projectupland.com On The Go

Upland hunters across the nation have found the silver lining within the chaos of COVID-19. We recognize that more than any other year, we have enough time to be able to raise and finish our dream upland dog. For many now working from home, it is an amazing opportunity to have your dog at-the-ready, all day long, just begging to be educated. It has inspired many of us to get out there every day and to mold our pup into the finest hunting machine. 

Of course, this is just a temporary circumstance; eventually we will have to answer the call and return to the workplace. For those who haven’t properly prepared for this change, don’t be surprised to come home and discover that your rebellious companion has destroyed its crate and chewed through four different pairs of your shoes while you were away. Worse, you may return to a panicked and shaking dog that didn’t know if you would ever return—a true sign of separation anxiety and not a behavioral problem. Was there something you missed or hadn’t prepared for? Absolutely. 

Squirrel hunting—real squirrel hunting where you pursue wary game in the wild—will make you a better hunter. Every year as squirrel seasons open across the country, you will see a flurry of articles about that fact, but they rarely delve deeper, usually because they’re not written by squirrel hunters. It's a myth that squirrel hunting is only good for practice for other kinds of hunting. Squirrel hunting, in and of itself, is a worthwhile pursuit for any hunter.

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Sometimes the biologist and naturalist sides of my brain collide with the bird hunter side. That alphabet soup of brain waves used to annoy me until I decided to use it to my advantage. I’ve found that being able to think like a game bird enables me to enjoy a more fulfilling hunting experience.

Perhaps some definitions are in order, from Merriam-Webster’s dictionary:

• Biologist: A person who studies the science of the plant and animal life of a region or environment.
• Naturalist: A student of natural history.
• Natural History: The study of natural objects, especially in the field, from an amateur point of view.

After recently flushing a covey of bobwhites, I took a few minutes to assess the situation with both a biologist’s eye and a naturalist’s observations. I began to dissect why that covey of bobwhites was found in that particular spot on that day and time.

Both new bird hunters and veterans may benefit from applying a little natural history and biology on their next bird hunt. Here are a few tips.

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It’s the middle of winter. Hunting seasons have come and gone, the holidays and election cycles are behind us, and we’re left looking forward to warmer days, longer light, and turkeys. With ample time to organize vests, decoys, calls, and your collection of the coolest retro camo that money can buy, there is one more chore that needs attention: patterning that new shotgun or choke that Santa brought. This is especially important with the ammo shortages we’re experiencing this year, since you may be using a gun/choke/shell combination that you haven’t used before.

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Springtime sooty grouse hunting in southeast Alaska is nothing like traditional grouse hunting. It takes place in the spring months, there may be no deciduous trees for miles, and “fields” only occur below the tideline or above the timberline. Shotguns are usually left at home and the only thing at the ready is either bear spray or a .44 magnum. Both hands are needed for climbing or to gingerly hold devil's club away from your tender bits. Vests are replaced with backpacks. Hunting with a dog does not increase your success rate. If the woods are silent, then there are no grouse close by, or at least none that you will find. Its very weirdness is what makes this hunt amazing.

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One of the most important roles we take on as gun dog owners is that of field veterinarian. Sooner or later, your dog will get hurt and rely on you to stabilize them long enough to reach the vet clinic, which could be hours away. Ready-made canine first aid kits have come a long way in recent years. They are a great foundation for your own personal kit, but since they are a one-size-fits-all product, they will need to be customized to your personal needs and experience level. Here are 12 items that I added to my out-of-the-box kit and a brief description of how they elevated my simple canine first aid kit into canine first aid gear.

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If you’ve never hunted chukar before, it’s hard to describe its habitat. Well, kind of. They like dry, tortuous, and rocky slopes, but there’s obviously more to it than that. Although they’re not a native game bird in North America, there is a certain loyalty and enthusiasm that many upland hunters show for it, perhaps because of how hard you need to work for them. Learning to identify chukar habitat can go a long way toward making your hunt successful.

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Grass awns are sharp, barbed seeds that are dropped by annual grasses like cheatgrass, Canada wild rye, and foxtail that work their way into animals’ skin and continue to move inward. They can also be inhaled. If not caught soon enough, a seed can dig through the skin into the subcutaneous layers and will eventually work its way into the chest cavity or other parts of an animal’s body and do serious damage—sometimes killing the animal.

“Their sharp edges can lodge into tissues and they can cause local wounds that have obvious plant-foreign material in it, to actual deep infections under the skin to things such as infections along the spine and the muscles; to even infections within the chest where pus will set up and eventually cause enough inflammation to create fluid, and that fluid will eventually restrict their ability to breathe,” Vega explained. “Your dog isn’t going to look at you and tell you it can’t breathe. If there’s fluid preventing the lungs from expanding and getting enough oxygen, your dog’s respiratory rate and effort may be increased more than usual, it may be panting more frequently, and may become lethargic, restless, or less tolerant of exercise.”

Vega further explained that grass awns are a “zebra” or a rarity among differentials at her practice in West Virginia. This, however, can vary depending on the region the doctor is practicing in. An example is Dr. Joe Spoo, a veterinarian based in South Dakota, who sees the damage grass awns do frequently.

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We had walked about three hundred yards from the trucks when I heard, “Lexi’s on point!” My breath formed a small cloud as I exhaled. The temperature that morning was a brisk twenty-eight degrees. I could not believe that I was in Arizona hunting desert quail. Funny thing is that it didn’t look like we were in the desert, per se. The elevation was much higher than I’d expected and the scenery was not very desert-like, or at least not as I’d imagined it would be. That thought quickly faded. I was making my way through, under, and around all kinds of strange cactus plants in various shades of green that I had never seen before. Cacti in the mountains? Each one had a different sort of sharpness about them. I quickly learned that it was unavoidable to somehow encounter something that would cut, poke, stick, scrape, slice, and/or embed itself into me.

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Running and gunning means actively moving around a property and calling at intervals to find a wandering turkey. Hunters rely on natural cover and last-minute set ups, rather than calculated ground blinds. You simply walk some distance—maybe 20 yards, maybe 100 yards—and call. If a response comes, the hunter then quickly plans where to set up a safe shot at the turkey.

Like the story above, it can happen fast and close; at other times, the answer can come from the distance and allow for more calculated planning of the setup. But both events are part of an extremely exciting and active form of turkey hunting. This method is a great last-minute approach to new public lands or even property you have hunted for years.

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