Shooting and Marital Mistakes

           One would think after almost 12 years of marriage, 10 of them blissful (just kidding Kristy) that I would have made all the marital mistakes possible, unfortunately that just isn’t the case as I proved last night.  Shooting mistakes can be much the same way…  After 14 years of wingshooting I have no expectations to connect on all of my shots but I do usually keep my average above 65%.  Yesterday proved to be, one of the worst days of shooting in my life and sadly it coincided with absolutely the best day numbers wise of my short Blue Grouse Career.  I know what you’re saying, “we believe you about the poor shooting, but what did you do to end up in the dog house?”  Well my friends that’s simple, getting home late at night is perfectly acceptable provided you text first to let her know.  What is not acceptable is getting home late at night and crawling into bed with two very dirty bird dogs after she just finished washing the bedding.  Yep I am that guy…

The Empty Hulls of Shame

 



I met Shawn early Saturday morning at his clinic as quickly threw my gear and dogs in his truck and we took off to meet Gary Thompson who was taking us to one of his old grouse spots.  I can’t speak for Shawn but I know for certain I was extremely excited to Gary’s old haunt and it certainly did not disappoint, the cover looked extremely birdy with a mixture of aspens, pines, and sage brush with lots of leafy greens and berries for the birds to feed on.  We moved 7 grouse at that spot with Gary connecting on a real nice right crossing shot on a young blue and I threw lead in the air with no results which turned out to be the story of the day for me.  We hunted there till about 2:00 and then Gary had to get on the road back to Wyoming.  Gary was extremely knowledgeable about the area and grouse hunting in general, on top of that he’s a super great guy and I look forward to hunting with him again in Oct in Montana.

I love the Colors of Fall

 

Gary

 



 

Gary's Covert

 

After Gary left Shawn and I headed to another spot that he said had good numbers of birds and I would have a chance to redeem myself after my abysmal shooting at Gary’s covert.  The spot Shawn had was absolutely beautiful with its large expanses of sage brush prairie with stands of aspens that were quickly turning yellow and to top it all off it was back dropped by some of the most beautiful peaks I have ever seen in my time in Colorado.   As usual Shawn’s knowledge of grouse spots proved to be on point and we ended up having some phenomenal dog work especially from Shawn’s lil pocket setter Gretchen.  We ended up flushing 7 grouse and I missed every one.  Shawn killed one but could have easily limited had he not been trying to put me in the best spots to connect.  All in all it was a wonderful day spent with good friends and great dogs and I look forward to doing it again.  Well except the dirty dogs in bed part…

This place was not only beautiful but productive

 

Scout Backing Gretchen

 

 

Shawn

 

 

Kolt