Before anything else, I want to apologize for the pictures I will put in this post. I don’t know if it’s my camera, the setting I have it on or just a really bad run of pictures but over two hunts they are really dark. Someone that knows cameras and the app I have them on, could probably fix them. I don’t really know cameras, I just point and click, and I’m really not high tech.
Abby on point.
Boss pointing a single quail.
Sally pointing a single quail Abby honoring..
To hunt in Kansas most of the time I have to drive across the whole metro area. When I start on I-70 it’s 45 minutes to go all the way across the metro area if I can maintain about 70 MPH. Well that didn’t happen. I had two stretches that were bumper to bumper at about 12 MPH. But usually I build in a little extra time but I was still a few minutes late meeting Don and Linda in Kansas.
We drove to the area we wanted to hunt and started getting the e-collars and GPS collars on the dogs. I had Abby and Boss in the box near the tail gate and put their collars on first. Mann and Sally were in the box right behind the cab. I put the collars on Mann and then did Sally. Don wasn’t ready yet and I waited a minute then looked at my GPS to make sure the dogs were all going in the right direction. The GPS showed Mann on point about 150 yards away.
Don and I started to him. Don hadn’t got his dog, Goofy, ready yet. By the time we got close the GPS showed my other 3 dogs honoring or at least showed them all close to Mann on point. When we got there, Mann was on point in a little cluster of trees and shrubbery. I saw Boss first and he was pointing, I thought. I thought the birds may have run away from Mann and Boss had them. When I got close the birds flushed from behind me where Mann, Sally and Abby were. There was a bunch of brush between me and them and Don was on the other side of me. Neither of us got a shot.
But that is a great way to start a hunt. Linda and Goofy joined us and we went after the singles. One bird flushed from in front of us without a dog being close. We only shoot at pointed quail. We worked most of the cover without finding any more and started on around the property.
In just a few minutes the GPS handheld showed Boss on point along the edge of a soybean field about a hundred yards ahead. When we got to him nothing flushed but all of the dogs were really birdy. We continued along the edge and Don saw Goofy on point with Sally and Abby honoring. When we got to him nothing flushed but again all of the dogs were really birdy.
Sally pointing, Boss and Abby honoring.
We got to a hedge row and started down it when the GPS showed Boss on point on the other side. When we got to him Goofy, Sally and Abby were honoring. I started in front of him and Mann showed up and honored. As I started in front of Boss I thought I heard a bird flush. I turned to Don and asked him if he heard a quail flush. He said yes and he also saw it. Again no shots fired.
I believe Boss had a covey pointed that ran out and flushed earlier. This bird and the one where Goofy had pointed were from that covey. We never came up with any more out of this covey as we circled the soybean field.
It was about lunch time as we got back close to the truck but the area where the first bunch had flushed was close so we decided to cross it one more time. There was a deep ditch that ran along the area and I was on one side and Don on the other. He yelled about a dog on point. I checked the GPS and it was Abby on point. It would have taken a while for me to get across the ditch so I told Don to go ahead. I heard a gunshot and then, “Dead bird, dead bird”. I went across to help him find it but he had it located. He wanted Abby to find it.
Sally pointing.
We got the dogs back in the area but that was the only one we found. Just down the road was another couple of soybean fields so after lunch we drove to them. We circled one field and when we got back to the truck I started to load the dogs. I put Abby in her box and checked the GPS to see about the others. Mann was on point about 125 yards from us. I had already taken my vest off so I grabbed a handful of shells and started to him.
There was a fence between me and him. Don went around the other side. Mann was in a tangle of small saplings, blackberry vines and brush. I crossed the fence and saw Boss honoring. I passed him in time to see Mann slinking through the cover. Then he went back on point. I tried to get in front of him and a big covey of quail flushed. In all of the brush I didn’t get a shot but I heard Don shoot. Another, “Dead bird, dead bird”.
I made my way out of the brush toward Don. I cleared the brush and as I crossed a little flat ditch I got my feet tangled and down I went. Don was in front of me so on the way down I threw my gun, with the barrel pointing away from Don, in front of me. The stock landed right where I placed my nose. Not a good deal. Blood flowed but not real bad but I also got mud in my barrels. I was able to clear it out but was afraid there was still some dirt left. Don is a gunsmith and said, “Don’t shoot that gun until you clean it”. Made sense to me. I put it in the truck.
Boss pointing a single.
We talked a few minutes and I checked the GPS. Mann was on point about a hundred yards away. He wasn’t very far from where the covey had flushed. We started to him. Boss honored as I got close. Don went to the other side hoping the bird would fly through the clump of brush. I walked in front of him, with my gun in the truck, and the quail flushed and swung out across a harvested soybean field. My favorite shot. Flying from my right and circling to my left. Oh well, I don’t really care about shooting quail. We need them to work the dogs on.
The next time we got close to the truck I got the dogs loaded up and headed home. It doesn’t pay to get caught in the evening rush hour. I think evenings are worse than the morning rush.
Friday morning, when I saw the weather forecast for the next week, I decided to load dogs and go back to Kansas. I wanted to check some areas close to where we had hunted our first day but not the same ones.
Boss honoring Sally.
The way my dog boxes are it’s easy to haul 5 dogs but to get to my other box I have to climb on the the wheel or crawl into the back of the truck. So I left Annie at home and took the other 5. Sally, Abby, Boss, Stormy and Mann. This will be Stormy’s first real hunt. I’ve worked her on pigeons, call back pen birds and shot some chukars over her. I think her and Annie are ready for the hunt.
I turned them all out on a farm with harvested soybeans, corn and some CRP along the ditches. It looked really good. There was a long wide draw running through the middle and we went to the south into the wind. The dogs were already running the draw as I got close. The GPS vibrated and showed Mann on point a little over 200 yards away but on the other side of the big draw. It took me a long time to get across the draw and the deep ditch in the bottom. I got within about 40 yards of Mann and he was moving.
He had been buried in some tall weeds and maybe The other dogs running the edge may have spooked the birds or someone didn’t see him on point and ran through the birds. When I got close I saw a quail flush and just fly a little way. It was a baby bird. I took the dogs on down the draw away from the little quail.
Abby honoring.
A few years ago this farm had 3 coveys but on this day I checked it pretty well and didn’t see any other birds. When we got back to the truck Stormy didn’t want to quit. Actually she didn’t want to ride again. She gets car sick. She was across the road and when I went to catch her she took off. I had a GPS collar on her so I knew where she was. She went a little over a hundred yards. I sat down on the tail gate. It’s lonely for a puppy to be that far away.
A young man stopped to talk, for a few minutes, as I waited on Stormy. As we talked I saw her cross the road to the side I was on. I looked on the GPS. She was hiding in the weeds 45 feet from me. When the young man left I went looking for her. When I got close she stood up and started away. I said, “whoa”. She stopped but when I got real close she started moving again. I sternly said, “whoa”. This time she let me catch her.
I drove to a different farm in the area. This time I left Stormy and Mann in the truck. For a young dog Stormy had done enough and Mann’s tail was bleeding from all of the rough stuff he had been running in.
Goofy pointing Abby honoring.
The wind was 19 miles per hour according to my phone and we went into it. There was some CRP before we got to a hedge row running down the side of a harvested soybean field. I was still a long way from the soybean field when Sally went on point in a clump of trees between the CRP and the soybeans. Abby and Boss honored.
When I got close, Sally moved into the clump of brush. I followed. Just as I thought they would, the covey flushed out the other side without giving me a shot. About half went straight ahead and half went to my right. We followed the ones that went straight ahead.
About 40 yards from where the covey flushed, Sally pointed. I couldn’t believe some of the quail stopped that close but when I got there a single flushed. I hit it really hard with my second shot, feathers came floating back by me, but the bird kept going. I would rather do a clean miss. Just a little farther Boss pointed. When I got to him a single quail ran to the edge of the hedge row, flushed and never got 3 feet high until it was away down the hedge row. No shot at all.
Stormy pointing a pigeon.
We went to the end of the hedge row and then came back. Back even closer to where the covey flushed, Sally pointed again. This quail let me walk past him then flushed behind me. By the time I heard him and got turned around he was out of range. As we started down the hedge row I noticed Sally laying in shady spots until I got close. It was getting too warm for my little fat girl.
The other half of the covey had flown off to the right of where they had flushed from so on the way to the truck we went that way. Sally may have just been tired of rechecking that area over and over. The GPS vibrated showing Sally on point about 125 yards in front of me. When I got close to her she jumped in and almost caught this bird. I think this was the bird I had knocked the feathers out of. Sally must have smelled some blood. She usually doesn’t move until the birds are in the air. But once again there was too much brush for a shot.
Annie pointing a pigeon.
I checked the GPS and Boss was on point. When I got to him a single quail flushed right in front of him but on the other side of some trees. I called them to head to the truck and Boss found another single. It too beat us. I had 8 points and had only fired two shots all day. But that’s okay. I had 8 points. That’s a great day. And we didn’t hurt the birds. I can come back to these places.