First Crane!!!

On January 16th, 2009, Sam G was guiding for client and friend Chris D when the first sandhill crane, a.k.a. "rib eye-in-the-sky", was harvested.

The two hunters watched a large group of sandhill cranes take flight around 7:45 a.m. to the west of where they were hunting. However, the birds were too far away. At 9 a.m., an even larger group of cranes (about a thousand) rose from the north about half a mile away. Sam G began calling and Chris D used the flag to grab about half the flock's attention.

It was quite a spectacle as five hundred trumpeting sandhill cranes passed just 40 yards over the hunters. When the group flew over, Sam G called the shot and both guide and client put six rounds into the air. After the shooting was over, one B-52 bomber sized bird came crashing down into the ground with a "thud", finishing off the bird.

Bird Dog Shines During LG2 Ranch Quail Weekend

If Belle ever wanted the title of "bird dog," she earned it the weekend of Jan. 17. On Saturday, Sam and Phillip, followed by an entourage consisting of Mark, Teresa and Claire, decided to get out of the house and scare up some quail. In a rare move, Princess Belle decided to join in on the hunt. After a brief sweep of the pecan orchard, no quail were found. As the hunters moved north, Belle's instincts kicked in. While near a fire lane, Belle scared up a group from the thick brush and Phillip and Sam pulled a double shot to take one down. The quail went down into the thick, and Belle managed to track it down for the hunters. Score one for Belle.

The following day, it was back to the same area. Sam and Phillip, armed with a couple 20-gauges, stalked the same areas they had the previous day. Sure enough, Sam spotted 15-plus quail on the ground in the same thick brush they had spotted the group the day before. As Sam collected Belle away from harm, Phillip aimed into the group on the ground and fired, knocking down three with one shot. Belle stamped her certification as an official "Bird Dog" when she dove into the wounded, pinning them down and finishing off any survivors. At the end of the day, not even a tennis ball was enough to remove a quail from Belle's mouth.