The last two times I’ve hunted by myself. I like to get there fairly early and leave about 2:00 pm to come home so I can beat some of the traffic. To get to Kansas I have to cross all of the Kansas City metro area. Yesterday as I returned, in time to beat most of the traffic, I encountered a car fire that shut down two lanes and a wreck that just slowed both directions of the highway. I had to get off the highway, for a ways, just to get around the traffic from the burning cars.
Abby pointing a single.
Abby pointing another single.
This is Mann pointing a covey with Abby in the middle and Boss close to the camera, honoring.
As I approached a new, to me, area to hunt I saw a harvested milo field that had a lot of grass growing amongst the almost waist high milo stalks. Years ago if you could find a milo patch you would almost always find quail. That hasn’t worked for me for several years but I haven’t quit trying. As soon as I saw the milo I started looking for a place to park the truck.
I had Abby, Boss, Bodie and Mann with me. Sally was home, still in heat. I put their GPS collars and e-collars on and turned them loose. I started around the milo field but didn’t get very far. The GPS showed Mann on point south of me, away from the milo. He was across one soybean field and along the side of another in a tree/water way. I started to him and got within about a hundred yards and he was moving.
Mann doesn’t want to flush the birds. He will stay as long as the birds hold. These evidently flushed. I continued on to the tree row he was in. All of the dogs were really birdy. Abby was working just ahead of me and as I watched her moving really fast and then she slammed into a point. Those are always fun to see.
Bodie honored as I walked in. At least 3 quail flushed, one right in front of Abby, and two others that were a little way apart. I shot and the bird came right down. Abby went right to where it fell and I expected her to grab it. It didn’t happen. We spent 15 minutes or more looking for the quail with no success. Sally is my best retriever and she’s home. Maybe the next hunt I will have her.
We just went a little way when Abby pointed again. This time Mann was honoring but not real rigid. I thought they were just honoring each other. When I bulled my way through the thick vines, thinking they were honoring each other I said, “okay”. Mann went on down the tree row. Abby took maybe a half step and got really rigid. I knew from all of the trees I wouldn’t have a shot so I got a picture. Sure enough when the single flushed it put two or three trees between us not giving me a shot.
Right where the tree row hit some thick woods Mann pointed. Before I got to him Bodie pointed into a thicket but when I got to him he moved on. He saw Mann and honored. That is one of the pictures of Mann pointing with Abby and Boss honoring. When I walked in front of Mann nothing flushed. All of the dogs were really birdy. I stood waiting on them to find these birds.
In just a few minutes with all of the dogs working hard the GPS showed Mann on point 120 yards from me down in the deep woods. There was very little ground cover under the trees. By the time I got to Mann the other dogs were backing. This time when I passed him a covey of quail flushed well ahead of us. They flew through the trees without giving me a shot. Most of them had flown deeper into the woods.
Bodie pointing real close to where Mann is on point.
I started after them. I saw Mann pointing as I got closer. As I watched him, with him not moving, I saw the quail flush. It’s near the end of season and these birds have been educated by a lot of hunters as well as their natural predators. I have seen a lot of coyote droppings and with the creek running through this property I know there are plenty of raccoons and opossums here. To make it this far quail have to be smart.
I started trying to get the dogs out of the woods and into the more open fields. As we started out the GPS showed Mann on point. When I got close Boss was honoring. The only way to get through the woods in some areas is to follow deer trails. Some of these look like super highways. I wish deer were taller. It’s hard to bend low enough to get through some of the thickets. As thick as this was I knew there would be no shot but I took a couple of pictures. When I got close a single quail flushed, without me getting a shot.
Mann pointing a single, Boss honoring.
We continued trying to get out of these woods. We didn’t get far when I saw Boss on point. This time Mann, his dad, was backing him. I took pictures and before I got to Boss a quail flushed about 15 yards or more in front of him. Again no shot.
We came out of the deep woods and started toward the milo field, again. Again, Mann was on point by the harvested soybean field. He was over 300 yards from me. I went through a tree row and saw him, still a couple hundred yards ahead of me, still on point with Abby honoring. Then Boss honored from across a portion of the soybean field. Bodie saw Boss and honored him. I was still 50 yards or so from Mann when I saw a single quail flush from in front of Mann. It’s a good thing I’m satisfied with pictures.
Boss pointing a single.
Mann honoring Boss.
Mann pointing Abby honoring.
I took more pictures than usual on this trip so I just threw a few extras at the bottom. I enjoy taking pictures more than shooting these days. A lot of the quail killed in late January may have made it to nest and give us more birds to work dogs on next year. `This time of year I think about things like this. Maybe I think too much.