Vince and I talked about a hunt in north Missouri and I was ready to go, as usual, but with the tall, thick CRP I knew it would be hard. He called back a little later and said he had talked to Steve, who had the lease on this place, and said it would be okay to take my side by side. That would make it much easier. The only thing was, the dogs had never hunted in front of a side by side except one time that Vince and I had run them. That time after a few minutes they had hunted well.
Boss pointing a single.
Mann on point with Boss and Sally honoring.
Vince walking in with Mann on point Sally and Boss honoring..
Vince and I, usually, stop and have a nice breakfast on the way and this was no exception. Although most places were closed on New Years Day, we found one. We were to meet Steve and Ron at the lease at 10:00 am and we pulled in right on time.
We had Sally, Boss, Mann and Bodie with us and Ron had brought a pointer that I can’t remember his name and Steve had Buddy a Jag terrier. We unloaded the side by side then put the GPS and e-collars on the dogs. Within 5 minutes or so the dogs were hunting in front of the sxs like they had been doing it for years. With 4 hunters, I didn’t take a gun. I just had my camera. As we got going I saw that Steve didn’t bring a gun either.
We rode down a hill and along a draw up a long hill. We have found birds in the draw before but today there was no one home. We went over the hill, along another draw then to the west along the fence line. There was a thicket coming off the fence line and Boss pointed along the fence line and Sally was down in the thicket on point.
Vince went in on Boss’s point and a single flushed on the other side of the fence row behind some trees. As I watched Sally, with Ron walking in, quail started flushing. They weren’t waiting for anyone to get close. The birds were popping up not as a covey but spread out like they were feeding or going to feed. Most of them flew in the way we were going.
Vince going in on a point.
We went on down the fence line to the north and Mann pointed. Vince was on the west side of the fence row and Ron on the east. By the time the guys got close the other dogs were backing. As they moved in a quail finally made a mistake and flew out in the open and dropped when Ron shot. Mann saw it fall and raced out, scooped it up and brought it to Ron. Mann retrieves really well when he sees one fall. He doesn’t like to retrieve, so he delivers to the closest person.
Water for the dogs was no problem. There were puddles every where in the fields, plus the ponds weren’t frozen. Vince, Ron and Steve had walked most of the time with me bringing up the rear in the sxs. Every once in a while one of them would ask if my legs were doing okay. I had to say that driving the sxs was easier than walking but I did need some kind of throttle control because I was getting tired of working the gas and brake.
When we got to the north boundary we turned to the east. About midway we went to the south along a wide draw. When the draw hit an east west draw, Sally went on point on the other side. It was too thick and wide to get the sxs across so I went all the way back to the east fence line then back east. By the time I made the swing close Sally was no longer on point but Mann was. I went to him.
Boss pointing a single.
As I saw him he started trailing and the other dogs came in and were trailing, also. When the guys came up they told me they had killed the bird Sally was pointing and one that Bodie had pointed. That may be a draw back to riding in a sxs. I didn’t get pictures of the action.
Ron’s pointer hadn’t been hunted but one time this year and wasn’t in shape. Ron took him back to the truck and we went up some draws that we hadn’t hit, yet. These draws led us back to the west fence line. As we started to the south along the fence line Mann pointed with Boss and Sally honoring. There were very few trees in the fence line but when the single flushed it had the tree between it and Vince.
Steve and I neither one had a gun so it was all left to Vince. As we came to an offset in the fence row I saw Boss running the edge of a draw just off the place we were on. As he ran down the draw a rooster pheasant flushed well out in front of him and flew back onto the place we were hunting. The needle in the 550 acre hay stack.
Ron going to Boss’s point.
We had another point or two without having a decent shot. The dogs had worked really well but with the sxs I think they moved through the area too fast. Last year, walking, we found more birds. But we had covered a lot of ground and I wasn’t tired at all. I do think the dogs were getting tired. This CRP is really heavy and they had been hunting it for about 4 1/2 hours.
We thought a cafe in town was open so we loaded dogs and drove to town. Sure enough, the cafe was closed. Vince and I were going to hunt another place but we used the excuse that the dogs were tired to just go on home. It had been a good day for the dogs and the guys that follow them.