Here's Hoping For Next Fall...

 Another hunting season is in the books, and actually has been for a while, I've just been too lazy to post anything about it. You already know about the ducks (there weren't any), but quail season, while still very grim, wasn't quite as grim as last year, which was very grim, indeed. As long as I was willing to walk like hell, I could usually find at least a covey or so most times I went out, and in fact averaged about 1.7 coveys per outing over the course of the entire season. 

Just let that sink in. 1.7 coveys per outing, and I'm calling that a good year? Hell, yes. Last year I shot three wild, public-land Oklahoma birds, total. So yeah, I'll take 1.7 coveys over that any day. But I cannot stress enough how many death marches I had to endure to get to that average. And as an aside, I generally refrained from hunting up singles unless the covey was large enough to sustain me shooting (or rather shooting at) any more birds than what I managed to scratch down on the covey rise (usually none to one...). I didn't see many coveys this year that met that definition. 

 The fact is, there simply weren't many birds around this year. All my hopes are now riding on a wet spring and a mild summer. Get that, and next season is looking better, if not anywhere remotely near "good." Don't get that, and instead get another late spring and summer like last year, and I start looking toward Montana...

As for the dogs, Ozzy's puppy season ended much better than it began. At 14 months old, he's much more confident and bold than he was back in September. Overall I'm very pleased with him. His personality is awesome, he's got a good nose, his range is settling in to where I want it, his stamina is impressive and he's developed a toughness, both mental and physical, that I quite honestly didn't see (or more likely wasn't smart enough to see) early on. I just need to keep getting him into birds and keep developing that confidence. I think he's going to be a good one. This season was his, for lack of a better term, Hippie training. I didn't put any pressure on him, I just let him run and basically do whatever he felt like doing. Hippie training is now over, and between now and next fall the focus will be on turning him into a polished gem. Or at least a shiny piece of quartz.

Jenny, too, continued to get better as the season progressed. Which is good, because poor Jenny, who turns three next month, just had the bad luck to come along at a time when quail hunting in Oklahoma is about as bad as it can possibly be. Not counting her puppy year, this was her second full hunting season, and at three she should by all rights be developing into a seasoned veteran. She's just not there yet, but if I can keep her away from the damn porcupines, I think she'll get there.  Both of them are going to be seeing a helluva lot of pigeons and field work this spring and summer.

A few pics from one of the last few hunts of the season...

Ever have one of those days when the dogs just didn't want to look good? Both Jenny and Ozzy usually have fairly high tails (Ozzy actually pulls his a bit), but for whatever reason this was just a lackluster day, style-wise. There were quail there, but those points are not going to win any style awards. Granted, they were both pretty much worn-out at that point, and Jenny had just been corrected, twice, for porky points, so I know she was sulking some. This was one of two coveys we found all day, this one thirty minutes before shooting time ended.  I missed both birds on the covey rise, then hunted a few singles just to try to get some pics. Yeah, I missed them, too. Ever try to shoot a gun and a camera at the same time? Never works...

Lunch, which consisted of an apple, some colby-jack cheese, peanuts, ham and a few mugs of lapsang souchong, the Laphroaig of teas...

Ozzy at the end of the hunt, after logging, according to the Alpha, a 26-mile day. The kid was tired. So was I. Jenny had already hopped into the truck, done.

All in all, I can't complain. This season was frustrating, yes, but it was also something to build on, and for that I'm thankful. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and looking forward to next fall.