2015 Washingotn State High Buck hunt

So this year for the high buck hunt my normal hunting partner was unable to go with me. So I posted on Facebook that I needed a new partner to go with me. My brother Eric said he would like to go. I told him he could go, but he did not have much time to get in shape for the hunt. I explained to him as best as I could the difficulty of the hike we would be going on. Eric said he would start walking and getting ready for the trip.

So the day of trip was finally here and Eric arrived at my house. The first thing I wanted to do was go through his stuff and take out anything I did not think he would need, so his backpack would be lighter. After shedding a few pounds of items he would not need, we headed to make sure his rifle was sighted in.  He was shooting Grandpa's old Winchester auto .308. The gun was fairly well sighted in but it had a tendency to misfire.  But it was the only rifle he had to bring so we made it work. 

We headed off for an afternoon/evening hike into camp. I knew we were expecting some weather to move in on us I was just hoping we would beat it to camp.  We get to the trail head and I ask Eric one more time if he is sure he wants to do this and he says he is ready.  We start the hike into camp and Eric did better than I thought he would do. During the steep parts I would make it to the top of the mountain, drop my bag, and go back down to grab his bag to make it just a bit easier on him.  At one point on the trail there was a big bald-faced hornets nest hanging directly in the middle of the trail. Luckily it was about 42 degrees and the hornets weren't moving too fast. At that point I told Eric that I was going to go all the way to camp to set up a tarp since it looked like we were not going to beat the weather.

As I made it into camp it was starting to rain and sleet. I got out my tarp and saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked up and there were two bucks getting ready to walk through camp. After they saw me they bounded off up the hill. I got the tarp in the air as it was starting to rain harder. I ran back down the trail and grabbed Eric's bag again. As we both got into camp it started to snow on us. You know, the big wet snow flakes that don't really stick but get you soaked and cold.   We get Eric's sleeping area set up just before dark. Since I know its going to be an early morning we decide to just go to bed and not worry about starting a fire.

On a side note, this year I brought enough paracord to string a clothes line through my sleeping area under my tarp. I really benefited from this set up.  I was able to dry out my wet clothes out of the weather, hang a light off of it and put other gear up off the ground for easy access when needed.

The next morning I woke up without an alarm going off. I looked at my watch and realized I had slept through my alarm. I was not very happy with myself. I got out of bed, started a fire, and woke Eric up. After breakfast we decided to hunt the meadow near camp. Eric said he would stay at the bottom while I hiked into the upper meadow. As I crested the first bench I saw the two bucks from the day before in camp. I was not prepared at all, I didn't even have my binoculars out yet.  I got my gun up to try and count antler points. Before I could get a clear count on points they trotted off into the trees never to be seen again.  I worked my way up into the upper areas of the meadow and was happy to see there was still a few inches of snow on the ground. I hunted the rest of the day in the same area and kicked up a few does in the heavy timber.  I was back in camp for the evening to have a fire and dinner. I knew I wanted to get a good nights rest for the next day.

The next day my alarm went off at 0330. Eric was very clear that he did not want to be woken up to go on the hike I was going to go on. I made a small breakfast and headed up the mountain. As I scrambled up the hillside I was kind of happy I did not do this the day before. The hill was steep enough as it was and adding a layer on snow on the ground would have made it much harder. As I reached the ridge an hour and forty five minutes later, I could hear deer bounding off in front of me in the darkness. As I sat on the ridge-line waiting for the sun to come up it was only 24 degrees, way colder than I was expecting it to be.  The sun finally came up and since I knew deer were close I headed to the edge of the ridge and glassed the hillsides.  I saw four doe's right away.  As the sun came up higher I realized that the four doe's were sparring and that all four had antlers.  They were about 500 yards away on the opposite side of the bowl I was on. None of the bucks looked big, but I have a hard time passing on a shooter buck as it is important meat for my family throughout the year. As the deer dropped down into the next bowl over I ran across to the ridge they where just on to try and get closer. I dropped most of my gear except my gun (Obviously) to be able to move without any extra hassle, and crept up over the ridge. I saw the four bucks and re-positioned to get even closer to them.

 I checked the first one and passed on it, Checked the second one and thought it would do if the third and fourth ones were not any better. They were not, so I set my sights on the second one which was about 70 yards away.  The buck was quartering towards me. I lined up my cross-hairs right into the front shoulder and squeezed the trigger. When the gun went off a big cloud of dust and rocks sprayed into the air right in front of me. I figured out very fast that there had been a rock sticking up in front of my barrel I did not see through my scope. I hopped up to the next higher rock. Now the bucks were looking at me. I squeezed another round off and hit my mark. I was hoping the buck would drop in its tracks. No such luck. The buck turned down hill and was running on three legs. Did I mention down hill was the wrong way. The buck dropped out of sight and I ran down to where I could get a good view in case I needed to shoot him again.    Just as I caught sight of him again he went down getting tangled up in a log. I watched him until he stopped moving. When I knew he was dead I went back and gathered all of my gear.  I boned the entire buck out and placed all the meat into plastic bags and then into my back pack. Since I had about 300 feet of elevation to get back to the top of the ridge before I dropped back into camp, it took me a while to get back to the ridge.

I finally got back into to camp and showed my good luck to Eric.  That night we packed half way out to the truck and camped. The next day we had an easy couple miles back to the truck. Any trip where

you are successful hunting is a good trip. Getting to share it with my brother was even better. I look forward to next year. Eric says he will be in shape to go up on the steep hunt. Time will tell.....

Where have I been for two years?

Well two very fast years have passed here on R-Dub Outdoors without one single post.  I am going to try my best to make a come back. The last two years have been a mixture of greatness and heartache. I will touch on it all.

First of all two years ago my second daughter Elsa was born. Life with two kids was busy and that started the slow down in my writings. I wrote about my 2013 high buck and that was about it.

Maddy and Elsa may 2014

In 2014 starting in June I was involved in a roll over collision where I hit a deer driving 60MPH at 0430 in the morning after a night of work. My car went into the ditch sideways and rolled. I was able to climb out of the vehicle and sat on the side of the road until help arrived. All I suffered was a slight concussion and I was transported to the hospital at the insistence of my wife. The very next day I left on vacation to Sun Valley Idaho with my young family. Where I tried my hand at some fly-fishing without any luck. Then all 4 of us came down with a stomach flu. Not fun, and not something I recommend to get any time especially while on vacation. We got to know the hospital ER staff well. High light of the trip was seeing a mountain goat and other wildlife on our adventure.

I was able to shoot my first turkey during the spring hunt. That was really enjoyable and was delicious.

In July in the area  I live the largest wildfires in Washington State History started. Named the Carlton Complex fire it burned over 250,000 acres of land. Which included my 10 acres. Luckily I was able to stop the fire 5 feet from my house with a dripping hose from my irrigation line.  Three days before the fires came the transmission in the jeep went out. I walked home and could not return to it before the fire burnt it up. Luckily I was able to buy a new hunting truck shortly after wards

The fire getting nice and close to the house.

Flood Waters in Alfalfa field

  

Then in August the rain came in and broke the dams on the irrigation lakes above my house. So our 2 foot wide creek was now 100 Yards across. Pieces of my neighbors house’s where floating down along with fence posts and other debris. When the waters receded my rich soil in my fields were now full of sandy silt. 

Fall of 2014 was ok for hunting. My family any I shot a few grouse and I was able to get 2 deer. I was able to draw a second doe tag. I took Maddy out on her first deer hunt and we were able to take a doe with out much fuss. Now every time we eat venison she asks if it is the deer we shot together. I was also able to shoot my buck, nothing special an average 3x3 Mule Deer. Which was nice since the fires affected a lot of friends as well so I was able to give some of my meat away.  Duck hunting was fun as always. Spending time with family and friends is always fun, even got Ron out for some duck hunting. First lake we hunted we shot 3 geese off of which was great.  

In spring of 2015 my son Rowan was born. Thinking a house with 2 was busy, Yikes three is jumping off of the deep end. HAHA.  In the spring Maddy and I went and harvested another turkey, which was a lot of fun for both of us. Anytime I get to share something like that with one of my kids is amazing.  I was also able to get onto Ron’s boat for some sockeye fishing in the Columbia River by Brewtser, Wa. We limited out with 12 fish in an hour and a half. Do I need to say more !!!!

Summer of 2015 the fires came again. This time they did not come close to the house but in our area over 300,000 acres burnt surpassing the year before in size. Making things worse 3 local fire fighters died fighting the fire in my hometown. Even though I did not know the three fire

Me and all three kiddos

fighters myself, my best wishes go out to their family and friends.

On a positive note I have been into backpacking more. I have gotten myself into much better shape. My friend Jason and I went on a 34-mile pack trip, which was a great time. I will write more about it in another post.  

We are into the 2015 hunting season and I have lots to write about. I don’t want to ruin anything yet. Some of you already know. I also have lots of new gear to review. We will have reviews of some new Muck Boots my wife received coming up soon, along with other hunting and packing gear. I am hoping to arrange some giveaways so pay attention so you get have your chance to win some great gear.

Walking Varminter part #4, The perfect Round

The rifle actually stopped copper fouling between 40-50 on the single shots.  I no longer needed to use Sweets to get the copper out.  The copper would come out with the brushing and powder solvent.   After a couple three round break in groups it cleaned just as quickly.  I needed to move up my load development as I had anticipated while I was doing the final barrel break in I could load up some test rounds.   I know I will at least try the Nosler Ballistic tip, Sierra BTHP/Blitz, Hornady V-Max/A-Max, Barnes Varminator, and of course some FMJ’s.   The bullets will weigh from 40 to 55 grains.   I will shoot a lot of different loads, but I will know what the gun likes and doesn’t.  I expect before I am done to possibly have tried over 100 different loads if not more.  If I am lucky I will have it dialed in with less.  I go into it expecting to try a lot of different bullets and loadings.  I use brand new neck sized brass with every shot.  I keep all brass segregated from here on out by number of times fired, how sized, and how many times sized.  I also start with a three round fouled bore and fully clean every 35-40 rounds.  I let the barrel cool to the same temperature before firing the next series of rounds.   These are the fun days because I get to shoot a lot of different guns waiting for the barrel to cool.  I will also do load development with other rifles and handguns at the same time to allow barrel temperatures to stay the same. 

My goal for this rifle is .25” average group size or less at 100yds for 5 shot groups and the maximum will be .5” for three shots.  I measure the groups with a caliper, and don’t use the change in my pocket or finger size for measuring.  

I check cartridge OAL with every different bullet and start them .005 off touching the lands.  I load each bullet with 4-5 different powders, three different weights, and three different primers.  Every round is Chronographed, and I increase the powder charges until I hit max pressure or groups expand.  I take the best three groups with each bullet and start adjusting the load in small increments.  I start adjusting bullet seating depth with the best powder load by .002 closer to the lands.  If I have to I will start backing the bullet away at the same rate, but typically guns will shoot better the tighter the tolerances are.   I am tuning the load to the barrels harmonics.  By doing this you will be surprised with how accurate a factory rifle can be.  I also write down every detail of every load and save the information not only for this rifle but for future rifles.  There are certain loadings that consistently shoot well from rifle to rifle.  

I just finished up the first 110 loads and I am out of brass and some bullets.  I can not find any brass or certain bullets so I’m stuck for a while.  A bad time to need shooting supplies even for a varmint rifle.   I predicted a Savage would be accurate, and this rifle is accurate and fast for a 22” barrel.   I have barely started on the 55gr bullets, but it is showing a noticeable preference for 40 and 50gr bullets.   For the 40 and 50 grain bullets I ended up just above .6” for 3 shot groups out of 80+ different loadings!   Like most guns the absolute most accurate loads are not at maximum velocity, but I have several very fast loads to choose from under .3”.  I think +4150fps 40gr, and +3900fps 50gr shooting under .3” with no pressure signs is fast, and should put the hammer on varmints of any kind. The 55gr bullets are opening up in group size but I’m very early with them.  Now to get some more brass and bullets so I can finish preliminary testing and start fine tuning the best loads.      

Grouse Hunting Through My Wifes Eyes

Rory and I met online back in 2008. Our first date was at a Starbucks, where I proceeded to shock him by ordering hot chocolate on a 100 degree day. I'm not sure if that is what prompted him to follow up and ask for a second date (a hike up nearby 'mountain' looking for Shorthorned Lizards), and then a third (another hike on another very hot day), but whatever the reason, a bit over a month later I found myself out hunting for basically the first time of my life.

September first for Rory means grouse hunting. And from the start of our relationship, I've tagged along - taking pictures, staying behind the hunters, and keeping a look out for grouse & where they fall once shot, and then more recently I've joined the hunt with a shotgun myself.

That first hunt we got up at what I (somewhat) affectionately refer to as stupid-o-clock, which basically means anytime far earlier than usual, generally well before dawn starts to make the outside world visible. Rory was living at his old house in town, and I was down visiting. We had a 30 minute drive just to get to where we live now, then further still on the forest roads to get up to the good grouse spots.

There was nervous excitement in the pit of my stomach, and chilly wind blowing on my cheeks, in part to alleviate the foul air that I've come to accept as part of the Jeep experience.  I quickly realized I was expected to peer sideways out my wide open window either upslope or downslope, depending on the road, and look out into the dawn light for grouse sitting on the ground, on logs, or on stumps, or perched on tree branches.

 

I don't remember whether he shot his limit that first time out or not, but I know I had a good time. Although by now I've hunted other animals with Rory - ducks, quail, huns, chukar, turkeys, and deer, my favorite by far is grouse. There is something about that first hunt of the fall. The cooler morning temperatures, the early dawn light, the scenic views from where we grouse hunt, the leaves starting to change color and drift to the ground, the first waft of smelly Jeep air.

Grouse hunting is something we do as a family, usually just Rory, the girls, and myself, with the hunting dogs bringing up the sides. We drive around looking for grouse, go on hikes with beautiful views, and have so much time to bond as a family - experiencing nature at its finest, while bringing home meat for the freezer.

 

As I looked back through 6 years of September grouse hunting pictures to accompany this post, family is definitely the center of the event. I can look and see Maddycakes growing up, from the first year I hunted grouse, when she was in my belly, to the following year where she wasn't yet walking, and on and on to this year, with new little Elsa just 3 months old.

 

That brings us to this year, these hunts with 2 littles, and a mama not yet back in shape from pregnancy. Rory's been just as interested in hunting every morning and night he isn't at work as ever, and hasn't been put off by us slowing him down. Ever the gentleman, he's instead adapted to our speed, accepting our limitations in stride. Too bumpy of a road for the baby? Nevermind mama, we'll just do this one over here instead. Too tired to be anything but cranky? Nevermind mama, how about I hike in and find you another grouse to finish out your limit and call you in when I've got it perched in a tree. Baby occupying your hands so you can't even help feather one bird? Nevermind mama, you just sit over there and Maddycakes and I will feather all your birds.

Although the first day this year we focused on getting him his limit, the second day was all about getting me mine. The daily limit here is 4 birds per person, and that second day we both limited out on our morning hunt. While the first day was a joint effort spotting the birds and finding where they lit up, the second day was all Rory. Bird after bird he spotted, and I'd move in for the shot. Five birds he spotted for me (the first one I would have gotten if I had been shooting high base not the low base that scared it off but didn't penetrate), and four birds he feathered and cleaned for our freezer for me.

 

With the baby this year, I'm not going to be duck hunting, and don't expect to be doing any deer hunting either. But grouse hunting was one thing that brand new baby or not, I was not going to skip out on this year.

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Washington State High Buck Hunt 2013 Day 2

I heard Kevin's Alarm go off at 2:55 Am and again at 3, I asked him if it was time to get up even though I already knew the answer. We get dressed and I have some granola bars while Kevin has his cup of instant coffee.  We get our head lamps out and start our hike up the steep and nasty hillside. We had picked out a route the night before while it was day out and tried to start in that area as there is no trail heading up the mountain.

We found that our trail worked pretty good except when we would come to rock faces other wise known as cliffs. It just meant extra time finding our way around the rocks. We took a couple breaks while hiking up the monster. On one of breaks I told Kevin that I shoot my deer before 9 am so we should be getting back to camp before it gets hot. I was half joking, but I really do shoot most of my deer early in the morning.

 When we reached the summit everything was good. We had about 40 minutes until hunting hours so I broke out my camera and started taking some night time photos as the suns light was hinting over the far off mountains. We get our guns loaded and the contents of our bags situated for hunting. In front of us was a steep drop off that we didn't want to look over until shooting hours because there could be "The Big One" right below us.

We look at the clock and it was officially hunting hours. Kevin looks at me and asks me if I am ready to get my slay on, of course I was. We sneak up and look over the hillside and nothing was there. After sitting in our location for about 10 minutes Kevin says he is going to walk north up the ridge and I should walk south down the ridge and we will meet up back where we were in a few. I told him that sounded like a good plan and that I was not going to go past the next hill.

I start walking my way down the hill and dropped off the top of the ridge. Taking my time and looking around every few steps I took. I found a rock about 50 yards over the ridge and started watching all of the hill sides. I see Kevin about 500 yards away on the next point of land. After a few minutes of sitting there a grouse flush about 70 yards to my right and sailed around the hill, I said I was not going to go around. That grouse made me feel for whatever reason that I should go around that hill and follow it. After having a mental war with myself in my head I decided that Kevin could see that I was going around the hill.

So I walked down to where the grouse flushed from and started walking around the hillside. Right as I got to the apex of the hill into the next bowl I saw it. A big ol' white butt of a mule deer about 70 yards above me. I dive down prone behind a log and get my gun up into a good shooting position. I can tell it is a big bodied deer. It lifts it's head up and looks right at me. My heart starts to pound against my chest, I feel like every time it beats my body is jumping off of the ground. At this point I can tell it has wide, thick antlers, I just can't tell how many points it has. As I watch it though my scope for what seems to be hours it finally turns its head. I see the single tine behind a double tine so I know its a shooter. I take a deep breath put my crosshairs right behind the shoulder and squeeze the trigger. I didn't feel the gun go off, I didn't hear the gun go off but the deer just dropped.

Now the bottom of the canyon was about 2000 feet below us. The deer started to kick and roll down hill. All I could think about was I really hope it doesn't go down there. The deer came to a rest still kicking. I thought it was done at this point so I turned to where Kevin was and stared waving my hunter orange like he didn't already know what was happening. When I turned around the deer was gone. So I got up and started walking up the hill to where it was. I found it about 10 more yards down the hill. Again the first thing I saw was its butt up on a log. The bullet a 180 grain .30-06 entered right behind the left shoulder and exited just below the back on the left side in its mid sections. I assumed it was a lung shot as the blood coming out of the exit hole was bright pink.

Kevin got over to me and said that it was in the perfect position to bone it out. I have never done a butcher job in the field. We made a cut down the spine of the animal with our Havalon knives and skinned one side from the back to the belly and took all the meat off from one side of the deer placing it in plastic bags. We then flipped the deer over and did the same. I removed the head and we were done in a few minuts.

I took all of the equipment we had in my pack plus the head, Kevin took all of the meat. Kevin's bag was way heavier than mine and I owe him so much for his help. We take our time being safe walking back down the mountain. Every step we took was one closer to a nice nap. We get to camp sink the meat in the creek and eat some lunch. Our plan was to take a nap then pack up and get back down to the vehicles. I slept for about 3 hours which I really needed. We packed up camp, again with Kevin taking all the meat and I took most of the camping stuff and the antlers, which I cut off of the head to save about 8 pounds. Now the really hard work starts.

We figured the hardest part of the hike down would be the really steep first mile and  a half from camp. We took out breaks but made good time not feeling dead. We get down the mile and half to the main trail to take a break on a bridge. When Kevin takes his pack off the straps rip off of the bag. This is not good seeing as we still have a ways to go. after exploring the issues Kevin finds that his $400 pack was put together wrong. So Kevin put it back together the right way (We think) and we continue on.

We get to within a mile of the vehicles. My legs are shaking, my feet hurt and the shoulders are killing me and Kevin reports the same issues. Every time you kick a rock it feel like someone dropped a sledge hammer on your foot. O ya, it is now dark out and we are walking again with our head lights. When Kevin hiked in he found a "Short Cut" that knocked about a half mile and significant elevation from where my car was parked. So Kevin is looking for his short cut in the dark. He explains it as a slight up hill to the car and maybe having to walk around some down trees.  Finally Kevin finds the short cut and we are both dying.  As we start up this hill and get into the trees we end up crawling over and through numerous down trees it was awful. We finally made it to the road and to Kevin's car. When I took my pack off my legs shook from exhaustion. The whole hike was so bad we just couldn't stop laughing as he drove me to my car.

Now all I can think is "What A Trip".

Washington High Buck Hunt 2013 Day One

Well it's that time of year again where we get a little over a week to try and get into a high mountain wilderness area and shoot ourselves an early buck. As I am thinking about my trip I have to try and think back to last year and what I learned from it.

A. I need better food then Top Ramen and Power Bars.
B. Have a hunting partner to go with so there is at least someone to talk to in camp.
C. It's likely going to take a little more work to find deer then sitting by the meadow next to camp.


So my wife mostly took care of A by buying me some rice and noodle packs that you just have to add water to. I also bought some instant potatoes, power bars, granola bars, beef jerky and some chocolate milk for the trip. The chocolate milk was for the hike up.


I made plans with my buddy Kevin to go with me. The plan was, since the season opened on a Sunday I would take Saturday off and we would hike up into the Pasayten Wilderness so we were ready to hunting opening morning.

Kevin had some time to get into the area we hunt a few week earlier and drop off a 50 lb salt lick with his game cam.  We decided if we did not see anything substantial on the game came we were going to hike up the steep mountain that climbs out of camp.

So the day before the hunt arrives I get off of work at 6 AM. My hunting partner Kevin wanted to spend half of the day with his family before hiking in. My two choices were to sleep at the trail head or hike into camp and sleep there. I decided that I was too excited to sleep at the trail head so I was just going to do the hike into camp and sleep there.

I took my sweet time getting to camp. A normal 3 hour hike took me 5 hours with all of my gear and lack of sleep. When I got to camp I had worked up a big amount of sweat. I went to the creek and washed down in the freezing water. I also rinsed my closes and hung them to dry. I found a place to hang my tarp and set my bed and went down for my nap to wait for Kevin.

Three hours later I woke up to an unnatural sound of metal knocking together. I looked over and there was someone putting up their tent in the same camping area. It was Karl the Swedish hunter I ran into last year in the same area. Karl asked if it was ok that he was camping there and I said of course. Ten minutes later Ray who was Carl's hunting partner arrived in camp. About 20 minutes after Ray, Kevin showed up. The first thing I wanted to do was look at the game cam photos he picked up on the way up. There were only 15 pictures and all of them were of doe's.

The Meadow Near Camp.

Kevin and I walked out to the meadow so he could look for bear's, since I saw 4 of them in the same meadow last year. We also talked about our next days adventure. And we decided to hike up the steep nasty mountain.

Without seeing a bear we arrived back at camp and sat around the campfire with Carl and Ray while we had dinner. We discussed our plans so we were not hunting in the same area and went to bed around 9 PM knowing that 3 AM was quickly approaching.

Operation Get the Wife a Limit

On day two of grouse hunting here in north central Washington my one goal was to get my wife a limit of grouse. I was not going to shoot any grouse until my wife had her limit. This time I got a few hours of sleep the night before and again I woke everyone up to get going at first light. I rode the lucky gate and we headed to what we call "The Lower Road."

We get to the top of one hill but before we drop into the next drainage we have to go through another gate which is old, heavy and not fun to move at all. As I was going to get out to open it my wife tells me she will get it. As she drags it open like a pro I give her a smile as I drive through. After a couple moments of waiting for her on the other side I look in my mirror to see her moving the old heavy gate about an inch at a time and with a very flustered look on her face. I get out to HELP her and she quickly returns to her seat with a 'hurry and get this gate closed so we can go hunting' look.

A short time later I see the first grouse in the grass along the road. It flushes into a tree and my wife gets out to shoot it. She shoots a 7 1/2 12 gauge low base shell. So I like her to get a bit closer than she was when she pulled up for the shot. When she pulled the trigger feathers floated down out of the tree and the bird set its wings for the bottom on the valley. There are three choices to choose from in this situation.

A. Positive feed back. "Hey don't worry, at least you got feathers, we will see more."
B. Silence. "..............................................sniff, sniff........................................."
C. Poking fun. "Hey Annie Oakley did you have your eyes closed?"

I tend to start with A and after getting the just shut up look move to B. And if we ever do get some grouse I might be brave enough to move to C.

So this time I give her some positive feedback. As we are looking for more grouse after a few minutes I realize she is not that pleased with herself so I move to silence.

A few corners later I spot the next grouse. My wife gets out and drops it. and I revert back to some positive feedback.

When we finished the lower road my wife had three birds. So I put my big boy pants on and went in for some Poking Fun. "Well I did my job, I showed you 4 birds." with a smile and after an "yeah, yeah" from the wife, I knew she was feeling a lot better now that she had three birds in the bag.

I again decided to take the big loop around, with the idea of stopping in one creek bed where we have had good luck with ruffed grouse in past years. I pull the Jeep over and my wife asks me what I am doing. I told her I was going to go find some grouse. We both get out of the vehicle and load our guns. I went straight in to the thick and nasty stuff and my wife stayed out on the road. ( sometimes I like having someone out of the thick stuff so they can see where the grouse flush to.) Meanwhile our two Wirehaired Pointing griffons start working the creek bed.

5 minutes into the walk the bushes explode with flight. I yell to my wife "Get in here". Her response is "I am busy helping Maddy go Potty". I knew what that meant. BANG, BANG, BANG. My wife yells to me "How many are there!?" I told her - well I just shot three. The dogs start coming out of the brush with birds in the mouth like worker bees bringing pollen back to the hive. They drop the birds at my feet and go back for more. When all the downed birds are back they go back to searching for live birds.  I see Remi get birdy and about 10 feet above her a grouse was sitting in a tree. I again yelled for my wife to get in to the bushes. She yells back and says she is on her way. She gets back to me, shoots the grouse, and I tell her I will get the bird and she can work the 70 yards back to the Jeep and kids. I retrieve her 4th and final bird of her limit. Remi flushes up another bird and I see the general area it went to. I have to crawl under some of the thick brush to get to it. I drop it with one shot and with 8 birds our day is done.

So peration get the wife her limit is complete. We sit on the side of the road and feather all of our birds. Maddy dances and plays in the falling feathers as part of a perfect grouse hunting morning.