I have, however, taken the dogs out a couple times in the last week.
Finn is just 4 1/2 months old, so other than pigeons he's not been into any upland birds. I took him with Cash and I last week looking for roosters. We heard plenty of birds on neighboring properties that were off limits. Cash had one solid point after trailing a rooster for a 100 yards, but I blew an off balance shot when the rooster wouldn't flush until I went into the willow choked ditch. That really hurts when all involved work that hard for one opportunity.
Finn did well considering his age and how thick the weeds were. He hunted some, he chased Cash some, and he was under my feet some. He also found every bur that grows in Montana then curled up to dream the rest of the afternoon.
I think Cash checked in to ask why I brought Finn.
One tired pup.
Last Saturday my wife and I took Cash and Kassie out to look for any of the three, roosters, huns, or sharpies, that would give us an opportunity. While most of the country we hunted wasn't pheasant country, I could have had a trifecta. We cornered one rooster in a small patch of cover, but he flushed on the opposite side of some willows immediately after Cash pointed. I had one good opportunity at a sharpie and made a nice right to left shot. Kassie was on the bird immediately. I had a couple more shots at sharpies on the outside edge of shooting range but failed to connect. I think there was a dozen or so scattered out in the grass.
We found one covey of Hungarian partridge that were scattered on a ridge top in the grass but we hit them with the wind at our back and had a, single, then a double, followed by five birds that flushed wild ahead of the dogs. The first single was close enough, but it stayed too low to shoot above Kassie. The dogs finally tracked down a single. Kassie was trailing a bird on my right and Cash on my left. At the same time a hen pheasant flushed ahead of Kassie, Cash locked up to the left and was convinced there was another. I was thinking he was smelling the hen or maybe had another hen, but it was a single Hun that I suppose had been running ahead.
Big Sky Country
Cash
Kassie
We didn't carry home as many birds as I'd have liked, but still spent some good days in the field.
