This may have been the first time I have missed the opening day of quail season, in Missouri, in over fifty years. The Missouri Conservation Department, in their infinite wisdom or lack of, decided to have youth deer season on opening day. If the young people have their hunter safety class they don’t have to have an adult with them. I really didn’t want to risk my life or my dogs life to some really young hunters. In another state I saw where an adult allowed his youth hunter to shoot at a sound and they killed another hunter. Vince Dye and I went to Iowa on opening day of quail season in Missouri.
Mann on the right honoring Sally.
Abby honoring Sally with Boss way in the back honoring, too.
Sally pointing with Boss honoring.
I took these pictures in Kansas on one of my trips to hunt prairie chickens. I don’t really go where there are a lot of chickens but I use the season to check out some of my quail hunting spots. To be on walk-in property you have to be hunting. Several of the places I wanted to hunt on had soybeans that had not been combined. I try not to run my dogs around these fields because even they knock a lot of beans off.
I had to go into town and buy a Iowa hunting license but it really didn’t matter. When we got where we wanted to hunt it started misting. I’m not very patient. After just a few minutes I started driving. If I can’t get out and go, I would just as soon be driving and checking other places. We drove by another place we wanted to hit and with the mist getting lighter we had high hopes but when we got close there were three trucks already parked on it.
We kept driving until we found another area. We started around a soybean stubble field. Vince had a young short hair by the name of Allie and I had Sally, Abby, Boss and Mann. Vince was concerned about Allie not running. She is about a year old but her previous owner had gotten sick about the time he had bought her. She had spent a lot of time in the kennel. When Vince got her she spent a month or longer with a guy that worked her on call back birds. The guy had told Vince that she would point birds but she wouldn’t get over 60 yards away from him. Vince likes to see them run, as I do.
Immediately, with my dogs running as they usually do, Allie started to run better. Before the day was over she was running good. She pointed and also honored. She’s going to make Vince a good dog.
Boss and Abby being roaded at the house.
There was CRP type cover around the soybean field. As we started around the soybean field it started to mist again. We were a half mile from the truck. Too far to go back. I hunt with older side by side shotguns and don’t like to get them wet but they would be wet whether we went back to the truck or continued hunting. It stayed wet and foggy as long as we were out.
At a distance it’s hard to tell my dogs, except for Abby, apart. Abby is a tri-color. I saw two of my dogs on a point of a draw honoring another dog inside the cover. Vince and I started toward them and I saw both dogs throw their head up and start moving. I knew for some reason the birds had flushed. Vince or I never saw a bird.
Sally and Mann being roaded.
Just a few minutes later, along another hedge row, Boss pointed with the other dogs honoring. When I went in front of him a hen pheasant flushed. The dogs were really excited about this hedge row. We heard a quail flush out the other side. Then Vince said, “we’ve got a point.” I told him to go ahead and I heard him shoot. A single quail with Vince’s Allie retrieving.
There was a patch of CRP close and Sally pointed in it. She thought the bird was right under her nose and she was afraid to move. I kicked right in front of her and went several yards in front. Finally, she moved, trailing. Mann came through the area and pointed near where she had. Before I got to him he was moving. Something had been there but we never got anything to flush.
GPS showing how far and how fast I roaded the dogs on a gravel road.
We went on around the edge of the soybean field. The GPS showed Mann on point in a draw that was surrounded by the soybean stubble. When we got to him he was in a small clearing but looking into some really thick cover. The small saplings were about 10 feet tall and really close together. I went in front of Mann and he moved up. He pointed and moved several times. Vince and I were separated by about 25 yards but the cover was so thick we couldn’t see each other. We heard several quail flush with one flying behind me. I tried to turn to get a shot but my feet were stuck in the cover. It’s hard to shoot turning around without being able to move your feet but I tried, to no avail.\
We tried to go on down the draw. Once, my GPS showed Boss on point. I got within 9 feet of him, according to the GPS, and could not see him. Abby came in front of me and honored Boss. I knew where he was but still couldn’t see him or get any closer. About that time Vince said there was a bow hunter in a tree along this draw.
Abby and Boss at one of our water breaks.
That is a problem with hunting public land. There can be other hunters on the same area. One of my fears, while hunting, is not seeing a bow hunter in a tree and have a quail fly between me and the bow hunter. Being color blind I might not see a hunter in camouflage.
We tried to get away from the hunter without getting closer to him. He saw us trying to cross the thick draw and told us the only way across was almost under his stand. We crossed and went away from that area.
It started to rain again. We started toward the truck by going down a wide hedge row. Vince was on one side and I was on the other. He yelled that we had a dog on point. There wasn’t a good place to get through the hedge row so I just told him to go ahead. I heard a pheasant flush and Vince shoot.
When we got close together I asked Vince which dog had the point because by the time I checked my GPS the other dogs were honoring. Vince said, “one of your males”. He has trouble telling Mann and Boss apart but at a distance I do too. Vince said the dogs had pointed under a pin oak with low hanging limbs. He had to go under the limbs to flush the bird and when he tried to shoot his barrel hit a limb.
Sally and Mann at one of our water breaks.
As we came down the hedge row Boss pointed at the end. As the hedge row turned there was some CRP close. He pointed looking into the CRP but as I got close he moved. Vince’s dog, Allie, pointed. She was almost in the same spot that Boss had been. Then she moved about 25 yards and pointed again. Sally pointed just a little way away. Something had run around there but we never got anything to flush.
When we got back to the truck it was still misting rain so we loaded dogs and headed home. More than fifty years of hunting on opening day in Missouri was a hard one to stop but maybe next year I’ll start another one of fifty or so years.