Traveling Pointing Dogs

This time of the year the weather is crazy with strong winds, some days really warm and the next freezing. Don Hansen and I thought about hunting on Friday in Kansas but after checking the weather decided Thursday was the best day. It started pretty cold but warmed some. Checking the wind showed that it would be between 12 and 20 miles per hour through the end of the month. But we expect no less from Kansas. Usually, in Kansas, the wind blows.

Abby on the right and Boss the left honoring Mann who isn’t shown.

Mann on point, with Sally behind him and Goofy behind her, honoring.

Sally and Goofy honoring Mann.

Because I hate to drive through rush hour traffic we got a late start. If I leave my house by either before 6 am or after 8 am the rush hour isn’t terrible. So I left about 8 am to meet Don and Linda by 10:00 am. I saw 3 wrecks along my route. Two on the other side and one that slowed my side to a crawl.

For us that is about the perfect time as it gives the quail enough time to be moving around searching for food. But the down side, a lot of hunters have already hunted the areas and moved on.

When we got to the first place we wanted to hunt, a hunter with one dog, was just leaving. Don talked to him for a few minutes. He had found one covey in the field where he was parked. I was surprised when Don pulled in and parked. When I asked, Don said we were going to hunt the other side of the road, which made sense. When he told me the guy had found a covey of quail where we were parked I put the e-collar and GPS collar on Mann and turned him loose while I put the collars on the other 3 dogs.

I knew Mann would hunt the available cover, in that approximately 80 acre field. Before I got the e-collar and GPS on Sally he was on point. Don said that was about where the guy said he had found the covey earlier. Mann moved a few yards and went back on point. Then he went into the cover. When he came out he finished running the edges.

After I got the collars on Boss and Abby we turned the other dogs loose. Don had brought Ace, Goofy and Tigger. I had Abby, Boss, Sally and Mann. The CRP in this area is really thick and I didn’t want to wear Bodie out with it, so I left him home. We went to the area where Mann had first pointed then back by the trucks to go across the road. Before crossing I checked the GPS and Mann was on point 250 yards north of us.

Before the season opened I had found a covey just about where Mann was. Before we got to him at least 5 of our dogs were backing Mann. They may have all 6 been backing but I know 5 were. He was right in a corner of the field, in a small low spot with a thicket of small saplings. I got a couple of pictures of the backing dogs but I didn’t get Mann. I was expecting a covey but when I got close a single quail flushed never getting more than 4 feet off the ground. Too low to shoot at.

Goofy

We had only been out of the trucks for no more than 10 minutes but my day was made. A dug up find and all of the dogs doing what they were supposed to do by honoring the pointing dog, that’s as good as it gets. Of course we didn’t quit.

I had run dogs on this farm earlier, before quail season opened. Well I had said I was prairie chicken hunting because I have to be hunting something to be on walk-in. I had found a covey on the other side of the road in some really thick CRP. There are a few plum thickets in the CRP and the grass is not as thick around them. That’s where I had seen the quail.

It’s still pretty dry even after the rain and snow we have received over the past couple of weeks. We did find a small pool of water for the dogs but the quail weren’t home today. We worked the CRP around to the south end then hit another small harvested soybean field. The dogs circled the bean field without locating anything. When we got back to the truck we loaded dogs and went to another place.

Abby

When we got to the next place there was someone already hunting it. We went on down the road to a place neither of us had hunted in a lot of years. After walking just a short distance we knew we were not in the best of places but there was a large pond to get the dogs a drink and cool them. We made a circle back to the trucks and ate lunch.

Tigger had a cut on her chest that was no longer bleeding but Don needed to get her to the vet before they closed. We had time for a short hunt. The next place is only about 40 acres but it has a creek, with a lot of brush and cover, running the long way through it and CRP on both sides. Several years ago we found two coveys on this place. Just the right size for a short hunt.

We were close to a busy gravel road, although we were able to park off the road, I only turned Mann and Sally loose. Don turned Goofy out. We had only gone a hundred yards or so when Mann, who was running the edge of the creek, slammed into a point. By the time we got near Goofy was honoring. There was a lot of brush along the creek and when I got to Mann I stroked his side then tapped his head. I was hoping when he moved up the quail would flush.

Mann

Mann only moved a couple of steps and went back on point. Then he trailed into the brush and Goofy came in front of us and pointed. Sally was in the CRP behind us and I called her in. When she got there she was birdy, too. All 3 dogs worked the area really well without penning anything down.

On the other side of the creek was another narrow strip of CRP and on the east of it a harvested corn field. When we got across from where Mann was pointed on the other side he pointed again. He was looking almost straight down into the thick CRP grass. Sally was behind him honoring and Goofy was behind her, also honoring. When I kicked in front of Mann he thought sure something was going to flush. Nothing got up but all 3 dogs trailed through a small plum thicket then went back to hunting.

Either a covey of quail ran off or a bunch of turkeys. The cover along the creek would make a good loafing area, until evening feeding in the corn field, for either bunch of birds. Quail are hunted daily by an assortment of predators. Running works better for them because they can get away from the land animals. From the birds of prey, if they fly some of them die.

Goofy

Don and I hunted back to the trucks and loaded dogs. Still plenty of time for him to get to the vet and I could make it home before evening rush hour. In these areas we used to find a lot of quail but in these days of low quail numbers we have to be satisfied with our dogs hunting hard and to enjoy just seeing them run. I sometimes hunt areas that do not hold many birds but I can see my dogs for a long distance. Quail are too valuable to shoot. If I just take pictures I can hunt them again and the picture will last for a long time. If I shoot them it’s over.

I bought a Garmin Instinct watch after the season was over last year. I took it and my Astro 320 handheld to the guys at Garmin Service Center. The guy did as much as he could to link them but I didn’t take any of the GPS collars. He gave me a sheet with step by step instructions, telling me how to link them. Before the season opened in Kansas I ordered a new 430 with 5 T5X collars, from Lion Country Supply. I had step by step instructions on how to link them to my watch. So Friday night before Kansas season opened on Saturday I tried to link them.

Sally pointing into a brush pile.

Abby backing Sally. Just a second before I snapped this her tail was up.

Boss backing Sally.

I’m a low tech guy living in a high tech world. I couldn’t get them to link. Oh, well, the GPS collars still worked. No big deal. As I drove to Kansas early on opening morning, the watch would vibrate about every thirty seconds and give me some weird numbers. I can’t hear high pitch sounds so I didn’t know if it was beeping too. I thought maybe I had some kind of timer turned on. I put up with it for a while then pulled over and tried to fix the watch. I hit several buttons but couldn’t find anything that would just stop the vibration.

As I drove on I thought about just throwing the watch out the window. But instead I pulled over and this time, some button I pushed stopped the vibration. When I got home that evening I checked the app on my phone and I had over 1500 floors climbed that day. Evidently, every time my altitude increased it was counting the floors and vibrating the watch to tell me about them. Even a flat state like Kansas has a lot of ups and downs.

With all of the vibrating and the counting of floors the battery was getting low. I decided to let the battery run all the way down hoping the watch would reset to where it was before I messed with it. It didn’t take long for the watch to run down and not long to re-charge. The watch didn’t reset but some way I stopped the counting of floors climbed. Much nicer drive back on Sunday morning.

This morning, Monday November 14, I took the Astro 430, 5 T5X collars, my watch and my phone to Garmin Service Center. The poor guy that was next technician up was really nice. He assured me that he had seen worse cases but I really think he was just being nice. He worked on all of my equipment for over an hour but he has it all working as it should. I may not have had to, but I promised to not ever try to change anything on any of this equipment.

Now to the hunting. The first 3 places I wanted to hunt already had trucks parked on them. I have hunted opening weekend in this area several times without seeing many people but this year is different. I kept driving. When I got close to another place, new to me, there was a guy just turning a dog out. I stopped to talk to him and it turned out to be a friend that I hadn’t seen in a long while. Ten years or so ago we had a lease near Medicine Lodge Kansas with a few other guys.

Jim and Josie at the breakaway.

We talked for just a few minutes and he invited me to go along. He had 4 dogs but was only turning one out so I just turned Mann out. Mann is one of the best dogs I’ve ever owned. I thought at least he wouldn’t embarrass me. Both dogs took off and made a big cast. We were about 300 yards from the truck when Mann came back about 50 yards in front of us. As he swung back to the front about 8 quail flushed in front of him. He had the wind in his face but he never acted like he smelled them. He chased like a puppy.

Before we moved more than a few steps Mann came back and another 7 or 8 quail flushed from about the same spot. He chased these also. I apologized for Mann but that’s not much. My friend was gracious but I felt bad.

We tried to find some of the singles with no success. We started on but my friend was several years younger and was walking faster than I could. That was hard for me to type. Walking was always one of my strong suits but as I age, I slow. I still can walk good but not fast. Any way, I told him I would just slow him down. I was going back to the truck and find another place to hunt. That evening he wrote on Facebook that it was a bad day for scenting conditions. He must have had some dog work that wasn’t up to par, also.

The breakaway.

The next place I saw was a small area that I had found birds on before. A small pasture that was ringed by harvested grain fields. I turned all 5 dogs, Abby, Bodie. Boss, Mann and Sally loose. There was a creek with occasional water puddles that ran through the place from north to south. On the west fence line there were several plum thickets and the dogs beat me to them. All of them were excited and really going through one large thicket.

I think before I got close a covey had flushed from the thicket. All of the dogs were really searching the area. Bodie is 17 months old and this is his first year of hunting. Last year he leaped trying to catch a pigeon that was sitting on a low tree limb. When he hit the ground one of his leg bones snapped, loudly. So he spent most of last season in a cast without being able to hunt. The scent in this plum thicket made a different dog out of him. He really started hunting.

We followed the fence row to the north edge then back down the creek to the south. These dogs are a pleasure to hunt. When I turn to go in another direction most of them turn with me. Even when they are way out front they seem to know. If one doesn’t get in front of me pretty quickly I hit the tone on their e-collar and they come to the front. No whistles, no screaming or electrifying the dogs. When we got back to the truck I loaded the dogs and went searching for another spot.

Bodie pointing a chukar.

The next spot was a large pasture surrounded on three sides by harvested grain fields. Even the field across the road was a harvested field. So I guess it was surrounded on all 4 sides. I left Bodie in the truck. He was really hunting good at the last place and I didn’t want to wear him down. Leaving him wanting more.

We circled this place, that looked really good, but didn’t see anything. The dogs didn’t even get birdy although they hunted it really well. When we got back to the truck I loaded them and headed home. Later in the season I will be able to hunt more but right now the dogs aren’t in real good shape and I was hunting on Sunday, too.

My cousin, Jim Smith, was running a dog, an English setter named Josie, in a field trial in Kansas, on Sunday. I went by and visited with him for a while, then went hunting. There was an 80 acre soybean field that had a small draw that last year had a covey of quail, right at the very end. They usually fly off the walk-in property when they flush but I wanted to get Bodie a chance to smell some wild birds.

Mann running an edge with a smile on his face.

I just turned him and his grandmother, Sally, out. It was cold, 18 degrees with a strong south east wind, as we started to the south. Both dogs were hunting good. Hitting all of the birdy looking places. There were two ponds in this waterway/draw that ran through this place and another draw at the back than joined this one and ran a short distance to the east. I crossed from the west side of the main draw and we went along the draw to the east. At the end we went back to the main draw. I was still about 50 yards from the main draw when a covey of quail flushed. Neither dog was close and neither was I.

One bird flew back to a small pond in the draw to the east. The rest of the covey, I think, flew off the place. Sally pointed in the area of the draw that was the thickest with small saplings. I tried to get to her but by the time I did she was moving. Maybe part of the covey lit there then flew off. Both dogs trailed in that area for several minutes. They just knew they were going to find something any minute.

Bodie pointing a chukar.

We worked through that area and then went toward where I had seen the single go down. I hadn’t seen it to the ground because of the brush. When we got in the area Bodie pointed. Another time I should have taken a picture but I didn’t. He was looking along the edge of a pond. There was some grass that ran into an area of cattails. I watched him for a few seconds then went in front. He didn’t move. I kicked the grass about 5 yards in front of him and he really tensed up, thinking something was going to fly out. Nothing flushed, but he thought it would. He really hunted good the rest of the way.

We went to the south edge then along the west in case something didn’t fly completely off the place. We hunted the opposite side of the draw on the way back to the truck. I loaded the dogs and searched for another place.

The next place, I should have skipped. I turned all the dogs except Bodie out. We circled a pasture next to a harvested soybean field and back to the truck. When we got back, without seeing anything, I loaded the dogs. In this area is a large ranch that I love to run dogs on. It’s pastures are flat enough to see the dogs for a long way. It is rolling but most of the time the dogs, no matter how far they are, can be seen.

Abby pointing a chukar.

On this place I turned all of the dogs out. Just off this place there was a long corn field. We went along this corn field to the end, moved over a hundred yards or so and started back into the wind. We hadn’t gone far when the GPS vibrated. Sally was on point 280 yards east of me. I took about 3 steps and saw her, pointing. She was looking into a brush pile.

By the time I got close the other dogs were backing. I did get a few pictures. As I kicked the brush pile I could hear clicking sounds coming from the brush pile. I think there was an armadillo in the brush pile. Whatever it was it wasn’t quail. I called the dogs off but Bodie kept going back. I walked away and called him. He finally came.

Now, I was at least a quarter mile from the corn field but still moving toward the road the truck was on. Mann and Sally were off to my left 3 or 400 hundred yards but looking really good. I really enjoy just watching them run. About 40 or 50 yards in front of Mann I saw a single prairie chicken flush. It, with a strong south east wind, still flew to the south west, a long way. Well off this place. When I got back to the truck I loaded the dogs and went back to the field trial to watch Jim’s dog run in the field trial.

Boss running the country.

Usually my dogs are in better shape when the season opens than they are now. This year was so warm, most days, I couldn’t get them out for very long. I will just work them into shape during the season, I guess. We do what we have to do.

I’ve been quail hunting for a lot of years in Missouri and haven’t missed an opening day in a lot of years. Probably over 40 years. Maybe more than 50 years. I wish I had kept track but I don’t remember when I started making sure I was hunting on opening day. I do know that I quit rabbit hunting in the mid to late 1960’s and started quail hunting. I became a Firefighter in 1968 and had no trouble getting the opening day of quail season off, so I was always hunting on opening day. I still get excited the night before the season opens.

Abby

Boss running the country.

Maggie, Vince’s English cocker spaniel.

I was supposed to pick Vince Dye and his dogs up at 6:00 am but we were a long way up the road by 6:oo. I’m always in a hurry on opening morning. We did stop and have a good breakfast on the way but we were ready to turn dogs out shortly after sunrise.

Vince’s short haired pointer, Ally, was in heat so we just turned our girls out first. Vince had Ally and Maggie, his English cocker spaniel and I turned Sally and Abby loose. This farm is in CRP now but just a couple of years ago it had row crops. Some areas are really thick and others are just getting the grass cover going. There are several draws that run through the open fields.

Near a pond close to a weedy fence row Vince saw a covey of quail flying into the cover ahead of us. He thought his short hair had flushed them. With the tall thick cover and the dry weather it may not have been her fault.

We moved into the area where he thought the covey had flown. The dogs got birdy but found nothing until we got back closer to the weedy fence row. A single quail flushed from right behind me and by the time I raised my gun was right in the sun. I missed the one shot I took. When I shot another bird flushed near Vince. Shortly after he shot I heard him telling Maggie to hunt dead. He had the first quail of the season.

We put the dogs in some brush close to the fence row. A couple of quail flushed across the fence without giving us a shot. There was a deep draw on our side of the fence with a small area across the ditch still on our side. Allie pointed in this area. Vince crossed the ditch and I moved up on the other side. Before Vince got close Allie moved and the quail flushed. Neither of us shot.

Maybe Allie being in heat is making her not hold on point. Or maybe the scent went away. I have no idea what a dog smells or doesn’t smell. She, usually, holds her birds real well. Maybe her hormones, with her being in heat, are causing her to be different.

Boss honoring Mann.

We worked on through a CRP field to the property line then down a draw. I saw a single quail fly from the north and land about 30 yards in front of me. I tried to get the dogs in the area but before they entered the patch of brush 4 or 5 quail flushed. I shot and missed but a quail dropped on the second shot. When that bird fell 2 more lit just a little past where the dead bird fell. Sally brought my bird to me.

When we got the dogs in where I had seen the other 2 birds light they found nothing. Either they flushed without me seeing them or ran off.

We worked back through the CRP field where Vince flushed another quail but didn’t get a shot. After making the pass through the CRP we went down a draw toward the truck. As we crossed toward the draw I saw Sally go on point then the covey was in the air. Vince thought that Allie had pointed first then flushed the covey. I didn’t see that. Vince was upset with Allie so we took her back to the truck and I put Abby in the truck.

Bodie pointing a pigeon.

After a few minute rest I turned Boss and Mann out with Sally. Vince still had Maggie, the English cocker spaniel out. We started in the direction that the last covey had flown. I was along the draw and Vince was out in the CRP. A quail flushed from the CRP, 25 yards in front of Vince. By the time he shot the quail was in the brush of the draw.

The dogs came in and after a few seconds Sally pointed right in front of me. When I walked in a quail flushed and when I shot another flushed. I hit the bird drawing feathers but it didn’t go down. I shot the second barrel and missed. We moved on down the draw and Mann pointed. When we got close Sally and Boss honored. I kicked in front of Mann and he was surprised that nothing flushed. All of the dogs covered the area really well. Evidently, the bird had run off.

We went on down the draw until we got near a house that had some free range chickens. I called the dogs in and we went back up the draw on the other side.

Boss pointing a chukar.

When we got close to where we had found some singles on the other side Vince said, “look at Maggie”. When I looked, his English cocker spaniel Maggie, was on point. Not just stopped. Her head and tail were up and she had one foot off the ground. She was frozen in a point as good as any bird dog ever pointed. I wish I had of taken a picture but neither of us thought of it. I just stood there watching until Vince said, “Come on. Let’s kill this bird”. That moved me out of my trance. When Vince started in front a quail flushed and fell when he shot. Maggie didn’t see it fall but she was in the area. The bird made a last flop and fell off the bank into the deep draw.

Sally saw the bird and went over the bank. When she didn’t come right back I walked to where I could see her. The weather had warmed up into 70’s and she was lying in the bottom of the ditch with the quail beside her. There was no water in the ditch but it must have been cooler. When I called her she brought the quail to me. I gave her the head.

As Vince and I went on up the draw we were talking about Maggie’s point when Vince said, “look at her. She thinks there will be a bird in any cover.” About that time a quail flushed right in front of her and got into the brush before we could do anything. Need to start listening to Maggie.

Abby concentrating on a pigeon.

By the time we got back to the truck it was in the mid seventies and too hot for the dogs. We loaded them in the truck and I took the aluminum covers off the doors of the dog boxes. I laid them on top of the dog box. I had driven about 20 miles down the road as we looked at some other places to hunt when I thought about the covers. Sure enough they weren’t in the truck. I had drove off with them on top of the box. Where they were was anyone’s guess. We started back to look for them.

I had parked in the field and figured the covers were probably in the ditch where I pulled back onto the road. Vince thought either there or where we hit the highway from the gravel road. As we drove down the road we saw them, right in a sharp curve. Two of them had been run over and bent a little but not bad. A few minutes with a hammer fixed them but I hope that makes me remember to put them up properly from now on. Maybe. Maybe not.