FOREST AND STREAM 
11 
HUNTING ALONE 
USING YOUR OWN WITS DEVELOPS A 
KEENER ZEST IN THE GREAT OUT-DOORS 
By George S. Brown. 
luck?” 
“Three woodcock and a ruffed 
grouse.” 
“Where is your dog?” 
“Haven’t any dog.” 
“I don’t see how you can get any birds 
witout a dog!” 
I have been through that conversation 
so many times that my answers are men¬ 
tally stereotyped and always ready. I am 
fond of hunting, and I do hunt every 
opportunity that I get during our open 
season which is from October 8th to No¬ 
vember 23rd: Down here in Eastern Con¬ 
necticut the game consists chiefly of ruffed 
grouse, quail, woodcock, grey squirrels and 
rabbits. Of course along the rivers and 
sea shore there are plenty of ducks but 
back inland ducks are occasional surprises 
—that’s all. 
When you take your gun out of the cabi¬ 
net and don your togs for a day in the 
woods, you have but a slight idea what 
the day’s bag will be. Game is not plenti¬ 
ful in this section, but the variety that one 
runs across puts a special delight in a Con¬ 
necticut hunt. 
I have hunted with companions behind 
good dogs and had splendid sport, but it 
has been my experience that if the dogs 
were good on quail they were a bit lacking 
on grouse or woodcock. When out with 
bird dogs, you never feel like shooting a 
couple of grey squirrels for a stew, or di¬ 
recting a fleeing cotton tail towards a pie. 
You feel that by so doing the owner of 
the dogs might object. 
Of course, it is lots of sport watching 
good dogs work—I hope to enjoy many a 
day in the future behind them—but when 
you come right down to facts we want 
thrills when hunting and the dogs get the 
most of them. Behind the dogs, shooters 
are inclined to be a trifle lax; they depend 
altogether on the dogs for finding the game. 
When the dogs freeze on game, then the 
sportsmen’s muscles get tense, pulses seem 
to beat faster and the keen delight of hunt¬ 
ing is realized. After the game has been 
flushed and brought to bag or has escaped, 
then immediately the sportsmen drop back 
into that state of dependence—on the dogs. 
If you would like to go bird hunting and 
have that alert, active, keen, high-strung 
feeling ever present—the same feeling that 
you have when you are expecting game to 
flush—then stick by this article a little 
longer. 
Here’s how ! Go bird hunting. Go with¬ 
out a dog. Go alone. 
Now don’t go up into the air right off; 
listen to this: If I had but a single day 
during the autumn to hunt and it was to 
be spent here in Eastern Connecticut, I 
would turn down all invitations to shoot 
over dogs—all bids to accompany other 
sportsmen. I’d just go alone and have a 
glorious time. Whenever I should make a 
good shot, I’d have the game to take home 
for proof; whenever I made a miss—that’s 
all there would be to it. No excuses to 
offer, laying the blame on bad light, inter¬ 
fering brush or poor shells. No lies neces¬ 
sary. 
T HE main reason why I like to go hunt¬ 
ing alone is because from the time you 
flush your first bird until you quit for 
the day, you are prepared for and expect¬ 
ing action. That’s the secret. You must 
not relax, for the very instant that you for¬ 
get you are your own dog, about then a big 
fat ruffed grouse will crash out of the 
undergrowth behind you—you and your gun 
are not ready. 
Last Saturday, which, by the way, was 
October 14th, I got out into the woods for 
my opening hunt. The night previous I 
had gotten things together and handy for 
the next afternoon. My rig is unbeautiful 
to gaze upon, but brush and briers respect 
no man’s duds. Hunting without a dog 
demands brush and brier proof clothing. 
Here is the make-up I use and it suits 
me. I’ll begin at the top: 
Head covering, leather every time. I use 
an old leather auto cap with a medium 
visor. Here’s why. Passing through brush 
and briers, the cloth, felt or canvas cap 
or hat will get yanked off continually. You 
need your hands for other work. The 
leather cap gets scratched badly but your 
head never does for the cap will stick 
where it belongs. Above all, avoid a wide 
brim on a hat. I always like to catch the 
first rustle made by flushing game so as 
to get into action without delay. A broad 
brim on a hat will confuse one greatly as 
to the direction from which the bird is 
flushing. Without a dog, you never know 
just where a bird is going to flush from. 
Quick work is required, otherwise—none 
at all. Try a broad brim hat and then a 
brimless one if you are in doubt. It’s 
about the ratio of 40 yards to 20 yards, 
and the 40 yard shot in the brush you 
rarely shoot. 
Coat. Ordinary heavy canvas with cor¬ 
duroy lined collar and cuffs to avoid chaf¬ 
ing. Goat must be plenty loose with open¬ 
ings beneath the arm pits for quick easy 
After the Hunting Season is Over, Look Up Cases Like This and Put Protective 
Policies Into Practice. 
