Austin Farley and I went to Iowa, quail hunting, on Tuesday. Deer season is going on in Iowa but hunters can only use a shotgun with slugs. Although these guns will shoot two hundred yards, with accuracy, it’s not quite as scary as where rifles are legal. We had decided to hunt only where we could drive around the property and make sure no hunters were there.
Sally pointing Mann backing.
Mann on pigeons.
Luke pointing a covey of quail.
We drove by a walk-in area and no one was hunting it. It was 160 acres of CRP but it wasn’t really thick like a lot of them are. It also had a lot of good weeds that had seeds that quail eat. A good portion of the weeds were partridge peas, I think. Deer, quail and pheasants all eat partridge peas, as well as, almost all animals and birds.
I turned Luke and Mann out with their e-collars and GPS collars. Austin put his Garmin Alpha on Drifter, his GSP, and Joker his English setter. Both of Austin’s dogs are about 6 or 7 months old and Mann is almost 8 months. We started to the north. The wind was not very strong and out of the south. We went in a half mile to the fence on the north. We started to the west. Austin checked his GPS and said, “Joker is on point right near the corner behind us”.
We had cut across leaving out a little corner. As we walked to him Austin saw that Drifter had honored Joker. When we got close both dogs were standing on the north side of the fence row. I told Austin I would go through and run the covey out to him. About that time a large covey flushed near us. Austin shot and missed with his first barrel. He shot again and I shot at the same time. Austin told me later that he didn’t hear me shoot and he wondered how he had hit both of those birds. They weren’t that close together.
We got the dogs in to hunt dead. Joker found my bird real quick. As the dogs searched Austin saw his dead bird lying just a little farther out than mine. Most of the singles had gone to the south east so we followed.
I checked the GPS and Mann was on point to the east. We got to the east fence line and we could see him just off the walk-in place on point in a little draw, at the end of a pond. I thought about taking a picture before I crossed the fence then decided to cross first. Just as I got across the quail flushed in front of Mann. I had a shot but because I was off the walk-in I didn’t shoot. Right after the first single flushed two more quail got up.
I got Mann back on the walk-in. We checked to the south of the north fence line. A couple of singles got up as the dogs tried to pin them down. We went back and forth through the area without finding one that would hold for the dogs.
As we continued around this big CRP field the dogs got real birdy and a couple of pheasants flushed ahead of them. When we got to the truck we loaded the dogs and drove to another place.
The next place we decided to hunt was a place that Pheasant Forever had planted some food plots. As we got dogs ready to turn out, about 10 truck loads of deer hunters drove past. I had Tur Bo ready to turn loose and I just petted him until the caravan passed. I, also, turned Mann and Sally loose. Austin turned his two dogs out.
Babe training on pigeons.
There was a buffer strip next to a small draw that ran to the south next to the food plot of milo. The dogs took the edge along the draw and we followed. About 200 yards down the edge Tur Bo pointed into a little clump of brush just off the draw. The other dogs honored. I went in on Tur Bo’s left and Austin was on the right. When the covey flushed I hit a bird with my first shot but it kept going so I dropped it with the second barrel. I asked Austin if he had killed any and he said, “I hit one but it just dropped a leg.
My bird had fallen into the draw. We got the dogs to hunt dead and Tur Bo found my bird across the creek that was in the bottom of the draw. Most of the covey had flown in that direction so we crossed the draw. As we walked along I checked the GPS and we had walked away from Mann. He was 35 yards behind us on point.
He was pointing into a small brush pile inside the draw. Where he was the cover wasn’t real thick. I walked into his front and Austin came in beside him. Austin saw the quail on the ground. When he kicked the brush pile the quail ran but didn’t try to fly. Mann caught it. It was the bird that Austin had dropped the leg on, I think.
Tur Bo on point with his daughter, Sally, honoring.
We checked the area we thought the singles had flown to without seeing any others. When we got close to the truck we loaded dogs and went to another place.
We drove by a place near where all of the deer hunters had been, that had a food plot. We turned the same dogs out on this one that we had out on the last place. As we got near the end of the food plot some pheasants flushed way out in front of the dogs. Most people that hunt this go through the food plot just like we did. Most of the time I like to come into food plots from a different direction or hunt along side of them. Sometimes, hunting them differently confuses the birds and they will hold. Sometimes.
We made a big circle, south through some CRP, down a draw and back to the north. On the very edge to the north Sally went on point. Before we got to her she was moving and we saw several pheasants flushing from the area. All of the dogs went into these weeds and were trailing. We had several points, but the pheasants flushed before we could get to them. We circled back to the truck.
We had another place that we had been going to when we saw the food plot on the last place. We had found two coveys in it last year but we hadn’t hunted it this year. We turned the same 5 dogs out and started to the west through a small corn field. The cover wasn’t near as good as it had been last year.
Luke pointing a covey.
We went around the south side of the corn field and back to the north to the end of the property, we thought. We started back down a fence line to the east and I saw a single quail flush to the north. There wasn’t a dog close and I was probably 30 yards from the quail. It flew to the north. When we got back to the truck we saw the signs where the property that the single had flown to was still walk-in. We will know next time.
We had time for one more short hunt. In Iowa, you have to quit by 4:30 pm. Austin left Joker in the truck. He acted like he was getting tired. We had parked close to a food plot so we walked down the rows to the south west. When we got near the end I saw Tur Bo on point, looking into a small plum thicket. Austin went around the end and when I got close to Tur Bo, he moved into the plum thicket and went back on point. Sally was just a few feet from Tur Bo on point looking in another direction. They came all the way through the plum thicket and trailed to the south.
The dogs trailed to a small draw that ran close to the road. Drifter went on point at the head of the draw but the covey of quail flushed before we got close. We saw where some of the singles had flown.
Sally backing Tur Bo.
The dogs all hunted to the east and we followed. Austin was on the south side of the draw and I was on the north. Tur Bo went on point in front of Austin. The way the covey had run I figured the singles would do the same. I told Austin to go ahead. A single quail flushed and he dropped it in the tall cover. Tur Bo saw it fall and scooped it up. Austin took it from him.
We went to the end of the property and started back to the west. Sally went on point down in the draw. When we got to her a single flushed about 20 yards from her. Austin and I both missed only I missed twice.
When we got close to where we thought the singles had flown to, the dogs were really birdy. Several times dogs would go on point but only for a few seconds then trail. I didn’t see Sally and checked the GPS. She was on point 230 yards farther to the west. The cover was really hard to walk through so we walked down the road for a way then back into the cover. We got right behind her and a hen pheasant flushed.
We hunted back through where the singles had flown to without moving any more birds. When we got back to the truck we only had a few minutes of hunting time left. We loaded our dogs. It had been a good day.
On the way home, we tried to remember if we had seen any roosters and we could only come up with one. We had seen a lot of pheasants but only one rooster. We had found 3 coveys of quail and if we count the one quail we saw on one of the places as a covey, and they had to be more quail there, we had seen four coveys. It had been a good day.
Tur Bo on point.
Tur Bo on point.
Sally backing Tur Bo at Black Kettle Grasslands.