The last hunt let me know that my dogs weren’t in very good shape. This is my fault for not running them more but the hot weather kept them in their kennel. Leaving them in their pen will not help, so Thursday morning I headed to a Missouri Conservation area. The day was to start cool so it was a good day. Actually, any day with the dogs is a good day.
Mann on point with Sally honoring.
Mann, closer, on the same point.
Boss, in the brush, on point.
The area I wanted to hunt has a lot of bow hunters. Bow hunters worry me because I’m color blind and they often hunt from tree stands, in camouflage. If a quail was to fly between me and the hunter, in a tree, I might hit him with the shot. The first place I checked had two trucks in the parking lot. I drove to the other side.
There were no vehicles in the parking lot. I put the GPS and e-collars on Mann, Boss and Sally and turned them loose. This area has what Vince and I call a phantom covey. We have found this covey most of the time we hunt here but have never got a lot of dog work or killed many of them. But it’s good for the dogs. And the dog owner.
All of the grain in the fields nearby had been harvested but not on this Conservation area. The Conservation department may have asked the farmer to hold off until the deer, gun season, was over. Or there could be another reason.
When we got close to where we usually find the phantom covey Boss went on point. This area is a little bowl, covered with cedar trees and has a small pond at the lower end. All around this bowl is soybeans that haven’t been harvested. Boss was along the edge of the cedar trees near the upper end of the pond. As I watched him across the pond he moved a few feet and went back on point, according to the GPS. I could no longer see him. I started around the pond.
The weeds are tall and the cedars have grown thicker. I couldn’t walk straight to him because of the cover. When I got close he was moving. All 3 dogs were excited and checking everything. I think a covey flushed on him. We worked the area for a while then went on toward the back.
Mann pointing again.
Sometimes the very back side has a large grain field but the last couple of years they just let the weeds take over. It has lots of rag weed and some lespedeza. Good feed for quail.
Sally pointed for a minute or so but when I got close she was moving. We went to the east fence. There is a wooded ridge that runs north to south along the fence row. I walked the down wind side as the dogs went through the draw. When we came to the end the GPS showed Boss on point about 400 yards ahead of me. It takes a while for an old man to walk that far.
Before I got to him, Sally and Mann were honoring. Boss really looked good and I never took a picture. He was standing in a group of cedar trees almost hidden. I made up my mind that even if it cost me shots I would get pictures from now on. He was looking way out front but when I walked through the area nothing flushed. I believe this was a group of turkeys that ran off.
We started back around the fallow field. Going the opposite side from the draw, Sally pointed down in the woods. As I started toward her I could hear turkeys putting. Before I got to her, she was moving but excited.
As I came across the dam of the little pond near where Boss had pointed earlier he was on point again. About the same area. This time because of the pond I had to walk away from him for a while then try to circle around. Again before I got to him he was moving. But all 3 dogs were really hunting the cover. Trying to find something.
We checked the little bowl again then came up to a soybean field. I was watching Boss hunt the edge when I felt the GPS vibrate. Mann was on point about 150 yards away. I went to him and got the picture of him on point and the one of Sally honoring him. If I had of taken a picture further left it would have shown a cedar tree real close. Mann was pointing a single quail that flushed on the other side of the cedar tree. I saw it for about a nano second. No time for a shot but I had pictures of the dogs. I’d rather have the pictures.
There’s a dog in there.
We circled on to the north around the soybean field. I had couple of points but nothing flushed when I went in front. We came back along the edge and as we went toward the truck, Mann pointed again. Sally and Boss honored. I took some pictures and then walked in front of him. One quail flushed and started around a small tree. I rushed the shot and just broke a wing. Mann ran to where it dropped but didn’t see it run off. Boss was coming to help and the cripple ran right to him.
Boss doesn’t retrieve and just started picking up quail, my last hunt. The cripple jumped about 3 feet high and Boss grabbed it. He took a couple of steps away from me and dropped the quail. It started to run and he grabbed it again. By then I was close enough to get ahold of Boss and started petting. I petted him several seconds and he was ready to give the bird to me. I tried to give him the head of the bird. He took it then dropped it and went back to hunting.
Sally pointing quail.
We went on around the soybean field without finding anything else. I started up the road to the truck but the GPS showed Sally on point in the edge of a corn field about a 150 yards away. When I got close she was about 30 yards inside the corn field. The corn stalks were taller than me. From past experience I knew there would be nothing there by the time I got there but I might hear it flush. There is no way to walk quietly through a corn field.
Sure enough when I got to her, she started trailing. The other 2 dogs came in and helped. There was evidently quite a bit of smell but I never saw or heard anything. When we got back to the truck I loaded dogs and we went to the other side, where I had tried to hunt first thing.
There was still one truck in the parking lot but I felt that he was the other way from where I wanted to run. We went into a pretty strong south wind. This side had unharvested corn. I was tired of the corn before we walked half a mile and decided to just move over a little way and hunt back to the truck. And that’s what we did.
Boss pointing quail.
I couldn’t see the dogs most of the time, in the corn fields, and that takes the fun out of the hunt, for me. So when we got back I loaded the dogs and headed home. I will check on the place and hunt it again when they get the crops out. I feel sure there are more quail here than just the phantom covey.