Traveling Pointing Dogs

With a puppy to work and the weather this fall I haven’t hunted much. I, probably, should give an update on my dogs. Annie and Stormy are with Justin Crook. This weekend they are running their first field trial. They are just puppies and need to be worked on wild birds and Justin has a friend in Oklahoma with a lot of wild birds. He has had them on the wild birds and now he is going to run them in a field trial. Normally, I’m not a field trialer but I wanted to see how these puppies did in one but the biggest thing was to get them in a lot of wild quail.

Bodie pointing a pigeon.

Annie pointing a pigeon asleep in the tall grass.

Abby honoring Sally.

Vince has Bodie. Vince and Julie his wife do a lot of traveling in the summer so it’s hard for him to have a dog. I loan him Bodie during the quail season. He gets him into a lot of birds which is really good for Bodie.

Then Stormy’s brother, Thomas. His owner became real sick and couldn’t keep him. The owner of the litter didn’t have room for him. I volunteered to take him for a while. The owner of Thomas must have gotten sick real soon after getting him. He hasn’t been handled or taught anything. He had never been restrained in any way. I staked him out then started heeling and whoaing him. He is much better. I’ve taught him to jump in the truck, to kennel, whoa, heel and come, sometimes. He’s doesn’t do any of them every time but we’ve only been together a couple of weeks. Lots more repetitions to come.

But Monday Vince Dye and I went to north Missouri for a short hunt. My son, my brother and I eat breakfast most Monday mornings. I had the dogs in the truck and left from there, about 9:15 am. I picked Vince, Bodie and Maggie up about 10:00. Just a short drive and we were hunting by 11:00 am or before. The first place we hunted was a harvested soybean field with large buffer strips of tall grass and weeds.

I left Abby home as she is due to come in heat. I brought Sally, Boss, Mann and even Thomas. This was the first hunt for Thomas and I knew he wouldn’t hold birds but Vince and I don’t really care about shooting birds. I had shot the blank pistol several times when he was chasing pigeons, so the guns were no problem. Thomas was wearing a GPS collar because I didn’t know how he would handle. But he did great. He stayed in front of me, most of the time. He ran and hunted hard. I saw 400 yards on the GPS on one of his casts.

We hit a wide draw and Vince went to the far side and I stayed on the near side. My side had a wide buffer strip with tall weeds and grass. Vince’s side was harvested soybeans so he got ahead of me. The draw was too wide for me to see him and with a couple of fingers running out on my side I got behind. The GPS showed Boss on point just 60 yards or so in front of me. Just before I got to him Thomas came in front and saw Boss. He didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing but he went to him.

Tom waiting for me to let him find a pigeon.

About the time Thomas smelled the birds a large covey exploded, in front of Boss. I wasn’t sure of where Vince was so I waited until some of the covey came out my side and were high in the air. I missed the first shot but dropped one way out front. It dropped in the tall weeds. Vince and the dogs came in to help find the bird. We spent a long time looking without finding it. Vince had seen where some of the singles had landed.

When we got close to the area Bodie pointed with Mann and Boss honoring. Before we got to him Sally honored. Thomas was still hunting to the front. Bodie was inside the wide draw pointing into the brush along the bottom of the creek. We didn’t think we would have a shot. It’s sometimes surprising how the quail can even fly at top speed through the thick trees and brush. But this one made it fine without either of us firing a shot.

Vince’s English cocker, Maggie, doesn’t get very far from him but she still finds birds. And Vince came up with a new excuse for missing. Good excuses never get old but when Maggie flushed this bird, right at Vince’s feet, he shot and missed. He said, “Dang, I was fiddling with my hat when that bird got up”. I told him I had never heard that excuse before but I would remember it and use it sometime.

Abby pointing wild quail.

We had a few more points but the birds got up before we got to them. They may have had help from Thomas. I hope so. The more he sees fly off the sooner he will figure out he can’t catch them. We started down a fence row with a lot of trees growing along it. The GPS showed Mann on point at the very end. In a minute or so the GPS showed Boss honoring. Then Sallie and Bodie were honoring. As we came down the draw Thomas saw the dogs on point. When he got close to Sally he stopped. They were all on Vince’s side and he thought Thomas was going to honor but then he went on. When he got to Mann he went in front of him and the birds flushed. Vince or I, neither, were close enough to get a shot.

I only saw one quail on my side but most of the birds had flown back down the way we had come. We started back. We got a couple of points but when we got close the dogs would trail for a ways then go on down the fence row. We did see a couple get up well out front. We decided to go to another place and started for the truck.

We looked out front and Boss was on point looking into a tangle of trees and brush. It was thick enough we knew there would not be a shot. I circled around him to try to get it to fly out for Vince. It had already run several yards from Boss and flew through the brush. No shots taken. We started for the truck.

Boss pointing a single.

When I checked the GPS it showed Mann on point about where I had knocked the bird down earlier. We went to him. The other dogs honored but when I got close to Mann he started trailing. The other dogs helped. We still didn’t come up with anything. We started to the truck.

When I checked the GPS Mann was on point again, about 45 yards away. We went to him. This time a quail flushed well out front of him without giving us a shot. We started to the truck.

Vince said, “Bodie is on point.” He was about 75 yards from us and as we got close the bird flushed well out in front. We had a strong north west wind and the birds weren’t waiting for us. This time we crossed the harvested soybean field to the road and headed for the truck. We went to another place.

Bodie had pulled a muscle earlier in the season and when we got to the truck he was limping so we didn’t turn him out again and Thomas is too young, in my opinion, to hunt for a long time. He had already been out for an hour and half or more. That was enough so I left him in the truck.

Abby on point.

The next place was a small creek running along the side of a harvested milo field. Across the small creek was tall CRP. We turned Sally, Boss and Mann out along with Maggie. Vince went over to the tall CRP side so I waited for him to get even with me. Before he got there I saw Sally pointing into the cover around the creek. I think Mann was on point and she was honoring. Boss was inside the cover going toward Mann. I don’t know what happened but I saw the covey flush and get higher than the trees in the creek. They flew down the creek a short distance then turned toward the tall CRP on the other side.

I crossed the creek to Vince’s side. As I got clear of the creek Maggie flushed a single quail that flew back down the creek. I hadn’t noticed any bird landing that close to where they had flushed from originally. We walked into the chest high CRP and the dogs stayed close working the thick grass.

Mann pointed. When we got close we walked in front of him. Nothing flushed and I released the dogs. They all started trailing. The GPS showed Sally on point and she was hard to find in the tall weeds. As we walked in, with Vince on my right, a quail flushed from my left. The 60 year old Webley and Scott, 20 gauge side by side did it’s job. Vince marked it down and went right to it but Sally had it. She dropped it in his hand.

Stormy pointing a pigeon.

We went on through the tall CRP then down a fence row. When we got back close to the milo field I thought there should be some birds moving into it for their evening meal. The milo field was small, about 35 acres or so. I walked the middle of it while Mann and Boss ran the fence row on one side and Sally hunted the creek. We went from one end to the other without seeing any game birds. When I got back to the truck I loaded the dogs.

Vince and Maggie had gone back through the tall CRP where some of the singles had flown. Maggie is getting old and her legs aren’t very long so she doesn’t cover the ground she used to. But Vince and I don’t either. They didn’t come up with anything. When they got to the truck we loaded Maggie and started home.

Bodie on point Mann honoring.

A lot of people would have thought this was a bad hunt without having a bunch of birds. And I used to need the large bird count but not any more. I enjoy seeing the dogs hunt and find birds. One of my first thoughts when we found the first covey was, “we can run dogs here after the season closes”. We need birds to work our dogs on.

It’s hard to find good places to hunt this time of year. Deer season is open in Kansas and Nebraska. It’s also open in Oklahoma. And even Missouri is still running a gun doe season, I think. My dogs hadn’t been hunting for a week so I really wanted to go somewhere. I decided I would go to a Missouri Conservation Area. Missouri has a lot of areas and although they say they manage some of them for quail, most don’t have good cover for quail.

Sally pointing a wounded quail.

Boss and Sally honoring Abby.

Boss honoring Abby.

With the gun doe season open, I figured that there would be several hunters that I would have to stay away from but when I drove around the area there were no vehicles. I had the whole area to myself.

When this area first opened a lot of years ago there were several coveys of quail scattered around the row crops. With no or very little mowing or burning the saplings have grown into trees and there are not near as many birds as in the past. Okay, that’s the end of my rant.

I put the GPS and e-collars on Abby, Sally, Boss and Mann and turned them loose. The wind was from the north east at about 13 mph when we started. I had found birds about 3/4 of a mile from the parking lot a few years ago and a deer hunter had seen them last year in the same place. I didn’t find them last year but was optimistic this year. I had driven by this area earlier in the year and the plants in the soybean field were less than knee high. I was surprised that they had been combined. At the price of soybeans they barely made enough to pay for their fuel, I think.

We went along side a harvested soybean field to a long hedge row. Then we circled another field and got to the area where I thought there might be a covey. I paused in the change from one field to the next and let the dogs hunt the area really well. For me it was a little cool when I wasn’t walking very fast but for the dogs, who don’t slow down, it was warm and dry. The ponds were frozen.

We circled the next field over without finding anything and I was headed to the south of where I had parked when Boss went on point. He was east of the direction I wanted to go, about 200 yards. I started to him by crossing one of the harvested soybean fields. There was a draw that had a pond at the very top and a thick jungle below. Boss was pointing in the thick tangle. Without the GPS I would never have gotten close. I was about 25 yards from him when I heard the covey flush. I never saw the birds. I couldn’t even see Boss until after the birds flushed.

Abby pointing wild quail.

We started back to the west and it was Sally’s turn. She was about 200 yards east of me on point. I went back but as I got close I saw a pond and got worried that she had broken through the ice and was in the water. Just as I got within about 20 yards of the pond Sally came by me, wet and muddy. The north side of the pond had a thawed spot. Evidently she had laid down in the pond to cool off. The GPS knew she was stopped and thought she was on point. We went on to the west.

As we got into a fresh area, the GPS showed Mann on point about 300 yards ahead of me. He had to be just south of where I had parked the truck. I had turned him loose first and while I put the collars on the others he had tried to go that way. I had called him back. I should have followed him.

Abby on point.

I was still about 75 yards from him when Abby pointed right in front of me. As I started to her The GPS showed Boss on point between Abby and Mann. I kicked in front of Abby and nothing flushed. I tapped her head and she ran in, tried to point again then went on. I headed to Boss. When I got close he started trailing toward where the GPS showed Mann on point. Mann was in a jungle. It took several minutes to get through a cedar grove with a fence running through it. By the time I got to where Mann was he was moving. I think all 3 dogs were pointing the same covey. I think the covey ran through this thick stuff and flushed out the other side.

We checked most of the available cover and hunted back to the truck. Several years ago I had found 3 coveys in just the area I covered south of my truck. This morning I’m convinced there was a covey of quail there but I never saw a bird. When we got close to the truck I loaded the dogs and drove to the other side of the conservation area.

I haven’t hunted enough this year to get the dogs in very good shape. That’s my fault. But anyway, I ate lunch and gave the dogs about an hour to rest. One of the smartest coveys I’ve hunted lives in this area. I’ve found them the last 4 or 5 years without killing many. The best I’ve ever done with them is 2 maybe 3 at the most in any one year.

Boss pointing a pigeon.

While I had been resting the dogs the temperature had dropped and the wind was stronger. The area of this covey was just off the road to the east. I crossed the road and started toward it but the dogs went north. First Sally pointed then Boss. I started to the north but the dogs came back toward me. I don’t know what happened. We turned and started to the east.

There was a pond in a little bowl with a lot of cover around it. The conservation department had cut about 20 or so cedar trees and piled them up. Most of the time the covey is close to this little bowl. We covered it without finding them. We started to the south down a hedge row next to a corn field. This corn was about knee high but there was some small ears still hanging. As I got started down the hedge row the GPS showed Boss on point at the far end. I started to him.

Before I got close Mann and Abby were honoring. I continued toward him. I could see Mann honoring but before I got close to Boss they were all moving. They were really excited and all moving in the same direction. I believe, they saw the birds and were following them. I went with them. There was a short draw running through this corn field. The dogs were checking the edges and were inside the draw. At the very top of the draw a single quail flushed out in the corn field about 30 yards from me. No dogs nor was I, close.

Annie pointing a pigeon.

Where Boss was on point was real near the boundary on two sides so most of the birds may have flown off the conservation area. We hunted the area and went back to the truck. I think with the weather system coming in and the temperature dropping and the wind getting stronger, the birds were not holding. That evening I talked to a friend that hunted within 25 miles of where I was on private land and he had about the same luck. There was two of them hunting and they had fired one shot and had moved 3 coveys. Sometimes the birds win. These days, they win more often than not. But that’s okay. I need the birds to work dogs on more than I need some to eat.

Before anything else, I want to apologize for the pictures I will put in this post. I don’t know if it’s my camera, the setting I have it on or just a really bad run of pictures but over two hunts they are really dark. Someone that knows cameras and the app I have them on, could probably fix them. I don’t really know cameras, I just point and click, and I’m really not high tech.

Abby on point.

Boss pointing a single quail.

Sally pointing a single quail Abby honoring..

To hunt in Kansas most of the time I have to drive across the whole metro area. When I start on I-70 it’s 45 minutes to go all the way across the metro area if I can maintain about 70 MPH. Well that didn’t happen. I had two stretches that were bumper to bumper at about 12 MPH. But usually I build in a little extra time but I was still a few minutes late meeting Don and Linda in Kansas.

We drove to the area we wanted to hunt and started getting the e-collars and GPS collars on the dogs. I had Abby and Boss in the box near the tail gate and put their collars on first. Mann and Sally were in the box right behind the cab. I put the collars on Mann and then did Sally. Don wasn’t ready yet and I waited a minute then looked at my GPS to make sure the dogs were all going in the right direction. The GPS showed Mann on point about 150 yards away.

Don and I started to him. Don hadn’t got his dog, Goofy, ready yet. By the time we got close the GPS showed my other 3 dogs honoring or at least showed them all close to Mann on point. When we got there, Mann was on point in a little cluster of trees and shrubbery. I saw Boss first and he was pointing, I thought. I thought the birds may have run away from Mann and Boss had them. When I got close the birds flushed from behind me where Mann, Sally and Abby were. There was a bunch of brush between me and them and Don was on the other side of me. Neither of us got a shot.

But that is a great way to start a hunt. Linda and Goofy joined us and we went after the singles. One bird flushed from in front of us without a dog being close. We only shoot at pointed quail. We worked most of the cover without finding any more and started on around the property.

In just a few minutes the GPS handheld showed Boss on point along the edge of a soybean field about a hundred yards ahead. When we got to him nothing flushed but all of the dogs were really birdy. We continued along the edge and Don saw Goofy on point with Sally and Abby honoring. When we got to him nothing flushed but again all of the dogs were really birdy.

Sally pointing, Boss and Abby honoring.

We got to a hedge row and started down it when the GPS showed Boss on point on the other side. When we got to him Goofy, Sally and Abby were honoring. I started in front of him and Mann showed up and honored. As I started in front of Boss I thought I heard a bird flush. I turned to Don and asked him if he heard a quail flush. He said yes and he also saw it. Again no shots fired.

I believe Boss had a covey pointed that ran out and flushed earlier. This bird and the one where Goofy had pointed were from that covey. We never came up with any more out of this covey as we circled the soybean field.

It was about lunch time as we got back close to the truck but the area where the first bunch had flushed was close so we decided to cross it one more time. There was a deep ditch that ran along the area and I was on one side and Don on the other. He yelled about a dog on point. I checked the GPS and it was Abby on point. It would have taken a while for me to get across the ditch so I told Don to go ahead. I heard a gunshot and then, “Dead bird, dead bird”. I went across to help him find it but he had it located. He wanted Abby to find it.

Sally pointing.

We got the dogs back in the area but that was the only one we found. Just down the road was another couple of soybean fields so after lunch we drove to them. We circled one field and when we got back to the truck I started to load the dogs. I put Abby in her box and checked the GPS to see about the others. Mann was on point about 125 yards from us. I had already taken my vest off so I grabbed a handful of shells and started to him.

There was a fence between me and him. Don went around the other side. Mann was in a tangle of small saplings, blackberry vines and brush. I crossed the fence and saw Boss honoring. I passed him in time to see Mann slinking through the cover. Then he went back on point. I tried to get in front of him and a big covey of quail flushed. In all of the brush I didn’t get a shot but I heard Don shoot. Another, “Dead bird, dead bird”.

I made my way out of the brush toward Don. I cleared the brush and as I crossed a little flat ditch I got my feet tangled and down I went. Don was in front of me so on the way down I threw my gun, with the barrel pointing away from Don, in front of me. The stock landed right where I placed my nose. Not a good deal. Blood flowed but not real bad but I also got mud in my barrels. I was able to clear it out but was afraid there was still some dirt left. Don is a gunsmith and said, “Don’t shoot that gun until you clean it”. Made sense to me. I put it in the truck.

Boss pointing a single.

We talked a few minutes and I checked the GPS. Mann was on point about a hundred yards away. He wasn’t very far from where the covey had flushed. We started to him. Boss honored as I got close. Don went to the other side hoping the bird would fly through the clump of brush. I walked in front of him, with my gun in the truck, and the quail flushed and swung out across a harvested soybean field. My favorite shot. Flying from my right and circling to my left. Oh well, I don’t really care about shooting quail. We need them to work the dogs on.

The next time we got close to the truck I got the dogs loaded up and headed home. It doesn’t pay to get caught in the evening rush hour. I think evenings are worse than the morning rush.

Friday morning, when I saw the weather forecast for the next week, I decided to load dogs and go back to Kansas. I wanted to check some areas close to where we had hunted our first day but not the same ones.

Boss honoring Sally.

The way my dog boxes are it’s easy to haul 5 dogs but to get to my other box I have to climb on the the wheel or crawl into the back of the truck. So I left Annie at home and took the other 5. Sally, Abby, Boss, Stormy and Mann. This will be Stormy’s first real hunt. I’ve worked her on pigeons, call back pen birds and shot some chukars over her. I think her and Annie are ready for the hunt.

I turned them all out on a farm with harvested soybeans, corn and some CRP along the ditches. It looked really good. There was a long wide draw running through the middle and we went to the south into the wind. The dogs were already running the draw as I got close. The GPS vibrated and showed Mann on point a little over 200 yards away but on the other side of the big draw. It took me a long time to get across the draw and the deep ditch in the bottom. I got within about 40 yards of Mann and he was moving.

He had been buried in some tall weeds and maybe The other dogs running the edge may have spooked the birds or someone didn’t see him on point and ran through the birds. When I got close I saw a quail flush and just fly a little way. It was a baby bird. I took the dogs on down the draw away from the little quail.

Abby honoring.

A few years ago this farm had 3 coveys but on this day I checked it pretty well and didn’t see any other birds. When we got back to the truck Stormy didn’t want to quit. Actually she didn’t want to ride again. She gets car sick. She was across the road and when I went to catch her she took off. I had a GPS collar on her so I knew where she was. She went a little over a hundred yards. I sat down on the tail gate. It’s lonely for a puppy to be that far away.

A young man stopped to talk, for a few minutes, as I waited on Stormy. As we talked I saw her cross the road to the side I was on. I looked on the GPS. She was hiding in the weeds 45 feet from me. When the young man left I went looking for her. When I got close she stood up and started away. I said, “whoa”. She stopped but when I got real close she started moving again. I sternly said, “whoa”. This time she let me catch her.

I drove to a different farm in the area. This time I left Stormy and Mann in the truck. For a young dog Stormy had done enough and Mann’s tail was bleeding from all of the rough stuff he had been running in.

Goofy pointing Abby honoring.

The wind was 19 miles per hour according to my phone and we went into it. There was some CRP before we got to a hedge row running down the side of a harvested soybean field. I was still a long way from the soybean field when Sally went on point in a clump of trees between the CRP and the soybeans. Abby and Boss honored.

When I got close, Sally moved into the clump of brush. I followed. Just as I thought they would, the covey flushed out the other side without giving me a shot. About half went straight ahead and half went to my right. We followed the ones that went straight ahead.

About 40 yards from where the covey flushed, Sally pointed. I couldn’t believe some of the quail stopped that close but when I got there a single flushed. I hit it really hard with my second shot, feathers came floating back by me, but the bird kept going. I would rather do a clean miss. Just a little farther Boss pointed. When I got to him a single quail ran to the edge of the hedge row, flushed and never got 3 feet high until it was away down the hedge row. No shot at all.

Stormy pointing a pigeon.

We went to the end of the hedge row and then came back. Back even closer to where the covey flushed, Sally pointed again. This quail let me walk past him then flushed behind me. By the time I heard him and got turned around he was out of range. As we started down the hedge row I noticed Sally laying in shady spots until I got close. It was getting too warm for my little fat girl.

The other half of the covey had flown off to the right of where they had flushed from so on the way to the truck we went that way. Sally may have just been tired of rechecking that area over and over. The GPS vibrated showing Sally on point about 125 yards in front of me. When I got close to her she jumped in and almost caught this bird. I think this was the bird I had knocked the feathers out of. Sally must have smelled some blood. She usually doesn’t move until the birds are in the air. But once again there was too much brush for a shot.

Annie pointing a pigeon.

I checked the GPS and Boss was on point. When I got to him a single quail flushed right in front of him but on the other side of some trees. I called them to head to the truck and Boss found another single. It too beat us. I had 8 points and had only fired two shots all day. But that’s okay. I had 8 points. That’s a great day. And we didn’t hurt the birds. I can come back to these places.