SORRY, All these photos were lost when the Llewellin.8k.com domain was lost by freeservers and did not transfer them to www.mvsetter.com domain. We had an awesome opening day of the Kentucky quail season. Unfortunately, we thought Mike Jr. was taking pictures all day with his cell phone and he only took one picture in the field. We hunted till dark and never got pictures at the end of opening days take, but we only had three hunters for opening day including myself. Russ and Byron could not make it this time. We hunted 6 different dogs including or new young Stud GDC Dashing Bondhu Prince, and he pointed and retrieved perfectly on all his birds, including his first bird without any prior training. We got 28 quail just 2 birds short of three person limit. All dogs are our PURE DASHING BONDHU's and all agreed, this was our BEST annual hunt yet! We wish Byron and Russ could have made it.
2010-2011 Season
Starting out, 2010 opening day! It was cloudy and mild. We did have drought condition all summer, so the cover was very thin and far between. The birds were mostly in thick wooded cover and we had to get them to flush out into the open fields for clear shots on singles. Here is one and only picture of opening day after pointing and flushing a covey out into a dry alfalfa field. As usual, the dogs both young and old, pointed on every bird and did not miss a retrieve and we got every downed bird. 28 quail with just three of us shooting. pictured is Ringo and Hank backing him. They just continue to get better with age. They were not trained, just hunted, 100% Natural or "Born broke" is what some people call them.
This was our first hunt on Kansas Ringnecks and it won't be our last! We went in late November and ended the day with 15 beautiful cock birds with just three of us hunting on our own and the best surprise to the hunt was getting a dozen native quail in the process, which we did not expect on the hunt at all.
2010 Kansas Ringneck Hunt!
Of course the dogs did amazingly well on both and the birds held and flushed well compared to the Chinese Ringneck we had hunted in the past. The birds were amazingly beautiful, perfectly feathered, super strong and fast flyers with striking deep color and markings and extremely long tails. They are a leaner bird at least a pound lighter than other Ringnecks we have hunted in the past and do not run on the dogs, at least not with our Setters who circle around them quickly if they try. We could not ask for a better bird hunt and all agreed, it was our best hunt EVER! They are also outstanding for eating, especially Pheasant catchatorie <spel?> :)
Dennis and Mike Sr. with Old faithful Hank!
12 quail, 15 Kansas Ringneck cocks!
We hunted four of our Setters on these birds.
Dennis and Mike Jr. with Hank and Ringo in the dog box.
12 native quail, 15 Kansas Ringneck cocks.
Mike Sr. and Mike Jr. with Hank and Ringo in box.
12 native quail and 15 Kansas Ringneck cocks.Sorry, for all the pictures of the same birds and not of the dogs in the field, but this was an amazing day and was hunting them as well. I don't usually hunt when we have family on a hunt, but only my nephew Dennis and my son Mike Jr, could make it. We got them in only about 5 hours of hunting with four different dogs, but Hank was with us the whole time. Dennis used my 20 ga. Frenchi over and under this year and I been using a 28 ga. Over and under the past two years and had no problem smacking down those Kansas Ringnecks and quail. In fact, I usually wait for the guys to miss or have a chance and take really long shots and it really smacked them down, I am holding it in the picture. Mike Jr. used and is holding his favorite gun of mine a 20 ga. Magnum Light weight 870 Remington. I have killed more deer, turkey, pheasants, grouse, quail, rabbits with that 870 then any gun I have owned, but like using an over under on birds now, especially since I keep all shells for reloading. I have a nice high gloss 1100 20 ga. LT just like the 870, but no way to get all the shells for reloading. We load our own 20 ga shells and cannot get the same performance from anything we have purchased as my 1 oz. reloads. I hope to start loading my 28 ga. shells soon with the same 1oz. loads.
We had several more wonderful hunts so far this season and went back out on a Kansas Ringneck hunt in mid December with Dennis and another nephew Steven and that was his first hunt ever, he was a natural at knocking down those ringnecks. Had missed some quail, but smacked every pheasant with my 20 ga. light weight 870 pump. The weather was awful, cold rain, and snow, but we managed to have another good hunt and killed about two dozen quail and about 8 Kansas Ringnecks that day. We could of hunted the second day, but it was freezing rain and sleet all day, so they decided to leave a day early with their new pup, that Dennis purchased from us. Unfortunately, we did not get done hunting until after dark, so sorry about no pictures of the take on that trip.
Though not all photographed, most of our dogs were hunted on these hunts and
all are hunted throughout the season. We try and get every dog out hunting within the season to keep them fine tuned. All our dogs are PROVEN NATURAL bird dogs and have been "Gun Dog Certified".Next season looks to be an awesome year, we have some awesome young dogs to finish and have planned some more Kansas Ringneck hunts, Kentucky wild Quail hunts, TN & KY Ruffed Grouse hunts, and might even go on a CA Valley Quail hunt if time allows us.
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All documents, photographs and graphics are Copyright © 1996-2011 Mountain View Kennel. Background "painting" of Dashing Blaze Bondhu, pure Dashing Bondhu Llewellin Setter dedicated in her loving memory.
