A Bird Hunt In Kansas, Prairie Chicken Or Turkey

Posted on October 13, 2017 by windypointsj1s@aol.com

To be on walk-in properties I must be hunting something. You can’t just work dogs on walk-in so I went prairie chicken hunting or maybe I was turkey hunting. Kansas allows you to use your dogs in fall turkey hunting. Anything to get a bird hunt to find where the quail are.

Luke on a quail.

On a cool morning I drove to the Atchison Kansas area. In that area there are a lot of walk-in properties. There is a lot of corn and soy beans grown here and a lot of it had not been harvested, yet. The first property that I wanted to hunt was in unharvested soy beans. In the fall when the soy beans are ready to be harvested it seems as if the soy beans just jump off the plant when we get close. I won’t run my dogs in unharvested beans.

Unharvested corn is just as bad. In it you lose your dog. Even with a GPS collar on they are hard to find in standing corn. And no farmer wants to see you walking through his corn.

Luke on another quail.

It seemed like the surrounding farms were mostly harvested but the walk-in properties weren’t. I drove by several that I have hunted in the past but I couldn’t let the dogs out. Part of getting out early is to see if the farmer has taken his property out of the walk-in program or sometimes they attack the property with a bulldozer and the quail cover is gone. I didn’t notice that the program had lost anything and most of the cover was still there. It’s hard to know what it looks like over the hills but usually they push the cover off the edges first.

I had only Luke and Dolly with me. Tur Bo has a knee cap problem, Sally is in heat and Lucky is too old. Betsy could have come but I didn’t bring her.

Luke

Finally, I saw a corner of one walk-in place that the corn was harvested and soy beans weren’t but I could keep the dogs away from them. There was also a hay meadow along side the soy beans. I have found quail here on past bird hunts. I turned both dogs out with Garmin GPS and Garmin e-collars.

Dolly was eleven years old in February so she doesn’t run as far and fast as she used to but she never quits hunting until I call her. Luke is a different story. If I keep him within a quarter mile I feel like he’s underfoot. This day was no exception. We were walking north and the wind was out of the south east pretty strong. Luke made it to a cross fence and went east down the fence line. When I figured he was at the road I called him back.



We went on west along the fence row to the end of the property. There was just a scattering of trees down a draw to a pond. Both dogs followed the draw back to the south edge. Dolly came back but Luke crossed the fence and the road and followed a draw on to the south. I tried to call him back but he went on point over 600 yards south of me.

Dolly and I weren’t far from the truck so I loaded her up and drove closer to where he was on point. I waited for a while hoping the birds wouldn’t hold. Several minutes later he was still on point. I drove up to a house on that side of the road to see if they would let me go get him. I should have gotten the man’s name but I didn’t. He let me drive back close to where Luke was.

Most of his soy beans had been harvested so I drove into his field. I was about 150 yards from Luke when I got out of the truck. The GPS showed him moving. I called him and he started toward me then went on point about 90 yards away. He was along the side of a thick draw that ran through the soy bean field. I had a tough time getting across the draw but when I crossed Luke was just about 15 yards south of me. I took some pictures with my phone then walked in front of him. Nothing happened. I tapped his head.

Tur Bo pointing a covey of quail.

He went about 20 yards to the south and went back on point. This time after I took pictures 2 quail flushed when I walked in front of him. I called him and fought my way back across the draw. When I got to the other side I checked the GPS and he was on point across the draw. I fought my way back across. He was buried in the cover of the draw where I could just barely see him. When I got close another quail flushed.

This time I stayed on that side of the draw. I called Luke and he started toward me but went on point. This time he was on the out side of the draw and I took more pictures. When I went in front two quail flushed but they were down in the draw. I’m not sure I would have had a single shot on these birds. The good thing about that, no one will kill very many and they will be there as long as the food, water and cover is there.

I didn’t have a leash with me because I didn’t wear a hunting vest. I thought I was going to call Luke back to me but once he got into birds that’s all he thought about. I took his collar off, looped it through his GPS collar and led him back to the truck.



I drove by some other properties but didn’t turn dogs out. The temperature was already into the 60’s. It was good day to be on a bird hunt although I didn’t find out much about the walk-in properties. But there are some quail in that area.

Dolly on point.

Luke pointing quail.

Sally pointing a single.



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Rainy Day, Not Working Dogs

Posted on October 10, 2017 by windypointsj1s@aol.com

I’ve been wanting cool weather and we have it today but it’s raining. I would like to take my dogs and go somewhere on a hunt but some of my dogs aren’t ready.

Lucky

Lucky this morning in the kennel.

Luke this morning.

Luke pointing quail.

Tur Bo this morning.

Tur Bo backing Sally.

Betsy this morning.

Sally this morning.

Dolly this morning.

Sally has been doing a good job on birds since she was 6 months old. When I took her to Kansas a few days ago she did real well. She pointed and honored from wherever she saw the pointing dog. When the bird flushes I can stop her with a whoa. Now, but before the season starts, she is in heat. Not good to run her with male dogs, right now.

Lucky was 13 years old the last part of May and is deaf and nearly blind. He still eats good but his body doesn’t metabolize the food right. He is really skinny. When we went to Kansas a couple of weeks ago he showed me he can still go for a couple of hours. I must have a GPS on him because he can’t hear me call. On trips for just a day I may leave him home but on longer trips I will take him with me. He’s been a good hunter his whole life and he deserves to be hunted for whatever amount of time he can go.

When we hunted in Kansas Tur Bo started carrying his right back foot. The first thing I think about is the ACL problem that a lot of dogs have. When I took him to the vet, Dr. Becker said the ACL is tight and in good shape. Everything felt good. He gave him a shot of cortisone and I brought him home. Eleven days later, he was still carrying the foot sometimes. I started worrying about a problem with the hip. Back to the vet. As Dr. Becker felt of the leg he heard or felt the knee cap pop back in place. When I went in Tur Bo’s kennel to take him to the vet’s he wouldn’t jump onto his house and he loves to jump on his house. When we got back he jumped onto the house. Now I have to rest him for a while.

Dolly was 11 years old in February but is still able to do a days hunt. She’s not as fast as she used to be but neither is her owner. When I was in Kansas a couple of weeks ago I hunted her all 3 days. She’s a tough dog. It was warm so I didn’t hunt her all day but she gave me at least 2 hours each day with no problems.

Betsy was 2 in April. We are still working on her pattern in the field. She points, backs and retrieves when she gets the chance. When I can get her to go with me she does a good job.

Luke was 7 in April. He’s my go to dog. I can’t remember him ever being sick or hurt and the only time I’ve ever seen him slow down is when I ran him the second and third days with a dropper chain on his collar. The third day he came in and walked in front of me back to the truck but in those three days he had covered a lot of ground.

When he gets on an edge I just hope the edge turns when he gets to the end of the property. If not, he will go to the end unless I can get him called back. I had him trained to come back on the tone on the e-collar and somehow he started ignoring the beep. I worked on that some in Kansas and we are going to work on it all of this season if that’s what it takes. One thing about it, when he goes on point he will hold as long as the birds do. Last year he pointed almost 500 yards ahead of me and I walked all the way. When I got to him he had a covey of quail. But not all birds will hold that long.

I only have three dogs that can go right now and I have dog boxes for six. Seems like a waste.



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Kansas Bird Hunt Day 2 and 3

Posted on October 2, 2017 by windypointsj1s@aol.com

As I drove by a walk-in property I noticed a nice pool of water so I stopped to let the dogs out of the dog box. Most of the dogs will drink and empty out then come back to be loaded into the truck. A couple, I now have to put e-collars on to keep them close. As the dogs relieved themselves and drank water I saw Lucky, at over 13 years old, hit a fence line and when he came by me his tail was cracking. I hollered at him but he is deaf. He didn’t turn his head just stayed on the fence row. He never does this but I hadn’t hunted him on the first day and he wanted to show me he could still bird hunt. He had no e-collar or GPS collar.

Luke had a single right under his nose. He was afraid to move.

Sally pointing a single.

Tur Bo backing Sally.

I loaded all of the dogs into the truck and drove down the road to see if I could see him. I went south about a half mile but didn’t see him. I parked the truck where I had let him out and turned Luke, Sally and Dolly out and went in the direction I saw him going. I have driven by this place for several years but never hunted it. It was CRP with lots of plum thickets. It was a mile long along the road and I had parked about a quarter of a mile to the north of the south line.

Just as I crossed the fence Luke pointed in the edge of a plum thicket. I started toward him and a rooster pheasant flushed then two more pheasants flew. The dogs and I went to the south edge without seeing Lucky. We moved over to the east and started to the north. The GPS vibrated (it probably beeped too but I can’t hear that) and it showed Luke on point about 85 yards to the east. I started toward him and a single quail flew in front of me going to the west. The bird that came by me was a young quail. It seems to me, with absolutely nothing to back it up, that the young birds aren’t holding as well as the older birds. Maybe, they aren’t as confident of their camouflage as the older birds.

We turned to the north still watching for Lucky. As we got close to the north end of the property Luke pointed. As I started to him Dolly and Sally honored. Luke was standing in a low spot where two plum thickets almost came together. I was still 10 yards from him when the quail started flushing. They were spread over the plum thicket to the east and most flew north.

We went to the north east and all 3 dogs were in front of me trailing and pointing. Luke was on my right and as he pointed two or three pheasants flushed well out in front of him. That started it. Pheasants started flushing all out front of us. More than ten pheasants flushed in a scattered line.



We only had a few yards to be at the end of this property when the GPS showed Luke on point. I found him on a little hill screwed into a point. It wasn’t pretty but I knew the bird was right under his nose. He was afraid to move. I took the above picture. When I got right in front of him a quail flushed right under his nose.

We went on to the end of the property then crossed the road and started back. It wasn’t walk-in but I was hunting my dog. We got all the way back to the truck. I watered these dogs and put them in the dog box. I paced back and forth for a while then got a jacket out of the truck to leave by the road. As I went to the fence row to put the jacket in the weeds I looked to the west side of the road and here came Lucky. He was happy to see me but not as happy as I was to see him. He will never be turned loose without a GPS again.

I drove to another farm that was a large pasture and turned Betsy, Tur Bo and Sally out. The wind was out of the north and we were going south but I tried to go to the east then back to the west to keep a cross wind for the dogs. I knew where a pond was and I wanted to get the dogs to it before they got too hot. About 300 yards into this farm and before we got to the pond the GPS vibrated. When I checked it showed Tur Bo on point. He was along a plum thicket about 50 yards from me. I got within about 20 yards of him and a rooster pheasant flushed. It had run from Tur Bo toward me. When it got up another one on the other side of Tur Bo flushed too.

Betsy pointing a single quail.


We continued on to the south but it was warming up pretty fast so we moved over to the east and headed back to the truck. I loaded the dogs and let them rest for several hours.

About 3:00 pm I turned Sally and Luke out on a farm I have hunted for several years that I usually find some birds on. There is a wind mill with a tank where I got water to carry with me as well as watered the dogs. We made a short round and it was just too hot. That was the end of the bird hunt for the day.

The next morning I started toward home and came by a Conservation Area. I decided to try just a short bird hunt because it was going to be another warm day. I turned Luke, Dolly and Sally out. The Conservation Department had done some burning next to where I ran the dogs. They must have burned in the spring because there was good cover on the burned area. I wanted to go down the unburned side then back on the burned side to see if there were more birds on one side.

I had parked on the north side and we were almost to the south side when I saw a covey of quail fly into some tall, thick grass. I thought I had them marked really well. I got all 3 dogs in to hunt for the singles. We made a pass through the area without finding anything. Luke kept trying to go to the east and Dolly was to the west but Sally stayed with me. The second time through the area Sally went on point. When I went in front of her a real small quail just barely made it out of the tall grass and fluttered about 50 yards and went down. Sally started to chase and I whoaed her. We went on to the south west. I didn’t want her or any of the dogs to catch a baby bird.

Dolly on point.

I checked the GPS as I went to the south west and saw that Luke was on point 170 yards to the south east. I started to him and by the time I got close Sally and Dolly were backing him. They were just across a barb wire fence. I took a picture then started across the fence. I’m not as agile as I used to be if I ever was. When I stepped down off the fence my left hand hung in the barbs and I fell on my butt. The blood was flowing but I had dogs on point!

Luke was on point along a cedar tree wind break that was really thick. I kicked but nothing happened. It was too thick to even get in let alone cross. I released the dogs and they all started trailing. I went to the end of the wind break and crossed to the other side. Luke and Sally were trailing down the wind break. I checked the GPS and Dolly was on point back on the other side. I went back to the end of the wind break, crossed to the other side. As I got close to Dolly Luke came in front and honored. Dolly was pointed about 20 yards from where Luke had originally pointed. I kicked the cedar trees and heard a covey of quail flush. I never saw a bird.

The dogs pointed a couple of times as we went north along the wind break but the birds must have run out on them. When we got to the end of the wind break I wanted to go to the burned side on the west. Before I could get very far the GPS vibrated and Luke was on point to the east. This time he was buried in the thickets growing along a small creek. I tried to get to him from the south but it was too thick. I circled around and when I got close to him from the north side a large covey got up right in front of me. I saw where about a half dozen landed.

Sally, on point, buried in the weeds.

As I was thrashing my way through the thickets, to chase the singles I saw go down, the GPS vibrated. Dolly was on point about 40 yards to the west. As I started to her I saw Sally go on point. Since Sally was closer I went to her. I was still a few yards from her when 2 singles flushed. We started back to Dolly. When we got close Sally saw her and honored. Dolly was in weeds over her head and was hard to find. When I went in front of her a single flushed on the other side of a small thicket. I only heard it.



It was getting warm but I gathered the dogs and headed for the burned portion of the area. We didn’t find any quail on it but I could see my dogs better. When we got back to the truck I watered the dogs, loaded them up and headed home. We had found 3 coveys of quail in less than two hours. That’s pretty good wherever you are but on a conservation area it’s really good.

On this bird hunt we had hunted part of three days. We found ten different coveys and several pheasants. I’m really optimistic about the number of quail in this area. When the season opens I will be back.

Dolly and Sally honoring Luke.

Luke backing Dolly.

The gracefully crossing the fence and falling on my butt picture.



Posted in Dogs, Hunts | Comments Off on Kansas Bird Hunt Day 2 and 3

An Early Kansas Bird Hunt

Posted on September 27, 2017 by windypointsj1s@aol.com

Finally, we got some cooler weather. After checking the weather on the Weather Channel I chose to go on a bird hunt near Greensburg, Kansas. To get on walk-in property you have to be hunting something. You can’t just run dogs. The prairie chicken season doesn’t extend this far south west so I guess I’m dove hunting.

Betsy pointing a single quail.

Tur Bo pointing a covey of quail.

Luke pointing a covey of quail.

I set my alarm for 3:30 to come down here and woke up 35 minutes before the alarm went off. I guess I was ready for the hunting to start. It was about 10:30 am when we got to the first place to hunt. This place is a pasture that has a lot of plum thickets as well lots of cover. They must have got some timely rains because the cover is very thick.

I turned the girls out first, Dolly, Sally and Betsy. We started into a strong north wind along side of a wheat stubble field. Dolly and Sally were staying in front of me and I was working hard to keep Betsy in, too. She’s not easy but she stayed in front until we had hunted about a half mile in then swung around to go back toward the truck. She kept going north.

The next thing I knew Betsy was over 400 yards from me on point. I started to her and without thinking about it walked away from Sally. Sally is only about 16 months old and isn’t used to finding me. When I got to Betsy she was trailing. Betsy was on my right close to a plum thicket. About 25 yards to my left a covey of quail flushed. They only flew about 50 yards and spread out along another plum thicket. I called Betsy and Dolly in to hunt the singles. Now Sally was over 400 yards away.

As Dolly and Betsy went along the edge of the plum thicket, side by side, they both went on point. I took some pictures then went in front, which is really hard to do in these plum thickets. A single flushed and as it did at least one more flew off.

The dogs went back and forth along this plum thicket. Betsy pointed and Dolly honored. I took more pictures. (Being able to take pictures and not worrying about shooting, is fun.) I started into the plum thicket and a single flushed.



Both dogs were still working the edge of the thicket and both pointed. Maybe one was honoring but I couldn’t decide who had the bird. More pictures then I flushed about 3 singles that were close together.

Sally was getting farther away so we started toward where the GPS showed her being. As I went to her I lost her off the hand held. We got almost to where she had been but she still wasn’t on the hand held.

We were heading toward the truck and as we went along I saw Dolly trailing. I got behind her and after she trailed maybe 50 yards a covey of quail flushed about 20 yards in front of her. We were going with the wind so Dolly didn’t have a good chance but this time of year the birds shouldn’t be running and flushing like this.

I didn’t see the birds all the way to the ground but the others didn’t fly very far. We worked back over near where they had flown. I was standing on a little hill watching the dogs and a quail 15 yards from me flushed. No dogs near it. Dolly pointed and I tried to get Betsy in to honor before I flushed the bird. Just me calling Betsy, the quail flushed in front of Dolly.

Betsy pointed but I was getting worried about Sally. She still wasn’t on the hand held. We went on back to the truck and I put Betsy and Dolly in their box. As I drove down the road the GPS showed Sally 750 yards north of me. I drove around the road but couldn’t get any closer. I went back to the area I had her on the GPS and turned Luke and Tur Bo out.

Tur Bo pointing quail.

She showed up on the GPS after we were in about 300 yards but she was still 400 yards from us. As we started toward her Luke went on point. He was buried in a plum thicket. I tried getting to him by going around the thicket with no luck. I tried bulling my way through the thicket. I started out 35 yards from him and could go no farther when I was 20 feet from him. My threshing through the thicket must have flushed what ever he had. I saw nothing nor heard anything.

Finally, we got within about a hundred yards of Sally and she came to me. She didn’t act like it was a big deal. I was a lot happier to see her than she was me. We went back to the truck. I don’t like my bird hunts to turn into a dog hunt.

I let the dogs rest for about 2 hours while I drove and looked at walk-in properties. About 3:00 pm I turned Luke, Tur Bo and Sally out on a farm that was about a mile by half a mile. It was pasture that hadn’t been grazed down with lots of plum thickets. This farm had a lot of rag weed growing, especially, along the low spots.

We had not walked very far, maybe a 100 yards when the GPS hand held vibrated. It showed Luke on point 92 yards to the north. We had been going east. For Luke 92 yards is like being underfoot. I got to him, took some pictures and waited on Sally and Tur Bo to see Luke and honor. Sally got close and pointed. She didn’t see Luke but there was birds in front of her. Tur Bo saw Sally and honored. As I was taking pictures the quail started flushing from all over the plum thicket. There were birds in front of Luke and in front of Sally. These quail flew to the north and I figured we would get them on the way back. We went on to the east.

Betsy on a single, I think.

I was standing on a hill watching the dogs. There was just a small ditch running toward the north with a few scattered trees growing near it. It was maybe 200 yards long. About the time I thought we should check that Luke started along the ditch. I couldn’t see him all of the time but I was following him on the GPS. He was 170 yards from me when he went on point. Sally and Tur Bo stayed with me as I headed his way. I saw him in some thick cover. The other two dogs were off to my left and Luke was to my right. I got almost to him and the quail started flushing. I was still twenty yards from the closest bird. This was a big covey and they flew to the north east. I thought we’ll get them on the way back.

Luke pointing quail.

We got almost to the back of this place when Tur Bo pointed with Sally backing. I took some pictures but when I walked in front nothing happened. I released both dogs. They took turns pointing and honoring. We must have gone over a hundred yards when finally a covey of quail flushed. I had already decided it was pheasants the way they were running. This covey went to the south.

I decided that we would try to find the singles from the last covey. It was warming up and the south side of the property had more water than the north. We worked the cover along the south edge all the way back. Sally made one point and a hen pheasant flushed about 30 yards in front of her. We hunted back to the truck.



This had been a really good day. We had found 5 coveys of quail and saw more pheasants than I mentioned in this post. Nearly all of the birds were running and flushing before we were near. When some of these coveys flushed they made almost no noise with their wings, so they must have been baby birds. This is still September, they are young and dumb. Why don’t they hold.

I must say it again, this was a really good day. Any time you can get your dogs out for a bird hunt it’s a really good day.

Sally pointing quail.

Sally honoring Tur Bo.

Dolly pointing a single.



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