A special Sage Grouse hunt

We have been enjoying the past few days visiting with Lisa and Cliff Weiss of October Setters. I have had setters for 45 years but have known few breeders as dedicated and knowledgeable as they. We were fortunate to breed our Sally to their lovely Heath and hopefully will be welcoming puppies in late November. Starting in Nov most of our hunting is out of our home in KS so I don’t expect to miss out on too much hunting.   I have not however broke the news to Sally  that she will be missing most, if not all, of quail season.
Sally on Kansas quail last winter with Mike walking in to gun

Lisa graciously invited us to join her in hunting sage grouse while we were there and even took us to one of her “honey holes.” It was a long, bumpy drive from her house to an area flanked by snow-capped mountains: a real treat. We saw more sage hens in two days than we will probably see ever again.

Lisa striking out with one of her dogs

I really enjoyed seeing someone else’s rymans hunting, an unusual and exciting opportunity. Beautiful dogs who do the job.

Lisa and her very handsome “Doc”

Lisa and young “Prince”. This young dog has some speed in those legs, he was a pleasure to watch.

While I was enjoying the ryman-scenery Mike struck out in a different direction with his 2 French Brit boys. Our dogs really needed to stretch their legs after the 20 hour/2 day trip to ID. He saw a lot of sage hens but the dogs found them difficult to handle. They usually flushed wild long before the dogs even got there and even when pointed would flush as soon as the gunner approached. But they managed to pin one nicely and he gunned it for a special memory since the daily limit is 1 and the season is only a few days long.

Ok, I know we are a ryman board but hey, a bird dog is a bird dog. lol This is our “Jack” with the bird.

My Storm got a chance to stretch her legs also.

We have now pulled out and are headed for Montana for a few weeks of hunting there. But our time with the Weiss’ was a memorable way to start the trip and we want to thank them so much for their gracious hospitality and sharing their wonderful dogs with us for a few days.

Cheers
Lynn Dee