Pheasant Hunting

This was the second year we’ve spend time hunting public land in South Dakota.  Last year we attended the Vizsla Club of Colorado’s “Red Dogs & Roosters” hunting trip in Chamberlain, SD and couldn’t wait to go again this year.  We ended up picking two weekends to go, the first Nov 7th-8th and the second for Thanksgiving.  We were joined by our good friends, Tim Bintner and Liz Krupinski for both trips and we made memories to last a lifetime.

Marc’s most exciting event was the perfect owner/dog situation.  Indy pointed a pheasant, Marc was able to down the bird, and then Indy retrieved it back to hand.  Needless to say, he was a proud Papa!  This was also particularly exciting as wild pheasants are FAST!  This was the first wild pheasant Marc has shot, and a huge achievement after only picking up the spot a year ago (and only practicing a handful of times).

Our precious Vizsla puppy, Karma, also came, but stayed in the car with Schmavitz while we hunted the fields.  On breaks, or before the 10:00am hunting start time, we would let Karmie venture out and explore.  A highlight for us was when Marc was trying to take a picture with Indy and their first pheasant.  We decided to take a photo with Karma too, and just couldn’t get her to cooperate — she was too focused on that big rooster!  Guess we got our bird dog after all 🙂

Liz and Tim also had a successful weekend.  Stoli and Caymus hunted like the Master Hunters they are and Gavi hunted like the Master Hunter she should be!  Gavi is two legs short of her Master title, but it has nothing to do with her drive in the field!  She is VERY birdy, and also the littlest of the Weims, so you’ll notice she wears an orange vest in the photos…those little grey dogs are quite camouflaged when they want to be!  Tim was able to down two pheasants and his buddy Stoli retrieved them right back for him.

Thanksgiving weekend, we headed to Winner, SD and had a wonderful time.  Tim and Liz spent Thanksgiving with family in Iowa while Jenny and Marc spent Thanksgiving with our friends, Jeff, Alan, and Fran.  We all met up on Friday and were able to down a few birds each before sunset.  Saturday and Sunday were equally wonderful: great friends, beautiful location, and seeing our dogs extremely happy, doesn’t get much better than that!