Austin Farley and I went back to Iowa to hunt quail and pheasants. This will be the fourth time we have hunted Iowa and we haven’t hunted the same place twice. Most of the places we have hunted held birds. I have an app on my phone that tells me how far I have walked and how many floors I have climbed. At the end of this day I had walked 8.9 miles and climbed 80 floors.
8.9 miles and 80 floors.
Sally pointing a pheasant.
Tur Bo pointing Sally honoring.
I took Tur Bo, Sally, Dolly and Luke and Austin had Ember. At the first place I turned Tur Bo and Sally out and we went through a grass field next to a harvested soy bean field. Austin took Ember. We went down the fence line then back toward the truck along a little draw below a pond. As we got above the pond Tur Bo went on point looking into a small thicket. Sally honored. When we went in front nothing flushed. I released the dogs and they started trailing. They trailed almost to the road then went on hunting. Something had run out on us.
Tur Bo is recuperating from knee surgery and I don’t run him very long in the tough CRP type cover that they have on these Conservation areas. Dolly will be 13 years old in February and I don’t hunt her very long either. We saw a small soy bean field with a buffer strip on one side and a good hedge row on the other. I turned Dolly and Sally out and along with Ember we went around the field. This was one of the few times that we never found anything.
As we drove to another area we saw a harvested soy bean field that was next to the Conservation area. The Conservation area had the normal, for this area, tough, tall weeds. We decided to hunt the fence row between the two.
We turned Luke, Sally and Ember out. Before we got to the fence row I saw Sally on point. Actually, she was honoring Luke but I couldn’t see him. Before we got close a rooster pheasant flushed, cackling as he flew away. It sounds like laughter to me.
As we got close to the fence row Sally was on point at about a hundred yards. We were within about 35 yards of her when Austin saw quail flying down the fence row, to the south. We worked the fence row to the south then turned and went back north.
About 75 yards from where she had pointed originally, Sally was on point again. I thought it was probably a single from the first covey but when we walked in another covey flushed well out front of us. One of the quail flew real high to the north and turned back to the south. I was on him and he collapsed at my shot. Austin took a shot but he had been in the wrong place. Ember found my dead bird right away and delivered it to Austin.
The singles had flown to the north and we followed but the Conservation area stopped just beyond where the covey had flushed from. We worked along the north fence then moved over and went back through the weeds.
Dolly on point.
We saw a harvested corn field to the west and went along the edge of it. Sally went on point after trailing for a little way. We got close and a hen pheasant flushed. We followed the corn field to the edge then turned back toward the truck. When we got close to the truck Luke was on point past the truck on the east fence row. Close to where the first coveys singles were.
We were still 30 yards from him when a quail flushed, right in front of Austin, as we went around a brush pile. He shot and the quail dropped. Ember ran right to where it fell. I thought she had it but she came back without the bird. I started on down to Luke but he was moving so I called the dogs to help find Austin’s bird.
There was a little clump of weeds next to the brush pile that I had marked the quail down in. I got Sally and Luke in to help Ember but after 10 minutes or more we gave up. But I told Austin that we would come back later and try again.
Several years ago a friend, Mike Goldsmith, was hunting with me in Kansas. We knocked a quail down but didn’t find it. He tied a piece of paper to a branch near where we thought the bird was and we came back a couple of hours later. We were searching near the paper and I saw Lucky, who was young then, on point about 50 yards from us. When we got close he moved in and picked up the bird. It may have run that far but we may have been that far off on our mark.
Tur Bo pointing quail.
We ate our lunch and drove to another area. The next area was a harvested soy bean field with tall weeds all the way around. As we got close to the field we crossed a deep creek. There was water in the creek and it couldn’t be crossed except at certain points.
We crossed and started around the soy bean field. Ember was in front of Austin and hit the scent cone of some quail and flushed a large covey. The whole covey flew to the west along the creek. Austin shot once and his gun jammed. I shot once but the quail were too far.
We headed to the west on the south side of the creek. About a quarter mile to the west the GPS showed Luke on point about 60 yards from us in some real tall and thick weeds. Austin and I were fighting our way through the cover with me checking the GPS every few yards. I was about 30 feet from Luke when a hen pheasant flushed. Then another hen flew out. I started to take another step and a rooster flushed from right in front of me. The rooster folded when I shot and Austin hit him, also. It was so thick I was afraid we would have trouble finding it but Ember went right to him.
We went along the creek to the west edge along the south side then crossed over to the north side. We were heading to the east along the creek when I noticed on the GPS that Sally was on point. When I read the GPS I thought she was across the creek to the south. We crossed the creek and I noticed we were getting farther away from her instead of closer. Austin looked across the creek, from where we had just came from, and saw her on point. I had been reading the GPS arrow for Luke instead of for her. We went back across the creek and when we got close to Sally she gave me a dirty look then started trailing whatever she had been pointing. I felt bad because I had screwed her point up. We never came up with anything but all 3 dogs were trailing. Something had run out on her.
Dolly pointing a single.
A little while later as Austin and I walked through the area about 50 yards east of where she was on point we walked a single quail up. I’m sure that was what Sally was pointing when I walked away from her. I’m not going to expect my dogs to be perfect until I get to be perfect. And I’m a long way from perfect.
We hunted on around the soy bean field then back to the truck. We drove back to where we had lost Austin’s quail. I turned Sally and Dolly out hoping to find the dead bird. Ember, Sally and Dolly looked but we never came up with that bird.
We had time for one more place and we had seen a food plot that ran down a ridge for 400 yards. The wind had been out of the north so I parked on the south end and we turned the dogs, Sally, Dolly and Ember loose. The wind had changed in just the few minutes it had taken us to drive over. Now the wind was out of the south. We walked on past the food plot and went on to the north and came back through the food plot into the wind.
I came out onto a farm road just before the milo food plot and saw Sally on point. When we walked in nothing flushed and she trailed toward the food plot. We were into the food plot about 25 yards when Austin said, “Sally is on point in front of me.” Before we could get very close a rooster pheasant flushed, ahead of us, too far for a shot.
When we got through the food plot Ember wasn’t with us. We didn’t have a GPS on her so we weren’t sure where she was. We were looking ahead of us and she finally came from behind us in the food plot. We didn’t see her but I would bet she was on point.
We were close to the truck and it was close to the end of shooting time in Iowa so we loaded the dogs and headed home.
It had been a good day. We had found 3 coveys of quail and several pheasants. The big thing is we saw new country and most of the places we have hunted in Iowa has had quail and pheasants on them. We’ll be back.
Thank you for reading my blog. I enjoy writing but without readers I would have quit. So, again, thank you for reading. I want to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and I hope you have a blessed New Year.
Luke
Luke pointing quail.
Sally pointing a single.