Dolly honoring.
Tur Bo and Dolly both on point.
Luke
I went back and read some of my bird hunting posts and have been thinking about the season that just closed. Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas did a lot of advertising about the quail being back. Some of the northern states were saying the pheasants were also at higher numbers than they had been in years. This brought people back into bird hunting that hadn’t hunted in years.
My second trip to Oklahoma, I saw more hunters than I’ve seen in years. One of the places we hunted on the Black Kettle National Grasslands was a 320 acre parcel and almost every where we walked we saw tracks from hunters that had been there before us. It’s good for this area as the drilling of oil wells is down but the cafes and motels are full of hunters.
Opening weekend in Kansas, Vince Dye and I saw a lot of hunters. Several of the farms we normally hunt had people hunting them when we first drove by. As we got our dogs ready to be turned loose on one farm we had 3 trucks drive by with hunters in each one.
In my opinion, with all of the hunters plus almost each day the wind was blowing really hard, most of the birds I found were really running. I had very few flushes with the quail flushing right in front of me. Some days, when I could find the singles, they would hold for the dogs and get up close to us.
With all of that, it was a great season. I was able to hunt in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. I keep track of the coveys that I see each day and I saw 50% more coveys this year than last. I seldom hunt the same place twice so most of these are different coveys.
The last few years there haven’t been enough birds for each of the dogs to get much experience. Last year and especially the year before there weren’t enough bird contacts for Blaze and Tur Bo to get much experience. I put 2 dogs at a time down and with few birds some of the dogs don’t see any quail. The first time I went to Oklahoma Blaze pointed more quail than all of the other dogs combined. The second trip Tur Bo stepped up. He wasn’t the top dog but he found a lot of birds.
Lucky is almost 12 years old. I use him and Dolly, who is 10 years old, when I guide. I used them last Friday morning then again Saturday afternoon. Lucky did a good job on Friday and for 2 hours and 45 minutes on Saturday. He pointed some quail and found a dead bird then came to me and laid down. I put a leash on him thinking I would just heel him until we finished. He wouldn’t even stand up. I tied the leash to a small bush and finished out the hunt with just Dolly. I put Dolly in the truck then went back after Lucky.
When I got back to him he hadn’t moved. I took the leash thinking a fifteen minute break would refresh him but he still wouldn’t stand. I picked him up and started the 500 yards to the truck. I took a break after about 200 yards then picked him up and started again. Roy Branson, who was guiding another group, saw me carrying him and came to help. He carried him the last 200 yards. When I got Lucky home he walked to the kennel. The next morning he was fine.
It’s hard to watch the dogs get old and no longer do what used to be easy for them. Hunting him 2 days in a row for that long is too hard at his age. He can still do a day now and then just not 2 days in a row. Lucky has been a good bird dog and is still one of my favorites to hunt with.
This has been a good season and with no more winter than we have had, with a good spring, the next year could be even better. Does that sound like a Chicago Cubs fan?
Limit of quail and my 20 gauge.
Tur Bo
Luke