Traveling Pointing Dogs

Dolly honoring Tur Bo

Luke

Luke

Vince Dye and I hunted some private land, in Missouri, on the last day of 2015 without much luck. The farm we hunted had some CRP next to a harvested corn field. The CRP was waist high with about 4 inches of snow added to the mix to make the walking even harder. We had a lot of rain in the spring that made the CRP taller and thicker than normal.

I turned Lucky and Tur Bo out with the Garmin GPS and Sport Dog e-collars on. Vince turned a young English setter, that belonged to a friend of ours and his English cocker spaniel, Maggie, loose. We hunted these dogs for about an hour. The cover and snow was really tough on Lucky. He’s over 11 years old so I put them up and got Blaze and Dolly out. Vince put the setter up and got his pointer, Buck out.

Not far from the truck Buck pointed. He was closer to me than Vince so I stopped about 20 yards from him waiting on Vince. Before Vince got close the covey of quail flushed. We both shot but neither of us connected. Some of the covey had flown down a draw that ran into the corn field. Vince was on one side of the draw and I was on the other. As we started down the draw I saw Blaze go on point about 75 yards ahead of us. As we started to her a quail flushed in the draw and flew right toward Vince. He knocked the quail down and Maggie saw it drop. She made quick work of the retrieve.

As we continued on toward Blaze’s point I saw the quail flush. Just a few yards from where Blaze had pointed Buck pointed. It was in the brush down in the draw. The way Buck was pointing, with Blaze and Dolly backing, I thought I could flush the bird out for Vince. I went into the brush but the bird came out my side. I tried a shot through the brush but it would have been a miracle.

We made a circle and went back to the north. Dolly pointed at a small brush pile along a fence row. Just across the fence the land dropped off about 4 feet. Blaze came in and honored as I waited for Vince. When He got there he sent Maggie in to flush. Some quail flushed on the other side of the fence and we never even saw them. We thought they had flown on to the north so we continued on.

Vince’s pointer Buck has some back problems. He hunts fine for a while then he acts like he can’t control his rear end. We were almost to the end of the property when Vince decide that Buck needed to go to the truck. Dolly, Blaze and I continued to the end then started to the truck, in the CRP, along the edge of the road. Blaze went on point along the fence with Dolly honoring. The road at this point was about 10 feet lower than the fence row. As I got close I heard a quail flush, over the bank, down close to the road. Blaze didn’t move but when I kicked around in front of her nothing else flushed.

We started on to the truck. I was walking in the CRP when a rooster pheasant got up almost at my feet. It dropped into the CRP at my shot. Blaze saw it go down and was holding it for me when I got there. This was her first pheasant. She finally picked it up. I petted her until she dropped it in my hand.

We started over a little hill and Blaze pointed right in front of me. Just as she went on point a hen pheasant flushed. As soon as the hen flushed I yelled, “whoa”. Blaze took a step and stopped. I released her and she went about 15 yards to my right and pointed. Before I could take a step a rooster pheasant flushed. The first pheasant I had shot as a reflex action. Some people in Missouri don’t want their pheasants shot thinking it will increase them on their land. I hadn’t talked to Vince about this, not expecting to see pheasants. I didn’t shoot. Later he told me the owner wouldn’t care.

Vince and Maggie rejoined us just a little way from the truck. As we started to the truck a Missouri game warden stopped to check us. I should have gotten his name but I never thought about it. He was a really nice young man.

Maggie had flushed a covey of quail when they had been bringing Buck back to the truck. It had flown into an area of almost no cover and Vince thought it would be a good place to get either Blaze or Tur Bo into some birds. I turned Blaze loose first and we checked the whole area without seeing a bird or even a track in the snow. I put her up and got Tur Bo out and we went over the area again. I saw one quail track in the snow and it came out of a small draw, then I saw wing marks in the snow where it flew away.

This is my experience on fresh snow. It seems to me as if the quail know that their camouflage doesn’t work and they flush ahead of the dogs. We got some dog work and the birds flushing so easy can only make our dogs more cautious.

I’m getting worse about taking pictures. I’m now recycling pictures from the summer. I’m not only forgetting to get pictures, the last 2 hunts I have even forgotten to take the camera. Maybe I will get better in 2016.

Lucky

Blaze

Dolly

Lucky on point.

Dolly

Tur Bo

The weather has kept me from hunting, lately. This last week we have had rain, sleet, freezing rain and snow. The roads were icy so I waited until about 9:00 am to leave the house. I drove to near Emporia, Kansas to hunt walk-in properties.

The highways were in good shape but when I turned on the gravel road leading to the first place I wanted to hunt it was solid ice. There was not much snow but every thing was covered in ice. Last year I had found quail a long way back from the road on this farm. I turkey hunted in here before the quail season opened and the spring rains had caused the cover to be really tall and thick. I thought the snow and ice might have knocked down some of the cover so this would be a good day to try this place.

I put the Garmin GPS collars and Sport Dog e-collars on Lucky and Tur Bo and started to the back of this place. It’s about 7/8ths of a mile to the back from where I parked. The grass was still really thick, about waist high and each piece was encased in ice. It was harder to walk through instead of easier. We went to the east along the south side of the farm. The wind must have been out of the north when the freezing rain fell because most of the grass was pointing south. When we turned north at the east side it was even harder to get through. Both dogs were looking for deer trails or anything that would make it easier to get through. For some reason when we got to the north fence and started west the cover wasn’t as heavy.

As I went along to the west along the north side I saw a covey of quail fly across in front of me. I watched them fly into the tall grass and go down. I don’t know whether the dogs flushed them or they just got up. I called the dogs in and we went toward where the birds had gone down.

The grass was really tall, bent over and encased in ice. Tur Bo was trying to jump over the grass and bull his way through while Lucky was just easing his way through. I saw Tur Bo point before we even got to the area where I thought the birds had gone down. He was looking in my direction so we had the bird between us. I got almost to him when a quail flushed about 10 yards behind me. When I shot the quail fell on the other side of a small bank. I walked up to the edge and looked over. Tur Bo was pointing the dead bird. I went to him and said, “he’s dead” and tapped his head. He picked the bird up and dropped it when I said, “give.”

I got both dogs in front of me and we went on to the area I thought the birds had down in. We went back and forth. Lucky had disappeared and I checked the GPS. He was on point back close to where Tur Bo had pointed the first quail. I started trying to find him in the tall grass and I saw Tur Bo honor him. I walked in front of him and a quail flushed behind me. There was one tree in the area and the quail got it between me and him. I still should have got him but I missed. Twice.

There were some harvested soy bean fields next to the tall grass so I hunted around these. There were a lot of quail tracks. I hunted back to where we had found the 2 singles, in the tall grass, so we went through it again without finding anything. I was walking down a deer trail probably 75 yards from where I thought the birds had landed and saw a couple of quail tracks in the trail. I don’t know this was the same quail I had seen land in the other area but it could have been. Quail seem to run more now than ever before. We hunted back to the truck without finding anything else.

The next place I went to I was hoping for easier walking. I had turkey hunted it before they harvested the crops and didn’t find any quail. Last year I had found 2 coveys on it so I thought I might find some now that the crops were harvested. I put the collars on Dolly and Blaze and we started down an old abandoned road way. About 200 yards from the truck with both dogs off to my right I walked through a covey of quail. I was walking next to some head high weeds and I only saw the quail for about 10 yards but most of them flew north. I took the dogs on to the south down a creek with a lot of weeds and brush growing in it. I thought we might find another covey and when we started back to the first covey we would have the wind right.

We circled the end of the draw and started back to the north. The farmer had built a pond on the creek but below it the draw was over a 100 yards wide with scattered trees and a lot of shorter brush. I got the dogs in to hunt for the covey I had flushed. Dolly pointed and as I started toward her Blaze honored. When I got close 3 quail flushed and when I shot another got up. In all of the trees and brush I was lucky to hit one. Dolly retrieved it.

As we hunted the area I heard a couple more quail flush that I couldn’t see. Then Blaze went on point along the edge of the cover in some tall weeds. When I walked in a quail flushed out across the harvested corn field. There was one small bush and I shot before it went around it and missed but knocked the bird down with the second shot. I broke my double open and right in front of me a quail flushed. As I fumbled for shells another quail flushed then another and another. Four quail while my gun was empty. Dolly retrieved the bird I had shot.

We made a circle and in front of us, about 20 yards ahead of the dogs, a quail flushed. We went back through where the covey had flushed from originally. Dolly pointed in some heavy brush. Blaze didn’t see her but pointed the same bird real close to Dolly. When the bird flushed I took a shot but didn’t connect. We continued through the thick stuff. Blaze pointed and Dolly honored but when I walked in nothing got up. I released the dogs and Dolly went on point just a few yards in front of where Blaze had pointed. Before I got to her she started trailing. After trailing several yards she went back to hunting. I believe a quail ran away from us. We hunted back to the truck without finding anything else.

I took 4 dogs with me and they all pointed birds. I was able to kill a bird for each dog except for Lucky. I missed his bird but he doesn’t care. He will retrieve if he has to. If I can’t get the bird and no one else will do it Lucky will but he would really rather go find another bird.

After the weather keeping me close to home for over a week it was good to get out. Any day that I can get some dog work I count as a good day.

Blaze

TurBo pointing a pigeon

Luke pointing Dolly honoring.