Another Prairie Chicken Hunt

Posted on September 26, 2021 by windypointsj1s@aol.com

The cool weather lasted for a few more days so I went prairie chicken hunting again. I met Don and Linda Hansen near where we were going to hunt. Most of this area is large pastures without many row crops. The first one we hunted was a full section of land, 640 acres. It had been cross fenced and it looked like the rancher had pastured this area then moved his cattle to another area of this section. I don’t like to hunt close to cattle mainly because I’m sure the farmer will not like it. If we upset them they may pull their land out of the walk-in program.

Mann on point with Goofy honoring.

Sally on point.

My 20 gauge side by side.

Don turned two of his pointers, Tigger and Goofy, out with track and train GPS collars. I turned Sally, Abby, Boss and Mann loose with GPS collars and e-collars. As I walked along I noticed that my GPS handheld wasn’t showing any of the collars. I had forgotten to turn them on. Getting old and forgetful makes life interesting. Makes it a lot of other things too.

For some reason I had turned Abby’s GPS on but not the others. I called Sally and Boss to me and turned theirs on. Mann was on a ridge across from me and was really birdy. I could see him well so I let him work that area. He pointed a couple of times but moved on. Tigger and Sally worked that ridge and were birdy, too.

A bird flushed from right in front of me and flew straight away. I couldn’t tell whether it was a hen pheasant or a prairie chicken. I didn’t shoot. Don was over to the side and he said it was a prairie chicken. I have to see chickens from the side to tell the difference. Their tail is more blunt than pheasants.

There were a lot of grasshoppers and I think that, possibly, a covey of chickens had been spread out feeding on them and flushed out ahead of us. With me fooling with the GPS collars, I wasn’t watching as close as usual. This bird was one that didn’t flush with the rest. Maybe.

As we went through the pasture with 6 dogs spread out before us we saw a wind mill and worked toward it to get the dogs cooled down. After watering the dogs we went to the back of this pasture, where it had been cross fenced. Across the fence were cattle so we went on to the east. Mann was on point for a while about 200 yards ahead of us but was moving before we got close.

As we went on to the east Mann came in front at about 75 yards and went on point. The other dogs honored. This is the picture above with Goofy honoring. When we walked in they all started trailing. A little later Sally pointed but when we got to her she started trailing. This may have been the area that Mann had been on point earlier and some birds left before we got there. Prairie chickens don’t hold as well as quail do, most of the time.

The release trap close to the puppies.

Our dogs haven’t been worked much, or any really. We made a circle that took in a couple of ponds to cool the dog off and went back to the truck. We drove to another walk-in property several miles away. As we looked it over we saw a cow heading away from a pond to join some other cows. Thinking she was the last one to leave the pond we turned dogs out.

Don turned Goofy and Ace out and I just turned Boss and Mann loose. Sally and Abby are heavier dogs and wore out quicker than the boys did. With enough running they will get in shape.

As we went toward the lower end of the pond we saw about ten cows in the shade of some small trees. They moved off to the north and we went around them to the south. We went along a ridge just off a small creek. The creek had some pockets of water. When we got to the south edge of this property we crossed the creek and went to the east then turned back to the north.

Another picture of the puppies on their stakes.

As we were moving to the north I saw a small pond and worked the dogs in to cool off. I was a little way ahead of Don and Linda as we left the pond. I saw a calf lying in the grass. I thought it was dead but I couldn’t see any wounds. I kept looking at it then noticed that it’s eyes were blinking. The calf was okay but it’s mom had evidently told it to lie down and not move. I kept the dogs away until Don and Linda could see it. We moved on before we got between the mother cow (that we never saw) and the baby.

We hunted on around until we got back to the truck. We passed the old home place where I took the picture of my side by side leaning against the foundation wall. I went about 200 yards out of my way to take the pictures of the home place. When I see these foundations or just old abandoned homes I always think how exciting it must have been for the original owners to move into a new home and now it’s all or mostly gone. It’s sad.

The morning had been good for the dogs and their owners. When we got back to the truck it was about noon and in the seventies. We loaded our dogs and headed home.

After I released them I let them smell the trap.

I’m still working with the puppies, Gabe and Buck. Yesterday I had them staked out so I put a release trap close to their stakes and released a couple of pigeons by hand. I held the pigeons so their wings could flap to excite the pups. After I released a couple I put a pigeon in the release trap and released another pigeon from my hand right above the trap. They were jumping around and watching the pigeons as they lit near them.

I took a pigeon in my hand and when I got their attention I released a bird from the release trap. They didn’t pay any attention to the trap. They just watched the pigeon fly away. I have hidden pigeons in tip up releases, let them play with lock wing birds when they were just a few weeks old so they are bird crazy. All together I released 8 pigeons from my hand and from the release trap. The Dogtra traps don’t make much noise but they make some. I like to make sure there is nothing to bother the puppies before I start having them point the birds, in the release traps.

The puppies like the loose pigeons.

These pups have been raised with the Master’s Voice gun conditioning CD being played twice a day from the time they were 3 weeks old until 10 weeks old. They have had a lot of people around them, been allowed to run my back yard to gain confidence and lived through some thunderstorms without being traumatized. But I will be this cautious when I introduce them to a gun. It’s easier to go slow and get them used to something than it is to cure a bad fault. I don’t do, “let’s see what this will do to them”.

Next week I will start hiding the release traps in the grass strips and along the edges of the bushes. As soon as I can tell that they smell the bird I will flush it. They should start pointing pretty quick. It’s always fun to see the puppies learn.

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A Kansas Prairie Chicken Hunt, 9/21/21

Posted on September 22, 2021 by windypointsj1s@aol.com

The weather cooled down a little and I decided to drive out a good ways in Kansas for a prairie chicken hunt. When I got the new Kansas Hunting Atlas I saw there were several new properties closer to my home that I needed to check out. So instead of driving out where I knew there were actually prairie chickens, I went closer to home.

Mann on point this morning.

Gabe a few weeks ago..

Boss pointing a pigeon.

This is where I usually say I don’t want to shoot a prairie chicken. For me, they aren’t good to eat and I have one mounted. So, although I carry a gun and it’s loaded, I probably wouldn’t shoot one. But to be on walk-in properties, in Kansas ands most other states that have walk-in, you have to be hunting. You aren’t allowed to just run dogs. I use the prairie chicken season and fall turkey season in Kansas (Kansas allows you to use your dogs during the fall turkey season) to find out where the quail are.

I left the house about 6:00 am to get through Kansas City metropolitan area before the rush hour got really bad. I should have left 30 minutes before this. I did see 58 degrees on the truck thermometer but I was hoping for cooler than that. By the time I turned the dogs out it was in the mid sixties. My setters are out of shape and they do better at 30 degrees or less. But the only way I know how to get them in shape is to run them. Today was the start.

Some of the new walk-in had row crops still standing so I drove on past them. But I did mark some to come back later and check. Kansas does a good job of getting farms for their walk-in. Not all of it is good for bird hunting but it’s usually good for some kind of hunting. They probably have to take some, less than great land, to get the good stuff.

The area I was in had a lot of big pastures. I saw one that dropped into a draw with grass that hadn’t been grazed down. There were a couple of ponds along the draw. I put the GPS collar and e-collar on each dog, Mann, Sally, Boss and Abby and turned them all loose.

The wind was strong from the north but with the temperature in the mid sixties it was still warm. The dogs went off the hill into the draw and turned to the north into the wind. Mann and Boss both pointed on the side of the hill across the draw. By the time I got close they were moving.

Puppies chained to a stake.

We went on down the draw toward where I thought a pond was. The middle of the draw had some water so all of the dogs got to cool down. I circled around and started back toward the truck. Mann went on point in some tall grass. (The picture at the top of this.) In the picture he is pointing into the wind. You can see the feathers on his tail and all of the grass is blowing. I took a couple of pictures. Boss honored him. Before I got to him he started trailing.

Just a little way south Sally and Mann started trailing again. We never came up with anything but with it being warm, the strong wind and all of the green grass, I wasn’t surprised.

Before we got to the truck a killdeer got up right in front of Boss. Boss is really fast and the killdeer tried to fly into the wind. When Boss started getting close the killdeer made a smart decision. It turned with the wind and got away. Boss didn’t give up for quite a ways.

One of the puppies on point.

When we got back to the truck the temperature was into the seventies so I watered the dogs and loaded them. I drove by several properties on the way home. I’ll rest the dogs a day then try to get them out again. They need the work to get in shape.

The puppies, Buck and Gabe, are still getting their time in the field. I don’t always hide pigeons for them but I usually run them to the back each day. I have the tall grass strips that I have left and they run from end to end in these. They know where the birds are, sometimes. When there is no pigeons out they stop every few yards and look at me as if to say, “where’s the birds, Boss”.

Going for a walk.

I have been staking them out most days to teach them to give to the lead. I don’t leave them for long. Usually just long enough for me to clean pens but chaining them gives me time to walk down and hide some birds, in tip up releases.

A few days ago I hid three pigeons for them. Usually, I have been putting the birds on my side of the training grounds but on this day I put one on my side, near the back and two on my neighbors side.

I turned the pups loose and we started down the grass strips. They stopped every once in a while and looked at me. Buck was the first to find the pigeon near the back on my side. Gabe saw him trying to get the bird and ran to help. Before I got close enough to step on the trap to release the bird the puppies turned the release over. The pigeon only flew a few yards to a tree with the puppies right behind.

Boss pointing a pigeon.

Between mine and the neighbor’s side is a deep ditch. The pigeon dropped out of the tree down into the ditch. When the puppies went into the ditch I thought they would find the bird but Buck came back out. I got to looking for Gabe. I called and went into the deep ditch. No Gabe. I called and looked all the way to the back then half way back to the kennels. No Gabe.

Buck was with me so we went to the neighbor’s side. Both of the releases on this side had long strings. When he smelled the first one he pointed for just a second then jumped in. I released the bird with the string and it flew away. He only chased a few feet.

When he found the second one he pointed for a little longer but still not long enough for a good picture. When he jumped in I pulled the string releasing the pigeon. He chased for a short distance. We went back to the kennel.

I was still worried about Gabe but when we got close to the kennel he was there, playing. He must have followed the pigeon back to the coop or just decided he wanted to play by himself. At least he knows where home is.

Abby pointing a pigeon.

I haven’t introduced the puppies to the release traps yet. I’m planning to do that next week. I’m going to place a release trap in front of the pups, about 15 yards, when they are staked out, and let them see me put a pigeon in the trap. I will turn a few pigeons loose from my hand first then, when they get excited about the birds, I will release one from the trap. I will release several so the pups forget about the noise the trap makes. If they show any fear we will go through this several times.

This morning, 9/22/21, I hid 3 pigeons, in the tip up releases, on the training grounds. The puppies had been chained to their stake while I cleaned pens and hid the birds. When I turned them loose they knew the birds were down there and started running. They are only 12 weeks old but they beat me by about 40 yards to the first bird. They turned the release trap over and the pigeon flew away before I got close.

I had another hidden on my side just about 60 yards farther down the field. They beat me to it but I was able to release the bird with the long string. They chased it across the yard to where it lit in a tree. We went on to the very back on my side. I knew there was no more birds on my side but I think this may teach the puppies to always run to the very back on all of their casts. Maybe.

Dolly pointing a quail.

We went to the other side and Gabe was the first to smell the bird. He threw his head up when he smelled the pigeon at about 25 yards. He moved up about 5 or 6 yards and pointed. Before I could get my camera to work, he moved in. Buck came up and helped him. I released the bird with the long string and they chased. we went back to the kennel.

I really enjoy watching the puppies learn. Next week if they do well with the electronic release trap I will start working them one at a time, expecting them to point. Working with the puppies is always a good time.

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Fun With The Puppies

Posted on September 14, 2021 by windypointsj1s@aol.com

I have been working the two male pups on birds, sometimes. A few times I just walked them to the back. They really don’t care as long as I do something with them. The older dogs are the same. It’s been too warm even early mornings to work the older dogs. I don’t even like to put my pigeons in a release trap during the warm weather. When it’s in the seventies or higher, first thing of the morning, it’s too warm, in my opinion.

I still throw dog food in the grass so the pups have to use their nose to find it.

The smaller male, Gabe.

One of the pigeons that escaped the puppies.

I walked the puppies to the back on my neighbor’s side of the training grounds. It’s hard to get them far enough ahead of me to hide a bird. When they hear the Velcro fastener on the bird bag make it’s noise they come to me. Then I have to walk for a long way, with the bird asleep, before I can hide it.

I hid one, a few days ago, in the edge of the brush, on my neighbor’s side. Buck the larger pup, smelled it first and jumped into the cover. The pigeon woke up and he grabbed it by the head and took off. Gabe was right behind him. When Gabe caught Buck he bowled him over. Buck released the pigeon and it flew off. Both pups stopped right under a hanging limb on a tree. The pigeon circled around and landed right above them, almost falling through the tree to the ground. Gabe jumped as high as he could. When he hit the ground he was on his side. He yelped like it really hurt, then came to me.

I have some tip up bird releases. I decided to use those this morning. To be able to put the birds in the tip ups, I put the puppies on the chain gang. This is the first time they have been restrained, like this. I expected a lot of whining or barking but it didn’t happen. They made a little noise but quietened down, quickly.

Two of the tip ups had long strings on them. I didn’t really need them but it didn’t hurt anything either. I hid 3 pigeons in the strips of grass I have left on my side of the training grounds.

When I went to get the pups off the chain gang I waited on them to quit jumping around before I unhooked them. May as well start them right. After I unhooked them they weren’t sure they were loose. I had to wait on them to join me. =

Going for a walk.

We started toward the back into a strong west wind. When they got close to the first bird they both really started searching. The tip ups were new to them and they were having trouble. I eased in, stepped on the tip up and released the pigeon. They tried to get the bird but it flew away with them right behind. The pigeon headed back to the coop but stayed low enticing the pups to chase.

When they came back we went on toward the back. The long string on the next one was new to them. They got their feet tangled in the string but I let them keep on until the string fell away. They continued on down the field. They passed the pigeon and then got the scent. They both whirled around and pounced on the trap. I stood about 10 foot from them and pulled on the string to release the bird.

Abby pointing a pigeon.

They pounced on this pigeon when it came out of the tip up but with two puppies they get in each others way. Before they could really pin it down it flew away. It only went to the first trees and lit. The puppies had followed but it didn’t take them long to move off. We went on down the strip of grass.

The wind must have been swirling around because it had been out of the west but on the last bird and this next bird both the pups were on the west side before they smelled it. I had already picked up the string before they found this one. As soon as they got close I released the pigeon by pulling on the string. They chased a little way and came back. We went all the way to the back before going back to the kennel.

Yesterday I had walked them to the back without birds and when we got back I fed my pigeons. I had used a coffee can to carry the feed to the pigeon pen. I tossed it closer to the shed so I would remember to take it back when I finished. Usually Buck is the braver of the two puppies but when he saw the blue coffee can lying in the yard it spooked him. He raised his head really high looking at the can. Then he tucked his tail and came back toward me.

Boss pointing a pigeon.

Then he turned and went a little closer and stopped again. He was 25 feet from it and wasn’t going to get any closer. I had put some dog food in the grass for them and Gabe was finding the dog food and eating. Then he saw Buck looking at the can and just went to it. Just before he got there he slowed but went right on. Buck couldn’t stand it. He went all the way and pounced on the can. But that’s one of the benefits of having two puppies. If one of them is afraid the other isn’t and they get past it.

The weather has been above average and it got me to thinking about a hunt I did a lot of years ago near Nob Noster Missouri. It was cold and a dry when I left home but when I got near the place I wanted to hunt, the roads were icy. It wasn’t until I got out that I realized that there had been a lot of freezing rain in this area.

Mann when a pigeon lit in the tree above him.

I pulled off the road and the grass looked like neon lights. Where the grass had been sticking up the rain had frozen around it in a circle. The grass was bent over looking like tubes. The barb wire fences were covered with ice and were round, also. Today if I saw this I wouldn’t hunt but I was young and didn’t even think about not hunting.

I think I only had one dog. We went hunting. Every step I took the ice was crunching. When I came to a fence I didn’t even worry about me or the dog. The fences were completely covered in ice.

My dog pointed along a fence row. When I got to him the birds had to be under the ice. When I went in front of him a small covey flushed. I knocked a bird down and when I picked it up I saw they were in trouble. The ice may have been on for longer than I knew. I took the dog back to the truck and we went home.

Sally honoring Mann.

Another time Dennis Garrison and I were hunting near Colony Kansas. This time the weather had been bad for a long time. Back in those days if the weather was too bad for us to hunt it was too dangerous for anyone. We hunted some really bad weather.

We had hunted for quite a while without finding anything. We were crossing through a patch of cedar trees when the dogs pointed. There isn’t a lot of grass that grows where the cedars are thick. We walked in and a covey of quail flushed. I think we both got one bird a piece. The covey only flew about 50 yards and went back down. When we picked our birds up they were skinny. Their breast bones were sticking out without much breast around it.

Again, we loaded the dogs and went to the house. This was near the end of the season and it would be a long time before we could hunt again but it was the right thing to do. Now, I sometimes think that quail are too valuable to shoot.

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Puppies Went To Their New Homes

Posted on September 8, 2021 by windypointsj1s@aol.com

Well the Labor Day weekend was when everyone picked up their puppies. I am having some mixed emotions. There is a lot less cleaning in the kennel. Seven puppies eat a lot and poop a lot. I usually let them out to play 3 or 4 times a day. I started them off with lock wing pigeons until they got too aggressive. Next I held the pigeon in my hand with one wing flapping and got the puppies really excited before I let it fly away. As it flew off I would say, “get that bird, get that bird”. These puppies really like birds.

One of the male puppies.

Abby, the mom, watching the puppies play.

Mann the sire.

After the puppies got big enough to go with me I took them on walks. I took 3 pigeons in a bird bag along. When the puppies got ahead of me I would put a pigeon to sleep in the grass strips I’ve left on the training grounds. When I called the pups back they would smell the pigeon and jump on it, waking it up, to fly away. A few times I walked them without having birds but they would check the grass strips. They learned to run the grass strips because that’s where they found the birds.

I was going to keep one of the males and had the other one sold. The buyers had been over a few times to pet the puppies but the last time they left it seemed as though they were upset about something. Just before the puppies were 9 weeks old and got their second shot I called to see when they wanted to get their puppy. I got a recording and left a message. In the mean time I was really liking the pup they had picked.

Long story short they haven’t called back and the pups are 10 weeks old today. So, now I have two puppies to work with. I had told the prospective buyers that they had to pick the puppy up by the time it was 10 weeks old. I don’t take deposits and occasionally someone does this. But I don’t mind. I like him anyway and now I have two pups to work with.

One of the young pups seems depressed because his sisters are gone. But I have had them for their whole life of just over 9 weeks and I’m a little depressed as well. When a litter is born I know they will leave but I still miss them. Knowing that they are going to good homes helps a lot. But I still miss them.

A lot of years ago I was hunting near Colony Kansas on land leased by a hunting club I belonged to. I was hunting a 160 acres that had another 80 off one corner. Most of the cover ran down a fence row with the rest in a pasture. The other side of the road was another 80 acres, with a corral near the road, the way I remember it.

Keeping the ball away from the other puppies.

I had gone down the fence row and the dogs were finding quail and when I was young I could shoot, pretty well. When I got to the back of the 160 I crossed into the 80. It was pasture but not even very good pasture but there were quail there. I was only there about 2 hours and had a limit of quail.

I started back to the truck but the dogs passed the truck, when we got there, and went across the road. I was just about to call them back when they went on point. I had a limit of quail and I’d never seen a pheasant in that area. So I wasn’t real excited but I do like to see my dogs point. When I got almost to my dog, that was on point, about 15 prairie chickens flushed. I never fired a shot. I had never seen a prairie chicken in that area either. But that many prairie chickens make a lot of noise, flushing.

A prairie chicken was something I really wanted to have mounted. The hunting club I belonged to had some farms that were supposed to have prairie chickens and the season always opened early. Everyone that we talked to said the best way to get one was to pass shoot them early of the morning as they flew to feed in the row crops. For several years we would go more than once early of morning. To get there before daylight we had to leave about 3 hours earlier.

Dolly pointing a quail.

I remember one year I had bought some of the 20 gauge shells that were made without a metal rim around the case. Supposedly the plastic rim was strong enough that metal wasn’t necessary. This was the first year that I had a chicken close enough to shoot at. A small flock came right over me and when I threw the 20 gauge Browning to my shoulder and got just a little ahead of a chicken I pulled the trigger. My gun went snap. The snap was loud but the shell didn’t go off. That was the first time I was in the right place at the right time.

I think it was the same year that I was back at the same farm when a flock came near me. This time I had good shells. When I shot a bird started sailing down. It went quite a long way but I marked it down. It had glided to a small water way off the farm we were hunting. When I got there it tried to run and I caught it. My first prairie chicken.

I took it to Craig Jones on the square in Independence Missouri to have it mounted. It was his first prairie chicken and he did a really good job on it. He had me leave it for a while so he could show it off in his large window.

Abby on point on wild quail.

Over the years I have killed several prairie chickens without really going just to hunt them. I can remember a day, a lot of years ago, when Dennis Garrison and I killed a limit of prairie chickens, a limit of pheasants and a limit of quail one day. But that has been a lot of years ago.

Just a few years ago Vince Dye and I were hunting in Kansas. We weren’t that far into Kansas in an area I had hunted a lot of times. There were 2 flocks of prairie chickens feeding in a harvested soybean field. Before the dogs even got close the chickens flushed. They made a circle and flew right over us. I was just watching them until Vince said, “shoot us a chicken”. I don’t know why he didn’t shoot but I threw my gun up and a chicken just folded up and came down.

They were really high and when it hit the ground it didn’t move. As I picked it up Vince said, “I’m not sure the season is still open”. It was his idea but I did the deed. When I got back to the truck I checked and the season was still open. At least I didn’t break the law.

Boss’s tail looks really long here.

I have hunted for a long time and this gives me a lot of memories. Sometimes something triggers a memory of one of the dogs I’ve owned over the years or just some of the hunts. Some day the memories may be all I have but at least I have a bunch.

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