Vince Dye and I met our friend Steve at a café in northern Missouri, for a good breakfast, before our hunt. The nice part of hunting in north Missouri; there is no large towns with their rush hour traffic that I have to drive through and I don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to beat the rush hour.
Steve going past Boss who is honoring Mann.
Sally honoring Mann.
Vince and Steve
I put the GPS collar and E-collar on Mann first and then put them on Boss. While I was putting the collars on Sally I noticed the GPS showing Mann on point. I didn’t think too much about it, thinking he was probably pooping. I got the collars on Sally and we started into the north wind. I checked the GPS and Mann was still on point 250 yards to the north. I told Steve and Vince and we started stepping a little faster.
By the time we got close Sally, Boss and Allie, Vince’s short hair, were honoring. Steve walked past Boss before getting to Mann who was buried in the thick cover along a creek. When Steve passed Mann nothing flushed. I released the dogs and they all were birdy on both sides of the creek. Allie pointed then moved a few feet and pointed again on the other side of the creek. All 3 of my dogs were expecting a bird close to where Mann had been on point. We never raised a bird. Maybe if I had of paid more attention to the GPS and we had got there faster the birds would have still been there.
We went on to the east down the creek. A few minutes later Mann was on point about a 150 yards east of us. When we got close several quail flushed wild. They were scattered out in some tall CRP. Probably, the covey that Mann had pointed earlier. Boss pointed a few yards in front of Vince and me. It was on Steve’s side of a little draw in the CRP. As Steve started toward Boss the quail flushed and about the time Steve shot the quail put a nice hedge tree between them. Steve made a good shot on the tree.
We worked that area out and decided to cross the creek and go on to the north. This is a large creek with few crossing places. Before we crossed a single quail flushed in front of Vince. Maggie, Vince’s English cocker spaniel, didn’t see it fall but Vince was able to send her in the right direction. She crossed the creek where the banks were steep but with her little short legs spinning she made it up the other side where she pounced on the quail and brought it to Vince.
We went on along a draw that had a lot of cover, brush and trees. I checked the GPS and it showed Mann and Sally on point about 240 yards ahead of us. Steve was on one side of the draw and Vince and I were on the other. Steve saw the dogs when we got within about 100 yards of them, then they were moving. I don’t know what happened.
Steve and one of the dogs working the CRP.
When we got close to where they had pointed Vince and I heard a quail flush down in the really thick cover along the ditch. Just a couple of minutes later we heard Steve shoot. Later, he said that 2 quail had flushed in front of him but went right into the dense cover. We have some really bad weather coming and this caused the birds to be spooky, I think.
Vince had seen several quail roosts in some CRP along a hillside and we were determined to go through it. It was a half mile or so trek to it. When we got close the GPS showed Sally on point about 150 yards from us. When we got close she was in some really dense cover. Steve crossed into the cover. He said when he got within about 10 yards of Sally a big covey flushed about 40 feet off to his right. Not real close to Sally. He never got a shot. Evidently the birds were running away from Sally.
This covey flew back behind us and Steve thought they had landed near a pond dam. When we got close several quail flushed across a fence in some real short pasture, without holding for the dogs. We went through our side of the fence without finding any birds.
Mann honoring Sally.
Steve and I were walking along one side of a real wide draw with Vince on the other. I checked the GPS and it showed Mann and Sally on point 200 yards away. We had to cross the draw to get to them. When we got across we saw Vince about 150 yards ahead of us going to the dogs. Allie had been on point and my dogs had honored. Vince had no idea we were even heading in that direction. We were closer when the birds flushed. Vince told us, when we got together, that Allie had been on point with Sally and Mann honoring. The quail had flushed in the heavy cover and he didn’t get a shot.
We went on toward the CRP where Vince had seen the quail roosts. This CRP was on a hillside that was pretty steep. We were almost to the top when Vince said Allie was on point along the creek a couple hundred yards away. I told him I wasn’t giving up the altitude I had gained. He and Steve went down the hill to the creek. All 3 of my dogs came in to be petted a few times while I waited. After a few minutes I started through the CRP, slowly. I was waiting for Vince and Steve but getting the dogs to hunt instead of licking on me.
Boss honoring Sally. This is after I had walked by him.
Boss and Sally were trailing through the CRP about 25 yards in front of me when a pheasant flushed about 30 yards the other side of the dogs. It was far enough from me I couldn’t tell whether it was a rooster or hen. Sally saw the pheasant but kept trailing. Vince and Steve caught up and we went through the CRP without finding anything.
We had another little bit of action in another patch of CRP. A couple of the dogs pointed for a few seconds then moved on, trailing but they never came up with anything. When we got to the trucks we loaded dogs after watering them.
There was spot real close where we had found a covey the last time we were here so we drove in that direction. We turned the dogs out and went toward a pond with some good cover around it. I just happened to be looking in the right direction when I saw a covey of quail flush. Vince said Allie had been on point where they got up. Most of these birds flew off the place we were hunting and crossed a road.
Mann in the back honoring and Maggie, Vince’s English cocker spaniel in front.
Allie pointed near the pond but when we got close she moved on. Sally was in the heavy cover and pointed into a little brush pile with Mann and Boss honoring. I took some pictures but when we went in front of her nothing flushed. I released the dogs and they all trailed for a while then went on.
On the other side of the trucks was a CRP patch. We started into it and Sally pointed about 20 yards in. When we got there nothing flushed but there were a bunch of quail roosts that we saw later. The CRP patch was surrounded by harvested soybean fields. When we got 3 or 400 yards into it I decided to go back and bring my truck around to the end so we wouldn’t have to just walk back. I carry my e-collar handheld and GPS handheld on my belt where they are handy and the GPS is quick to check. I unbuckled my belt and gave Vince my handheld so he could keep track of my dogs while I went back.
I didn’t re-buckle my belt until I got to the truck. When I got close to where Steve and Vince were they were walking back and forth, with all of the dogs close, near some small trees in the CRP. I got my gun and walked out to where they were. Vince had hit a pheasant really hard but they couldn’t find it. He thought it was dead in the air and my 3 dogs had run to where it fell but we never found the rooster.
Mann in full stride.
I went back to the truck and followed them to the end. We loaded the dogs and I started back to Steve’s truck. On the way I noticed that my transmitter for my e-collars was missing. It had been on my belt and I had not fastened the belt right away. I just knew it was in the tall CRP where I had give the GPS handheld to Vince. I did drive close to where I had walked out of the CRP but didn’t see it.
When we got back to Steve’s truck I walked as near as I could remember right where I had walked out. I got into the CRP and all I could find were quail roosts. There were a lot. Vince and Steve came to help. In 10 or 15 acres of head high CRP it’s hard to tell where you walked maybe 45 minutes before.
I gave up and was walking back to the truck with Steve. I was talking when Steve said, “Look right there”. My transmitter was lying in the harvested soybean field in plain sight. I had already given up. Without Steve seeing it the transmitter would probably still be there.
Mann just hunting.
The Lord has always taken care of me and this was just one more time. Thank you Steve and thank you Lord.
We had moved 5 coveys of quail and at least one rooster pheasant and were going home with 1 quail. I had not fired a shot. But we counted it as a successful day. We had got a lot of dog work and that’s what it’s about.