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November 8, 2020 Trepassey Partridge Hunting Trip (20 Photos) Article Written by Bassan & Mike
Unlike the past few years when we've been really busy, this fall Andrea managed to make quite a few trips down to Trepassey to go Partridge Hunting with his father Peter who has taken up residence down there for most of the bird hunting season. At 79 years old he still puts in long days relentlessly trodding the barrens with his faithful setters Jake and Mark in search of the sometimes elusive Southern Shore Partridge.
Sunday was a beautiful day for a partridge hunt on the Southern Shore, the last day of the 2020 season. It was a little cool but not too windy, perfect hunting conditions.
After a couple of hours of hunting and some promising points, the dogs zeroed in on a single bird and the first bird of the day was taken. Bird wasn’t spooked and flushed relatively close for a nice shot.
English Setters are great dogs for partridge hunting. Peter’s dogs – Jake and Mark will typically range out for 400-500 yards on open country and will hold a point when they get good scent – meaning they are likely close to partridge or any other game bird. Unlike flushing dogs used for pheasant hunting, dogs used for partridge hunting need to hold point so hunters can get close enough for a shot.
Jake (orange belton setter) stands tall when on point while Mark (the blue belton with the orange high visibility vest) “sets” low to the ground when he has good ground scent. This usually means the birds are or have been recently in the area. On wind scent, Mark will point tall on all 4 legs so he can get an idea of where the birds are.
The barrens near Trepassey are as beautiful as they are vast. It's quite amazing to look back towards your vehicle and realize just how far you have walked in a relatively short period of time.
It was a Benelli trio on the barrens today, Peter with his Benelli Ethos, Andrea with his Benelli Ultra Light, and Mike with his trusty Benelli Super Nova.
After a long day of hunting the dogs can get tired and take a break when they can.
If you find these “dustholes” on the barrens, you know there are partridge in the area. Partridge will dig into the dry peat marsh to hide or cool down in the heat.
Partridge can quickly cover a lot of ground trying to sneak away from dogs and hunters. They walk or run in and often won’t take to wing until they’re well out of range and safe. It takes a good hunting dog with a good nose for ground and wind scent to find these birds. On this point, Jake took us right to the birds after tracking them for some time. Three birds flushed on this point – one was within a gunshot.
All in all it was a successful day on the barrens, with over a dozen birds spotted (most were wild and well out of range for a shot) we did manage to harvest four for the pot.
In other unrelated news, Mike's trusty 2011 Silverado HD rolled over 200k on the clock on the way back to town that evening! Awesome trip!
Cheers, BASSAN & MIKE
Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith |
