Timberdoodle Trails by Pro-Staffer Ray Arment

• By: admin
• On: 04/01/2010 21:17:46
• In: Dog Training
• Comments: 0

I was invited by my friend, Karl, to central PA for an upland hunt. I arrived at his camp on a cool November evening, walked my dogs, and carried my duffle bags into camp. Karl, his father, a friend and I stayed up talking about previous hunts they had at this camp. We also talked about dog training and then finally went to bed.  A great breakfast of eggs, homefries and scrapple welcomed our morning as we packed up and headed out to the woods. I put on my Coat, chaps and then grabbed my Beretta 12 gauge over and under and my Deutsch Drahthaar, Bessi as Karl got his Deutsch Drahthaar, Bella, out of the truck and ready for the hunt. Starting out through some thick and thorny woods, I flushed a grouse and missed. Bessi then went on point and I heard a Timberdoodle, known to most as a Woodcock, flush out of the back of some thick brush. I never saw it and could not see a shot. Another grouse was flushed as we moved on but we could not get a shot. As we were approaching the end of the woods, a Timberdoodle flushed and Bessi stopped to the flush and watched it fly and drop as my Beretta cracked.  I sent Bessi and she made a fine retrieve out of the thick cover. She proudly returned to me, sat and delivered to hand. We then crossed a road and continued hunting. Bessi proceeded to track something through the woods and when I got up to the spot where she started tracking, I saw blood and followed it for twenty yards. Bessi was starting to come back to me when I saw a gut pile in the distance. Apparently someone had shot a deer that same morning because as we moved on I saw the treestand the archer had been hunting out of. Eventually we ran into the hunter and he validated what we had thought. He had taken a doe that morning. Bessi was tested through the VGP level, of which one of the many requirements is to complete a 400 meter bloodtrack through the woods. She had no problem following the bloodtrack we had stumbled on that morning while hunting. We moved on through the woods and Karl got a shot at a rabbit and it was in the bag. Karl then flushed and hit a woodcock, which Bella retrieved. I then crossed a trail and another Timberdoodle flushed. Bessi watched it fly and the old Beretta cracked one last time. The Timberdoodle hit the ground and I sent Bessi in for the retrieve. Wagging her tail, she came back and sat for the delivery to hand. We hunted hard that day and we had a memorable hunt. A special thanks goes out to Karl and his father for the invite to his camp.

Ray Arment

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