![]() ![]() Carter's Virginia Hurricane Lucky Lady Freis - AKA Lucky. |
Lucky's puppy
pictures - 9 to 12 weeks old:
The weather Lucky endured so young has nothing to do with her drive,
but she's wired as if it did. She hunts full bore all the time, just
like her parents
Buster and Shiloh. I hunted with her daddy Buster when he was
13 and he had the energy of a 3 year old. When the tailgate drops,
these dogs are gone a 1/4 mile or more in a minute, at a steady lope.
They routinely check back, unless they find turkeys, when they bark
like mad. The last picture above right is Lucky at 3 months old
December 2, 2011. |
Lucky enjoying the snow in January 2012 at four and a half months old. |
Lucky in training from April to
September '12 (when she turned 1 y.o.). She's not one to be under your
feet.
|
Lucky runs deep like the Gordon
Setter and English Pointer that she is. When she barks, she's found
the turkeys and is getting each and every one off the ground. A pleasure to hunt with and look at (click to enlarge). |
Training September 2012
|
September 2012 - she gets out
there!
|
Hunting October 2012 - the first
of many turkeys with Lucky. Keena is glad for the help.
|
Training
and hunting 2013 and 2014![]() ![]() She's so fast, it's hard to get a good picture. ![]() ![]() More eye candy: ![]() ![]() This Virginia dog doesn't care if it's 10 degrees outside, if there are turkeys around. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Click here if you want a dog like her. |
The Fall 2015
season. Lucky is in her prime, a joy to hunt with and look
at.
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Wisconsin
Fall & Winter 2016
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ← Winter Solstice → turkey hunt provides holiday dinner by Dan Small. Courtesy Dan Small & Wisconsin Outdoor News |
Fall
& Winter 2017 "I spent all my money on dogs
and hunting. If
I had it to do all over again, I'd do it the
same." Jon Freis - Maribel, WI 1/1/18
Landline: 920-776-1272. Electronic Mail |
Finally, Lucky
doesn't have to do all the work. She got some much appreciated help in
2018 from two young dogs:
Carroll's Turkey Dog Kennel Club Suki and Rose's Virginia Red. Lot's of memories, every picture's got a good story. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() "The best thing about hunting and fishing,' the Old Man said, 'is that you don't have to actually do it to enjoy it. You can go to bed every night thinking about how much fun you had twenty years ago, and it all comes back clear as moonlight." "The Old Man's Boy Grows Older," 1957 - Robert Ruark ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() With all the snow this season, we had the long underwear on so long it hurts to take it off, when the hair grew right through the fabric. |
Fall
and Winter 2019.
Some years everything goes right. This year it was all uphill, forgot
to put a
shell in the chamber a few times, left the dog tracker on all
night (dead battery), walked downwind instead of
up, got lost and my feet hurt. In June I carried water for
the trees, after that it was too wet. If it wasn't for Suki showing me
where the dead turkey is laying, might not have found it
in the flooded woods (1st one below). Other pictures of the year:ND, SD, MN, WI and MI had their wettest year on record in 2019, according to NOAA (since records were first kept in the late 1800's). It may have been too deep to cross a stream, too windy for the dog to catch a scent, too much snow, or too cold. But for farmers it was catastrophic. Pictured
below, Suki and Red are feeling rich after their first bath.
Washed off
the skunk they had fun chasing.
"Rich,
'the Old Man said dreamily, 'is not baying after
what you can't have. Rich is having the time to do what you want to do.
Rich is a little whiskey to drink and some food to eat and a roof over
your head and a fish pole and a boat and a gun and a dollar for a box
of shells. Rich is not owing any money to anybody, and not spending
what you haven't got." Robert
Ruark
|
Fall and Winter 2020
When hunting turkeys with a dog, half the fun is watching the turkeys outsmart the hunters. The other half is watching the dogs outsmart the turkeys. Turkeys aren't afraid of dogs, they can outrun most of them. And fly away when they can't. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This year we were rooting for the turkeys. Between Avian Pox, LPDV, predators, and so many people out of work because of the pandemic (Spring and Fall), the turkeys got extra pressure. When we hunt them with dogs, if we don't get one, that's ok. We did our part to help the population, kind of like Catch and Release, but for turkeys. Twenty times the fun, saves twenty times the turkeys. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Anyone concerned about the turkey population should hunt them in Fall, when the vast majority of the magnificent birds get away. In Spring they say: "That's beautiful, let's kill it." In Fall we say: "That's beautiful, watch this." Join the Club. Save the Dogs. Save the Turkeys. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Questions & comments. |
Highlights of the 2021 Fall and Winter season
(Sept. 18 - Jan. 9, 2022),
including predator control and finding unusual things in the woods.
Like a big dusting area, a Green Heron, a Great
Blue Heron rookery and a 4 y.o. turkey hunter, on a very cold
day - 1/3/2022.
|
Fall and Winter Turkey Hunting in
Wisconsin, September 17, 2022 to January 8, 2023 "Hunting ain't a competition he said. You ain't trying to win any prizes. Hunting is watching the dog work, and taking it easy, and shooting just enough, and walking slow, and enjoying the day..." The Old Man and the Boy - Robert Ruark ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() We alternated hunting Lucky, Red or Suki every day weather permitted. First, temperatures were in the 70's, too hot to run the dogs until September 22. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Then high winds and dry conditions made for tough scenting many days. Dogs and hunters put on a lot of miles without finding birds. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Pulled a big thorn out of Red's paw one day. Lucky sprained her ankle and Suki got a sore paw, both needed a week or more to recover. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Hunted one woods twice where gangs of toms took Lucky and Suki for a run in a boot-sucking swamp, worried they'd never come back out. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Hunting fall turkeys is mostly about watching the dogs run, and the turkeys getting away. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 2 weeks of cold around Christmas time was so extreme, we couldn't hunt. Turkeys probably didn't come down from the roost anyway. Then the season ended with unseasonably warm weather, snow all melted and close to 40°. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() How the vast majority of turkeys get away from dogs and hunters is as inexplicable as the mystery of such phenomenal collective behavior as how 30,000 birds instantaneously communicate high-speed synchronous murmurations. |
On
some days, when it seems we'll never get a turkey, we feel
like the last team to cross the finish line in the Iditarod, who get the Red Lantern Award, in recognition of their perseverance and commitment. |
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