women outdoors

First Pheasant
A Seasoned Shooter Hunts for the First Time
by Laura Cent

In November, 2007, I participated in my first hunt. It was the Ladies Pheasant Hunt sponsored by California Department of Fish and Game’s (DFG) Game Bird Heritage Program and local members of California Waterfowl. The hunt was held in the Eel River Wildlife Area by special permit from DFG. We could hear the ocean but couldn’t see it because of the large sand dunes. The weather was great for Humboldt County – sunny with only a little breeze. Rooster pheasants were delivered in boxes the night before. There were two hunt times, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Volunteers explained how the hunt works, safety rules, the two different types of dogs – flushing and pointing – and then we were introduced to our dog handler, the other ladies in our group, and the area we would hunt. One of the ladies in my group was a no-show, so there were only two of us. We had two dogs and two handlers. The dogs were both black labs, so they were flushing dogs. The dogs worked well and the handlers were great. The handlers told us what to look for in the behavior of the dogs and they let us know when the dog(s) were close to a bird. We were assigned to the “Swamp.” The grass and plants were thick and high, up to my waist, and there was driftwood to look out for, so it was a workout tromping through the delta.

The first bird the dogs flushed was too far away and we missed. The next bird was on my right and I was able to bring him down, the dog brought him back. I liked watching the dogs work in the grass; sometimes you could only see the grass moving to know where they were. The next bird rose up in front of us, the other lady shot first and as the bird crossed in front of me, I shot and I think I brought it down. There were one or two others that I could not shoot at because of their location. So we would watch where they landed and try to find them again. When we got back to the parking area, we had four birds. I took two and the other lady took the other two. My Remington 11-87 Premier Skeet worked great and it did not beat me with the 3 3/4 dram 1 1/4 oz #4 loads like I thought it would.

While I was gone, I asked my husband, Michael, to look up on the internet what to do with the birds when I got home. Our neighbor, Brad Smith, was out mowing. He is a hunter, a partner in two local sporting good stores and is a California Waterfowl member, so Michael talked to him. He cut the birds open and took the breasts off and I pulled off some feathers to save.

The next day I baked the breasts in a casserole dish with onion, garlic, bay leaf, and port wine, which I found in Joy of Cooking. I only found one piece of shot that I took out before cooking. It tasted good, different from domestic chicken. The port and the bay leaf added a nice flavor.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to hunting again.

Laura Cent lives in Eureka, California. Although this was her first hunting experience, she competes in American skeet and has been named to state and zone All-Star teams. She is a member of the board of directors of Humboldt Trap & Skeet Club.

Mother and Daughter First Hunt

This year, our daughter Brenna won a BB-gun during the youth raffle. She was so happy and wanted to sleep with it that night. We have worked hard on safe handling and made her practice hard before we went into the field. This September, opening day saw Brenna going with me for our first mother and daughter hunt. She was very excited and could hardly sit still. When she saw a dove land about 15 feet in front of us in the blind, she lined up to take her shot. She pegged the bird, and our Labrador, Stryder, brought her trophy back. That will be a day she never forgets, both shooting the bird and spending time with mom. I hope this hunt will be the first of many mother and daughter trips for us. (Maybe we will even let dad go once or twice.)