We (Alex, Dave, A.J.... poor Liz had to work today!) woke up early to go on a guided pheasant hunt with Rodrigo, Hazel and Gus, of
Wisconsin Adventures. We left the apartment at 5:00 am. After driving in the wrong direction for quite a while, we finally arrive at the farm just before 6:00 am. Rodrigo and his brother gave us (more) coffee as they finished setting up the trap shooting segment of our morning. Rodrigo did a great job of explaining safety procedures and making sure we were comfortable with handling and shooting the guns.
After a trap shooting session, we headed over to the fields where 12 pheasants were released. Hazel, the 4-year old female, was a high-energy "killer." She would run and leap through the air tracking down the birds. She was so excited that she retrieved the first bird she found before we even shot it! Gus, on the other hand, was a more serious hunter, who wouldn't break a point until Rodrigo gave him permission.
We had a great morning of following the dogs through the fields of high grass, talking with Rodrigo, and bagging 7 of the 12 birds.... we got every bird the dogs found!
We think Rodrigo was amused by us... "Yeah, lets just walk through that thick field of thorny plants," "Can we help clean the birds?"
Apparently, no one ever offers to help clean the birds either. We thought this was perfectly reasonable. We should have the whole experience... and if we were going to shoot something we should be able to complete the entire process and do the cleaning as well.
After Liz got home from work that evening, we cooked up our birds with some roasted vegetables.
