Shot some birds

My buddy Dean owns Holly Hills pheasant presserve. He is also the guy we got our German Shorthair from. Mason has never shot a pheasant, and with the current pheasant population in Ohio, he likely will never shoot a wild one. I told him I'd take him out to Dean's place this year, so today my life-long buddy Lathe and I did.

We took Milo (our GSP pup) out first so Dean could see where he's at and what we need to be working on. He half way pointed three birds, we shot 'em and he retrieved them. For his first time on real birds, we all thought he did pretty well.

We put the pup up and got two of Dean's 3 yr old shorthairs. Watching those dogs was awesome! They are so well disciplined, it just boggles the mind. Mason walked up on a pointed bird, fired one well placed shot and claimed his first pheasant on the wing! It was cool, we high fived and moved on to look for more birds. After a few hours, we killed a total of 10 pheasants, with Mason killing 3, Lathe 5, and I shot a couple to finish.

It isn't hunting per se, but dang if we didn't have a great time. Getting Milo on his first real pheasants, and watching my kid kill his first three was just great! If any of you guys are interested in going on a late season pheasant shoot, I'd be more than willing to do this again.

Some pics...
Lathe, Dean, and Mason with his first pheasant ever. It was a great shot!
Lathe, Me and Mason.
Milo checking out "Sammy". They later became friends.

Pheasants are 22/bird. Chucar are 15, and I think quail are 8 or 10. He doesn't have any add-on charges as I guess a lot of presserves do. They will feed ya and provide lodging too. He has a really nice "clubhouse" to accomodate anyone's needs. They have a website, just google holly hills preserve and I'm sure it will come up.

Seriously, if anyone is interested in doing a weekend thing down here, I'd be happy to do what I can on my end to set things up.

J- I should add, I think there is a minimum of 2 birds. Other than that, no hidden cost of any kind.