American Brittany, American Dad: November 2015

Hi folks,

Our 3rd trip to South Dakota (but first since i've had this blog) has now came and went. It was a great trip filled with excitement and adventure, and I'm excited to share it with you all. Before diving into it, I have to say that I'm so thankful that I have a wife and family that supports my passions, and hobbies (AKA Hunting trips) Without that, none of this would be possible. There were so many things that I could write about on this trip, but I'm afraid I would struggle to keep your attention if I wrote them all, so I have thinned it down to a few choice stories. I hope you enjoy!

Over the course of this trip we traveled just over 3300 miles. This year it was just my dad, and Luke making the trip out with me becasue Nolan's football team was still alive in the high schol playoffs. An exciting time for our high school, but leaving us 1 amigo short. The dogs were tuned up, and ready for the week ahead. Making the trip was Remi, Colt, Nelli, and making her first road trip Ruger, dad's 8 month old Brittany pup; out of Remi and Colt. While Dad was taking a nap in the back seat on the road there, Luke and I mapped out a plan for the locations we would hunt each day, just a simple little plan so that indecisiveness would not dominate our time each morning. When Dad woke up he protested that no way was he going to have an "itinerary" while on vacation, but the last thing I wanted to do was to sit around for hours on end debating about where to hunt each morning. So, my truck/my itinerary...(Sorry Dad) We selected A combination of public and private lands, based on weekdays and weekends. Saturday morning (our first day to hunt) we would hunt a privately owned farm in Winner, SD.

Winner, SD - Mr & Mrs Schwinler's farm

We met Mr Schwinler the first year in SD. He's an older gentlemen that owns a section of ground, (640 Acres) and is always friendly and willing to let us hunt (for a fee). His property is comprised of about 50% crop fields, and 50% CRP and pasture. After a quick walk around some scrap metal piles near their house, and bagging our first rooster (a wild flush that I knocked down) we grabbed Remi and Ruger and set off for our dog work of the trip.

As we started getting into birds, I had deja vu watching Dad and his 8 month old pup tustle for who was in charge. With every bird that would blow out in front of her, she would get that much more excited, and charge off determined that she could run them down as they fly off into the sky. Dad, out of breath from blowing the whistle, and scared of the rath of my mother at the mear thought of losing her, chased after.........

We scored several birds on this first pass, but here are the stories of the 2 most notable. Fianlly, Dad and Ruger found some common ground, and went off on their own hunting a fence row. Ruger was working into the wind, when she stuck a hard point over her left shoulder, Dad walked up to her and stepped on her check coard, as he did a rooster blew out and Dad downed the bird scoring the 8 month her first productive point on a wild bird! The bird flew quite a ways after being hit, and Remi would later locate the bird for Dad for the retrieve. The other, Luke, I, and Remi were hunting down a shelter bealt working into a corner of a fenced field of CRP. Remi was working a running bird, pointing it, and relocating along the 100 yard long shelter bealt, over and over. Finally at the end of the shelter bealt, she pinned it down. I called "point" to Luke and headed to flush the bird. I got about 3 or 4 steps towards them when the bird volunteered. I quickly threw a shot at it but missed and Luke took the bird with a good long shot. A hen blew out as well, and flew off. Remi completed the retrieve, and got her first taiste of feathers for the trip. The video of this bird is posted on my Youtube channel.

Later in the day we were hunting over Colt and Nelli. We moved into the horse pasture, and were talking about how we would hunt the field. (where to start and finish) As we were talking and paying no attention to the dogs, Colt and Nelli both locked up on point. Colt on the bird, and Nelli backing his point. The dogs were holding steady and ignoring my call to start hunting once we were ready to move. We finally notice them, and Luke and I walked in on the point, and down the bird. Colt made the retrieve, proving yet again, that the "nose" always "knows" best!

We shot our limit of birds that day, and as I said before. There are a few videos on youtube of that day as well as some of the others.

Here are some pics from that day.

Remi and Ruger - Patiently waiting their turn having a little mother daughter time

Colt and Nelli

Remi and Ruger's work that morning

Dad and I at the end of day 1 in front of Mr Schwinlers house

Luke and Dad

Our 2nd day of hunting, we headed to another private farm in Ideal South Dakota owned by a friend named Bobby Daniels. It was a tough day of hunting, because the tempatures were up in the mid 60's uncharacteristically warm for this time of year in SD.

Day 3 we headed north to the national grassland in Pierre, SD. This my second trip to the grassland in pursuit of different upland species. It was another tough day of hunting, but my personal favorite of the trip in regards to accomplishment. The National grassland is massive arera of grass cover, that supports sharptail grouse, the coveted Praire Chicken, and an occassional Pheasant. On this day, we decided not to leave any dog in the truck. So we put all 4 dogs on the ground and set off hunting. The dogs were handling great covering tons of area, and all listening to my whistle. After a long walk, and not getting into any birds. We headed over toward a pond surrounded by cat tails. I sent the dogs down to the water to cool off since it was another warm day, while Luke and I stood up at a fence 60 yards away. Not long after, I heard one of the collars go into point mode. I couldn't see the dog, but knew it was Remi's collar, and she was in the cattails. I climbed under the fence, and headed down to the pond. The collar continued to beep point, As I moved into the cattails, a big rooster busted out. I could hear the beating of his wings before I could see him over the cattails. He took flight over the water, and I downed him on my second shot. He splashed down into the water, after I connected. Remi, busted through the cattails to the edge of the water where she stopped, stood there, and looked at me like "well who's going to get wet now" "Dead Bird, Remi" "Fetch Remi", she just looked at me, like she had never been in a pond before. When all the sudden Colt came busting through the cattails, and hit into the water like a Lab. Swam right out, and made the retrieve. Of course Remi took the bird from him as soon as he reached land so she could complete the retrieve, but both dogs were rewarded for their efforts!

We continued hunting, and made a different path of travel back towards the truck. When we got almost there, I had lost track of Dad and Ruger. So Remi, Colt, Nelli and I headed in his general direction to make sure that he had not loost track of Ru. We hunted through a wet valley of cattails, and then up a hillside of short grass. The dogs were up ahead of me hunting up the hillside as I walked up the steep incline. As I neared a point where I could see over the crest, I saw Nelli standing still with intensity. I made my way on up, and I could see Colt, was also standing still muscles tense, looking as if he had bird in the snoot. A few more steps, and I could see Remi in a full body quiver with her head downward towards the ground and cocked slightly right, and paw lifted just barely off the ground motionless, other than the quivering. I headed toward them excited knowing that this was the right cover for sharpies or chickens. All the sudden the covey of birds took flight. 10 or 15 of them quite a ways out in front of me, 15 yards out in front of Remi. I fired the gun and took the nearest one, and missed with the other 2 rounds. Remi completed the retrive, and brought me the prize. Finally I got a prairie chicken, after three years of chasing them this bird is going on the wall! As I made my way to Luke, I was literally yelling with excitement "Luke, I got a chicken!" This is truly a trophy bird!

The national grassland where I got my prairie chicken.

The Chicken and the Rooster from the story. Colt(left), Nelli (middle), Remi (right)

Close up of the prairie chicken

A male prairre chicken in full strut - the same mount that my bird will be mounted.

Sadly, Nolan's football team lost in the first round of the playoffs. It was bitter-sweet because I was able to get him a flight SD. We picked him up and Souix Falls, and he joined us for the rest of the week of hunting.

Picking Nolan up at the Airport - We were excited he could make it!

The next day Nolan and Remi teamed up for his first rooster of the trip! And this time she went into the water and cattails for the retriever!!! Finally the temps dropped, and hunting got good again!

Luke caught this photo of Remi checking out the artillery.

Nolan and Luke Showing off a days work

Doing a little road hunting one day (yes its legal in SD) I caught Luke taking a whack at that rooster!

We spent the last two days of hunting at a new 1200 acre farm in Carter, SD that we got hooked up with throught the local gun store in Winner. We met a really nice land owner named Gary Elder who guided us around his huge farm. There was lots of good bird work by the dogs, and some good shooting on occasion by the hunters :). But these are my favorite stories from the last couple days of hunting.

Luke, Nolan, and I were hunting through a cut milo field. While In this field we all got birds, and Remi was her typical "rockstar" self, but the coolest thing that happend is this.

Remi was working off to my right. A wild flush bird came up to my left, and I shot it. As it fell to the ground it fell across a road, on the other side of two barbed wire fences. I called Remi over, lifted the fence and sent her in for a blind retrieve. I stood at the fence, and watched in amazment. I knew that the bird was wounded, but it had not died when it fell and it had apparently ran off. Remi circled the area 1 time in a large circle, and then headed off in a mad scramble with her nose to the ground, tracking the woulded bird. She crossed 3 fences while tracking this bird, and was nearing 300plus yards away when all the sudden I could see feathers in the air, and she headed back towards me with the bird in her mouth. An increadable blind retrieve! Man I wish I had the film rolling when this happened!

The whole crew at the end of day 1 in Carter

End of day two in Carter (look at that Sunset)

A SD traffic jam!

SD Sunset, my favorite place in the world to watch a sun set.

There are stories after stories that I could go on about. All 4 dogs were on top of their game, and performed at a high level. I'm excited to watch Ruger grow over the next few years, I think we may have another rockstar on our hands. Remi was truly was increadble, and is in her prime and a true joy to hunt over. All in all on the week we shot 31 pheasants, and 1 prairie chicken. We walked 211 miles while doing so, averaging 8.8 miles per day, per man. The fact that Nolan was able to join us mid week, I finally got a chicken, and I got to spend this precious time with my dad, my best friend, and my oldest son. This was by far my favorite trip I have ever made to South Dakota.

I hope you have enjoyed hearing about it.

Sincerely,

Matt Larison

Hi Folks,

Well our 2^nd annual grouse hunting trip was delayed a week, due to a busy fall work schedule, and a nasty fall cold. But we finally departed on Wednesday the 28^th on our 550 mile journey to the remote upper peninsula of Michigan. It was a nasty wet trip from the a gulf hurricane that carried a large amount of rainfall all the way to Canada. (Nice timing) We arrive in beautiful and remote Seney Michigan, at the Fox River Motel at about 4:00 in the evening. By the time we unloaded the truck, and let the dogs stretch their legs there wasn’t much time left for anything other than dinner. This trip my second year in a row coming to Mi., but further north this time in search of better numbers (of birds that is). Colt (our male) and his Mama Tessi (who is on loan from Mr. Hamer) made the journey for the 3 days of hunting. Tessi, a grouse guide dog is my ringer on this trip, and Colt, a young accomplished pheasant dog, is trying to earn his stripes in the grouse woods. At the hotel we met up with a couple of veteran UP grouse hunters. One of them was a 92 year old named Ceo Bauer, who was full of information, and fascinating stories. He was actually the head civil engineer for building the paved roads in the UP during the 50’s and 60’s. The rest area just off of M28 just outside of Seney, is named after him. The most interesting of his stories was related to a local trapper who just that very day, caught a grey wolf in his trap, in the very same area that we plan to grouse hunt. That will give you goosebumps, or t least it did me!

Day 2 – I jump up at 6:00AM, smack dad on the feet on the way to the shower and I’m ready to go! After getting dressed I fling the hotel room door open ready to explode with excitement, only to find that the monsoon season is seemingly still upon us. After getting the dogs some morning relief, and a drink of water, we decide that with the heavy rain and 34 degree temps maybe breakfast is a better option. We travel 7 miles south to Germfask, to a little country diner, and low and behold who is there but my new 92 year old friend, Ceo. We have breakfast with them, and they give us some more advice as to where we may have the best chance to bag some grouse.

We finish breakfast, and head to our first spot. Tessi gets the call, and sets off hunting south, into that northern breeze (and rain) not 50’ into the cover she slam’s to a stop, quivering with excitement. “Point” I yell to dad. I creep in front of her, and the bird takes flight. BANG, my Browning Maxis cry’s out, and the bird crashes to the ground dad yells “what was it?”, “Woodcock” I reply. Tessi heads off to find the prize, when all the sudden she hits another point! “Point,” I yell again. I abandoned the search for my first downed bird to see what she has found this time. As I walk into the point, the leaves explode and a hard flying grouse, blasts out headed west towards dad. Bang, Bang, Bang he empties his gun! “I got him” dad hollers back excited for his first grouse. I head over to where he thinks the bird went down, and quickly locate his grouse by the beating of the wings on the ground. What a great start to the day…. All in all, we hunted 8 miles this day, and I bagged my limit of woodcock, while dad bagged the 1 and only grouse. We had productive points, over both dogs and had a moral victory bagging these 4 birds, in the nasty pouring down, cold rain. I can’t remember a time, that I have gone back to the hotel more wet from a day of hunting. We bumped into our new friends again at the hotel, and they too were excited at the day’s harvest. We planned another breakfast meeting in the morning, and called it a night.

Day 3 – The weather was much more cooperative today. Dry (mostly) and even an occasional glimpse of sunshine. We thought for sure this would be the day… We hunted multiple covers, walked a total of 8 miles on day 2 alone. But the only excitement was limited to one lone woodcock that Colt pointed, but bumped from moving in too tight on it, so I let fly away to reinforce good training.

Day 4 – The cold wet weather continued, and instead of braving another day soaked to the bone, and freezing. We surrendered to the great northern woods, and pack up to head home.

Overall the trip was great, and even though I STILL, am yet to bag my first grouse. (Insert eye-roll here) I wouldn’t trade this trip or any of the trips with my dad for anything. Dad has always told me since I was little kid tagging alone on his deer hunting trips. “Son it’s not always about killing something, sometimes it’s just about getting to go.” Well no doubt that statement is so true, but I would sure like to get a damn grouse!

In a few short weeks, we’ll be heading the plains of South Dakota. There we’ll be chasing those big SD roosters, Prairie Chickens, and Sharp-tail grouse. Remi is finished with her fall conditioning, and will be front and center in the pursuit of our limit of roosters. She, Colt, and Nelli will carry the bulk of the work load. But I anticipate lots of action, and excitement as Dad gets Rugar (His 9 month old Brittany out of Remi and Colt) into her first wild bird experience. I hope he’s been training for a marathon, because she is BIRD –CRAZY!

Hope you enjoy the pictures from the UP hunting trip, and keep an eye out for the stories from South Dakota in the coming weeks.

Sincerely,

Matt Larison

Mackinaw Bridge (Raining)