About a quarter to 4:00 am on Saturday, October 26, I started loading dogs to go to Nebraska for the opening of bird season. The older dogs, I just turned loose and they ran to the truck to be loaded. It was different because I had a receiver hitch on with dog boxes on it. Usually the dogs jump onto the tail gate and I load them. The tail gate was gone and we had 3 dog boxes. I put Luke, Tur Bo and Mann in the box behind the cab.
My truck and dog boxes.
Puppies getting a drink.
Mann pointing a pheasant.
There was a two dog box at the rear of the truck bed that I put Sally in. Then I put leads on the three older puppies and started to the truck. They pulled me for a little while. Then they saw the truck. They really don’t like riding. They let me pass them and started pulling back. I tied them off to a trailer parked near there and I loaded them one at a time. I put Abby in the two dog box and then loaded the other two in the 3 dog box on the receiver hitch.
I still had one to go. I put a leash on Josie, the littlest puppy and she led pretty well. I put her in the last hole in the 3 dog box. By the time I got on the road it was 4:30 am.
I started checking different properties that were in the Nebraska Public Access Atlas. I found a smaller place that no one was hunting that looked good. It was an 80 acre place that was CRP with a couple of draws running through the center. Some of the CRP had been mowed for hay, I think.
I turned Sally, Mann and Abby loose with GPS collars and e-collars on Sally and Mann. I thought that Abby and I could walk along the mowed edge and watch the other two dogs work. About a hundred yards down the draw Sally went on point, out in the tall grass and weeds. I called Abby and started to Sally. Abby started but went back. By the time I got to Sally the pheasants had run out.
We were hunting into a strong south wind. As we got another 40 yards down the draw two roosters flushed about 50 yards ahead of us. They flew south but a long way. We continued on down the draw. Mann pointed in the tall weeds and I was able to get a picture. I had tried to take a picture on Sally’s point earlier but couldn’t make it happen. I had just put the camera in my hunting vest when a rooster flushed about 20 yards from me. The rooster tried to fly into the wind but never got very high, just above the tall grass.
It dropped over a small hill when I shot. Neither dog saw it fall. I got them over the hill and they hunted dead where I told them to, really well. Either I was wrong, on the spot or the pheasant ran off. We never found him.
By this time Abby had gone back to the truck. She, evidently, didn’t like the tall grass. We hunted on to the south fence line then back to the truck. I had another couple of points but when I got to the dogs the birds were gone. By the time we got back to the truck it was already getting real warm. I loaded dogs and went to another place.
Josie. The water in the bucket was so low to get a drink her front feet came off the ground. It’s bad to be short.
I decided to just check properties until later in the day when it had cooled some. By 11:30 it was 75 degrees. Way to hot for my dogs. I found a place near a lake where Austin Farley and I had found some quail last year. I decided to wait for it to cool down some before running the dogs but I did take all 4 puppies for a walk around a winter wheat field. The more tired they are the less noise they will make at the motel, I hope.
I could see the trees and thickets just over a hill where we had found either a huge covey or two coveys last year. After about an hour and half wait I turned Sally, Mann and Tur Bo loose with GPS and e-collars on. When I got over the hill close to the trees I was seeing I saw they were now part of the lake. I knew the lake was higher but not that much. I don’t even remember seeing the lake in that area last year.
There was some good grass cover near a corn field so we started around the edge. The dogs went to the lake to get a drink and cool off every few minutes. It was still really warm. The GPS vibrated and when I checked it showed Mann on point near the lake. I didn’t go right to him thinking he was just getting a drink. It didn’t change so I started to him.
Mann, knee deep in the lake.
When I saw him he was knee deep in the lake pointing a brush pile with Tur Bo, on dry ground, honoring. The water was deep and there was nothing in that brush pile that I wanted. I got as close to Mann as I could without getting in the water and called him to me. He moved, when I called, a few feet. That released Tur Bo and he hit the brush pile and so did Mann. They went through the brush pile from one end to the other but wouldn’t leave. They turned and went back through the brush pile. I was calling and after several minutes they finally came out. Tur Bo kept wanting to go back but I got them away.
We made a large circle and returned to the truck. It was late so when we got back to the truck I fed dogs and put them up. It was dark by the time we got away from the lake. It had been a long day.
The next morning, at the motel, I talked to several groups and they had similar days to mine. One group of 5 people had killed one pheasant and two quail. Another said they had been coming to this area for a lot of years and this was the worst year ever.
Most of the crops were still in the field but it was dry and the farmers were working hard to get them out. I saw a lot of combines, both days I was there, working.
Daisey, not wanting to load up.
The second morning was cooler, maybe even colder. But the big thing was the wind. It was now out of the north about 30 miles an hour. I drove, before daylight, to the area I wanted to hunt. The first two places had hunters already on them. The dogs had been in the box for a long time so I stopped along the mud road and let them out. I thought about some of the windy days that I had futile hunts in the wind. I decided to just check properties and not put the dogs out.
I hope this was being smarter not lazier. Not only did I check some properties in Nebraska but I had my walk-in book for Kansas and checked some new stuff there. The farmers are working hard and a few weeks this will all be different, I hope.