a hunt'n we will go..part one

[Daniel in Ak]

Seems some of the boys in the military had Friday off so why not go hunt'n right? Come along for another weekend fun with me.First off we started bird hunting Friday morning and saw absolutly nothing for miles.Kind of hard to find these birds this time of year since Im not use to hunting this late in the season,but I dont give up easily and BAM! I spotted one...

I invited two other guys with me on this hunt as they also are leaving for Iraq soon,and Earl brought along his Chocolate lab pup who claimed my prize So ya'll meet Gunner.
And a few miles down the road I had that feeling and made my partner stop while I looked out over an area.After two minutes of standing there I guess this ruffy got nervous,and so here he is with his first bird...

One of the fellas had to be back that afternoon,and so we met up an hour later to hunt close to home.And Jeremy managed to bag his first Snowshoe hare...Here he is post holing himself knee deep in snow looking for it.

And the happy hunter.

Now Saturday morning I decided to take them to a different area.The same area where last week my other bud got his sharptail.
Here are the quads atop the first hill.Took this picture while two of the boys walked out a trail..

After this it was like hunting with Ed,Edd and Eddy.Here's eddy number one....
Eddy number two...

And eddy number three helping out number one and two get number ones quad winched out.

More to follow...

[Daniel in Ak]

after all the that we (they) decided they'd better follow me from now on and bird hunt'n we will go...
Ran down a ridge and of course eddy did not stop where I did and went to far and of course spooked a sharptail up,which flew down the ridge and jumped two more up argh..Well I manged to find two others and let eddy shot his first sharpie..

and off to the next spot where Ed decided to run up a hill I wanted to walk up and not spook any birds....so ed was gone when we got there but edd and eddy would follow me...And of course we lost ed's bud eddy so edd and I went back to the quads,while I told ed to find eddy and run down there along the brush and see If he could flush some Ptarmigans..
And of course ed and eddy found to coveys and ed screwed it all up and went to blazing away...Anyhow they both manged to bag there first Ptarmigans ever,which I thought was cool,Im happy for them.

But just before that I told ed and eddy to come over here for a photo where idiot uh! eddy busted his heehee and no his not hugging his birds lol.

All there birds.

Ed and Eddy the "big game hunters"...

Such a good day to see them boys get there first birds...but a good day can turn bad...On the way home a dog ran under Eddy's trailer and well he manged to loose his quad off the trailer..

Here's Ed calling the wives to let them know why they are now three hours late at getting home,when the truth is they was hunt'n,so I guess the accident saved thier marriages

Notice that Ed is wearing my gloves because his feet where cold...cause his socks and boots where soaked.Whata pal I am.

Well thats my weekend in a nut shell.Happy Easter everyone

[Kanibal]

Ha ha ha that is hilarious you guys need to hire a film crew.  You have a lot of different types of upland birds there.  Ptarmigan, sharptail and ruffed grouse?  Do you have any Spruce or Blue grouse?  Everyone has local knicknames for the different types of grouse so its confusing to know whats what but I listed their bird book names.  We have ruffed, spruce and blues in the Cascades, Rockies and Olympic Mountains and some species of ptarmigan in the alpine country and in the grasslands we have pheasant, sharp tail grouse, sage grouse, california quail, chukar, bobwhites and hungarian partridge.  Plenty of birds around here, but the season for most of the birds is September 1st to December 31st, so no hunting for me right now.  Im getting my bow ready for carp season which is usually good April-July (spawning season).  Love the bird pics Daniel keep them coming.  Do they have birds like yours around Tok?  I may be making a caribou trip up there this August.  

[Jay Edward (deceased)]

Great story and really neat pictures of your hunt.  I suppose whoever came behind figured that one of you guys decided to walk around on his hands.

I'm trying to get a shotgun ready for this year's bird hunting but I've got a lot of projects pressing in on me.  Well, we'll see.

Any way...thanks for sharing your hunt.

[Daniel in Ak]

Thanks Kanibal.To answer your question yes we have alot of spruce here also.I usually shoot them witht he camera tho,as they dont taste that great.As for our season it goes from Aug 10th to March 30th,so it's winding down now.BUt I have seen more sharptails in my last two hunts then I have in the past three seasons here.You dont see them often,and I actually seen five this past weekend.
 
As for your caribou hunt near Tok,thats where I'll be also.Maybe the last week of Aug first week of Sep.I usually do the last week of Aug.I mostly have seen spruce in that area,but I have shot some ruffies just past Chicken.Also I have seen Ptarmigan up there and they will be in a mixed molt phase,they will have brown bodies and white wings.
 
Jay..Thanks alot bud you made me laugh with that walking on his hands hahhahah! Never thought about it,but I wonder what the Trooper thought when he saw our disfunktional band of mis fits oh boy!