WA Upland Season

Brock A

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Buckley, WA
I got a new pup last year, a German Shorthair. A first for me as I have always had labs. Anyway, it has been pretty enjoyable hunting behind "Moose" this year. He turned 1 on 11/29 and is really kicking ass. He definitely "gets it".

We started this summer with some dove on a local dairy farm



Then got a little grouse action

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Next we rolled right into pheasant as soon as my big game hunts were over for the year. Here he is with his first rooster.



A hunt just shy of a 3 man limit. He was one TIRED pup after this hunt. I almost had to carry him back to the truck.

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Solo day for him and I, We got 3 roosters and a few quail.

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First chuckar hunt, we got 2 along with a few quail. Poor shooters this day for Moose, he wasnt happy with us...

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I took him on his birthday weekend. He pointed 3 roosters and being solo, I picked the wrong side of the tree for 2 of them. I was able to knock the 3rd one down for him though. Biggest tail to date, it was also his 12th rooster on the year.

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We are headed back over east this weekend. Hoping to get into some birds!
 
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Joined
May 9, 2012
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Bothell, Wa
Awesome report. Keep them coming.

My pup, at 14, retired this year. I could have gone out with some friends, who are having a pretty decent year too, but couldn't bring myself to leave her behind to go bird hunting. So I'll just live vicariously thru you for now :)

Well done! A pup who smells like a cross between a swamp and a sage bush is a happy pup indeed!!!!
 

wyodan

WKR
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Jan 11, 2013
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Seen your pup on Instagram. It looks to me that he is doing his job well!
 
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May 10, 2017
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WASHINGTON
Way to go, Moose and Brock! my lab mack and i hunted the wet side exclusively this year and did pretty well. seemed to have more bird encounters as the season went on. not sure if that was due to planting schedule or just us. don't know if i'll be able to get to the dry side before the season ends, but I may give it a shot if the opportunity arises.

Oh, and a public service announcement...PLEASE wear safety glasses! I know that the release areas get a lot of traffic and I avoid other hunters when at all possible, but I took a pellet in the nose this year. Thankfully I was wearing safety glasses (always do). I won't bore you with the details, but I came out of a trail behind a downed tree and brush and someone shot at something between us and I got smacked with at least one pellet in the face.


willy
 
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Brock A

Brock A

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Buckley, WA
Way to go, Moose and Brock! my lab mack and i hunted the wet side exclusively this year and did pretty well. seemed to have more bird encounters as the season went on. not sure if that was due to planting schedule or just us. don't know if i'll be able to get to the dry side before the season ends, but I may give it a shot if the opportunity arises.

Oh, and a public service announcement...PLEASE wear safety glasses! I know that the release areas get a lot of traffic and I avoid other hunters when at all possible, but I took a pellet in the nose this year. Thankfully I was wearing safety glasses (always do). I won't bore you with the details, but I came out of a trail behind a downed tree and brush and someone shot at something between us and I got smacked with at least one pellet in the face.


willy
Wow that's crazy! Yeah I won't hunt the west side for that reason alone.

We have killed a couple release birds but the majority have been wild. Which is cool because he will follow the trail of wild birds for a good distance before they hold and he points. He really has to work for them. The release birds are funny, they hold tight right where they are at. He has been close to catching a few of those.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
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Brock A

Brock A

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Well I knew sooner or later we were going to have a tough weekend of hunting. It all cant be awesome. My GPS said 17 miles. We got 9 pheasant up, 3 being roosters. I knocked the first one down and it fell in some very thick reeds onto a frozen pond. I am guessing it hit the ice and ran. We couldn't find it and after I fell through the ice to my knees trying to help break trail for moose, we kept moving. The other two roosters were a little out of range and didn't hold at all. Of course, all but 1 hen flushed right in my face! Moose had a bit of limp Saturday night and this morning he was still favoring his left paw so we checked out a new spot for next weekend and headed home. He got the day off.

Saturday after we got back to the truck after shooting hours, I opened the door for him and then went to the back of the truck and took my vest off and put my gun away, he was sound asleep in less than a minute, haha!

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ORHunter

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Jun 28, 2015
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Oregon
Congrats on a great start to the season! I was driving through E WA a few weeks ago and noticed some good looking habitat that was open to hunting. It was tempting to let the dog out for a bit to stretch his legs.
 
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