Cackling Roosters

The young black lab puppy (almost 2 years old) worked his way through the tall grass, weaving left to right like a seasoned pointing dog, searching for a pheasant.  The morning was cool and sunny with an occasional light breeze out of the northeast, perfect weather for a pheasant hunt.  The young dog suddenly froze, and his wagging tail went almost straight up and stood like a flag.  Mel, the handler softly told him ‘woah’ as he approached, two young men, not old enough to think about shaving, walked tentatively on either side of him as he approached the young dog.  A pheasant burst from the brushy ground in front of the dog, surprising the young men.  The bird rose and banked to the right, cackling as it flew through the bright blue sky. The young man on the right raised his shotgun and with his first shot the bird tumbled to the ground. Pretty exciting for a boy’s first pheasant hunt over a dog!  I must admit, I was excited watching from behind too. The explosion of a rooster pheasant bursting from your feet and cackling its way into the sky is a feeling one never forgets. I grew up on a pheasant club and have flushed hundreds if not thousands of pheasants while hunting and guiding as a young man, but it is still exciting 40 some years past my first rooster.

  This was day one of two at the Pheasants Forever Youth Upland Game Bird Hunt at Raahauge’s Hunting Club and Sporting Clays in Dunnigan, CA. I had met with Mike Mullins and the rest of the Yolo Chapter of Pheasants Forever several weeks prior to see what First Hunt Foundation could do to help with their events. This is one of several events that the Yolo Chapter puts on every year.  During the two days of Youth Hunts over seventy youths got the chance to hunt pheasants over dogs, and all got birds. Quite a testament to the dedication and hard work of the members of the organization and Steve Rambo of Raahauge’s and Rambo’s Guide Service.

  All the participants had to make a reservation to attend, and then check in the morning of the hunt.  They charge $50.00 per hunter, but for that they get a chance to shoot at two birds minimum, lunch, free raffle tickets to various prizes and a membership to Pheasants Forever.  Not a bad deal for a wonderful day filled with excitement and memories that will last a lifetime.

 First Hunt Foundation never charges for their mentorship, so myself and Kayla Ketchum, another mentor for FHF, were there volunteering our services as Safety Mentors in the field to take some of the pressure off the volunteer dog handlers.  We also talked about what First Hunt Foundation does for hunting and and spoke with several of the experienced volunteers who were there about becoming Mentors for FHF.

Mike Mullins, who is not only the Chapter President for PF, is a long time Hunter Education Instructor for California, gave a great Safety Talk to start the day off, stressing the 10 Commandments of Hunter Safety and talking about some of the safety specifics of hunting over a dog.  He did an excellent job getting several of the youths to participate in the discussion.  He made it fun and educational for all.

The youths were broken up into groups of 3-5 and assigned a field and a dog handler.  The parents are welcome to join in the field or wait in the parking areas from which the fields being hunted are visible, so they could see all the action. Most groups had at least one or two parents who walked with the groups. The birds were planted in each field in two waves.  The idea is for all the kids to get a shot on the first go around, and then another chance after the second planting.  As birds were missed in one field, they would often fly to another field, so some groups had more opportunities in a single wave, but all were evened out in the next plant, so that everyone had at least two opportunities during the morning.  Most hunting was wrapped up by 11 and all headed back to the club house for lunch.  After lunch was the raffle of items and then the long tail contest, which awarded a hundred-dollar bill provided by Rambo’s Guide Service.  There was another hundred-dollar bill for the one banded pheasant that was planted randomly in the fields, but no one managed to harvest that bird on the first day!

After the festivities were concluded, all were welcomed to return to the fields and hunt for any remaining birds. Several of the youths went out and many of the volunteers as well.  It was not until the second day during the afternoon that one of the banded birds was harvested by two young girls who went back out. Steve Rambo not only honored the Hundred Dollar bill for the banded bird, but since the two girls both shot at the bird, he gave each a Hundred! They plan to have it mounted with the band on!

This next weekend PF is putting on a Ladies only Hunt on Saturday with 63 women signed up and follow that on Sunday with an R3 Hunt where men, women and youths can hunt, it is also heavily registered.

I must say that this was a fantastic weekend to be involved with!  It was great to see so many youths with a bright future in hunting get an experience with such great mentors.  I was honored to be a part of this event and plan to be involved in the future as much as they will let me!