A Good Days Hunting

Well it's been a few days now since I updated the Hunting and Shooting Gazette so I taught I would tell you all how I got on with my own days shooting. My brother Richie and I went out on Friday for a few hours with my gun dog Lady a Springer Spaniel. We went down to a place where we knew we would get a bit of shooting seen as Richie hasn't got any pheasants this year yet as he was sick for a few weeks and didnt get to go out shooting.

Anyway we left the house around 9am was drizzling a bit we were hoping it would be gone before we started hunting. We drove a few miles down the road to a place called the gurteens and parked the car and got the guns a dog out of the boot. When we got into the first field we decided to hunt along the first ditch down to a little ash plant wood.
As we expected no sign of any Pheasants along that ditch so we crossed a little stream into the ash plant and hunted it across to the far side of it where we new there was a maize stubble field where we taught we might see an auld cock pheasant but nothing.
It wasnt looking like a good start to the day but at least the drizzle of rain had stopped. We climbed over the fence into a grass field beside the stubble and hunted the ditches over two fields to a few wheat stubble fields only seen a few rabbits in the grass fields but let them off for another day.

When we were getting over the ditch into the stubble field when lady trailed up the ditch around 60 yards and rose a nice cock but we didn't get a shot at it. I watched from top of the ditch as it flew back for the maize field we had hunted. We hunted the bottom ditch across and she rose another cock out the far side of the ditch two pheasants seen and hadn't taken a shot yet it was looking like a good day for the birds ha-ha.
We got to the corner of the field and Richie hopped out through a gap on the ditch into another stubble field. we hunted up the ditch in between the two fields the dog was a bit steadier now and was taken her time. Half way up the ditch she started to get excited on Richie's side and he called me to watch out for something. He put lady into the ditch and a few seconds later out comes a woodcock.
It flew lovely back down along the ditch around 30 yards and I dropped him with the first shot. I sent lady back and she retrieved the woodcock back to me. After I put the woodcock in my game bag we headed up along the ditch towards a little grove in the corner separating the field that Richie was in with another stubble. Richie stood in the gateway of the two fields and I stood in the middle of the grove at my side so i could get a shot if  anything came my side.
I sent lady in and she hunted the grove thats usually good for a pheasant but nothing in it today. Just as I started to walk up the rest of the ditch lady flushed a cock out towards me i fired with the first and missed then the cock turned to go back out over the ditch and I dropped it with the second. Richie wasn't to happy as he couldn't get a shot at it seen as we were out to get him his first of the season.

Anyway after stopping to have a look at the pheasant we went to the ditch on the other side of the field that Richie was in. We looked for somewhere Richie could get onto the other side but couldn't find anywhere so we hunted the ditch. Around 200 yards down and lady started getting excited and we got ready. She went into the ditch and we could hear her working her way down a bit and up gets a pheasant it was a cock it flew out the other side and we couldn't get a shot, It didn't look like it was going to be Richie's day. We hunted two more stubble fields and seen one other cock but didn't get a shot at him either. It had started to drizzle again so we decide to head back for the car.
We hunted two bogs on the way back in the first bog we rose a few snipe and richie got a fine shot on one and he dropped him. He walked on a bit further with lady and she rose another cock infront of him. He panicked on it a fired a bit quick and missed with the two shots. On we went into the second bog which had a few birch trees growing in it I gave a walk through them with lady while richie stood on the outside for something flying out that way. Half way through the trees and lady rose another woodcock infront of me. It was out round 20 yards when I fired the first shot and missed. I steadied up a bit a hit it with the second shot around 50 yards out.Second woodcock of the day down for me was delighted. We hunted back to the car but rose nothing else but all in all we had a good days shooting a bag of 1 Pheasant, 2 woodcock and 1 Snipe.

Richie and I enjoyed the day even tho he didn't get his first pheasant for the season yet but still plenty of time left yet. Hope you enjoyed hearing about our day shooting as we had out hunting and hope to see you back at the Hunting and Shooting Gazette again soon.

Yours in Sport,

The Hunting And Shooting Gazette