, pointing, fetching, as well as general commands. In most areas Dan was good to go and it was just to keep skills honed. One area that did need to be worked on hard was “Whoa”. Not that Dan didn’t behave, he just got so into his “work” that he would sometimes forget he needed to listen to me. We were working extra hard, and a lot more than we had for quite some time. This year was going to be something special. I had taken 3 weeks off, and we were hitting the road. We were taking an incredible adventure that would have us hunting in 4 states, and was just under 2,000 miles round trip.

First stop, Aberdeen, SD, Pheasant hunting capital of the world. From there we would be heading south to Eustis, NE, and then on to Esbon, KS. The last stop would be back in South East Iowa and my Uncles place. This trip was going to cost me quite a bit, but we would save money where we could. I decided to pull my 18’ enclosed trailer. It was easier to put everything in there than it was to try and jam it all into the cab of my truck. With everything in there, Dan and I would not have much room to travel. Certainly not much comfort either. Since I was pulling the trailer, we decided we would pack a couple cots and sleep in the trailer. I had a small propane heater, and it would keep it nice and warm in there. Not four star accommodations by any means, but it was a ton cheaper than crashing in dive motels.

There was a lot that we had to plan well in advance. What all we needed to take, what we needed to get, and also anything we may be needing that we were not even thinking about. We knew it would be much easier to take everything from the get go than to have to stop and search for items in an unknown area.

For Dan, he was pretty simple. We needed at least 100 pounds of food, and we decided to pack 150 pounds to err on the side of caution. Even 100 pounds would have been more than enough, but he was now eating a brand that was not easy to find in stores. I didn’t want to chance having to find a dealer, on short notice. I also complied a first-aid kit specifically for Dan that bordered in size to a portable field hospital. Gauze, bandages, horse wrap, towels, peroxide, blood clot powder, scissors, tweezers, Q-tips, Neosporin, Antibiotics, aspirin, electrolyte powder, etc. Then it was a couple leads, his neoprene vest, dog boots, and his over sized pillow/dog bed he used when not at home.

Guns & Ammo. The guns were already acquired. I would be taking three on this trip. First was the old reliable Winchester 101. Next was the nimble Beretta 686 Onyx. And lastly, the tried an true workhorse 870 Express Mag. All were 12ga, so that would keep ammo more simplified. This trip had been planned for quite some time. So, I had started acquiring ammo early on. I always started the season with a couple flats of ammo, but this was different. We were going to be hunting in quite different areas with different weather, different terrain, and certainly different birds. I picked up two flats of standard high velocity 1 1/4oz #6. I also picked up a couple cases of the same load, but these were 1 1/4oz #4. I also picked up a flat of what I lovingly referred to as the “roman candle”. These were 1 5/8oz of #4. You KNEW when you pulled the trigger on one of those. They had a nasty bite, but they were the only shells I had ever used that could reliably anchor a late season wild rooster at 50 yards. I also picked up a flat of 1 1/4oz Steel #3 as there was a possibility we may hunt on land that required no-tox shot. This was the time that some areas were going to no-tox as a requirement for upland hunting. I wasn’t positive we would be in an areal that required it, but better to be safe than sorry.

For other items, it was clothes, and bedding of course. We also were taking a small freezer. The thought of changing out ice every day in several coolers was not sounding good. So my dad came up with this idea. He told us to freeze several milk jugs filled with water. Put those in the freezer. Then, using a generator, we would plug the freezer in for a couple hours each night. The jugs of ice would keep the temperature quite cold in there until the next night as long as well kept it closed up. We loaded the freezer into the trailer first, and strapped it down so it wouldn’t budge. We placed it in the rear of the trailer, so it was easy to get access to through the back doors. We put our cots, clothes, etc. up in the nose of the trailer as there was a side access door. We also made sure we had plenty of the little LP cylinders. We figured, on the safe side, we would need 18 cylinders. We packed 24, just in case. We also packed along a Coleman stove, and a small charcoal grill, as well as fuel for the stove, and a couple bags of charcoal. I also packed in a couple books and a few magazines.

Things were progressing nicely as our departure date approached. Dan was looking better in the field than he ever had. As he was getting older, his abilities kept growing. Most of it was just him. So much of it was things that I never could have taught him. In fact I would say, without a doubt, he made me a better hunter than I made him. As the days counted down, we both were getting excited. The only thing we HAD to get on location was our hunting licenses. Time was getting short now, we would be heading out on our greatest adventure yet in just 24 hours.

[JD]

Part 15

South Dakota

We left for South Dakota on Thursday. I had picked Mike up at 5:00am sharp. We had ten hours of driving ahead of us, just shy of 700 miles. This would be our longest leg of the trip, as least it was at the start of our trip and not the last.

Dan had the whole backseat of the truck to himself, and always traveled well. He slept a lot, but would also spend time looking out the window or chewing on a rawhide. We stopped every two and half hours to let Dan out to stretch and potty. We would stop at rest areas, and first thing he had to do was mark this new territory as his own. With that finished, we would take turns throwing the retrieving dummy for him. This was a quick and easy way for him to burn off some energy. Dan was used to running, almost nonstop, all day long every day. As long as we stopped and burned off some energy, I was a champ on road trips.

We pulled into the farm drive just before 7:00pm that night. The extra stops added to the trip time, but we knew it would. The farm belonged to an uncle (John) of a friend we went to high school with. He had been in our town visiting family the previous Christmas and had invited Mike and I out to hunt whenever we wanted. That is what had been the first start of this adventure. Nebraska and Kansas were added later, when we were also invited to hunt the properties belonging to the same family.

Friday was spent helping out around the farm. It was not required, but we offered and our host gladly accepted. Mike and I cleaned out a grain bin, moved some round bales, and we even got his old Massey-Harris tractor running. Later that afternoon, John took us around and showed us the fields we would be hunting the next day. In total, we had right at 150 acres to hunt all to ourselves. Other hunters would come in starting the next week, but opening weekend was ours. The cover was similar to what we used to hunting, although it was quite a bit thicker. John showed us where he wanted us to park at each area, and showed us the property lines on all fields. Crossing over onto someone elses private property could get ugly. Pheasant hunting in South Dakota is not taken lightly. We headed over to a small grocery store and Mike and I got our non-resident hunting permits. After we got back to the far\m, we spent a while playing fetch with Dan.

Saturday morning we were up early with anticipation. In South Dakota, the opening of the season starts at Noon. We spent the time eating breakfast with John and his wife, and then helped her clean up and do dishes. John told us over breakfast that he had been having trouble with his grain auger. So afterwards, Mike and I went out and changed the u-joint on the PTO yoke. Helping is the right thing to do, especially for free hunting, but it was also something to occupy our time. We went back up to the house when we were done and washed up and had a bite to eat for lunch. We were back out the door at 11:30, heading to the first field.

After seeing the cover we would be hunting, it was apparent we would not get many long shots. The grass was just too tall. So I loaded up with the standard 1 1/4oz of #6. I was carrying the Beretta today, and had installed an Improved Cylinder and a Light Modified choke tubes. We got our vests and hats on, loaded the shotguns, and were waiting on the edge of the field with 5 minutes to spare.

The three of us stood there and gazed out at all the brilliant colors of fall. Dan stood between us, head held high and tail flagging. Within a moment, it was clear that Dan was ready to go and was not appreciative of being hooked onto the lead. He did not know, nor did he care, of any laws. He was here to work, not stand around all day. I reached down and rubbed his head, and he quickly settled down. The silence ended with the alarm on my watch going off. Hit the button twice, and I unhooked Dan from the lead and told him to “get to work”. With two quick swishes of his tail, he was off.

Dan took off right into that thick cover. I had been wondering what he would do. We had hunted some thick/tall cover in the past, but not much. Most of the cover we hunted was waist deep, and Dan could still look over it. This grass was mostly taller than us at 6’. It didn’t seem to bother Dan, but it did bother us. We had a hard time of keeping track of him. Dan never worked very far in front of you, but we couldn’t see WHAT he was doing. Very fast, we learned to listen. As soon as he started getting birdy, you could hear his tail hitting the grass at a different pace. You could also tell he was moving more slowly through the grass. Before you knew it, he had quit moving. He was on point. We eased in, and almost the instant I saw Dan the beating of wings slapping grass broke the near silence. Within an instant the cackle came out on the crisp October air. It sounded magnificent, too bad I couldn’t freaking see the bird! I jumped a little when the Fox model B barked not more than 10 feet away. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t experienced before, I just wasn’t expecting a shot. Mike made a solid hit, and the big rooster crashed back down into the thick cover. Dan took off like a shot, in search of the efforts for his hard work. We knew it would take him a few minutes, so Mike and I cut across the field and got out of the tall stuff. Within five minutes Dan was back with his prized possession, and took it straight over to Mike. I don’t know how he knew Mike shot that bird, but my best guess is he knew the sound of Mike’s gun. I simply never had an explanation for it, and it happened more than once. The rooster was an absolute beauty. It was also bigger than our late season roosters. Mike and I joked that come late winter, these monsters probably couldn’t fly at all.

We decided, since the grass was taller than we thought, we would hunt along a narrow strip next wedged between the tall grass and a small creek. I’m sure there were a lot more pheasants in the grass, but it would be tough at best. We started walking, and Dan immediately started cutting back and forth across the much thinner cover. We hadn’t even gone 30 yards when he locked up fast and hard. It was a pretty good size patch of grass, it definitely looked like it could hold a bird. We slowly walked up to Dan as I continually told him “whoa”. We got up right behind him, and nothing. So I start thumping the ground and grass with my boot, and there is an absolute explosion of birds. The sound of three roosters and two hens smashing wings and cackling was incredible. A rooster and a hen broke hard right. The rooster was trailing the hen, and was easily picked off my Mike and his trusty Fox no more than 25 yards out. The other hen and two roosters were angling up, but straight away. It took me by surprise, I figured they would try to get over cover. The Onyx sprang into action and barked twice. Both roosters hit the ground dead, and the hen accelerated off with rocket like speed. Dan fetched up the birds, and we continued on. We finished that strip almost an hour later. We flushed 8 more birds, unfortunately they were all hens.

We went back to the truck and got Dan some water. Then we headed over to another field. This patch was more to what we were accustomed to. We got our gear out, and were back hunting in no time at all. Within a matter of minutes Dan was hot on a trail. We could tell this was a runner by the way he was working. Finally the bird ran out of cover, he would either have to hide or take to flight. Dan never did hit point, but the bird decided flying was a better option. Dan was twenty yards or so in front of us, and by the time we got our guns up was pushing 40 yards. Mike and I both fired almost instantaneously, twice. One of us managed to hit the rooster on the second volley, and he came down into the grass. It wasn’t a hard fall, so we knew he was running. We quickly reloaded, this time dropping 4’s in the second barrel, and hotfooted it up to where he went down. By the time we got up there, Dan was already working the cover, trying to find the rooster. Dan came running out of the cover onto the mowed edge. I quickly whoa’ed him, and got him to stop. The rooster was running at an impossible speed down the mown path. Mike stepped to the side and fired his full choke barrel just as the rooster got in the air, no more than a foot. The old rooster was down for good this time.

As Dan brought back rooster number 5, he started getting birdy. I took the bird from him, and he was right back in the cover. He covered maybe 10 yards and locked up solid. His point was something that was beautiful. That tail flagging high being the most impressive. As we closed in, the grass erupted with pheasants. There had to be ten hens, and three roosters. I quickly snapped the shotgun up and got a lead on the last one. The Onyx barked, and once again it did its job. One hour and forty minutes into opening day and we were limited out.

This had been an outstanding hunt, and we had five more days here. We went back to the farm and cleaned/packaged our birds. John had allowed us to hook up the freezer while we were there, so we didn’t have to fire up the generator. We gave four of those first birds to John and his wife as a show of gratitude. That night she cooked us pheasant pot pie with those birds. It was out of this world.

As we settled down for the night, we couldn’t help but wonder what tomorrow would bring. Dan snored loudly, but he earned it.

[deerslayer]

This is crazy JD, I hadnt been on the site in a while, but the other day I was here and the first thing I did was look to see if you had updated any stories. As well written as they are I know it takes you time, but they are very enjoyable to read, and I can see Ol' Dan pointing and fetching very clearly in my mind! Keep it up bud!

[passinthru]

As always a great read! Hope ya find time to keep it going.