Bryan and I took a little pheasant hunting trip down to Morris, Il at Erienna Hunt Club.  It was lightly snow.  Cinder and Nadia both came.  Bryan is planning on bringing his little dog, Bailey on the next trip.  Enjoy the photos.  The apparently posed shot of Bryan aiming up in the air is when one of the pheasants flew up into the tree.  They are easy to hit when they aren’t moving.  Brian is shown holding is first bird ever in the first photo.  He looks so proud.  We came home with 6 and let a few fly away.

Nick, my cousin, hit the pheasant preserve for his first trip with his new gun.  We took Cinder and Nadia and let them do their thing.  Nick dropped three birds with one shot a piece, pretty impressive since he only made it to the trap range once with his new gun.  After a pretty succesful day, 4 birds and only two fly aways, one of which definitely got hit and was going down, but managed to do so out of our reach.  After a day in the field, we hit the lodge up for some beers.  While we were standing around waiting for the birds to be cleaned we ran into the hunters in the field next to us.  They asked, “Who was shooting the cannon?”  To which I replied, “This guy,” while pointing at Nick.  Quite funny at the time.  We were both shooting the same shells but something about his gun just makes it loud.  Enjoy the photos and our video.

Nick with Nadia and his first pheasant.

Yesterday evening we flew back to Washington. We must have been quite a sight. It was myself, Ashlee, Hannah, the two dogs, their crates, our bags, and most obvious of all a big silver case. As I stepped to the counter with my posey, I boldly stated, “I have gun.” Then we really got some attention and we were promptly checked in and through security and attracted even more attention. Hannah was even feeling a little feisty and decided she want to fly like a big girl.

Ashlee just cooked a tremendous pheasant dinner. I can’t wait to go hunting again not only to see one of these beautiful birds up close but also to enjoy their most savory flesh. This bird was farm raised so it had just the right amount of game flavor. Here is the recipe, we highly recommend it. Click any of the ingredients to be taken to the full recipe on Emeril LaGasse’s (of the food network) website. Truly delicious.
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 orange, halved
3 sprigs fresh thyme
6 slices thick-cut bacon, cut in half
1/4 cup Madeira
1 cup rich chicken stock
2 tablespoons cold, unsalted

Nadia, Cinder, and I spent spent Saturday afternoon hunting pheasant. It was all three of our first time out and it was a lot of fun. I went to a hunt club that is open to public. They released four birds for me into a one acre field planted with what I think is called grain sorghum. It was very thick cover (it thins out by the middle of November), but Nadia and Cinder still managed to find and flush all the birds. We faced a few difficulties; my lack of shooting skill coupled with fact that my dogs are going to flush the pheasant whether I am ready or not, and Nadia couldn’t see over the plants to find the birds, but if I could spot the general area she would go fetch it up for me. We came home with 2 out 4 birds. One got away and another flew over some trees into a neighboring field and went down, but it would have been unsafe to retrieve because there were hunters there too. We had an awesome day though. Invitations are open to all for duck or pheasant.

I spent several hours at the trap shooting range in Naperville called sportsman’s park.  I participated in 3 rounds of 25 each.  The first round was really tough and I hit only 9 of the clay target.  I did the best in round 3 when I hit 16.  Now my shoulder is a little sore.  My Remington 1100 doesn’t have too much kick but enough that I will remember what I did last weekend for the rest of this week.  Can’t wait to go out and bring some ducks home with Nadia.