My cousin’s dog, Willie, Mann’s sire and Boss’s grand sire, was running in a field trial in central Kansas. I met my cousin, Jim Smith, at the trial grounds before the trial started. Willie was running in the third brace and it was a horse back trial so there was no way for me to watch. After visiting for a while I left to hunt some prairie chickens.
I saw this just off one of the places where I ran dogs.
Boss pointing a pigeon.
Abby pointing a pigeon.
Josie pointing a pigeon.
I feel bound to say each time that I really don’t want to kill a prairie chicken. I have killed prairie chickens in the past and even have one mounted but I don’t like to eat them so I wouldn’t shoot one, probably. I put this disclaimer in so no one feels sorry for me never killing a prairie chicken.
When I pulled off the interstate my truck was making a terrible noise. I had the clutches, in the rear end, repaired a year or so ago and it sounds like the same problem. I was kind of worried about it but continued to drive it around.
There was a lot of walk-in properties within 10 or 15 miles of the field trial and I started looking for a place to run the dogs. I had staked all of the dogs out for a few minutes at the trial grounds so getting them out wasn’t a big deal.
I found a wheat stubble field with a CRP buffer strip around it. Off to one side was a hay field with a draw running through it. I turned Josie and Sally out and we went around the wheat field. On the south end of the wheat field Sally pointed and when I got close she moved into the wheat stubble and pointed again. She pointed 4 or 5 times then went on. I believe a pheasant ran out on her.
We went all the way around the wheat stubble field and back to the truck. Occasionally, I like to hunt right back past the truck so the dogs don’t get used to just going to the truck when we get close. We went through the hay field toward the draw that ran through it.
As we started down the draw the GPS handheld vibrated. It showed Sally on point inside the draw. She was only about a hundred yards ahead of me but when I got close I still couldn’t see her. The draw had small saplings about an inch apart and there was no way I could get to her. About that time I saw a single quail fly from the draw into the fence row at the end.
I decided to go around the draw to see if I could get in from the north side. When I got around to the other side Sally had moved some but was still on point. We had a pretty strong wind and I think the birds were running on her. This side of the draw was as thick as the other. I walked along the edge and got real close to Sally. About 20 yards in front of me about 8 or 9 quail flushed then farther out several more flew.
Sally came on through the draw and Josie was with her. We were almost to the fence row on the west and went along it to the north. Just as the draw stopped at the fence row a single quail flushed in front of Josie. Then as I walked along a quail flushed from right at my feet. Boy, they are fat and slow when you can’t shoot at them.
Josie
I had several points from Sally and Josie made one or two. But with the strong wind rattling every thing the birds didn’t hold real well. But the birds didn’t want to leave this area so I worked the dogs along the draw a couple of times. It was good for both dogs but it really wound Josie up. I loaded the dogs and went looking for another place.
I stopped at a large pasture that had been grazed but not over pastured. It still had lots of cover and the grass hoppers were thick. I turned Mann and Abby out. This was the place where I saw the flag I took the picture of. You can tell the wind was blowing.
This pasture was next to a winter wheat field that had some cattle on it. As I went into the wind I saw that the pasture turned near a large pond and there were some cows grazing on the pasture I was in. I don’t like to work my dogs close to cows. I circled around and went back to the truck.
Abby
The next place was a huge CRP field. I turned Mann and Boss out. Some of this field was too thick for prairie chickens or even quail but not all of it. I saw a draw running into the field and started toward it. Just as Boss and I got to it the GPS handheld vibrated and it showed Mann on point out in the CRP. Before I got to him he was moving.
He had been on point in a large area of what looked like partridge peas. When we got there neither dog wanted to leave them. They both were really checking them out. As I looked at the field I could see several patches of the partridge peas. Partridge peas are really good food for quail and pheasants. I never saw a pheasant flush but the way the dogs acted there were some that ran out on us. When we got back to the truck I loaded the dogs.
Boss
I had planned on being in Kansas for several days but I must have picked up some kind of bug. I felt terrible. I didn’t know if it was the start of the Covid-19 or what but I didn’t want to infect anyone else if it was. So I drove back home. In about three days I was back to 100 per cent.
Mann’s sire, Willie, won the Sunflower Open Shooting Dog field trial. He had run in the third brace and there were 27 dogs in the trial. It was the next evening before Jim found out and texted me. That was a good win for Willie and I think we will be hearing more from him. The handler, Virgil Moore, says he’s a special dog and I believe it.