The morning of Day 2 in Arizona was really foggy and since it was below freezing I worried about black ice on the roads. On the morning of Day 3 there was a little fog but it was above freezing. No black ice worries. I had loaded all of my stuff so I could leave when it got too warm for the dogs. I wanted to hunt until noon but it worked out where I left about 11:30 am.
A grave marker I found in a field.
Two Gamble hens and a rooster.
Sally on point behind a tree.
I went on to the east of the place I had hunted on Day 2, where I turned Mann, Sally, Abby and Boss loose. I hunted to the west and we went all the way to a cross fence. About a mile to the west then cut over to the south and came back toward the truck.
There were some tall hills that I needed to look on the other side of, as we went back. As I came down the hill toward the truck a small draw led down to the dry wash that we had taken to the west. It led me a little way back west where I hit the dry wash. Since I had walked down the dry wash I crossed to the other side to go back to the truck.
It was just bare ground near the dry creek. There was a fence close and on the north side was knee high grass. As I started to this I saw some fresh quail tracks in the sand. I looked for my dogs and none of them were exactly in front of me. When I called the dogs a covey of quail flushed in front of me. One was close and when I shot it dropped. At my shot more birds were flushing. I hit another with my second shot that fell into the taller grass farther out.
I got the dogs in and Sally found the first bird and made a good retrieve. I got all of the dogs in to look for the second. It was really getting warm. The dogs would look for a few minutes then lie down in the shade. After a few minutes, I decided to go to the truck and let the dogs cool down. I watered the dogs and put them in their boxes.
About 15 minutes later I only let Sally loose. I only took about 4 shells and since it was really warm I left the hunting vest. It was warm enough Sally stayed with me. I had put my blaze orange hat on a fence post so I would remember the exact location of the dead bird. It’s a good thing I did. Even a blaze orange hat is farther away than you remember.
I had put another hat on at the truck so I had to carry the one that was on the post. Sally and I crossed the fence and I started saying, “hunt dead, hunt dead”. She started looking. She was out about 15 yards from where I thought the dead bird would be when she went on point. As I started to say, “He’s dead, get him” a bird flushed. I dropped the hat I had in my hand and shot. The bird fell in a bare spot and Sally scooped it up and brought it to me. It hadn’t flown like a wounded bird.
I don’t know f this was the bird that I thought I had hit earlier or not but I want to believe it was. I really hate to lose a bird. We need to try to find every bird we knock down. I, usually, look for a long time, if I don’t find it then, most of the time I will come back and try again. I’ve been known to come back several times.
An Arizona sunrise.
Several years ago Don Hansen and I were hunting Kansas and Don had knocked a bird down that the dogs couldn’t find. We looked for a long time and then went on. I told Don that Dolly was pretty good retriever and dead bird finder. She was in the truck so I turned her loose. We looked again. No luck but Don put a piece of trash where he thought the bird had fallen.
We hunted away from the place but I decided we needed to make one more try. We got the dogs in the third time. As I was trying to get the dogs to hunt dead, Don moved a clump of grass and the bird was lying right there, within a foot of the piece of trash he had marked the spot with.
Sally on point.
It was way too hot to hunt any more so I pointed the truck toward home. My cousin, Jim Smith, was hunting in Kansas and I was going to join him the next day, if I could get there in time. My non-resident Kansas hunting license had expired so by about 10 am I was getting another in a Walmart in Liberal Kansas. I will try to get the Kansas hunt on here this weekend.