Our son’s fall break coincided with the perfect time of year to do some sharptailed grouse and duck hunting back in my homeland of the Nebraska Sandhills, so we took the opportunity to do it. Caleb has been pretty fit his entire childhood participating in various sports clubs in elementary and middle school, and now AFJROTC in high school. The Sandhills demand considerable athleticism, therefore this was a bit of a forge for him.
It was a comeback for myself after battling a few years of orthopedic issues, starting with a bad flare-up of high school sports generated osteoarthritis about five years ago, followed by a horrible case of plantar fasciitis in my feet right around the plague times. I went through a long period where I really wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to walk any sort of distance again, let alone go hunting. I switched to low support shoes to get my feet in shape while walking, then took up swimming to work out the bugs in my knees (I swam 100 miles last year). Even with all of that work, there is nothing that gets you in shape for hunting like just doing it.
We spent more days in the car driving from South Carolina and back than we did hunting, but it was totally worth it. We also got to see our two adult children living in Omaha, then my mom and extended family in Valentine.
On our way up (Caleb and I were in a seperate vehicle), Charles surprised me and stopped off at our old NAVHDA chapter, Heartland, in the Lincoln, Nebraska area and re-qualified Obi for NAVHDA Invitational. So Obi now has two Utility Prize I awards and is going to Invitational 2024 in Iowa to try again for the Versatile Champion. He had more points than some of the dogs who won the 2023 VC but was just knocked out by his break on the shot on the double mark.
But back to the Sandhills: I like to hunt by myself there with a dog or two. I know where I am, I know the lay of the land, it doesn’t bother me to be alone. I am also low tech in that I don’t use a bunch of GPS stuff, so I can only get away with being low tech and alone on my home turf. The first day, Caleb and Charles took the boys (Obi and Duke) and didn’t manage to see anything.
I was with Ruth and our “training aid” rescue English Pointer, Dolly. Luckily within the first 15 minutes I stumbled across a single at about 25 yards and was able to take it down with a right-to-left pull through as it flew across my line of sight. Ruth fetched it right up for me and brought it to hand.
Dolly is hard for me to keep up with, English Pointers like to move a bit faster than I can. Dolly and Ruth busted up another group of about eight or so an hour later, but they were way out of range for me.
My single sharptailed grouse was the only bird that we took that day, the boys didn’t see a single thing. But I was back on the board after a six year drought and was extremely happy about it. Especially to have done it with my female who’d had pups go home just a few weeks before.
The second day we opted for walking one of our favorite creeks with Duke and Sally to see if we could jump hunt some ducks, but it became apparent to us right away that someone had recently beaten us to the punch, with human footprints and dog prints visible. We walked it anyway, seeing (and missing) mostly snipe. In my twenty years of hunting I had yet to take a snipe, but always take shots even though they are hard to hit. So we shot after snipe and shot after snipe and missed. Of course, right when Charles and I are talking loudly and yelling across the creek at each other we finally jumped a pair of teal out of range.
The teal went back down further up the creek and I had it marked. As we approached a wide spot, I could see them ahead and warned Caleb and Charles by giving them the old “pointing at the eyes” hand symbol. Yet even though we knew they were there and were able to get close, we still didn’t knock them down as we all three emptied both barrels. But the ducks were starting to tire and went down again up the creek.
Caleb switched to my side of the creek, so now he and I were walking together. This time it was Charles who spotted the ducks on the water ahead and sent Caleb and I in for the flush. Charles was able to pinpoint them and had Caleb walk right up on them. Caleb flushed the ducks but missed them both. We both tucked down and I hid my face under my hat as the ducks circled behind our backs. I waited and hid, crouched down and I turned towards them with my face to the ground until I knew they were flying in range. At just the right moment I stood up and let it rip with both barrels, taking the second one down on to dry land. It took awhile but young Duke found the teal under Charles’s direction and retrieved it to him since he was handling.
The boys decided to continue on a little ways farther down the creek to see if they could find some snipe or anything other ducks. I opted to sit in this grove of dead trees next to the creek where a beaver had conveniently knocked down the trunks, making for some comfortable benches. I was just sitting there enjoying the nice day and out of nowhere three snipe landed around me within five yards. Two of them took off when I looked up at them, but I knew that there was a third. So I stood up. And as he flushed to fly away, I finally harvested my first snipe. After twenty years and at least a hundred shots at their fast, zig-zag flying, squeak squawking swamp bird survival skills, I finally had one.
And not fifteen minutes later, I was standing right behind Caleb as he shot his first bird of the Sandhills, also a snipe. Duke was also on the retrieve for him. It is almost never that Charles is the one who walks out of a field with an empty game bag, but it was that run.
(As an aside: I am not wearing the same clothes every day, I have two versions of the same outfit and alternate.)
There was a nice pond our our way out where we had pushed some ducks out of, so we decided to stop at that and let Charles have a shot at not getting skunked on the day.
Charles was able to jump a flock of bufflehead ducks up from the pond and knock a couple down. I wish that I had grabbed my good camera and put the big lens on it to capture the retrieves, but I was tired and hand the phone in my hand, so that is what we got.
Day three was a big push for grouse. Charles was anxious to get some in the bag and I didn’t want to have to run behind the pointer anymore, so Dolly and Sally went with Charles. Ruth and I went off on our own and covered a whole ridgeline. Similar to Charles and Caleb’s first day, we saw absolutely nothing in our hills.
I could hear shotguns going off on the other side of the valley, so I was hoping that Charles and Caleb were having good success and I was right. After I had wrapped my walk up and was sitting in the truck eating lunch, they even pushed a few right over the top of my head as I had a mouth full of food. But they soared another 500 yards off into the distance never to be seen again (I tried to find them with no luck).
But Charles had a limit of sharptails so all was right with the world. It had been a long three days marching the dunes and we were ready to go back to town and visit family.
Dolly is naturally a bag of bones. We have had her almost a year and have tried feeding her as much as she can eat and she just does not put on condition. Just poops it all out and looks neglected. The nicest dog you will ever meet though, just loves all of the people. I like how she pushes our Griffons to not be lazy bootlickers.
Charles continued on to North Dakota from the Sandhills, then back to Nebraska before coming home to South Carolina. Those are photos and stories for another day.
I really need to get back to finishing my Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Photos gallery, I am almost done adding all of the pictures and then I just need to add captions. The AWPGA is keeping me busy lately organizing the 2024 National Specialty and doing secretary duties, but once I get the locations booked for the specialty and meet with the host kennel club at the beginning of November things should calm down a bit.
We have two litters planned for the spring, Duke and Ruth, then Obi and Sally. The girls won’t come into heat until around Christmas, I will keep everyone posted on that. I do have a reservation list for the litters, but feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com to inquire. Stay safe out there in the fields until next time.
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