This, to put it mildly, hasn’t been a good year but I’m not ready for it to end. In Kansas the season lasts through the end of January. I met Don and Linda Hansen near Emporia to hunt a walk-in place that we had found some quail on earlier in the season. At home, I still had a lot of snow on the ground but when I got just a little way west, the snow was gone. I like that.
Sally pointing a covey of quail.
Mann honoring Sally’s point.
Mann pointing wild quail.
Don brought his dogs, Tigger and Goofy. Both English pointers and I had my English setters, Mann and Sally. Don and I both always run our dogs with GPS collars. A couple of years ago, when I got to an area to hunt that was a couple of hours from my house, I found that I had left the GPS handheld at home. I turned the dogs out for about 5 minutes, loaded them and went home.
One of Don’s dogs, Tigger, is recuperating from surgery so we were to hunt the south side of this walk-in and put her in the truck. The best laid plans of mice and men. We hunted to the west to the road and sent the dogs into the pasture across the road to check it out. Then we started back to the east. We hit a hedge row that ran to the north. When the dogs got to the end of the hedge row they continued, through the CRP, to the north.
As we turned to the east my GPS vibrated. Mann was on point over 400 yards to the north. As we went to him the other dogs all honored. Before we got to him, he started moving. He only moved a few yards then went back on point.
This time of year, when the birds have been pressured a lot, I wasn’t expecting them to hold long enough for us to walk through the tall CRP. When we got there, 3 dogs were backing from a small thicket and Mann was about 20 yards ahead of them, in some knee high grass, looking to the north. Don and I walked in front of him and nothing happened.
We got about 15 yards in front of him with no birds flushing so I said, “okay” and when Mann moved, the dogs started trailing. Sally came in front of us and as I watched her, she went on point. About 3 quail flushed right in front of her. Don’s bird stayed low and he couldn’t shoot, for the dogs, until it got way out and he missed. Two birds came my way and one dropped when I shot. Sally ran to it, picked it up and brought it to me. I didn’t have to move. Having a dog retrieve could grow on a guy. It’s been a few years.
Don and I were standing, watching the dogs work and a single quail flushed behind us. Don and I both shot but Don hit the bird just before I shot. When we shot a couple more birds flushed and when I shot at one my gun just went “ponk”. The shot just barely went out but the wad stayed in the barrel. This is the first time I have shot reloads in 30 years. May be the last. I found a long, straight weed and pushed the wad out of the barrel.
We got the dogs in to find the bird that we had knocked down but after 15 minutes we hadn’t found it. We found a lot of feathers but no bird. I think we both had hit the quail but they are tough. It must have run off. We decided to look for singles and come back to that spot again, later.
My Baker 5 pound 20 gauge side by side and a few quail.
Before we got to the north edge of the walk-in the GPS handheld vibrated and it showed Sally to the west, about 200 yards, on point. Before we got close the other 3 dogs were honoring. Sally was down in a small creek/hedge row in the thick brush. I was never able to see her before all of the dogs started trailing. This time we never came up with the birds.
Our plan was to put Tigger up before we hunted all of this place but now we had no choice but to go on around. All of this walk-in is thick CRP and it’s hard on the dogs and people.
We went on to the north east corner. Sally and Mann went to the north down the fence row, off the walk-in. Almost 300 yards down the fence row, Sally went on point. Mann honored her. Don and I talked for a few minutes to see if the dogs would come back. The dogs were still on point so we decided to go flush the birds. We had walked about 50 yards toward them when they started moving. We got back on the walk-in.
We started to the south along the east fence line. A couple of hundred yards down the fence line the GPS handheld vibrated. It showed Sally on point a little over 200 yards to the south west. When we got close, she was in a draw running into the CRP. Don started up one side and I was on the other. When we got close she was out in the CRP a short distance so I crossed a small creek and went on the side with Don and Linda.
I left Luke home this trip but he looked good in this picture.
When I got there Sally was pointing into a small patch of blackberry vines with Mann and Goofy honoring. Later, Linda said that Sally and Mann were sitting down on point but when they heard me, they both stood up. Goofy looked really good as he honored. I tried to get pictures but the sun was in my face.
When Don and I walked in several quail flushed. Don got on one but before he could shoot it flew through a cedar tree. He shot but was too late. I had a bird fly right over me and I missed. There was a late flushing quail that flushed from down in the brush. I made a lucky shot on it.
Sally must have seen the bird fall. She didn’t get a real good mark but made a couple of passes then found it. I hadn’t moved from where I shot but when she didn’t come straight to me, I moved to the edge of the creek. I knelt down and called Sally. She dropped the quail and started to me. I said, “fetch” and she grabbed the bird and came to the edge of the creek.
Right in front of me was an old fence with two strands of barb wire. It was only a few feet long but as I knelt there trying to get her to bring me the bird I thought, “this can’t be good”. She held the quail but was on the other side of the creek that was too wide for me to jump and too deep to wade. Just as I started to get up and move away from the barb wire Sally jumped the creek. She missed the wire and gave me the bird.
We were close to the trucks, so we loaded the dogs. I don’t know how long we were out in the heavy CRP but it was more than Tigger needed but she handled it well. When Don let her out at the house, when we quit, she looked good.
Josie pointing a pigeon.
We ate our lunch on the way to another place. The last time we were hunting in this area there was a close place that we had seen a covey of quail on and we never got a shot at them. We went to find them.
This walk-in place is about 160 acres of well grazed pasture and CRP. The CRP was too thick, in my opinion, in a lot of it but some was not as thick. We went down the west fence line to the south edge turned east for a long way. We decided what we were in wasn’t good for quail so we turned back to the north.
Don had left Tigger in the truck. As we came back to the edge of the CRP close to the pasture Goofy went on point. Goofy has lots of style. Sally was on the opposite side of a small hill and couldn’t see him. I whoaed her. When we got close Goofy slowly moved up. Sally started trailing as did Goofy. Mann came close and he, too, started trailing. Something beat us. We never saw anything.
We hunted back to the truck and again, on this walk-in place, we never fired a shot. It was late in the afternoon and I have to drive across most of the Kansas City area to get to my home. I wanted to beat the rush hour traffic, so we started to the house.
For a late season hunt on walk-in properties it had been a good hunt. Don’s young dog, Goofy, hasn’t been hunted much and this had been good for him. This has been a bad year to start young dogs. Several days we have hunted without even seeing a quail. I have two puppies that I haven’t hunted much because I don’t want them to think we are just out for a walk. I have taken them a few times but usually I start the puppies their first year.
Abby out of Sally’s litter.
When Sally was about 7 months old I started hunting her. I had worked her a lot on pigeons and when she started hunting she was ready. She pointed quail her first time out and let me walk in front of her and flush the birds.
Mann was a little older when I started him. He was born in April, so he was 8 months old but he also let me walk in front and flush the birds. But for both of them I knew when we went we would probably find birds. This year hasn’t been that good.
Abby and Josie will get a lot of work on pigeons and I may take them to a game farm, a few times. Anything to get them some experience. There will be more birds next year, I hope.