Hell, now the upland hunting's almost finished

But not quite. 2 more hunts to go, after today's little sojourn. Tim, Quinn and I headed up to Mitch's folks' place for a walk around after whatever we could find. Brutus (dog) was back in action after an injury break, and Quinn was sporting his new 16g youth gun, bought for his birthday.

The weather played ball too - after weeks of drizzle, rain, drizzle and a spectacular overnight thunder storm we got a pearler, albeit extremely humid for August!

Quinn took a beautiful overhead shot on a pukeko - his first kill with the gun and a marvellous shot to boot!



Quinn's first game bird with his new gun

We worked gulleys and hedgerows and pushed out a number of birds - between us we put shots on 3 or 4 pheasants. There is nothing in life half as exciting a a flushing cock pheasant and one particular bird was very game indeed. Brutus winded him a ways off then settled in to his search and hold mode but the bird flushed wild. With 2 of us on each side of the hedgerow we were working he was well enough covered but as he jumped well out he was a challenge. I hit him with the second shot and as he shot over the hedge and he rocked then Quinn (other side of hedge) hit him and he curled back into cover on a damaged wing.

We worked the rest of the hedgerow and he jumped again, this time evading a volley. Finally we worked to the end of the hedgerow and Mitch popped him as he jumped. Total shots expended = 9 and we all agreed he was a very sporting bird having offered a shot to everyone.

Mitch with the iron bird

When I got home and showed the Justin Bieber Fan Club the photos, she expressed an interest in 'going shooting' one day. Music to my ears.

Thanks Mitch, Tim & Quinn (& Brutus) for an outstanding hunt.