Gillie's Graduation Day
Our 6-month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon "Gillie" graduated to upland game birds today.
It rained hard, but Gillie kept her nose to the ground and found us some pheasants.
As fly fishermen, our respect for game and nature extends beyond the river,
into the field ...
Our 6-month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon "Gillie" graduated to upland game birds today.
It rained hard, but Gillie kept her nose to the ground and found us some pheasants.
Gates was a big help as we continued Gillie's bird training. Gillie's natural instinct was immediately apparent, as was Gates' natural shooting ability (she can already out-shoot her dad!).
We had an awesome father/son outing on April 6th to celebrate Ryan's birthday. It was the best pheasant hunt of the season! The only thing that would have made it better is if Ryan would have been with us.
That's it - I'm getting a bird dog.
The weather was harsh, but Mike & I put our heads down and headed to the field.
We were rewarded with a great hunt and some fine roosters.
We had a big group of hunters when we headed out on a sunny February day. It was a respectable outing with all hunters getting at least one rooster.
The emotions that good hunters need to cultivate are love and service more than courage. The sentiments of the hunt then become translated into art.
-- James Swan
In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen.
-- Theodore Roosevelt
He loved the warm sun of summer and the high mountain meadows, the trails through the timber and the sudden clear blue of the lakes. He loved the hills in the winter when the snow comes.
Best of all he loved the fall … the fall with the tawny and grey, the leaves yellow on the cottonwoods, leaves floating on the trout streams and above the hills the high blue windless skies.
He loved to shoot, he loved to ride and he loved to fish.
"When you have shot one bird flying you have shot all birds flying."
"They are all different and they fly in different ways but the sensation is the same and the last one is as good as the first."
-- Ernest Hemingway
We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun; he is no more humane, while his education has been sadly neglected.
-- Henry David Thoreau
When some of my friends have asked me anxiously about their boys, whether they should let them hunt, I have answered yes - remembering that it was one of the best parts of my education - make them hunters.
-- Henry David Thoreau
At home a friend will ask, "Been bird hunting?" You will say that you have, and when he asks, "Have any luck?" You will think of what you have held in your heart instead of your hand, and tell him that you certainly did - without a doubt.
-- Gene Hill, Field & Stream, 1990
I don't regard nature as a spectator sport.
-- Ed Zern
If some animals are good at hunting and others are suitable for hunting, then the Gods must clearly smile on hunting.
-- Aristotle
I kill when I hunt and do not apologize for that, although I reserve the right to think about its implications. I also hunt without killing - whether by accident or design - and I do not apologize for that either. There is room in longbow country for a spectrum of tastes and attitudes, and that is as it should be.
-- E. Donnall Thomas, Jr.