We tried last year with no luck but today, a week before he turns 11 we finally connected on a couple ptarmigan. This is spring break for him. Last week the weather was great and rather warm so we made a lot of plans hoping to have 20 to 35 degree weather to camp hunt and fish. But it turned cold with -15 to -20 F mornings, strong winds some days. Just too cold for fun. Today was more calm and temps rose from -15 at 9 am to above 0 at 1. So we decided to go look for birds. Not too far from town we found lots of tracks but no birds - the snow is old. Going a bit farther I nearly drove over a bird. Managed to get Ben to see it and after a couple misses, he got it. I think after hanging onto the snowmobile and having some jitters, he didn't shoot well.
After looking around we moved on a couple miles and jumped 2 more birds. We chased them around on foot but they were spooky and only offered some long shots that neither boy could hit. Gave up on them but found them again a few minutes later and Ben made a great shot. The other was a track star and gave us the slip.
We weren't very far from town, maybe 5-7 miles but the number of canine tracks is amazing, fox, probably coyote, probably a local dog or 2 but what really surprised me were quite a few huge wolf tracks. Guess I shouldn't be too surprised as there were a lot of moose tracks too.
Its been a good break. The boys caught their first smelt thru the ice tho only a couple, and now first ptarmigan. And they helped me haul some big loads of fire wood.
One puzzling thing, after the first bird and as my boy was unloading his rifle - a CZ Scout - the safety button popped out of the bolt and the whole thing came apart. Luckily the snow is very hard crusted and my boy was paying attention. No parts lost and I was able to reassemble the bolt without too much trouble. But this is the second spring we've had a problem like this; last spring the safety didn't come all the way out. I posted this on the GB CZ forum and have emailed CZ USA for advice. Not the kind of thing I like to have happen.
Oh man I think its going to be hard for the boys to go back to school what with over 12 hrs of daylight and the fun we've had. Guess I'm glad its been this chilly. They wanted me to take them camping. I loved snow camping at 18 but I'm 54 now and like the easy life. Some day.....
