Traveling Pointing Dogs

I had an appointment on December the 5th to get some skin cancer, Basal Cell, taken off and was afraid they would want me to not hunt for a while so I went the day before. Although I had heard the bird numbers were down I decided to go to Iowa to see for myself.

Mann on point and Sally honoring.

Sally on point with Mann honoring.

Sally with her vest.

This was only two days since I had lost Tur Bo to a dump truck and when I loaded dogs I expected him to be standing on the tail gate of the truck when I got there. He was always the first to load up. It’s going to take a while to get used to not having him.

The first place I hunted in Iowa was a place that Austin Farley and I found 3 coveys on one time last season. We went back later and found 2. I turned Sally and Mann loose with their e-collars and GPS collars on. This was a Conservation area and I could see a lot of work had been done. Last year the black berries were getting so thick it was hard to walk around. They had mowed some of the black berries and cut a lot of cedar trees.

We crossed a harvested soy bean field to the cover of an old rail road bed. We hunted this to the west edge and dropped down along a creek. I tried to cross the creek but the water was too deep and the banks too steep. I hunted back to the east until I found a crossing. There was a large field of CRP next to a harvested corn field. I thought I would go back down the creek side to the west then come back the south side but Sally went on point near the center of the CRP.

This CRP was chest high and I had trouble finding her even with the GPS. She has a lot of white but in the tall weeds she’s hard to see. Finally, I saw her and walked about 10 yards in front of her. Nothing flushed so I said, “okay”. She trailed for about 25 yards and went back on point. This time when I went in front of her a hen pheasant flushed, close.

We hunted on to the property line on the west and crossed to the creek and followed it back to the east. As we went down the creek the GPS handheld vibrated and showed Sally on point east of me about 85 yards. As I got close the GPS led me into the tall weeds. Just as I saw Sally, at about 10 yards, another hen pheasant flushed right in front of her. We continued to the harvested corn field and around on the back side of it.

Sally backing Mann with Abby close.

I went along the south edge of the corn field to the end then went north for a short distance. The GPS handheld vibrated and showed Mann on point about 165 yards to the east. Mann was up a hill but I started to him. When I got just a few feet from him he started trailing. He trailed for 40 yards then lost the scent. We went on back to the truck. I loaded the dogs and drove to another place.

The next place, about 10 miles from the first, also showed a lot of work by the Conservation Department. They have a lot of food plots, had mowed some of the area and ran a tiller or disc down the center and cut a lot of cedar trees. Iowa Conservation Department is trying hard to do what it takes for the birds to flourish.

We had parked on the south side. I started across the south edge to the east hedge row. Before I got to the hedge row the GPS handheld vibrated. It showed Mann on point. Before I got to him Sally honored. When I got close they were pointing into a brush pile. I took pictures then we went all around the brush pile. Nothing flushed. At brush piles I’m always afraid we are going to get into a skunk but we went all the way around the brush pile without finding anything.

We went on to the hedge row and went to the north. Along the hedge row was a buffer strip of CRP next to a harvested soy bean field. Across the fence on private property was soy beans that hadn’t been harvested. The birds that we have seen in the past could have been in these soy beans. When we got to the north edge we crossed to the west and came back south through some CRP to the truck. I loaded the dogs.

Mann pointing a pheasant.

What I had hunted so far had been off well maintained roads. I knew where there was another good food plot but when I pulled down the road my truck started slipping and sliding. I hadn’t drove very far so I shifted into 4-wheel drive and backed out. I checked a couple of other ways to the food plot with no better luck. I really didn’t need to get stuck so I headed home.

Iowa bird forecast was down 42% according to what I read on their website. I was hoping that it was wrong but that may be real close. Iowa blames the real wet springs for hurting their birds. Pheasants and quail both. It has certainly been wet this year.

I have been working the dogs, Sally and Mann on retrieving. I started working them on a line of bumpers, trying to get them to take a line. The last few times I put a pile of dummies in one place but held one dummy in my hand. I heeled the dogs to a spot about 15 yards from the pile and put them on whoa. I got their attention and tossed the bumper into the pile and said, “fetch”. The dogs seem to under stand this exercise better. They keep going back until they get them all.

When I had the bumpers in a line they did well for a few then lost the line. I would have to walk them closer. The pile doesn’t change. They go back to the same spot each time. As they get used to doing this exercise I can add a little distance each time.

Well I was right. The doctors put me on light duty for a while. I don’t do light duty very well but I will live through it. Even on days I don’t go hunting I would like to work the dogs on retrieving but no. I’m on light duty.

Bumper pile.

The week before I had been sick with a bad cold and hadn’t been able to hunt. The weather wasn’t that great either with winds close to forty miles an hour. On this Monday morning I got up and was on my way to Kansas before 5:30 am. I wanted to drive a long way into Kansas to try to find some quail. I drove for about 4 hours before turning dogs out.

Tur Bo

Tur Bo pointing a pigeon.

Tur Bo on point.

I had looked at some of these properties before the season opened and had written in my Kansas Hunting Atlas that these places looked really good. The first place I turned dogs out on was an eighty acre place with wheat stubble next to CRP strips and soy bean stubble next to CRP strips. There was a creek flowing along the front of this place. Food, cover and water. Everything that quail and pheasants need.

I put e-collar, GPS collar and a blaze orange vest on Sally and set her on the ground. I turned Mann out of his box and started putting the e-collar and GPS collar on him and looked at Sally. She had never had a vest on before and she hadn’t moved from where I had set her on the ground. She finally started moving when I put Mann on the ground.

I had parked on the south west corner of this 80 acre place and we started along some CRP next to the harvested soy bean field. As we got through the CRP and was approaching the soy bean field Mann went on point with Sally honoring. I took a picture then walked in front but nothing flushed. I released the dogs and they started trailing. They trailed to the road and I called them back.

We went along the creek to the north edge then down a really good hedge row. The side we were on was soy bean stubble and on the other side was corn stubble. We went all the way to the back as well as going down some of the CRP strips that ran into the bean field. When we got to the east fence line we turned to the south. We still had intermittent soy beans and CRP on our side and off the place to the east was more corn stubble.

We took this fence line to the south fence then back toward the truck. There was some cover where an old house place had been and we checked it out. We hunted back to the truck without seeing anything. I loaded the dogs.

Just down the road was a square mile walk-in place. It was about like this 80 acre place. It had soy bean stubble along side of a pasture. The pasture had cattle on it but it wasn’t grazed down. It looked really good. There was a well traveled gravel road on the west and a dirt road on the south. I pulled down the dirt road then pulled into an opening in the soy bean field to be off the road.

Sally with her vest.

I put an e-collar and GPS collar on Tur Bo and turned him out with Mann who still had his e-collar and GPS on. The wind was out of the north west and we were going north along a harvested soy bean field but we were in the edge of the pasture. The pasture had some of the smaller blue stem. Even when the dogs got out to 4 or 500 yards I could still see them. It helps when you find quail but I enjoy just watching the dogs run.

As both of these guys ran I wished for a good camera that would record them cracking their tails as they checked all of the objectives. Over the hill to the east I saw the tops of some trees so we went to the east but still along the soy bean field. These trees were in a draw that ran back to the soy bean field. As I stood on the hill I watched both dogs run the draw back to the south.

This farm was easy walking and I was really enjoying watching the dogs work. We hit a fence and hunted down it and crossed the line we had been hunting as we come into this area. There was a draw running through the pasture and the dogs took it back toward the truck. I stayed along the high side of the hill so I could see them run.

I was about 200 yards from the road when a dump truck came down the dirt road. I saw him slam on the brakes and slide for a long way then he went on. I thought that one of the dogs must have run in front of him but I hadn’t heard anything. I remember thinking, “I bet he’s mad that a dog ran in front of him.”

Sally honoring Tur Bo.

When I’m hunting I usually have my gun in my left hand and I hold onto the GPS handheld, that’s in a holster on my belt, with my right. I felt it vibrate. I looked down and saw that it was showing Tur Bo on point at the road. I knew then that he had been hit.

I saw him lying in the road when I was about 75 yards from him. He wasn’t moving. I don’t remember crossing the fence to get to him or the walk from when I first saw him but when I got to him there was no heart beat and he wasn’t breathing. As I knelt by him Mann came to me. I knew I needed to put him up then take care of Tur Bo.

We weren’t far from the truck so I put Mann in his box and pulled the truck close to Tur Bo. Where the dump truck had hit his brakes was a long black mark in the dirt road. He had tried hard to stop. As I knelt by Tur Bo with tears running down my cheeks a dump truck came back from the direction that the one that had hit him had gone. I figured it was the same one.

My truck was in the middle of the road with Tur Bo beside it. I started toward the truck and I could tell the guy didn’t really want to get out. His truck was still running, noisily, and he got out and cleaned his feet off on his running board. He started toward me. I said, “you did all you could to miss him”. He said, “it wasn’t me. It was my buddy”.

I had seen several of the dump trucks on the dirt road. I didn’t ask but I think they must have been hauling manure from a feed lot or something. I got him to help me load Tur Bo into my truck and I started home.

I have been quail hunting for a lot of years and this is the first time I’ve had a problem such as this. It was a tragic accident. A few seconds different and it would never have happened. Every thing that Tur Bo did was fast. I know he just popped up right in front of the truck. The driver hit the brakes but it was too late.

It was a long drive home.

Tur Bo on point. 6/7/13
to 12/2/19

Between the holidays, the weather and a bad cold I haven’t been hunting in over a week. The cold is getting better but the weather is still the pits. I was just out checking on the dogs and feeding the puppies and it’s dreary. It’s supposed to rain and it has been misty all morning. I reread some of my old posts and got to thinking about bird hunting the last few years.

Mann on point.

Mann honoring Sally.

Luke pointing a single.

I enjoy reading about bird dogs and a friend, Mike Devero, loaned me a book he had read by an author named Horace Lytle. Mr. Lytle wrote in the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s. He also owned the really great Irish setter, Smada Bird. I found some more of his books on Amazon and ordered them.

Even back in Mr. Lytle’s day he was griping about the singles not holding and flying out of the country when they flushed. I can remember when some quail would hold for a point and when flushed they wouldn’t fly very far. Sometimes going after the singles would produce another covey before you got to the singles from the first. That didn’t happen every time but often enough it wasn’t a huge surprise. A lot of the time we would never find the singles just like Mr. Lytle did in the twenties and thirties.

I remember hunting near Warrensburg Missouri in the 1980’s, probably. Dennis Garrison and I were hunting along the southern edge of a farm when a dog pointed in the fence row. If the birds flushed south they would be off the place we were hunting but they flushed right down the fence row. We started down the fence row and a dog went on point. Thinking it was a single we walked in and another covey flushed. It also flew down the fence line to the east. Before we got where the first covey had landed the dogs went on point and we flushed another covey. That was 3 coveys of quail in about a hundred yards.

The place on the south was pasture and we were hunting the edge of a harvested soy bean field. I think, probably, the quail lived on the pasture land and fed on the soy bean field in the fall. We had timed out arrival at the same time all 3 coveys had come to the soy bean field. We hunted the place later and never found that many birds again.

Dennis and I had a really good hunt on Shell Osage Wildlife area, once. Probably more than once because we hunted it most years, a long time ago. When we got to the Conservation area the highway crews were mowing the road sides near where we were hunting. Just off the Conservation ground there were a couple of combines harvesting the row crops.

We never thought much about it but when we turned the dogs loose they were on point, immediately. We only walked a short distance and had a limit of quail each. At the time, I didn’t think about the highway crews and the farmers harvesting the row crops.

Abby pointing a pigeon.

I talked my wife, June, into going back the next day and videoing my hunt. I thought as many birds as we had seen the day before it would make a good video. Long story short, we never found very many birds, at all. I think I had a couple that she didn’t get on film. I had a bird dog, named Judy, that I had worked on water retrieves a bunch. I told June to get ready and I would throw a quail out in one of the lakes and have Judy retrieve.

I wound up and heaved a quail way out in the lake and told Judy to fetch. Normally, Judy would hit the water like a lab, splashing water everywhere, on her entry. Not today with the camera on her. She strolled out into the lake. I thought she would have to swim but the water was only, maybe a foot deep. Judy strolled out to the quail, sat down and started eating the bird. I told June to turn the camera off and started yelling at Judy. I looked at June and she’s laughing and still filming. She got the whole thing on tape.

Hunting near where grain is being harvested really puts the birds in the cover, sometimes. I was hunting alone near Atchison, Kansas a lot of years ago. I had taken 12 hours off at the fire station and had to be at work at 6:30 pm. Usually it wasn’t a problem to get home in time to get to work. The place I was hunting was 320 acres and I hunted the east side without finding much but when I got to a mile long fence line on the west side the dogs started pointing birds. Pheasants and quail.

I wrote about finding this Browning 17 years after it had been stolen from me. I wrote about it in October of 2013.

To say I was having a bad day shooting is not even close. I don’t remember how many bullets I started the day with but I shot all I had with me and went back to the truck to get more. The dogs were pointing birds as we went back to the truck and I had no bullets to shoot. I got more shells and went back. I finally, got a limit of quail and a couple of pheasants. I made it to work on time but just barely.

The last week hasn’t been a complete bust. I haven’t been hunting but a couple of times I have worked dogs on retrieving. The puppies, Abby and Josie, I throw a paint roller cover for them in the kennel. I have a narrow part of the big pen in front of their kennel. I put a check cord on them and throw the paint roller cover against the gate. Most of the time they come back to me with the roller cover but the check cord is in case they try to go around me. I only throw it about 5 times each.

For the older dogs, Sally, Tur Bo, Luke and Mann, I put 8 dummies in a row about 4 feet apart. I heel the dogs, one at a time, to the end of the line and whoa them. Tur Bo taught me to do this exercise. I sent him after a dummy and he went out, grabbed it and came back. As soon as I took it from him he went after another. He went almost completely down the line. For some reason he lost the line on the last two. I walked a little closer and he brought those two, also.

Mann on point.

I realized this would make them take a line if I worked them all, like this. Mann is pretty good about taking the line and he’s faster than even Tur Bo on going out and coming back but he’s been to Lyon’s Den for force fetch. Sally doesn’t go as fast and I have to walk her along the line a little more than the others but she will learn. Luke is special. I bring him out because he expects me to. I don’t try very hard to get him to retrieve. He’s retired and he doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to do.

I’m hoping, that next week I will be able to get back to hunting. There are several places and several states I want to try.

Allie backing Mann who is honoring Tur Bo.