Vince Dye and I went quail hunting, in northern Missouri, on a Conservation area. This area had lots of quail in the late 80’s and early 90’s. For at least 40 years the Conservation department has known that fescue is bad for quail and this area still has a lot of fescue. Each Conservation area must be managed with no oversight from anyone. Vince and I hunted a Conservation area earlier, that had quail, that had no fescue. If one area could get rid of their fescue, they all could.
Dolly honoring Mann.
Mann on point, Dolly backing.
Mann pointing a pigeon.
We turned our dogs loose. Vince had his two German short hairs, Allie and Indy and his English cocker spaniel, Maggie. I had Dolly, Sally and Mann. We went around a harvested corn field along the road then to the west along a bluff. There was good cover along the harvested fields but we never saw a quail.
We crossed the road and went back to the east. We had been here earlier in the season and had found a covey, in the woods, way in the back. We checked around some harvested soy bean fields on the way. When we got to the area we had found the covey earlier, along side a soy bean field, Indy went on point, looking into the woods.
Mann saw her but this was the first short hair he had seen on point, I think. When he got close I whoaed him. He stopped then started moving again. Sally saw Indy and honored. Mann honored Sally. Then Dolly honored and Allie came in and backed, too. We had all of them backing.
Vince was closer so he went around into the woods to drive the quail out. Two quail flushed but I only saw one. It flew back down the edge of the field. I shot and it started down but continued to fly, with both legs hanging down. I kept an eye on it as it flew. About a hundred yards, back the way we had come, the quail lit in the cover. We started back that way and Indy went on point, then jumped in, grabbed the quail and in a dead run returned to Vince.
We went back in the area where the two quail had flushed. There should have been a covey around. We checked on to the north fence then circled through some giant foxtail next to the soy bean field. Later Sallie was on point in the woods near where Indy had pointed the two quail. Before we got to her Mann honored. When we saw Sallie, she started trailing. Then all of the dogs went to trailing. The dogs continued to work the woods for about 5 minutes. They didn’t want to leave, for a while.
We checked some grass fields near the woods then hunted back toward the truck. We loaded the dogs and went to another area.
Vince had a private place close to the Conservation area he could hunt so we went to it. Dolly was almost 13 years old. Vince had hunted with her when she was 7 or 8 months old and really liked her. We both knew that if she found birds when she was out, it might be her last. She can’t hear or see very well but she likes to go. I turned her and Mann loose. Vince only took Maggie his cocker spaniel.
We went to the north down a fence line along a soy bean field. There was a small water way, that ran off to the east, that both dogs ran down. As I watched about a hundred yards ahead of the dogs a large covey of quail flushed flying into a harvested corn field. The quail were far enough ahead of the dogs that they never saw or heard them flush.
I called the dogs back and we hunted the fence row on to the back then went into the corn field with the wind in our face. The dogs were in front of us when the covey flushed again. This time they were about 50 yards ahead of the dogs. They flew off the place we had permission to hunt.
Sally on point.
We continued on to the south. There was a small ditch running through the field with just a little brush along side. Mann was ahead of Dolly going down this ditch when he went on point looking into a clump of brush. When Dolly saw him she honored.
I took a couple of pictures then went on to Mann. Vince was on the other side of the ditch when I got to Mann. The covey of quail flushed flying through the brush. Through the brush, Vince only got off one shot that missed. I shot through a tree and saw feathers come off the bird and then missed with my second shot. We checked where the quail should have fallen if it went down but didn’t find anything.
This covey had flown to an area around a pond with some water ways running toward the pond. As we checked the grassy areas, Mann pointed. When we got to him a single quail flushed flying across a harvested soy bean field. It went Vince’s way so I didn’t even raise my gun. Vince hit the quail hard with the first shot but the quail didn’t drop. He shot again but the quail kept going although it was having trouble keeping any altitude. It went on over the hill. There was a small draw over the hill and we got the dogs in to hunt for the crippled bird with no luck.
Sally pointing quail.
We went back to where the last bird had flushed from. Mann pointed in a clump of multi floral rose. I started toward him and he moved around the clump and went back on point. Two or three singles flushed well out ahead of the dogs. I threw a shot at them with no success. About that time Vince said, “Maggie has that bird”. I was thinking she had carried the bird back over the hill from where we had looked for Vince’s bird but he said, “No, she picked it up right here. It must be the one you hit on the covey rise.” Wow, Maggie had found a bird that had flown a couple of hundred yards after being hit.
We checked the cover back to the truck and loaded the dogs. Dolly, had been out longer than usual, was done for the day. She hadn’t quit, just kept chugging along, but I didn’t want to over do it with her.
The next place we tried was one of the first places that Vince and I had hunted together. In those days it was just a weed field but it was weeds that the quail liked. Back then we found a lot of birds. A lot of the weeds have been mowed and we checked it but didn’t find any quail.
We had parked across the road from a farm house. When I parked I never thought about the dogs going over there. I should have but I never gave it a thought. I turned Mann and Sally loose and Vince turned all 3 of his dogs, Allie, Indy and Maggie loose.
Mann honoring the backing dog.
As soon as we released the dogs they went across to the farm house and cats started going every where. Mann made one of his nicest points of the whole day on a cat. I saw one cat, that must have gone up a tree next to the house, go over the ridge on the roof.
After we came back the race was on to the farm house. I got Sally and Mann in the truck but Vince’s Allie was after those cats. A girl came out of the house with a broom and was protecting her cats. Vince got his dogs in the truck and we went over to talk to the cats owners. The mother, I guess, came out. The dogs hadn’t caught any cats but there was one up a tree that the girl was trying to get down and probably one still on the roof. I told them I used to be a fire fighter but I couldn’t help them now. They weren’t too upset about the dogs chasing their cats. Seemed kind of glad just to talk to someone.
We drove around for quite a while trying to find another place. We settled on a large place with some CRP and harvested soy beans. It looked like most of the CRP had been mowed but it had been early enough that it had grown back some. The terraces hadn’t been mowed at all. As we went along side a terrace I saw a covey roost. I started really looking and in just a few yards I saw ten or twelve roosts. I felt sure we would find some quail.
I had turned Sally out and Vince was using all 3 of his dogs. There were several draws running through the CRP. We checked them as well as some of the terraces. Sally went across the harvested soy bean field and over a hill to a draw that ran into the soy bean field. The GPS showed her on point about 175 yards away.
As we got to the top of the hill but still 75 yards from Sally we saw a covey of quail flush, flying back to the south. We saw where some of them landed. We got within about 50 yards of them and they flushed, flying off the place we had permission to be on.
Sally was at the end of the draw and I started to her. I came around the end of the draw and a single quail flushed close to me. It fell when I shot and two or three more birds flushed farther away. I shot again but missed. No dogs were near me so I picked up my dead bird. We checked the draw then went back to see if any quail had gone into the CRP.
When we got close to the truck we loaded dogs and started home. It had been a good day. We had dog work and we saw 4 coveys of quail. We had only killed 3 quail because we shot bad but we enjoyed our day. And although they came close, the dogs never caught a single cat. A good day.
Mann on pigeons.
Babe with a pigeon asleep in front of her.
Mann pointing a pigeon.