American Pointing Lab Association Hunting

Hunting Grouse with your PL

Paco — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:54:50 GMT

Can't believe I've never asked about this before.

Does anyone hunt the Ruffed Grouse in the north woods of MN.,WI.,.MI.,PA.,NY.,ME.,etc.with your pointing lab?

And how do you do......?

Hunting in South Dakotas Fort Pierre National Grasslands

team sky — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:26:04 GMT

Is anyone familiar with this area? Has anyone ever hunted there? Let me set the scenario for you: We are looking at heading out to South Dakota this Fall to hunt wild birds and we are looking at going to the Fort Pierre National Grasslands to hunt. Driving from Michigan we are kind of taking a so called leap of faith by driving x amount of hours to no where South Dakota. That could entail a lot of money in Gas and other expenses. I have two very well seasoned and conditioned PL's that I will be taking with me along with a older Britt. So I have the bases covered with good dogs. My question to everyone is the population of birds in the Fort Pierre area high enough for us to get more than 1-2 flushes a day? I am not necessarily looking for pheasant. I wouldn't mind finding a few of the other wild birds out there in South Dakota. Any information you can provide me will be greatly appreciated. We are trying to make sure that we can at least see a couple birds during our trip wether they be pheasants, grouse or quail. Thanks, Brian

Openning day!! WAHOO!

Huntin_Fool01 — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:05:50 GMT

Goose season opens this Saturday!! The state finally realized that we have way to many Canada Honkers. The states goal is to drop the state population by 35-40%. Should be a great time!

Pointing Lab ????

Pike — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:23:46 GMT

I adopted my 10 week old lab pup on Feb 1st from a rescue which got him from an amish puppy mill when he was 10 weeks old to train him to hunt antlers. (which he picked up very fast) While our first shed hunting trip to my property in OH. when he was 14 weeks old, during our hunt he started pointing every time he came across one of our many grouse and woodcocks. Which shocked me but was also an un wanted distraction.
Once his shed hunting training was pretty much completed I started training him to hunt upland birds since he had already shown a natural ability to locate birds and stay on point on his own at such very young age. But im currently involed in a debate on another hunting forum about pointing labs, others on that forum are trying to tell me that labs dont point!! And my lab is not pointing!! Another member is trying to tell me that the only way to have a pointing lab is to train him to point instead of to flush because there is no such thing as a lab that points instinctively. Thanks for any input. Pike

pointing lab nose?

sproulman — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:53:17 GMT

being i hunted grouse for 46 yrs here in pa. very hard hunting and very wild birds.
unless a POINTING LAB can use it nose like other pointing bird dogs to catch scent,i really cant see it working here in pa.
i have been watching the videos and most of time when PL finds bird its CLOSE.

that will not work here.lab has got to be able to hold and scent bird 20 yds away. THAT WOULD BE SOMETHING AND WOULD BE GREAT.
i was out with a lewellen setter that did that and we got many grouse.
hunting pheasants in fields it is not important to have dog that can be 20 yds away locked up pointing,most of pheasants will hold,some run too.

having dog that points and does it from 20 yds out and if a PL can do that, THAT IS SOMETHING TO SEE.......

Speaking of Grouse (sizes)

Doc_E — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 02:57:43 GMT

In another thread, I mentioned a "Hat Trick" (one Ruff, one Franklin & one Blue) in a 45 minute hunt. Here in WA, our Ruffs go from 1 to 1.5 lbs. The Franklins are around 2 lbs and Blues will go 3+ lbs.
Here are some pics
Pic 1 : Hat Trick Birds
Pic 2 : Hat Trick Breasts
Pic 3 : The breast of one of the nicest Blues I ever shot

.

RUFFED GROUSE

JBUCHANAN24 — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 06:01:45 GMT

Does anybody hunt ruffed grouse with their lab? I live in western NC, and I am looking into a bird dog. No one around here uses labs, but a pointing lab would be my first choice if it might work out.

The Old Grouse Article

Doc_E — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:40:59 GMT

Hunting Grouse with a Pointing Labrador by Dwight Erickson (Doc E) Grouse ! Grouse season is the first of the many hunting seasons that we have here in the Pacific Northwest. In Washington state, our Grouse season opens on September 1 and continues until the end of the year. In our area, we have three species of Grouse, which include Ruffed, Franklin (or Spruce) and the big ones, the Blue Grouse. Most Grouse hunters prefer to use traditional Grouse dogs ( Setters), for this "gentleman's sport". The reason that Grouse hunting is called a Gentleman's Sport is because you don't have to get up and start hunting before sunrise. Grouse are most active between two hours after sunrise until sunset. Numerous people do not think that a Pointing Labrador can do an adequate job as a Grouse Dog, but from my experience of hunting Grouse for over 20 years, over many different breeds of dogs, I can tell you that the PL is a top-notch Grouse dog that rivals any of the traditional Grouse Breeds. Here in the Pacific Northwest, Grouse are primarily found in the mountain forests, which are thickly covered with many different kinds of Pine Trees, with frequent patches of Aspen and Birch, with Willows that grow in the wetter areas. In the winter, Grouse burrow under the snow and come out in the daytime for a meal of "buds" from the trees. During the late summer and early fall, the Ruffed and Blue Grouse feed on the many different kinds of berries that we have here in addition to rose hips, and are often found along jeep trails or logging roads in order to get their grit. The Spruce Grouse are more like Pheasants, in that their late summer diet is composed mostly of seeds and pine nuts. Conditioning of a good grouse dog begins in the Springtime, because the dog is going to run and hunt for many miles each time you go out. I "road" my PL, Casey, for a minimum of 12 miles two or three times a week from March through August. I drive behind him on logging roads as he runs and quarters along the road. By the time grouse season opens, he will run and hunt at a speed of 8 to 12 miles an hour for 4 to 5 miles at a time before he needs a 10 minute break, and he can hunt like this for 4 or 5 hours a day, three or four days a week. It is often quite warm in the daytime here during September, so in order to keep Casey cooled down, I take a "Garden Sprayer" along which is filled with water. Anytime that Casey needs to take a break or cool off, I spray his whole body down with cool water from the sprayer. It is also important to bring along plenty of drinking water for both your dog as well as yourself. Because it's likely that other hunters will be out and about, I also like to have Casey wear a "hunter orange" vest to reduce the likelyhood of him being accidentally shot. Another item that I especially like to have Casey wear is a bell on his collar. There are many times that he will be out quartering through the woods, and the bell helps me identify where he is and the area that he is hunting. When the bell stops ringing, I know that he is on point and that I should find him and get ready to shoot. Grouse like "edges".....Edges of timber that has been logged, edges of grasslands at the edge of forest land, edges of roads.... Grouse just plain like edges. We (my son and I. or my wife and I, or all three of us) will hunt grouse areas on foot and then as we drive from one grouse area to the next, Casey will run down the road in front of us hunting the edges of the road, and quarter back into the trees and shrubs along the sides of the road. "Road Hunters" and "ground slucers" or "tree slucers" are highly frowned upon here, but our road hunting is entirely different than that. As Casey quarters the road, and picks up on the scent of a grouse, he will go on point. He will hold that point long enough for us to get out of the rig, load up, and walk to where he is pointing. Whether the hunter makes the flush or whether Casey is allowed to make the flush depends on the terrain and on the amount of cover that the grouse is as well as what kind of cover the grouse is going to be flying through. The vegetation is often so thick that a human would be unable to both flush and be in a good position to be able to shoot, so the flush is often Casey's job. The distance that a Pointing Lab will go on point usually depends upon the air conditions at the time. Grouse are usually very spooky birds, and will flush if crowded. It is usually hot and dry here during the first two or three weeks of Grouse season and we have very little wind, so a dog needs a good nose to find the Grouse and point from a distance that won't cause the grouse to flush. Giving your dog a drink of water just prior to him using his nose is always a good idea. About the closest that a dog can get to a Grouse, without causing it to flush is about 10 yards if the bird is in heavy cover. If the Grouse is out in the open, the point will need to be farther. When Grouse flush, they will usually fly in a zig zag pattern between the trees and disappear, but sometimes they will just fly to a nearby tree, light on a limb and freeze in position (which makes them become virtually invisible). Frequently, when a Grouse is along the edge of a logging road, instead of flying, they will just run a few feet back into the vegetation and when this happens, it's usually best to wait five minutes or so to let a scent cone form before you have your dog locate it for you. You just never can be sure what a Grouse is going to do or how it is going to react to a particular situation, and this is one of the things that makes Grouse hunting so enjoyable. One favorite trick that grouse use is to become totally motionless. This will make them look like a rock or a piece of broken tree limb. I have had other Grouse hunters tell me that they thought they were "ground sluicing" a grouse, only to find out that what they really killed was a rock or a limb. Sometimes a person will pass up what looks like a rock or tree limb, only to realize (too late) that it was actually a Grouse. They can be experts of camoflage and deception. Oftentimes, more than one bird is shot at a time, the dog must be able to be handled on blind retrieves. Because of the thick vegetation, many of the grouse that are shot will fall in areas where they can't be seen, or if they are only winged, they will run, so a dog that can trail the scent of a wounded running bird is a must. Sometimes a wounded grouse will land in a tree, so the dog must quarter and be patient enough to allow the scent to drift down from the tree so he can "air scent" in addition to being able to follow "ground scent". We experienced a good example of this last season, when we were foot hunting. Casey went on point, and I flushed and shot the Ruffed Grouse that he was pointing. As I shot the Ruffed, which fell in the open at about 40 yards, two big Blues also went up. I shot one which went down dead, back in very thick forest and shrubs, which was up an extremely steep mountainside. I shot the third grouse which although hit, lit in a tree about 60 yards out, also up the same steep mountain side. Casey marked the fall of the first bird down and also saw the general area of the fall of the second bird. However he didn't see that the third bird had lit in a tree. I sent him for the close bird retrieve first, then he was sent for the second bird down. Both of these birds were retrieved to hand in the proper Labrador Retriever fashion. When I looked back at the tree where the third bird had lit, it was no longer on the limb -- it had flown down out of the tree and had started running. To get this bird, it took a combination of "blind retrieve" signals followed by "trailing a scent". I sent Casey to the area of the tree as though he was on a blind retrieve, and when he got to the area, I gave him a "find the bird" command. He quartered around the tree and picked up on the scent of the running grouse and trailed it nearly 80 yards back into the forest. The vegetation was so thick that I couldn't see him the majority of the time, but I could hear the bell on his collar. Soon, the bell stopped ringing for a couple seconds, then the bell started ringing again, and the sound of the bell came closer. A few seconds later Casey appeared from the woods with another beautiful Blue Grouse. A Grouse Hunter couldn't have asked for anything better. A great dog finding and pointing, three birds up, three birds down, one easy retrieve, one difficult retrieve and one blind retrieve that required trailing. Does a Pointing Labrador make a good Grouse dog? Yes - in fact they make a great Grouse dog, and are definitely as good or better than any traditional Grouse Dog that I have ever hunted over.

FIRST TURKEY

DocFritz — Wed, 05 May 2010 23:30:37 GMT

Ok, until last year I had never turkey hunted, figured I had only so many days of hunting before the wife said something and was gonna save them for duck and pheasent hunting. Well A fried took me the last morning last year, and we had a nice bird strut in front of us for over an hour and I decided maybe I would give it a try this year.....

Had been out 8-10 times but until this morning this guy had always out foxed me, or got plain lucky a time or two.....

10. 25 inch beard, 7/8 one spur, one inch the other, weighed slightly less then 23 pounds. He feels pretty hollow, I would be willin gto bet he has lost a few pounds in the past week from chasing hens. I know he lost several pounds between carrying him out of the field and getting him on a scale ;-)

I had a good idea where he would be roosting with the way the wind was, walked into the field about 4:45 headed to a ground blind I had made out of brush and weeds about twoo weeks ago during the second season about 70 yards from the corner I thought he was in. Was putting my decoy out about 80 yards away from the ground blind thinking that if he came off the roost and went to her, I would have a shot, if he was acting decoy wise like he had the last week, it would not be close enough to scare him off. So any way I was walking the last 40-50 yards to where I thought I was goin gto sit and he gobbled at me CLOSE. It is still pitch black so I hunker down next to a 3 foot cedar tree figuring I will figure out what tree he is in and make a game plan. For 30-40 minutes he is gobbling about once every 30-45 seconds, occasionally taking a break for maybe five minutes but starting up again. I wait until it sounds like he is facing the other way and belly crawl about ten yards to a bank and another small tree where I can sit a little better. By this time it is getting a little more light out, so I am tryin gto find him in the tree without moving. Suddenly I hear CLUCK CLUCK basically straight above me. I am afraid to move so I freeze, turns out there was a hen in the large tree next to me. I was in a good position to tolerate sitting perfectly still so I sat like that for however long it was, Gobbler still going about every 30 seconds, now with a hen clucking above me..... At about 5:50 she drops down about thirty yards out, 30 or forty seconds later he drops out. I was ALMOST sure it was him, but he was facing away, and though legal shooting time, not real bright yet. I figure I will let him strut once to be sure, but he starts wlaking away! I had a mouth call in, to this point I had made NO SOUND.... So I yelped one time to make him look, he pooped his head around and I saw the beard swing and pulled the trigger. He had been on the ground less then thirty seconds, I had been with in 40 yards for right at an hour!!!!

April = Hunt tests & Turkey hunting

Dog&Doug — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 11:32:51 GMT

IL hunt test last weekend, MO hunt test next weekend......turkey hunting this weekend!!

24#, 10.5 inch beard, .75 inch spurs, done at 6:17 am.

Pointing Video

hooligan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:06:37 GMT

I've hunted with this dog-he's the real deal! GO MACK!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhP5yw_uDMQ

Sorry-you'll have to cut and paste the link unless someone can fix it-I don't know how to make a clickable link...

Snow Geese Pictures - Finally Worked

PrairiePointLabs — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:15:15 GMT

Went up to the Northeast South Dakota area this past weekend snow goose hunting. There were literally millions of birds in the area, but they would not decoy at all. We tried several different fields and all types of setups but just could not get anything to commit. It was very frustrating to have birds everywhere you looked but nothing that would come within gun range. Still amazing to see all the birds around. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Spring Snows

Jackson — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:48:38 GMT

Any info as to how the spring migration is shaping up would be greatly appreciated.

Son's First Bird!

Mountain G — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:44:18 GMT

I took my 9 yo son on a hunt today at the pheasant farm where I used to guide. I guided for him and he carried his single shot 410. He shot his first chukar and pheasant today. I was so proud of him.

We warmed up on some trap before the hunt. A couple of guys were hanging out waiting. I asked if they wanted to jump in and they said they'd just pick up the clays that my son missed. My son then proceeded to blast the next 12 clays in a row! Another proud moment...

4 Limits in 4 Hours & 20 Minutes

Doc_E — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 08:51:58 GMT

Thanks to the nasty weather in Alberta, the waterfowl have been thick here the last two weekends. It's been really cold here too, but our pond is fed by a warm water spring, so it never freezes and becomes a bird magnet.

We went to "camp" Friday evenning. When we got up Saturday morning to go to the blinds, the pond was loaded with 200 to 300 Ducks and 16 Geese.

We "walked them off" and got settled in the blinds. We will only shoot at flocks of 15 birds or less in order to not educate any more than we have to.
When larger flocks would come in, we'd just watch them for awhile and then make some noise to flush them off.

PIC 1 : So, on Saturday (12/12) we had two limits (14 birds) in 1 hour : 50 minutes. The air temp for the first retrieves was +12* F.
We went home, took this pic and cleaned birds and had lunch.

PIC 2 : When we got back to camp, here is what the pond looked like.

Pic 3 : Today (12/13) it took us 2 hours : 30 minutes to limit out. The air temp for the first retrieves was +7* F.
We came home, cleaned birds and are kicking back and letting the dogs rest.

Thors first 3 hunts

rugerred — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:11:40 GMT

http://s750.photobucket.com/albums/...rd%20hunt/

Dunn Creek Pheasant Hunt

Saggaswild — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:22:09 GMT

Another site I belong to set up a Pheasant hunt at Dunn Creek in Michigan on Monday so I decided to go. I was a nervous wreck because I knew that ZZ would get a lot of new things thrown at her that she had not seen before. But I was excited about getting to hunt her anyway. After the training day we had a few days earlier I thought she might be a handful but she handled herself like she had done it a million times before.

While I was getting her ready from the truck I had whoaed her near me and a few of the dogs and owners came up to see her and she just stood there and waited for me finish up what I was doing. Her heel still needs to be better but on this day she held it all together.

Once we got to the field I released her and she blew through the field like she had been there a hundred times before. In this field she ran with a young german shorthair, two weimeraners one of which was only 9 months old. The first half of the day she kept up with all of them. She even got one pheasant point. Which I did not get to see. Darn it.

All day long I worked with her on backing the other dogs and I could not have ask any more from her. Yes she did break at the flush a few times but was happy with it all the same. At one point the German Shorthair was pointing with the two Weimeraners were backing and ZZ backing behind them. Just as I was about to pull out the camera the rooster flushed so I did not get the photo. But the memory will be priceless.

I did have to chuckle at one of the guys in the group. He leaned over to me and said hey your girl is out there pretty far. I just laughed and said I know she will work her way back, she always does and she did. On this day the pheasants burrowed pretty deep in the snow and grass. This was her first time running in this type of cover. After she finished the field she headed for the edges and into the woods. I don't think I could have grinned any bigger if I had tried.

ZZ is now only 8 months old. She the most mellow, exciting, fun dog I have ever owned. When she runs she looks like she is smiling. Happy to be out there working, searching for birds. I can't wait until our next exciting adventure.

Colorado state Pheasant Championship!

Lance — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:32:15 GMT

Colorado State Pheasant Championship

Bird dog tournament February 13^th and 14^th

Location: Whiskey Springs Ranch (970) 520-4788

47900 County Rd 70- Crook Colorado 80726

Divisions:

Open flushing and Pointing:- 2 hunters 1 dog with a 5 bird set and a 20 minute time limit. ($165.00 per entry)

Top gun: 1 hunter, 1 dog, 4 bird plant, 15 minute time limit. ($150.00 per entry)

Puppy: 2 hunters, 1 dog (must be 24 months of age as of 1-1-2010) 5 bird set and 20 minute time limit ($165.00 per entry)

Each Each dog may enter each open event a maximum of 2 times with a handler- Partner Substitution- all other divisions 1 entry per dog.

Contestants can only enter top gun division a maximum of 3 times with different dogs.

Prize money: 35% of entries paid 3 places for all events.

Trophies: Top 3 in each event

Rules: NBDCA Rules apply

ENTRY DEADLINE: Monday February 10, 2010

Conta Contact for entries: Lance MacLennan (303) 895-9335 Lambjock@aol.com

Blake Wilson (307) 421-9996 Eldiablogundogs@rocketmail.com

The way to start the year

2Blackdogs! — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:53:58 GMT

About 17'F with 20mph winds and somthing in the air that was white and stinged the face- Perfect!

(The Ol' dog still gets to hold' for the pics)

anyone hunted around dodge city kansas

tuckerminden — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:31:05 GMT

has anyone hunted around dodge this year and if so how are the birds