With a puppy to work and the weather this fall I haven’t hunted much. I, probably, should give an update on my dogs. Annie and Stormy are with Justin Crook. This weekend they are running their first field trial. They are just puppies and need to be worked on wild birds and Justin has a friend in Oklahoma with a lot of wild birds. He has had them on the wild birds and now he is going to run them in a field trial. Normally, I’m not a field trialer but I wanted to see how these puppies did in one but the biggest thing was to get them in a lot of wild quail.
Bodie pointing a pigeon.
Annie pointing a pigeon asleep in the tall grass.
Abby honoring Sally.
Vince has Bodie. Vince and Julie his wife do a lot of traveling in the summer so it’s hard for him to have a dog. I loan him Bodie during the quail season. He gets him into a lot of birds which is really good for Bodie.
Then Stormy’s brother, Thomas. His owner became real sick and couldn’t keep him. The owner of the litter didn’t have room for him. I volunteered to take him for a while. The owner of Thomas must have gotten sick real soon after getting him. He hasn’t been handled or taught anything. He had never been restrained in any way. I staked him out then started heeling and whoaing him. He is much better. I’ve taught him to jump in the truck, to kennel, whoa, heel and come, sometimes. He’s doesn’t do any of them every time but we’ve only been together a couple of weeks. Lots more repetitions to come.
But Monday Vince Dye and I went to north Missouri for a short hunt. My son, my brother and I eat breakfast most Monday mornings. I had the dogs in the truck and left from there, about 9:15 am. I picked Vince, Bodie and Maggie up about 10:00. Just a short drive and we were hunting by 11:00 am or before. The first place we hunted was a harvested soybean field with large buffer strips of tall grass and weeds.
I left Abby home as she is due to come in heat. I brought Sally, Boss, Mann and even Thomas. This was the first hunt for Thomas and I knew he wouldn’t hold birds but Vince and I don’t really care about shooting birds. I had shot the blank pistol several times when he was chasing pigeons, so the guns were no problem. Thomas was wearing a GPS collar because I didn’t know how he would handle. But he did great. He stayed in front of me, most of the time. He ran and hunted hard. I saw 400 yards on the GPS on one of his casts.
We hit a wide draw and Vince went to the far side and I stayed on the near side. My side had a wide buffer strip with tall weeds and grass. Vince’s side was harvested soybeans so he got ahead of me. The draw was too wide for me to see him and with a couple of fingers running out on my side I got behind. The GPS showed Boss on point just 60 yards or so in front of me. Just before I got to him Thomas came in front and saw Boss. He didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing but he went to him.
Tom waiting for me to let him find a pigeon.
About the time Thomas smelled the birds a large covey exploded, in front of Boss. I wasn’t sure of where Vince was so I waited until some of the covey came out my side and were high in the air. I missed the first shot but dropped one way out front. It dropped in the tall weeds. Vince and the dogs came in to help find the bird. We spent a long time looking without finding it. Vince had seen where some of the singles had landed.
When we got close to the area Bodie pointed with Mann and Boss honoring. Before we got to him Sally honored. Thomas was still hunting to the front. Bodie was inside the wide draw pointing into the brush along the bottom of the creek. We didn’t think we would have a shot. It’s sometimes surprising how the quail can even fly at top speed through the thick trees and brush. But this one made it fine without either of us firing a shot.
Vince’s English cocker, Maggie, doesn’t get very far from him but she still finds birds. And Vince came up with a new excuse for missing. Good excuses never get old but when Maggie flushed this bird, right at Vince’s feet, he shot and missed. He said, “Dang, I was fiddling with my hat when that bird got up”. I told him I had never heard that excuse before but I would remember it and use it sometime.
Abby pointing wild quail.
We had a few more points but the birds got up before we got to them. They may have had help from Thomas. I hope so. The more he sees fly off the sooner he will figure out he can’t catch them. We started down a fence row with a lot of trees growing along it. The GPS showed Mann on point at the very end. In a minute or so the GPS showed Boss honoring. Then Sallie and Bodie were honoring. As we came down the draw Thomas saw the dogs on point. When he got close to Sally he stopped. They were all on Vince’s side and he thought Thomas was going to honor but then he went on. When he got to Mann he went in front of him and the birds flushed. Vince or I, neither, were close enough to get a shot.
I only saw one quail on my side but most of the birds had flown back down the way we had come. We started back. We got a couple of points but when we got close the dogs would trail for a ways then go on down the fence row. We did see a couple get up well out front. We decided to go to another place and started for the truck.
We looked out front and Boss was on point looking into a tangle of trees and brush. It was thick enough we knew there would not be a shot. I circled around him to try to get it to fly out for Vince. It had already run several yards from Boss and flew through the brush. No shots taken. We started for the truck.
Boss pointing a single.
When I checked the GPS it showed Mann on point about where I had knocked the bird down earlier. We went to him. The other dogs honored but when I got close to Mann he started trailing. The other dogs helped. We still didn’t come up with anything. We started to the truck.
When I checked the GPS Mann was on point again, about 45 yards away. We went to him. This time a quail flushed well out front of him without giving us a shot. We started to the truck.
Vince said, “Bodie is on point.” He was about 75 yards from us and as we got close the bird flushed well out in front. We had a strong north west wind and the birds weren’t waiting for us. This time we crossed the harvested soybean field to the road and headed for the truck. We went to another place.
Bodie had pulled a muscle earlier in the season and when we got to the truck he was limping so we didn’t turn him out again and Thomas is too young, in my opinion, to hunt for a long time. He had already been out for an hour and half or more. That was enough so I left him in the truck.
Abby on point.
The next place was a small creek running along the side of a harvested milo field. Across the small creek was tall CRP. We turned Sally, Boss and Mann out along with Maggie. Vince went over to the tall CRP side so I waited for him to get even with me. Before he got there I saw Sally pointing into the cover around the creek. I think Mann was on point and she was honoring. Boss was inside the cover going toward Mann. I don’t know what happened but I saw the covey flush and get higher than the trees in the creek. They flew down the creek a short distance then turned toward the tall CRP on the other side.
I crossed the creek to Vince’s side. As I got clear of the creek Maggie flushed a single quail that flew back down the creek. I hadn’t noticed any bird landing that close to where they had flushed from originally. We walked into the chest high CRP and the dogs stayed close working the thick grass.
Mann pointed. When we got close we walked in front of him. Nothing flushed and I released the dogs. They all started trailing. The GPS showed Sally on point and she was hard to find in the tall weeds. As we walked in, with Vince on my right, a quail flushed from my left. The 60 year old Webley and Scott, 20 gauge side by side did it’s job. Vince marked it down and went right to it but Sally had it. She dropped it in his hand.
Stormy pointing a pigeon.
We went on through the tall CRP then down a fence row. When we got back close to the milo field I thought there should be some birds moving into it for their evening meal. The milo field was small, about 35 acres or so. I walked the middle of it while Mann and Boss ran the fence row on one side and Sally hunted the creek. We went from one end to the other without seeing any game birds. When I got back to the truck I loaded the dogs.
Vince and Maggie had gone back through the tall CRP where some of the singles had flown. Maggie is getting old and her legs aren’t very long so she doesn’t cover the ground she used to. But Vince and I don’t either. They didn’t come up with anything. When they got to the truck we loaded Maggie and started home.
Bodie on point Mann honoring.
A lot of people would have thought this was a bad hunt without having a bunch of birds. And I used to need the large bird count but not any more. I enjoy seeing the dogs hunt and find birds. One of my first thoughts when we found the first covey was, “we can run dogs here after the season closes”. We need birds to work our dogs on.