Traveling Pointing Dogs

On January 26 I decided to go quail hunting although the wind was blowing pretty hard. Every hunt I have written about this year, the wind has been blowing hard. I’m getting used to it. I don’t like it but I’m getting used to it.

I have found quail near Emporia on most of the walk-in properties I have hunted, so that is where I started. At the first farm I turned Lucky, Tur Bo and Whitey out. I had also brought Luke and Blaze with me. On my Missouri quail hunt of January 14 Dolly had tore a large hole in her flank, that Dr. Becker, from Independence Animal Hospital, had sewn up with 10 wire stitches, and was still recuperating at home.

We started down the fence row on the east side of this property. There was a harvested soy bean field on the walk-in side and CRP on the other. I was only about 50 yards from the truck when my Garmin GPS showed Lucky on point about 70 yards over in the CRP off the walk-in property. All I could do was stand at the fence and watch. The CRP was so thick I couldn’t see Lucky. Pretty soon quail started flushing. They were pretty well spread out. Three flew north, then a couple more flew east, then 3 or 4 flew south but none flew west onto the walk-in.

After all of the quail had flushed Lucky started moving again so we went on south down the fence row. There is a nice draw that crosses this property over the hill out of sight of the road. I had decided to follow the fence row on the east all the way to the back, then across the back to the west side, north to the draw then follow it back across to the east side, then back to the truck but the dogs kept wanting to go to the draw before we got to the back because it looked better than the fence row. I have Sport Dog 1825 collars that have vibrate or beep on the collar and my dogs are trained to come on the beep. When they would start toward the draw I would beep them and they would come back and get in front of me. They tried over and over but I would beep them and they would come back. Finally Whitey decided she didn’t have to come back. She started toward the draw and I held the beeper down and she acted like she didn’t hear, so I hit the shock button on the lowest setting and she kept going. I turned the collar up one setting and held the button down and she turned so fast that dust flew. That really improved her hearing. If your e-collar makes your dog yelp you have the setting too high. But hold the button down until you get compliance.

We hunted on down to the back, across the back then north to the draw, up the draw to the east side and back to the truck without seeing any more quail.

The next farm was also a harvested soy bean field with a dry creek running through it. Luke and Blaze started down the creek toward the west and I followed along. The creek ran from the north east corner where I parked the truck to the south west corner of the property. The creek meanders through the property and leaves an area in the middle, on the back side, that the farmer can’t get equipment into so its grown up in weeds and brush. A lot of times when I find quail here the singles fly into this area but not today. Just on the west side Luke pointed, with Blaze backing, looking into a downed tree. When I got there I tried to get a picture instead of taking care of business. While I was turning the camera on the birds flushed on the other side of the downed tree but they were in enough brush that I probably would not have had a shot anyway. These birds also flew off the walk-in property. Two coveys, no shots fired.

The next farm was a large CRP field that touched soy bean and corn fields. I turned Blaze and Whitey out. They will be 2 years old in February and hunting with older dogs they don’t get enough chances to find birds on their own. We had hunted across the CRP to the north for over a quarter of a mile when both dogs got close to a thicket and a covey of quail flushed. Most of the covey went west but 3 or 4 came back toward me with one being close enough to shoot at. At my shot he dropped. If these two dogs see a bird drop they will retrieve but they still don’t hunt dead very well so I had to pick up my own quail. We checked both directions the singles flew but did not come up with any more.

Whitey and I were going down a fence row along side a small soy bean field but I didn’t see Blaze. When I checked the Garmin GPS it showed her on point across the soy bean field but only about 40 yards away. She was standing in the brush pointing toward the soy bean field. Without the GPS I would not have seen her. When I walked in a large covey flushed. I hit with my right barrel but missed with my left. Again I had to make my own retrieve. We are going to work on this.

The birds had flown east but the walk-in didn’t run very far in that direction. We checked to the edge of the walk-in then as we started back the dogs started acting birdy. I started toward them and a quail got up about 20 yards ahead of the dogs. It dropped at my shot. When I broke my AYA 16 gauge open to reload another quail flushed. A brain the size of a pea and they out smart me real often. Maybe that says more about me than about quail. We never come up with that bird although the dogs hunted some. Not well but they did hunt dead.

We made a large circle through the CRP and were on the lower side of a large pond when I saw Blaze pointing into a thicket with a small brush pile near it. She was wagging her tail but she was definitely on point. I started toward her and she moved up about 5 yards and went on point again. This time she was standing tall and was real rigid. When I went in front of her I heard a lot of loud noise off to my left. She had pointed a small buck deer and it was running across the shallow end of the pond. Part of the water was frozen but it was not very deep and the deer was in water part of the time and breaking ice part of the time. He went over the hill without either dog seeing him.

The next farm we hunted was a small soy bean field with lane between it and some real thick CRP but both sides are in walk-in. I turned Lucky and Tur Bo out. Luke’s tail bleeds so much late in the season that I can only hunt him for a short time. The soy bean field hedge row on the north side and a small creek ran through the middle. We hunted the small creek then down the hedge row and back to the truck. Lucky had gone across the lane into the CRP so I walked south down the lane with Tur Bo hunting the edge of the soy bean field. About 40 yards ahead of me, with nothing close, a large covey of quail flushed from the CRP. They were scattered out when they flushed and I couldn’t tell where they went down, only the direction they flew.

I got Lucky and Tur Bo and went to the edge of the walk-in on the south and started working them into the wind where I thought the quail may have landed. Tur Bo went on point first. I walked to him and he jumped in and nothing came up. He trailed around some and went on point again, then jumped in and a quail flushed. It dropped at my shot. Tur Bo acted as if he wanted to eat the quail so I beat him to it.

Lucky was about 75 yards from me on point. When I got close Tur Bo honored. I went in front of Lucky and nothing flushed and when I released him he trailed around like the bird had run out but he never came up with anything. Then Tur Bo pointed again and when I got close he jumped in and a quail flushed. I killed it and out ran Tur Bo to the bird. Lucky pointed another time but when I got there nothing flushed and he trailed around like the bird had run off. I think when Tur Bo would point he would see the quail running and at 7 months old he is not staunch so he would flush the bird, when Lucky pointed the bird would run and he would stay solid and the quail would run off. That is my opinion, might be something else.

The last 2 hunts I almost didn’t go because of the wind, and I’ve had good hunts. Is that proof that I should hunt every day. May try that on someone closely related by marriage.