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Here's my turkey dog Buster (a Boykin/Watchtelhund cross) and a story of a hunt earlier this season. (I'm the fat guy on the left holding the nice W&C Scott....Earls on the right with his grandpappys Ansley Fox).


Just after daybreak Buster flushed a nice size flock of turkeys...at about 9 o'clock I shot my second bird...she came in yelping to beat the band...boom.
Earlier this bird to the north kept coming in but just wouldn't show herself and I'd also heard several more birds calling just north east of our location.

I told Buster to stay and walked over to Earl and suggested we move 50 to 75 yards to a different location..he agreed.

We walked back to where Buster was....As we were standing there mapping out a new strategy to get Earl his second bird the bird north of us started calling with'n 50 yards of us....I chose to just stand...told Buster to stay.
Earl immediately dropped down and bob cat'd about 10 yards north to a location with a good view of a fire break. I again whispered to Buster to stay and I started calling on a diaphragm.
The terrain of the fire break rolled slightly down and without offering Earl a shot the hen made it across and came in directly behind me.

Buster's faced a lot of turkeys over the years and has always did real good...but this was going to be the ultimate test as I was standing up and Buster was laying at my feet (unhidden)....the hen turkey came in talking six feet behind the 12 inch diameter Pine tree I'm leaned against.....eye ball to eye ball with Buster.
I'm looking directly at Earl and through his face mask I can tell he's laughing his ass off.....at this point I'd would have laid odds this turkey wasn't going to die today.

After what seemed like an eternity this hen comes out on my right side about 10 to 12 feet from Buster...Earl said Buster moved his head a little one time and the hen looked at him but Buster held and she went back to looking for the hen that she thought was calling down the hollow in front of her...I still had my doubts that this hen would die.

She inched on past Buster and I.....about 15 yards out Earl let her have it....boom.

We both busted out in laughter and disbelief that we had pulled this off.
Earl said he was wondering which one of us were going to screw up first....(meaning Buster and I)..... I was just hoping Earl didn't shoot us.
After all was said and done Earl commented that no one was going to believe this story when I told it.

Believe it or Not.

Sammie the Chessy aged 9. Taken last year.



Sammie again; showing the finer arts of deer tracking.



And Bracken the young Chessie pup. Here aged 7 months and taken last month. This one is showing great promise and has many retrieves to her credit.



Me and my team above go to a lot of formal shoots picking up over here in England. Typically 2 or 3 days a week, (last year it was 4 or 5 days a week but we cut back a bit), so each will get several hundred birds to pick each season. Not a bad life for a dog! And the owner isn't complaining either. Lagopus.....

Dixie at 18 months, first time out with the 16ga Sterlingworth.

I must confess, it's a Beretta 390. It's a good mudder!

My other huntn' buddy.

Mid-September in northwest ND


Late season in southwest ND

Canna at 9 months with her first sharptail



Islay (four years old) with a pheasant.

Here are our Llewellin, Hershey, and our 11 month old solid liver GSP, Loki, with his first woodcock taken in Michigan in late October 2007.



Here are Hershey and Loki again a few days later with a pair of Pa pheasants.



Here is the newest member of our family, an english setter named Derby. We adopted her in March of 2008. She is pointing a robin near an abandoned house near our home in Pa. She has terrific style, and is completely steady. She is amy pocket rocket. Only 20 inches tall and 32 pounds.




All three of our dogs live in the house with my wife and I. Loki was kicked by a horse one year ago tonight. It shattered his left rear femur and he had 7 bone grafts and two major operations to save the leg. He is my wife's baby.
We love them all.

My first hunting buddy passed away allmost 3 years ago, when he was 13.

This is my buddy back in 2006. He will he fourteen in two months.