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I contacted Alan Morehouse, the owner of
HOT Guided
Hunts about a bird hunt we had scheduled earlier in the year.
Mix Williams and I along with a friend of Alan’s, which ended up
being a friend of mine, Walter Makowski, would join us on this
hunt. This being my first ever upland game bird hunt I wanted to
talk to Alan about the basics of bird hunting. We talked about the
size of shot and what choke he recommends for Pheasants and Quail.
His recommendations were #4’s with a modified choke for the
Pheasants and 7 ½’s for the Quail. One of the biggest things he
emphasized was that even though these birds are pen raised they will
fly hard, fast and it will not be easy. He also stated that it would
be a laid-back, not in a hurry type of hunt. I think a hunt is more
enjoyable when you take your time and soak up the entire experience.
I picked Mix up at his house about 5:30 AM Saturday morning for the
two-hour drive to Jonesboro. This hunt will take place at Free
Flight Kennels and Hunting Preserve, owned and operated by Ronnie
Sale. When we arrived Alan and Walter where there to greet and meet
us. Alan had Ryan Bolt there to help in the preparations of our hunt
and he was doing the cooking for our lunch later in the day. We were
not in a hurry so we talked a bit about the land we were hunting on,
the birds and the dogs we were going to use. The weather was
perfect, overcast and cool. Earlier in the week it rained 9 inches,
so it would be wet and muddy while we were walking around.
The
first dog we were going to use was Scoop. Scoop is owned by Ronnie
Sale and is an 11 time national and regional champion. This dog has
a pretty easy life.
 She
sleeps in the house and has her own chair. I can’t wait until I
retire.
It was time to go and find some birds. This first field we hunted
was tall grass and sunflowers. Once Scoop was through the gate and
off her leash it was instant bird dog. Again I have never done this
before and to see a dog work like she did was just amazing. As Scoop
would run in front of us you could tell when she would get birdie.
On her first point, Mix and I walked on both sides and in front of
Scoop. When that bird flushed, it made my heart skip a beat and Mix
blasted the hen before I could shoulder my shotgun. Walter would
shoot the next rooster and I was feeling left out. I realized this
is not a 'my turn your turn' game. It all depends on where that bird
decided to fly, if it flies into your shooting lane than shoot at
it.
As Scoop went on-point in front of me, I started to get a little
exited. I walked up the right side of Scoop and Mix on the left. As
a hen flushed from under my feet I shouldered my shotgun and pulled
the trigger. Well I was a little too exited because that hen only
flew out in front of me about 10 ft. You can just imagine what that
bird looked like. OOPS… Alan reminded me to let the birds get out
there a little further before pulling the trigger on them. We all
shot a couple more birds and was time for a break. Scoop was getting
a little tired and Alan wanted to work with one of his 2-½ year
olds.
Our second trip out was in a mesquite flat with T-bone. Though a
young dog, he worked the birds well. When we entered the field the
wind was at out backs, which caused T-bone to run past the birds and
flush them before he could smell and point on them. After we turned
and got the wind correct, T-bone was a pointing fool. If we could of
hit all the birds that were pointed we would have been limited out
real early. The best point, flush and shoot of the day was a 3 way.
As T-bone pointed on a thicket of Mesquite, we moved in to push the
brush and three roosters took to flight. I shot twice at one that
went north but missed. The other two headed east and Mix was all
over one of them. I swung around and tagged the last one with my
remaining shell. T-bone took off and retrieved the birds
beautifully.
Lunch time… Ryan cooked up some beans and bratwurst sausage. We sat
around the picnic table and talked about the different hunt packages
and options that HOT Guided Hunts offers. Ronnie Sale the owner of
Free Flight Kennels and the Hunting Preserve we were on joined us
for lunch. He talked about the dog training he offers and how he
raises the Pheasants and Quail that we are hunting. Ronnie has about
200 goats that he rotates around his property to keep the grasses
and underbrush under control.
After lunch Alan wanted to work with his other 2-½ year old named
Rocky. Rocky was very high spirited and eager to find the birds. We
were trying to find some Quail but again, the wind was at our back
as we worked the top of the field. Rocky was finding them but when
we would flush them they would take off behind us and be out of
range or somehow dodge our shot. We did shoot a few Quail but missed
even more of them. It started to rain so we called it a day and
turned our focus to taking care of the birds we shot. We cleaned a
total of 15 Pheasants and 3 Quail.
Just watching the dogs do a job that they were born to do was
amazing and fun to watch. Sometimes it was just comical how they
would be running and catch the scent of a bird. Their head stops and
points in the direction of the smell as their body is still moving
in the direction they were running. There were a few times that
Rocky would almost fall down as he attempted to stop and point on a
bird.
We would like to thank Alan Morehouse and Ryan Bolt of Hot Guided
Hunts for guiding us and for the use of the dogs. Alan also offers
Turkey, Central Texas Goose, Duck and hog hunts. You can contact
Alan at 254-717-2946 or visit his website
www.HotGuidedHunts.com. We
look forward to enjoying his professional services in the future.
Also, thanks goes out to Ronnie Sale, the owner of Free Flight
Kennels and Hunting Preserve for the use of his land. Ronnie pen
raises roughly 3000 Pheasants and 5000 quail every year and offers
many bird dog training packages, visit his web site
www.rsaledogs.com. Lastly
we want to thank three hard working dogs, Scoop, T-Bone and Rocky.
It was truly
an awesome day of HOT upland bird hunting.
Alan Morehouse, Jered
Kimmel, Mix Williams and Walter Makowski
after a great upland bird hunt with
HOT Guided
Hunts.
Stay tuned to
TexasOutdoorsman.com as we hunt Central Texas
Ducks and Geese with HOT Guided Hunts later this fall.
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