Traveling Pointing Dogs

Dolly

Lucky

Luke honoring Lucky

I went back to the Emporia, Kansas area for a quail hunt. The weather was perfect for a change. The temperature was about 30 degrees with just a slight breeze. I started at a farm I had hunted before but in an area I hadn’t been to this year.

I turned Blaze and Dolly loose with the Sport Dog e-collars and Garmin GPS collars on. We circled a harvested soy bean field that was only about 200 yards wide but was 1/2 mile deep. The field had CRP on one side and a good hedge row on the other. We circled this field then checked out the CRP. On the other side of the CRP was another soy bean field that had been harvested. As we circled this soy bean field I checked the GPS and it showed Dolly on point.

I located her in a plum thicket. She was inside the thicket almost all the way through, pointing as if the birds had ran into the grass out of the thicket. I went around the thicket to flush and Blaze honored Dolly’s point. I kicked the grass then went to the thicket and nothing flushed. I tapped Dolly’s head to release her and she moved up. When Dolly moved Blaze started trailing, too. Both dogs crossed the road off the walk-in property. Blaze pointed and I started to her and thought I heard birds get up in front of her. I didn’t see any. I tapped Blaze’s head to release her. Both dogs were getting farther onto the farm I couldn’t hunt so I called them back. We hunted back to the truck without finding anything. This was the first time this season that I’ve turned out dog’s and didn’t find quail.

We were close to a farm that I had hunted earlier. We had found quail, so I turned Luke and Lucky out with the e-collars and GPS collars on. We had about 200 yards of an unused road then there was a good draw running between a harvested soy bean field and a harvested corn field. We went south down this to the property line then west on the fence row. We went back north on a smaller draw that angled back to the larger draw. We were almost to where the two draws merged when I saw a quail fly into the draw ahead of me. I’m not sure where he came from.

I called Luke in to hunt where I thought the bird had landed. He kept wanting to hunt a plum thicket instead of where I wanted him to hunt. I stood there thinking I’m going to make him hunt where I want. I called him in close to me 2 or 3 times and he kept wanting to hunt somewhere else. I thought maybe the quail had hit and run. I took a step and the bird flushed right beside me. I made a lucky shot on it and Luke picked it up. He doesn’t retrieve yet. He just picks them up and spits them out.

We went back to hunting. I checked the GPS and Lucky was on point about 35 yards from us. I stepped up on a little rise and saw him on point in some heavy brush about 20 yards away. Four quail got up right in front of me and flew through the brush. I didn’t have a shot although I shot once anyway. From where we were the draw ran on north and we had already hunted to the south. I stood on the draw watching Luke and Lucky hunt the immediate area. I saw a quail coming across the corn field and I thought at first that it was flying real low but it was running. Really fast. I called Lucky and went into the corn field to get the bird to fly. We checked the corn field and everything around without seeing that quail. We even went to the grassy area 300 yards west to see if we could find it. Nothing.

We worked the draw to the north boundary then turned back to the abandoned road. As we turned toward the truck I walked a quail up. I knocked it down but I knew it wasn’t hit hard. I got Luke and Lucky in to hunt for it. Lucky likes to retrieve but neither of these dogs will hunt dead very long. After a little while I decided that I would get Blaze and Dolly to find the bird so I walked the 200 yards back to the truck. Before I left the area of the downed bird I left my blaze orange hat to mark the spot.

When I got back to the area with Blaze and Dolly I picked up my hat before I called them in to hunt dead. Dogs that retrieve will usually retrieve your hat if you leave it where they can get it. I don’t like drool on my hat. I called both dogs in and they started hunting. They were making circles but not as close as I wanted. Finally they came in real close and Blaze went on point right beside me. I tapped her head and told her it was dead so fetch. She dove in and the quail started running with her chasing. She lost it. I got her and Dolly in the area I saw it last but Dolly didn’t stay. Blaze was looking and went on point again. This time I called Dolly in close before I had Blaze move. Dolly was close to Blaze when she honored. I tapped Blaze and said, “it’s dead, fetch”. They both saw the bird but it got away again. We never saw the bird again.

I was still letting them look for the quail but we were 100 yards west of where the bird had been. I was watching the dogs trailing and walked a quail up. I shot and it came down in a thick weed patch. The weeds were taller than my head. I got both dogs in to hunt for it. Blaze pointed and I tapped her head. She pounced on it and brought it to me. We checked the area out without finding anything else. We checked the area where the wounded bird had been, on the way back to the truck, without finding it.

We had time for another hunt so after eating a couple of service station corn dogs we drove about 10 miles to another farm I had hunted earlier. I turned Luke and Lucky out. We hadn’t gone very far when I saw Luke chasing some quail. He was going with the wind and it was blowing harder now. I didn’t see it but he’s pretty steady now. I got them in to hunt where I thought some of the singles landed. Lucky pointed and Luke honored in some grass about knee high. There wasn’t a tree or any brush anywhere close. I walked in and a single quail flushed. It flew straight away from me and I missed. Twice.

We hunted on to the back of the place and moved over and came back through where the one single had held for the dogs. I saw Luke go on point about 50 yards ahead of me. I had only gone about 10 yards toward him when the quail flushed. I was watching, Luke didn’t move. We followed the quail that flushed toward the truck. Lucky came in front of me and whirled around but didn’t point. About 15 yards from him a quail flushed. He didn’t even know that it had flown. I had started up with my gun when the bird flushed but it put a cedar tree between us. Before I lowered the gun another quail flushed and I shot. It was behind the tree so I couldn’t see whether I connected or not.

I got both dogs in to hunt ahead of us. We went around the cedar tree and the dogs were checking everything. Lucky went on point and Luke honored. I went in front of Lucky kicking the grass. Nothing flushed. I tapped his head and he moved ahead. Luke started moving, too. Luke pointed near where Lucky had been on point. I tapped his head and said, “dead bird.” He didn’t want to move so I tapped him again and he grabbed the wounded bird. We hunted back to the truck without finding anything else. That was good way to end a hunt.

I have hunted 8 different places and found quail on 7 of them. That’s much better than last year. I still have places in this area that I’ve hunted before but I’m going to check out some new areas in the days ahead. I was going to try to hunt all 6 different kinds of quail this year but it looks like it won’t happen. It seems like, even though I’m retired, I can’t put enough days together, in a row, to make that long of a road trip. I will still try to get some hunting in, in other states than just Missouri and Kansas.

Dolly pointing in a plum thicket

Lucky pointing in a plum thicket

Luke

The second day of the Kansas quail season, I hunted in the Emporia area, again. The first farm I hunted was an 80 acre place that was 1/4 mile wide and 1/2 mile deep. It had a good fence row on both sides that isn’t visible from the road. There is also a good draw with lots of cover that crosses, from east to west, over the hill out of sight of the road.

The wind was really blowing for the second day in a row. I turned Lucky and Tur Bo out with the Sport Dog e-collars and Garmin GPS collars on. We started on the east side going south down the fence row. Both dogs were hunting the wrong side of the fence because that was where the cover was. When we got close to the draw they came back and hunted down the draw to the west.

We got to the west side without finding anything and hunted the cover in that fence row to the north until we ran out of cover. Then we retraced our steps and hunted to the south to the end of the property. We went back across the back of the farm to the east. As I hunt I check the GPS real often. When I checked it Lucky was on point about 100 yards ahead of me.

When I got close to him, he was just across the fence off the property. The quail flushed before I got to the brush in the fence row he was pointing into. They got up off the south east corner and flew to the south east so none of them came onto the walk-in property. Tur Bo had been backing Lucky so when the quail flushed he chased a little ways then came back and got excited with the quail smells. We hunted back to the truck without finding anything else. I loaded the dogs and drove to another farm in the Kansas Atlas of walk-in properties.

This was another 80 acre farm that was 1/2 mile long from east to west and 1/4 mile deep. I turned Dolly and Luke out with e-collars and GPS collars on. We hunted south to the end of the property then turned west and hunted to the road. There was a draw that ran on a diagonal from where I had parked the truck on the north east corner to the south west corner. We turned and hunted the draw back toward the truck.

About half way back to the truck Dolly and Luke started trailing. One or the other would point then move. I slowed down to watch them. I heard something and turned around. Two quail got up somewhere ahead of us and flew near us but I didn’t get a shot. The dogs were birdy all the way to the road and Luke even hunted across the road without finding anything. We hunted on to the road then went back in the direction the 2 quail had flown without finding anything. We continued on up the draw until we got back to the truck. I loaded the dogs the ate my lunch on the way to the next farm.

I wrote about the afternoon hunt yesterday in the Hunting Dog Injuries. After Tur Bo got hung in the fence I went on home to get him sewed up. Had he not got hurt I would have hunted another farm. Luke and Dolly were ready to go.

I had hunted 7 farms in 2 days and had found 7 coveys of quail. That was much better than the last few years. The wind was really blowing, even for Kansas, and the birds didn’t hold very well but I had a lot of dog work. Other than Tur Bo getting hurt it was a good 2 days. I will be back.

Tur Bo’s leg where he got hung in a fence.

After the vet, Dr. Becker, sewed it.

Look how sad Tur Bo’s eyes are.

Tur Bo got hung on a barbed wire fence on the second day of the Kansas quail season. He didn’t yelp, whine, bark or make any noises to let me know he was hung on the wire.

I turned Lucky and Tur Bo out with Sport Dog e-collars and Garmin GPS collars on. I had seen the farmer combining the milo next to this farm as I drove down the road eating my lunch. It wasn’t a place I had ever hunted but sometimes when the combines are working they flush quail onto the adjoining farms. The farm I was hunting had soy bean and corn stubble. All of the crops had been harvested.

We had hunted around a corn field then in the middle, of the farm, found a long strip of CRP between a soy bean field and a corn field. I came over a terrace and saw Lucky on point in the tall weeds. Tur Bo came by and I whoaed him. I was still 30 yards from Lucky and the quail flushed another 25 yards in front of him. He didn’t even react when they flushed. I released him and started to the area they had flown to.

We worked the area going north then turned and started back to the south to work the same area again. Tur Bo was to my left and Lucky was to my right when a quail flushed about 20 to my right front and tried to fly to my left. This is my favorite shot and I dropped it. It fell into a small thicket and Tur Bo picked it up. He ran straight to me. I petted him until he released the quail.

The temperature was nearing 70 degrees and this was the second time today these two had been hunted so I headed to the truck. There was a creek running through this farm so I took the dogs by to water them. After they waded in the creek and drank we started on. I hadn’t gone very far when, out of habit, I checked the GPS and it showed Tur Bo on point. He was only about 30 yards from me but I couldn’t see him. I thought he was probably getting a drink so I waited watching the GPS.

The GPS continued to show him on point so I started looking for him. When I found him he was just standing still. When he points he is real rigid with a high head and tail. I called him and he tried to come to me but he couldn’t. I went to him to see why he couldn’t move and saw the cut on his leg and the skin was wrapped around the barb wire. The fence was an old one, of 3 strands, that was lying near the ground with one wire about 5 or 6 inches above the ground. I took off my hunting vest and threw it over his head, so I could check him out.

The skin that was hung on the barb was rolled around where I couldn’t pull it off the wire. I tried to get some slack to unwind the skin but that hurt him. When he felt the pain he tried to bite me. That’s the reason I covered his head with the vest. No matter how nice your dog is normally, when they feel pain they will bite. I didn’t have anything with me to cut the wire so I used my pocket knife to cut through the skin. He must have been numb at that point because he never showed that he had any pain, when I cut the skin.

He hunted as we went back to the truck. Normally, I have a leash in my hunting coat but I had cleaned it out before the season started. It would have been easier if I had carried some wire cutters with me as well. One friend said he always carries wire cutters because he had a dog get caught by a trappers snare.

If I hadn’t had the GPS on him it would have taken a lot longer to find him. He wasn’t whining or barking or making any noises so without the GPS I might not have found him at all. You can’t carry enough stuff for every emergency but I will have a leash and wire cutters next time.

I ate lunch on the way to the next farm that was about 10 miles from the last farm of the morning hunts. The wind was still blowing real hard but I had seen quail. The fall has been wetter than it has been the last few years and I don’t have to carry water for the dogs. Even most of the wet weather creeks still have water in them.

I turned Tur Bo and Lucky out with their e-collars and GPS collars on. We walked down a lane for about 200 yards to get to an area that had a wide draw running north and south. We hit the draw in the middle and started south. I had crossed to the far side to get the wind right for the dogs. It doesn’t matter to Lucky, at 10 years of age, which side I’m on he knows how to hunt the draw but I wanted Tur Bo to learn to use the wind.

We had only gone south for about 50 yards when I saw a quail flush ahead of Tur Bo. It was far enough in front of him, he didn’t even know it had flushed. I went into the draw with Tur Bo to make sure he was hunting the cover. I use, look close, when I want them to check an area real well. As we were checking the area Lucky came into the draw with us. I had both dogs, looking close, and a quail came from up the draw. I saw it coming and was able to get a shot as it went by. At the shot, it started going straight up then dropped. I knew it was head shot from the way it flew. I got both dogs in to hunt dead and Tur Bo knew it was close but he couldn’t pin it down for a little while. I saw it sitting there but I waited on him to find it. He finally scooped it up and ran to me. He brings them to me but he doesn’t want to give them up. I petted him until he dropped it.

We went on down the draw to the south end and came back through the area where we had seen the 2 birds. We got about 20 yards north of where we had entered the draw and Tur Bo got real birdy. He was trailing and about 10 quail flushed ahead of him. They were far enough ahead that he didn’t notice them. As we got close to where they had flushed from another bird got up. He saw this one and it really fired him up. It didn’t matter how thick the cover was or how tall he was hitting it all.

We continued on north up the draw. A quail flushed in front of me with no dog around. I shot and it came right down. I called the dogs in to hunt dead. Lucky got to the area the bird came down in and went on point. I went to him and told him it was dead. I tapped his head and he went to hunting dead but we never came up with the bird. I was still trying to find the bird but Lucky was gone. Tur Bo was trying to find it but wasn’t having any luck. I checked the GPS and Lucky was on point about 20 yards away.

I thought maybe the quail I had knocked down had run that far and Lucky had found it. I started to him and stepped over a large log and my leading foot slid as I stepped over the log and I sat down on the log. As I was sliding down 4 quail flushed at my feet. They flew away without me being able to fire a shot. Had I been able to keep my feet it would have been the best shots of the day. Tur Bo rushed in and another quail got up right in front of him. He hunted the area and all the way back to the truck without letup. We drove to another farm not far down the road.

Last year there was a covey that as soon as I got close they would flush in ones and twos. Sometime, I would only hear them not even see them. I decided to see if they were still there. I turned Luke and Dolly out with e-collars and GPS collars on. I walked across some real thick CRP to get close and have the wind right for the dogs.

Dolly started trailing as soon as we got close to the brush that separated the CRP from a harvested soy bean field. Luke was also birdy and was trying to point, then move up. As I watched the dogs I heard quail flushing. They were far enough ahead that the dogs didn’t pay any attention. The wind was still blowing real hard and as we worked through the CRP a quail flushed behind me but by the time I figured out where it was it was out of range.

We continued on in the direction that I thought the quail had flushed. The dogs were working hard but the birds kept flushing before they got close. We started around the bean field by going through a wide weedy patch that ran the length of the soy bean field. The dogs were out front hunting and I walked up a quail. It flew in the open, one of the few that day that had been in the open. I dropped it across the fence off the property. I called the dogs in to hunt dead and Dolly went into the milo field across the fence and came back with the bird.

We worked on down the soy bean field then across the end and back down the other side. When we got back to the brush between the soy bean field and the CRP I heard quail flushing. If this covey passes this behavior on to the rest of the quail in this area I may never get another shot at a quail. We hunted back to the truck and headed home.

I had hunted 4 farms and found 4 coveys. With the wind blowing so hard there may have been birds flushing ahead of me that I didn’t see or hear. Kansas Department of Conservation said there was more birds this year than there had been last year and I believe that, also. When the weather cools down and the wind quits blowing so hard we will know for sure.