When I’m upland bird hunting, particularly for ruffed grouse, I like to explore. Traditional coverts are wonderful things to have and hold close. They are the places that come to mind when you look at a masterpiece sporting painting replete with bird dogs, side-by-sides and flushing ruffs captured in flight. But the cover changes over time. To me grouse and woodcock hunting is at least half about finding the next great covert.
It was on that kind of walk-about a few years ago I got lost! I was hunting an expanse of “dog hair” poplar. When I set out it was cloudy with a chance of rain, but it was an area I’d hunted deer all my life. I’d been on every logging trail in the area at least twice, most a whole bunch more than that. I knew the area well enough to instill false confidence. Take a compass – nah, forget about it – no problem. While the dog and I were in the depths of the thicket fog set in. There was no telling where the sun was and I couldn’t see more than 30 yards even in rare openings. No problem. Heck, I knew where we were…
Comments on this entry are closed.