- So I love the pheasant hunt.

I love  the exercise.

I like getting out and being in the wilderness out here on the prairie,  watching the dogs work.

I love to eat 'em, but sometimes it's just about having fun too  and the true measure of success when you're out there hunting is just about the experience and  the fun that you have and we're with my buddy Jason Markkula today, and he showed up with this  .410, and this is a pretty wild gun.

It's called a companion and it's a backpack gun, so it folds  up just like that, so we thought it'd be kind of fun to go hunting with some sub-gauges and  some smaller guns and some different guns, so we've go .410s, and I mean, we might  have a 12-gauge or two just for backups, but to start anyway, we're gonna go hunting today  with the smaller guns, the sub-gauges.

Let's go.

All right, you guys ready?

Let's go.

- Armed and dangerous.

- [Bret] We also have Jason's  son Will and his buddy Logan, along on this hunt, and it sure didn't  take long for things to start happening.

- [Jason] Okay, up hunt 'em up.

- [Bret] That's a rooster.

Yeah.

Watch  where he goes.

There's a hen.

Well, there goes another rooster right there.

There  goes another hen.

We stepped onto the property and boom, put up a rooster right away, and  now we've put up four birds, two roosters, two hens pretty quick and they're going  right where we're going, so hopefully we'll catch up to 'em.

They put one up out of there  along the lake.

That looked like a rooster.

Geez.

That's good though.

We saw  eight birds on the first little- - Yeah.

- First little walk.

- It's a good sign.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause we know it's gonna be birdie in there.

- Yeah.

There it goes.

A rooster.

Dang it.

Dang it, dang it, dang it.

That was the one she was  on.

I don't have my glasses on.

Rooster!

There we go.

We got 'em.

Dead bird.

Dead bird.

Nice.

Pulled feathers off on that first shot.

Figured we got 'em.

Heel.

Good.

Drop it.

Good job.

Wow, there we go.

- [Jason] Pretty Good One.

- We got our first rooster with the sub-gauges.

What are you shooting, Will, 20-gauge?

- 12-gauge.

- Ah, dang it.

Will's cheating.

Well, one got away.

Got the old .410 bark, hey?

- [Jason] Yeah, it shoots.

- How close was that rooster?

- Not close enough.

- Well, that's a challenge with these sub-gauges.

- [Jason] Dude, I'm fumbling around with  this thing.

I'm just not used to it.

- Oh yeah, same.

Hen, I think.

Is that a rooster?

Pretty dark, hey?

If this grass is this tall- - Tons of tracks in there.

I think we should  go into those cattails again before we leave, but we might as well push this in the end.

- Okay.

- Especially if the grass looks this good.

- We could send one group down  that way and one group up that way.

- Yeah, if you want.

Dang it.

That one should have  been dead.

I mean that's kind of the fun of this, right?

It's a challenge.

It's tougher  using some of these smaller gauges, but that's what it's about, you know?

It's been a good season so far.

We've shot a bunch of pheasants, so why not make a  little bit more challenging here at the end?

- Hen.

- Hen.

- [Jason] No bird, scout.

- I think that one scared him little bit.

- Good job.

You made that one poop in  front of you.

Oh, rooster!

There we go.

All right.

That's why we pinch and that's  why I set up the way I did.

We thought we might put up some birds over here, so I  tried to get down in front of these guys, and those roosters, that rooster that hen  both were running up and they got right to where we are standing here and got a little  nervous.

Will almost stepped on that hen, and then they put up that rooster and we all shot  at it.

I don't know who hit it, but it went down.

Still running, hey?

Find it, Tiny.

Running there.

Oh, hen.

Whoo.

That way, Tiny.

Good job.

I saw her take off running that way.

I thought she  might be on it.

Here's rooster number two.

We definitely still have a few more of 'em, but  heck of a retrieve there by the pup.

Nice job, Tiny.

Putting up hens under our feet.

Why don't  we push through, kind of kick up to the trees, push down the trees, hit this grass, hit the dike  and the cattails in the bottom one more time and then we could go back up along the field edge  or somethin Oh, rooster!

Oh no.

Good job, Tiny.

This scout right there with, rooster!

There's a good one.

That  one got hit.

Fresh tracks right here.

Oh.

No bird.

Tiny almost caught it.

Good job, Tiny  good.

Flush.

Well, there's the one we were looking for.

Most likely, anyway.

Got up a little far,  but.

What's that one?

Can't tell.

Hey!

Nice shot, Will.

Nice!

Hell of a shot.

All of a sudden,  Tiny got real birdie right away, and it was either from the one we flushed or a second  bird and I missed.

You missed twice and then- - Got it on the third though.

- There go, Tiny, good job.

- I got her.

- Good job, Tiny.

Hold, hold, drop it.

All  right, Will.

Get over here.

Come hold your bird right here.

That was a heck of a shot.

I  mean, you did miss twice before you hit it, but.

- It happens.

- That was a heck of a shot right there.

See, I missed on purpose 'cause I  wanted you to have that one.

- Oh, sure.

- Good job.

We're running out of time.

Let's  see if we can find some more.

There we go.

Well, as you can see, the sun's getting lower.

We just  have a couple of minutes left.

We're almost to the end of the walk and Jason and Logan just  put one up right there.

They knocked it down.

I don't know who shot it.

I sure hope it was the  .410, but we'll find out when we get back to the truck.

There we go, with the .410 right at the  end of the day.

Whoo!

That was a beautiful day out here walking for peasants.

It started off  a little slow, but man, what a great day.

Gotta love it.

That was awesome.

Good job, puppers.

Drop  it, good job.

Man, that was a fun day.

Good job, Tiny.

Broke out some really cool guns today, some  .410s.

We had a couple of 12-gauges backing us up and you know, it was real nice carrying a light  gun like this out here, but I'll probably go back to a 12-gauge, or honestly, I'll probably get a  20-gauge next and carry that, something a little bit lighter, but still with a little bit more  knockdown power.

That bird ran on us a little bit.

That's the beauty of having a good dog or  the importance of having a good dog.

Tiny tracked that.

At one point I looked, she was 164 yards  away on the Garmin Alpha here on the GPS tracker, and all of a sudden I could see her on the  Garmin getting a little bit closer and and Dan spotted her with the bird in her mouth and  she brought it back, so good job, Tiny.

Been a great day with the sub-gauges out here and  we got some delicious roosters to eat now.