To go to Kansas to hunt I have to cross Kansas City metropolitan area. Usually, I either leave real early before the rush hour starts or later when it winds down. On this morning I left about 7:50 am, thinking the rush hour would be over. This would normally put me at the meeting place with Don and Linda Hansen by 9:30. No problem. On this day I made it to the meeting place at 10:40. At least an hour later than I should have been.
Sally on point, Mann closest to the camera, Bodie next to Sally and Abby in the back.
Mann honoring Sally after I had walked by him.
Abby honoring Sally.
Back in the old days Don would have thought I overslept, backed out or something. But with cell phones I could let him know so he and Linda had a good breakfast and were ready to go when I got there.
Rifle deer season was open, so we had to be careful where we turned out. I usually drive around the properties before I turn dogs out anyway but during deer season we wanted to make sure no one else was hunting the same places we were.
Don and I had hunted this place last year and there were a couple of coveys on it. Don had Goofy and Tigger, his pointers, and I had Abby, Bodie, Mann and Sally. With 6 dogs hunting we covered most of the place without seeing a quail. By the time we got here we may have been following someone else. We did see some shotgun hulls that looked pretty fresh. We loaded the dogs and went to another place.
We stopped at a place that was about 60 acres that our dogs could hunt with very little walking from us. There was a good hedge row on one side and wide fence row on two sides with cover. We turned our dogs loose and just made a short walk as they circled the harvested soybean field. We loaded them and went to another place.
The third place was a long hedge row, maybe a half mile, to another heavy fence row that ran to the south. On the south was a draw that ran back to the road we parked on. We turned all of our dogs loose and started down the hedge row to the west. This was good for Bodie. There were a lot of meadow larks in the soybean stubble that he could chase. This also teaches him he can’t catch the birds, I hope.
When the GPS vibrated it showed Mann and Sally on point where the hedge row hit the fence row that ran south. One of them was at 499 yards and the other at 492. When I was young I would have ran but I don’t run any more. The ground was really flat and I could see a white dog, either Mann or Sally, on point along the fence row. When we got within about a hundred yards I saw the dog moving to the south down the fence row. I don’t know if one of the other dogs ran through the birds, one of the pointing dogs moved or the birds just didn’t hold. Either way the birds flushed before we got there.
Sally pointing Bodie honoring.
We followed to the south down the fence row. As we got near the end of the fence row there was a good strip of woods going east toward the road we were parked on. Just before we got to the woods, in a strip of tall CRP, Goofy went on point. The other dogs honored. Goofy was surprised when nothing flushed in front of him. All of the dogs trailed but we didn’t come up with anything.
In just a few minutes Sally was on point in the woods about a 150 yards from us. The tall CRP was tough to get through but that was the way we had to go. We got within about 40 yards of her and she was moving. We may have found a covey that doesn’t want to hold, today. We hunted back to the truck, loaded dogs and headed home. I didn’t want to get caught in the rush hour traffic, again, ever.
Friday, December 9, I decided late to go hunting. I knew I needed to walk and I may as well follow the dogs. I had run into some hunters hunting one side of a Missouri Conservation Area earlier this year. I still wanted to check it out so that’s where I headed. I drove around the area when I got there and I had the whole place to myself.
Sally pointing a raccoon.
Boss is still on light duty from a cut front leg so I had the other 4 dogs, Abby, Bodie, Mann and Sally with me. I put the GPS and e-collars on them and turned them loose. Whoever is farming this did a good job. They left 6 or more rows of soybeans next to the cover. This should be a big help to all of the birds and animals in the area.
We checked a little of the side of the road I was parked on then crossed the road. There is an area just across a soybean field where there is about 5 acres of grass, trees and brush with a pond on one side. I’ve found quail in this spot several times but not this time. We went on toward the back. Usually, there is some row crops along the back but this year it was just grown up in weeds with a lot of foxtail.
I walked along side this fallow field until the GPS vibrated. Sally was on point, away from the fallow field, inside the edge of some woods. By the time I got close Abby and Bodie were honoring. I took some pictures but it was too tight for me to get in front of Sally. She was pointing into a brush pile and I got where I could shoot and said, “okay” to her. She went into the brush pile and I heard a raccoon growl. I called Sally and told her “no”, loudly.
Bodie honoring Sally on her raccoon.
She came away but Bodie and Abbie were still interested. I hit the tone on Bodie’s e-collar and he came to me. I called Abbie a couple of times then hit her tone. We got away from the raccoon with no dog damage. I crossed the fallow field to walk along a large draw then back toward the truck.
Just across from where the truck was parked was a harvested soybean field with a draw full of trees and grass. I’ve found singles from coveys in it before but this time as Sally got to the south end of it she pointed. When I came around the corner I saw Mann, honoring, before I could see Sally. She was another 35 yards in front of Mann with Bodie close to her, honoring. Abbie had honored from about 20 yards behind Sally.
I passed Mann and turned around and got another picture of him from the front. I took more pictures then started in front of Sally and heard a covey flush on the other side of several big cedar trees. I never saw a bird but that’s what happens when you hunt alone. Escaping is serious business for the quail.
Abby honoring on the raccoon.
I knew the birds weren’t on the side I was on so we crossed the road. We hunted all of the available cover without finding any of the covey. But that’s the usual. Even when you see the covey fly off, often times, the quail singles are hard to find. We went south down the edge of the road for about a half mile then checked on the other side of a soybean field without finding any of the covey.
Most, maybe all, of the pictures I will use in this post was from this hunt on a Missouri Conservation Area. I really don’t need to shoot quail. The pictures will last a long time but a dead bird is gone when you eat them. Quail are too valuable to shoot.