"I once was an avid quail hunter, and about 5 years ago gave it up when I could not find enough quail to break my young english setter. I was ready to get rid of the dog when a friend turned me on to fall turkey hunting. I have since killed about ten birds with my dog and have started turning my 13 year old on to the same sport. I will start taking the video camera and let your group check out some of my hunts. I still have a little problem with the call backs since I am competing with the deer hunters so most of the time we make our kills on the flush. I will send pictures also since old lucky is one of those unique dogs that likes to smile. We went out today to give lucky some exercise and he flushed two gangs, one with about 15 birds and one with about 8. Getting primed for next week. I would like to breed Lucky if any of your readers are interested, although he is an English setter.

Lucky is part of the family, so he has his own pictures in our family album. I included a picture of him smiling, so you can get the feel of why he is part of the family. This is a small hen I killed with him but he has produced a few nice gobblers as well. Lucky is 5 now, but still a very hard hunter - note the blood around his neck from busting the thick stuff when this picture was taken a couple of years ago. He came home today the same way, and it was just a workout day (12/10/05). We think he is the best dog anyone could have. Just think, ten or so nice turkeys ago, I was going to give him away because he wouldn't hold point on a covey of quail. It was a good thing my high school friend Danny invited me and my wild bird dog on a fall turkey hunt several years ago.

My son (when he was about 7 or 8) picked out Lucky from a litter of pups, and he also gave him his name. Imagine a part of your family that never has a bad word to say, will always be by your side no matter how grumpy you are, and always runs up and gives you a big grin every time he sees you come home, and you can imagine our turkey dog Lucky. Lucky has many funny stories I would like to share with your readers, my wife and son and I laugh all the time at his enthusiasm. Today during his pre-season run/workout he flushed a large gang and wasn't quite paying attention to the large pine tree log pile in front of him (20" diameter trees stacked about five foot high). As he was chasing several nice 16 lb. to 17 lb. hens he ran full bore smack into the log pile, bounced back about three feet then quickly scaled the log pile and continued on with the chase. My son and I were about to fall all over ourselves since he was only about 30 feet from us. Most people don't believe me when I tell them, but he seems to have a knack for circling back and flushing the birds over head. I have had bird dogs all my life and they naturally check back, maybe that is all it is, but sometimes I wonder as gang after gang is run back to me like saying: 'Hey fool! I worked my butt off for this, how come you didn't shoot.'

Your website is interesting and I really didn't know that there was this big a following for fall turkey dog hunting until I read your web page. I will definitely be tuning in from now on and be carrying my camcorder and camera more often on hunts. I am new at this type of hunting and have learned on my own, so I am not sure I understand all the unwritten rules. I still hunt by the game laws of Virginia and try to apply common sense on harvest numbers from the few gangs I hunt each year, however; I do shoot birds on the flush and call back birds as well, but don't hold that against Lucky, since he does his job right on every flush.

My father had bird dogs all his life and I always hunted quail after school until I was about 18. I wanted my son to have the same experiences as I had working with dogs and understanding their natural instinct to hunt and satisfy their master. I had pretty much given up on bird hunting and was very close to getting a pack of deer hounds just so he could have a similar experience when I was turned on to this type of hunting. I can say this type of hunting is as close an experience that he will ever have that was like mine, especially when Lucky decides he wants to hold point temporarily on a woodcock or the scarce quail we happen to run across. It is kind of sad when your kid or his friend would say "What was that, as a quail startles them as it flys away, and they were amazed that the dog actually pointed the location of the game. I hope and pray that this doesn't happen to fall turkey dog hunting to the point that some day his kid or my grandson says why does our dog bust through the flower bed every time he sees a sparrow in the holly bush?" Mike Barwick December 10, 2005

December 27, 2005
My season is over for this year with only 1 bird. Lucky collided with a stump this afternoon on a flush just before dark and broke 4 ribs and punctured his right lung. The stump was sort of hidden under some brush, and he was on a dead run when he hit. I called the vet and got her to meet me at the clinic. A scary moment to say the least, especially when I heard the impact. If I wasn't in the middle of the woods I would have sworn he was hit by a car, that's how loud it was, but the vet expects him to live and there was no damage to the shoulder socket or leg. He is spending a couple nights at the vets, then he can come home, but has to stay calm for another 4 to 5 weeks. I don't know what effect this is going to have on Lucky and I will not know the extent of damage done until he actually heals and I run him again. I hope he comes back from this as aggressive as he was, but I am not sure. One good sign was that I was actually having trouble getting him to heel as we walked out of the woods. He was still trying to hunt the whole time while basically limping on three legs. As I said before he is a hard hunter and super aggressive, so much so he nearly killed himself. So, I am done with my stories this year, but I will be checking the web site regularly to read about everyone else's experiences, and hopefully will be sending new pictures next year of Lucky. Mike