Vince Dye and I ate a big breakfast at the Hungry Mule in Lathrop Missouri, on the way to hunt a Missouri Conservation Area, on the opening morning of Missouri’s quail season. I’m always excited, although I have been hunting the opener for over fifty years, when opening morning gets here.
Mann on point.
Mann pointing a covey in blackberry and thorn thicket.
I left Luke home this trip but he looked good in this picture.
After breakfast we drove to the Conservation Area we wanted to hunt. When we got to the parking lot there was a vehicle there. We weren’t sure whether they were quail hunting or deer hunting, since bow season is open. We went to a private place that belongs to a friend of Vince.
Vince turned out Indy his GSP and Maggie his English cocker spaniel. Indy was wearing a GPS but Maggie stays with us. She didn’t need a GPS. I put GPS and e-collars on Mann and Sally. This 80 acres usually has row crops with some good grassy areas around the fields but this year was too wet to plant. The areas that were usually planted had been disked to keep weeds down. The weeds in that part were spotty and not very tall but the disked ground made tough walking.
We hunted a hillside with some good cover and then crossed a small creek by coming back to the road. Sally and Indy crossed the road and went on point, side by side. This was off the place we had permission to hunt. They were close to the road and we stood watching them. Mann got close and was birdy but he never saw the two on point. We knew the dogs would be on point as long as the birds held so Vince started in the cover. He only made a couple of steps and a woodcock flushed flying deeper into the place we couldn’t hunt.
We got the dogs back and went on around the 80 we had permission to hunt. Last year there was 3 coveys that we found after the crops were combined. We went all the way to the back on the east side crossed to the west and back south. There was a water way, with quite a few small trees growing in it running through the middle. I took it back to the south while Vince hunted the west side along an abandoned road. We hunted back to the truck without seeing a quail.
Vince going to Indy, on point.
We loaded the dogs and went back to the Conservation area. As we drove in the vehicle we saw in the parking lot was coming out. I stopped and we talked to the guys. They had been hunting for quail or rabbits without dogs and hadn’t seen anything. We pulled into the parking lot.
Vince turned Allie and Maggie out and I used Tur Bo and Mann. We went south of the parking lot to an area where last year we had found two coveys. This year it had not been planted but still had corn from last year. We hunted it then went to the east into another part of the Conservation area.
We found some small fields that had corn from this year with lots of weeds growing in the rows. As we were going from one field to the next I checked the GPS and my batteries were low. I stopped and changed batteries and started walking. I knew that it would take a few seconds for the hand held to re-connect with the GPS collars.
We were in the edge of a weedy corn field and Vince said, “we have a point”. About five yards or so in front of us Tur Bo was on point. We could just barely see him in the weeds. Before we got to him a scattered covey of quail started flushing. A quail flushed in front of me and I knocked it down. I heard Vince shoot, once. Another quail flushed out in my front and it dropped when I shot. I reloaded my side by side and another bird flushed and I shot it.
My side by side and a few quail.
This wasn’t a real triple it was more like three singles. The birds had been scattered out and they flushed one or two at a time. Vince had only got one shot and it wasn’t a great one. He had missed so he and Maggie went to find one of my quail. As I started toward him Mann went on point where I knew one of the dead birds were. I went toward him and he grabbed the dead bird and started toward me. About half way he dropped the quail. I told him to fetch and he picked it up and brought it to me. I tossed it a few feet and he retrieved it.
Vince said his pup Allie was on point behind me. When we went to her a wounded quail tried to fly and she caught it. She held it until Vince took it from her, still alive. We went back to find the other quail. We got all of the dogs in to search but never came up with it. After fifteen or twenty minutes we went on.
We went on around this corn field and about half a mile to the south Mann went on point, standing in an old lane. He was wagging but Tur Bo was standing behind him and he looked good. When I got close they both went back to hunting but trailing. Mann usually doesn’t wag and I wonder if he didn’t stop to a flush. I’ve seen him wag when he does or when the birds have run off and he wants to follow.
The dogs trailed a ways then Allie pointed. When Vince walked in a single quail flushed and dropped when he shot. Allie marked it down, perfectly. She doesn’t retrieve but she held it until Vince took it. We went back through the area but didn’t come up with any other singles.
We went on around the field and when we got close to where we had lost the bird we looked, again. Again we had no luck. We hunted back to the truck. We ate lunch driving to another area on the same Conservation area.
Abby out of Sally’s litter.
We talked to some campers on this Conservation area. They had some kids with them and were gearing up for the youth deer season that Missouri Conservation Department in their infinite wisdom changed from the last weekend of October to the second and third of November. Opening weekend of quail season. It really doesn’t matter, probably, if you have private land to hunt on. If you have to hunt Conservation land you stay home to protect your bird dogs. It is good to get kids interested in hunting.
Vince turned Indy out but Maggie was tired and full of cockle burrs. I turned Mann and Sally loose. My youngest dogs, I hunt all day unless they are extremely tired. I think this makes them pace themselves instead of running full out for a couple of hours. I ran Luke for a couple of hours when he was a puppy then put him up. He still, even at almost ten years old, will make half mile casts. I don’t mind 300 yard casts but Luke goes too far.
We went around the area where we had found quail last year then on toward the back of this area. We circled a corn field in the back and started toward the truck. We both needed to be back early. We were coming through an area we had been through before. I checked the GPS and Sally was on point 150 yards to the south east. As Vince and I were trying to figure out exactly where she was Mann honored her, I thought. He was twelve yards from her.
When we got close we could see that Sally was in some deep, rough woods. Lots of berry vines and thorn trees. Vince said he would wait on me. I went around the woods and saw Mann first. He was on point, wagging. When I got to him he moved up and went back on point, solid. He wasn’t honoring he was pointing but the quail had run. I checked the GPS and Sally was moving.
I went toward where Mann had moved to. When I got close Sally saw Mann and honored. I couldn’t even get close to Mann for the black berry vines and thorn trees. I encouraged Sally and Mann to move but they wouldn’t. Vince was closer than I thought and asked if I wanted him to come in from the other side. Anything was better than just standing.
Josie at 12 weeks pointing a pigeon by scent.
About the time Vince started in a single quail flushed. I heard it but didn’t see it. I could hear Vince coming and then a covey started flushing. I still didn’t see a bird. Vince said, “they got up right where I was standing a few minutes ago”. Then a late bird got up and I saw it. I threw my gun up and was still 4 feet behind when I shot as my barrel hit a small tree. Needless to say the quail flew on. We had no idea which way the quail had flown. In three years of hunting this place we have seen birds in this area each year and we have killed exactly 2 quail. Their brain is about the size of a pea and they out smart us every time.
We hunted back to the truck, put the dogs up and headed home. We didn’t get a lot of birds but the dogs did well and that’s what it’s all about.