You can see in this picture I have my gun slung on my shoulder. It’s a bad habit I have decided that I picked up hunting sage grouse this year because of the many many miles hiked chasing them. 

It became easier on my broken down body to carry my gun this way, and it has continued to try to teach me it is a stupid idea for upland bird hunting.

Now let me clarify that by saying that if you have a dog that is rock steady on point, and the game is willing to hold as long as it takes, well then this is a great idea.

But I have had Chukar and pheasant and sharptails and sage grouse all try to teach me this year that this is not what prepared looks like. I spend so many resources getting ready for and going on a hunt, not keeping my gun at the ready invalidates any other preparation.  I have had all these birds wild flush and have not had time to get my gun to my shoulder properly and dialed in in order to make the hard work pay off. 

My French Brittanys keep looking at me like I have lost my mind. They show me that they are getting “birdy” and so I get ready and wait and watch and creep up only for nothing to happen so many times I put the gun back on my shoulder and it is at that moment that we finally pin down an unbelievable rooster and I get to watch him fly away.

I was beating myself up over this last night telling the story to anyone who would listen and I seriously watched the longest tail I have seen in the longest time fly away because I was ready.

Well out with my son and a friend this morning what do you think happened…. Yep 15 feet from me a beautiful rooster came up and I got to watch him fly away because again I wasn’t paying attention.

I guess what it boils down to is I need to stop getting distracted or tired or lazy and let the dogs be successful by bringing down the game they are working so hard to find. 

Ginger I am sorry that is two amazing roosters in a row in less than 24 hours that you worked hard to find for me and I didn’t bring down for you.