In Montana for the opener

Planned a trip west for work so that I could also hit the September 1st opener for grouse, partridge and dove. Northeast Montana is just loaded with birds and gets little hunting pressure and it seemed like I was the only hunter out and about from what I could tell. Seen maybe 100 to 150 pheasants in total today either in front of the dogs or along the roads. Not as many sharptails but enough to miss a few and kill a few. Quit are 10:30 with the temp hitting 80 and a 4 bird limit. It's a bird hunters paradise and great for young dogs.

Here's Tober who turns 9 months old this weekend. And supper, Sharptail grouse and dumplings. Yup

Very nice, I am counting the days for the pheasant season opener in SoDak next month.

Awesome!

This morning more of the same, tons of pheasants and a few sharptails but we ran into 3 groups of partridge as well. Shot one from each, add in a couple more sharptails and it was all I wanted to lug around. It was 80 by 10am any way and the dogs were feeling it. Been hot all week, up to 97 by the afternoons but going to cool off tonight.

Birds

Lucky you, didn't know season opened so early. Nice pics

Man I'm super jealous. I was hoping to go out west in Nov for the Kansas opener, wife has some new commitments and looks like I won't be able to make it.

Thanks for the pictures.

Weather changed today to be a little cooler. First pic in Tober and Tuck on a covey of Huns. Not 9 months old and leading the way. Tuck going to be 10 soon and is more or less a 3 legged dog with a bad hip. Fine for the grouse and woodcock woods still but wide open running wears on him.

Tuck in the truck and Tobs on his own telling me there's a few sharptails right in front of him.

4 sharptails and a Hun in the bag today and and uncountable number of points on pheasants, sharps and huns. Yeah, a few bumped birds too. But for a young pup, Montana in like Christmas.

So today is my last day in Montana, heading home in the morning. It's been the best 6 days of bird hunting and working dogs on wild birds that I've had and will be back. Some details, this is the first time I've been here and I came in mostly blind to what to expect. #1 was finding a place to stay. There are motels in Plentywood and Culbertson but with the oil boom out here I wasn't excited about one of those. I looked on AirBNB for a house and Craigslist and found a trailer home in Froid. $75 a day and it has a washer and dryer plus AC. Home away from home really. There is a small grocery store and a little cafe in Froid but I brought food and cooked birds. #2, where to hunt. I hunted all block management units, private land open to public hunting. The Montana DNR has maps on their website. Then I just went with my guts and looked for food and resting area close together and went hunting. There are miles and miles of wheat fields here and they are cutting it right now. The crops of all the birds is full of wheat. Fine a wheat field next to grassland and let the dogs go.

And I've read some of the dove hunting posts. Ha, doves up the wazoo here and no one to kill them. It's not like GA though, sitting around a feed field waiting for a fly by cause it's all one big feed field here. I could have shot 10 doves a day just jump shooting them but I only brought 100 #8's cartridges. Next year I'll know better. I took my English made Agnew 16 bore, 2 1/2" with 30" Damascus barrels bores skeet 1 and skeet 2. Perfect for pointed birds. 2 or 3 guys with flushing dogs and modern guns holding 3 or more shells could really wipe out a covey.

Here is a pic of Tober and Tuck with a covey of Huns pinned between them.

And hard working dogs earn a few privileges not normally given at home

Well all those pheasants I had to pass on two months ago never really left my mind so I packed up the dogs and headed west again this past weekend. The "blizzard" that came through the Dakota's and Minnesota late last week had me a bit concerned but I headed out early Saturday morning anyway. The U.P. was a bit rough going with the snow storm and US-2 through Minnesota was pretty much unplowed but I made Grand Forks ND after 14 hours of driving. Hit Montana Sunday around noon and saw a few spots on the way to Froid to let the dogs stretch their lets at so we stopped. Scratched down one old rooster and passed on a pile of hens. Also flock shot a group of 40 sharptails with both barrelsIt's been awhile

Anyway Monday was a bit cold at 32 degrees and the wind at 10 mph but man where the birds out. Found another big group of sharps first thing and bagged one. Pheasants were everywhere but a little smarter now after being chased around the past month since the season opened. The dogs handled the runners well but the old smart birds did the wait til I walk past them before flushing trick and they were 2 for 3 on escaping. The young of the year and the hens held well. Also found a group of Huns and hit one but not well and it struggled to make it to cover 300 yards away. Try as we may that bird was lost.

I'll post some dog work pics tomorrow. Pheasants are really heavy after totting around grouse and woodcock the past 2 months.

What a trip! Stylish points and fine looking gun. Stock almost appears to be of tiger walnut. Lemme guess the weight--5 lbs.,, 12 oz.? Here's a discussion of Agnew guns on another site. The gun in question is a hammer gun, but a complete history of Agnew is found in trw999's post. Gil
http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums...Main=36131&Words=Agnew&Search=true#Post428668

Thanks for the info on the Agnew. Yes it's under 6 pounds even with 30" damascus barrels. Nice when walking for hours and hours. And yes the stock is very well figured for a lower grade gun but that's the English for you. They didn't make many canoe paddles 100 years ago. Non-ejector and light border scroll but it's the fit, finish and small attention to details I see that mean time and effort were involved to make this gun by hand. It has taken game for over 100 years and I wish it could write a book about its life.

Most of my old doubles are also non-ejector, BLNE. Your gun also has a Deely latching system for the forend which is a feature of higher graded guns. The amount of handwork and fitting of the English guns done before WWII makes them works of art in my opinion. I've read where the best value for one's dollar is a Brit gun, BLNE. (Boxlock, non-ejector). Gil

Note the forend on my E&G Higham BLE 16 ga. The forend wood is a match to your stock. The actual stock on my gun is an old restock job, rather plain. Highly figured wood can be prone to breaking in the wrist, especially straight stocked guns. This gun has 29" steel barrels and was made around 1905 and is with ejectors. It's choked C/F which is a typical choke for English guns from this era. For woodcock, I shoot a spreader load in the left barrel and non-spreader in the C barrel. I shoot 2.5" low pressure 7/8 oz. loads.

This trip I'm shooting RST 2 1/2" 1 oz 7's in the 1st barrel and 1 oz 6's in the 2nd. Been knocking them dead and my barrels are choked skeet 1 and skeet 2. Made some long shots too.

An interesting day. Started off by having a 3X3 mule deer buck cross the road in front of me then changed his mind and about jump over my hood going back to where he came from. I was exploring today and went north to maybe 5 miles from the Canadian border. It was cold and windy but the area had corn when I drove by it in September next to pasture so I figured once the corn was gone the birds would be thick. They were not. But I did see a snowy owl and a great horned owl together hunting the area. I found that odd. SO odd I looked on the net to see if different types of owls ever hunted together. They don't. There was no game around so those two pros made a good living hanging out together. And I mean sitting in the same tree and flying from one tree to another together. Odd.

Next spot I got out of the truck and 75 yards into the walk Tober points, two roosters get up and I take the right one quick and the left one at some distant straight away. My first clean double on pheasants. The first bird is hung in a tree and Tob is wondering were is it. Tuck saw the 2nd one drop and he's pointing it. 5 minutes later both are in the bag. I spied an island of wet and weeds in the middle of a grain field and those are 99% of the time a hot spot. This one was, for hens. 20 hens bale out and one rooster. I was looking birds over and was to late on picking out the rooster. No shot. More driving and looking. Bumped a few sharptails off the two tracks but was more interested on finding new areas. Dog work was spotty early but they got back in the game in the afternoon on some long finds on sharptails. Ended the day with 2 pheasants and two Sharps. Back in Friod I had them allsitting on a big spool outside cooling before I butchered them and a F-ing cat stole one of my grouse! Cory Ford for those who have read his books has a chapter about ferrel cats.

The last place we hunted we bumped a whitetail doe and on her heels a full size buck. Full size! 150" plus Montana biggin. This area has a few mule deer but lots more whitetails. In GA and MI we are used to deer in the woods so I'm amazed that big whitetails live in the wide open like they do here. And grow old doing it.

Sounds like a good time. Having lived and hunted in Colorado I have to ask how many miles did you walk per day to see that number of birds.

Abrannon, in September the dogs and I hunted from sun up til 10am or so because of the heat but we would still find 4 or 5 coveys of Huns and sharptails, enough to fill the game bag plus countless pheasants.

The trip back in November we would start a little later in the morning to let the pheasants move from bedding to feeding and back to the thicker weeds before hunting as it's pointless to hunt them with pointing dogs while feeding in the grain fields. They just run like little raptors. Roosters tend to stick together and you would see 15, 20, 30 roosters feeding out in the cut wheat at sun up and just before sun set. So anyway I'd hunt til I had 3 roosters or til noon which ever came first to let the dogs get some rest. Sunset was around 5pm so I'd head back out for an hour or so before sunset to look for Huns and sharptails.