Thread: GAME BIRD PHOTO COMP . GO FETCH !

Originally Posted by upnorth uplander

@mikee, same applies to you

Thank you for the kind offer, nearly convinced to get the truck on the ferry and go for that 'overseas trip"

Originally Posted by mikee

Thank you for the kind offer, nearly convinced to get the truck on the ferry and go for that 'overseas trip"

Do it, awesome part of the country.

Beats whinging to me Mikee - there's your offer to grab Munsey and go on a northern pheasant safari. Uplanders spots then mine

@ MIKEE get your A into G BOY! What are ya ditherin for?

Originally Posted by upnorth uplander

Aupouri forest is now in Iwi hands bro & guess who's Iwi.

Sup cuz?

Sorry Iv been Slack arse . Will run it till end of this month . Get your last entries in please .

Game bird season finished here but these feckers are game all season.

Mother and son with double retrieve

Last Weekend for the Ducks & this( not very well run ) photo comp . Don't forget your cameras if you going out for the last hit on them Ducks . Im Out Saturday & Sunday 3am start so nighty night & more photos please

Nighty night

Dog went well considering how cold it was (poor dog had Ice forming on his jacket ) .One Heavy duck needing double act .

Go
Last weekend took the dog and gun for a walk. Fired one shot and some how got this fast one out of his 60 other friends sure did taste good

The 2016 season is almost over and while we still sorely miss our great old GWP mate who passed away Dec 2015, Burl (now 10 years GWP) and I have had the additional excitement in the latter part of this season of introducing our new apprentice GWP to the wonders of hunting and the outdoors.

There follows a few highlights of Thor's first season and a couple of memorable retrieves. Thor was whelped on 6th April 2016 and like Burl is a purebred GWP. Burl has been remarkably patient with this pup and I have been able to utilize him in demonstrating work to the pup. Thor is now making short retrieves of dummies by swimming as well.


This rooster comprised an interesting hunt. It was the Saturday of the big blow and snowstorm. I looked around for a partially sheltered gully in mid Kaingaroa forest where I had previously located quail. There was no sign anywhere so we wandered about 300metres up an adjacent valley with 20ft high trees either side. Burl pointed a hen pheasant and then flushed it. I suspected there would be a rooster somewhere abouts and as there was no other sign of life in the poor weather conditions decided to just hang about and listen. 20 minutes later we heard a cock bird crow down valley more or less where we had come from. We dawdled back down there until breaking out into younger pines with no more scent or sign. I headed north up a small track. After maybe 200 metres Burl went on point in the border between young and old trees. I could move nowhere and just had to hope that when the bird broke out, that I might get a shot. he did break out and flew right along a ridgeline 40 m in front over the young trees. The time was extremely short but luckily the 20 ga 7's found the mark . Burl now had an awful job ahead to retrieve to find and bring back that bird through stiff blackberry and fern all intergrown. He is a large dog of 40 kg.
Pup Thor stayed with me until Burl arrived at the edge of the blackberry pushing the bird through the last barrier at my feet where I was able to pick it up while he extricated himself. Good boy!

Burl completes his retrieve in professional style.


The next pic is of the pup and old dog savoring the hunt.

Burl thought this was pretty cool and since his retrieve training on various dummies had been going well I decided to toss the bird up the track for him. The next pic shows Thor learning to pick up a bigger heavier REAL bird than he had experienced with "pretend ones"

He is exactly 4 months old here and retrieved the bird to my hand after figuring out how to get his mouth around it's chest. He just loved the scent of this fresh bird and up till now had only "sight pointed" small birds around home, but not properly "Scent pointed"

On Monday 22nd August we decided to go hunt an old riverbed where metal had been extracted and had lots of good close but workable cover. I really wanted to find somewhere for pup that did not have quite as difficult cover as blackberry infested too high trees and where I knew a few quail always hung about. Not productive enough for most hunters to bother about, but I only wanted one workable covey. After a few hours working the area and virtually almost back at my vehicle old Burl went on point and roaded very slowly maintaining the point. Pup was 3 yards behind Burl and honoured the point all the way. The roading was so slow I was able to stroke each dogs back in turn and keep pup very calm. After perhaps 25 metres Burl locked up with a dense thicket in front of him and beyond that an abrupt drop into the riverbed. Not wanting to disturb the point of either dog, especially pup, I waited. We all three waited until finally the covey of quail broke out. Luckily I managed to drop one with the beretta 20ga and immediately had to contain an over enthusiastic Burl from going in to retrieve it. I sat pup down and threw a small pebble in to where the bird fell and then gave Thor the fetch command. The bird was down a hole in quite dense cover and he had to circle about for a minute or two to zero in on it with his nose, first pointing it and then with a further fetch command prompt from me he picked it out of the hole and retrieved it to hand. I was able to take a small movie of this very special event and have extracted a couple of still from that movie. Thor is not gun shy (that was a much earlier training series) so this delightful series of actions has culminated in a pup that can honour a point, road, find and retrieve a bird shot over him.
Needless to say I am very proud of what this pup has achieved in his 4 1/2 month life ---so far

@Munsey, how we going with the results on this? Lanyard just needs finishing off...