Hunt 1 with Ryan and Madar

By Karl DeHart

Copyright Upland Idaho LLC

I was pretty damn excited to finally hunt with my nephew Ryan, especially since it was his first chance at bagging an upland game bird. A couple years back I went out with my nephew Christopher on his first turkey hunt and it is times like these that seem to “make” the biggest memories. At the end of my hunt with Christopher I was screaming “SHOOT! SHOOT IT!” at the top of my lungs. Maybe there would be something as memorable on this hunt with Ryan.

Ryan lives in NW Washington, stationed there with the Navy. We decided to meet in Colville National Forest for our first hunt together, near Sullivan Lake on the NE side of Washington . Ryan and his buddy Joe had hunted here in the spring and on top of seeing tons of turkey (and missing one at 5 yards! I still laugh hard thinking about that, see the shirt) he said they saw a ton of ruffed grouse. This sounded like a safe bet. I was hoping to be there for his first bird. Not only that, we were giving his new pup Madar his first real run in the woods after wild birds. Be warned, buying a full season Out of State license in Washington is expensive but you can buy a 3-day tag for around $54.

Ryan was even more excited then I was to be out in the woods. But as we stood at the road edge looking into the tangles on our very first push into the brush he turned to me, cocked his head and said, “You want to go in there!?” This really brought out a chuckle for me. With a simple Yep from me he and Madar both dove into the tangles. We had just seen birds run into this spot 10 minutes before. Madar searched around and Ryan busted through some brush. It only took us 20 minutes to determine the grouse were no longer in this little stretch of public land but Ryan had his first scratches from chasing ruffed grouse, albeit minor ones.

We moved past Sullivan Lake and pulled off the road to a likely campsite. After our respective long hauls we crawled out of our trucks eager to set up camp and stretch our legs more than the previous short hunt. Within seconds we were looking at each other in disgust. Drifting through the trees from the next camp area was some country song like “Boot Scooting Boogie” or whatever. Now, country music fans don’t get uptight, I would have been just as disgusted had it been Pink Floyd or John Prine, well maybe. Here we were in the middle of an amazing place and someone had to have their music loud enough to share it with neighbors 100 yards down the road. We decided this wasn’t going to be our campsite but both being anxious to get the hunt on we geared up and dropped down to the riverbanks.

Do you remember your first flush? Do you remember the days that led up to that hunt? Do you remember the anticipation, the sleepless night before, wondering if you would react correctly and worrying about looking like this was your first hunt? Well Ryan’s demeanor didn’t give away that he was worried at all. He seemed relatively calm. But looks can be deceiving.

Now Madar was a different story. He didn’t look calm. This 5 month old pup with legs long enough to make a professional basketball player jealous was having a hard time keeping up with Zealot and it was frustrating him. He couldn’t quite figure out how to make those gangly legs function in a way that would allow him to leap the tallest log in a single bound, well actually even some of the shorter ones he would trip right over. It was comical! He so wanted to follow Z into the brush, leap off ledges and over anything she would but he just wasn’t physically able to do it. It was sweet to see him on occasion looking longingly past some obstacle Z just busted by, seemingly saying, “AAHHH man, where’s she going this time!” No worries, eventually the coordination in his legs will catch up with his heart.

We had been walking for a while without seeing anything. We had just finished chatting about where to go to get out from the middle of our tangled landscape when Z bumped up a ruffed grouse to an evergreen tree. Upon hearing the flush Ryan immediately…nope not shouldered his gun…nope not hit the safety…he didn’t do anything but pump his shotgun! Yep, live shell right on the ground without a shot fired or a gun shouldered. That’s right, ejected his first round…before the bird was in sight. This was really funny but not enough at the moment to take my eyes off the bird in the tree even if I was chuckling pretty hard. Ryan’s view was blocked by another tree and he was calling out for me to shoot the bird so I did. I had my wish though; this trip would be as memorable as hunting with Christopher…hmmmm….one nephew not able to get a shot off and one prematurely ejecting his shell without shouldering his weapon. I’m headed back to hunt in Iowa next month with my family, including my niece Sarah. Hopefully on her first pheasant hunt she redeems the family name.