Traveling Pointing Dogs

After reloading all of my stuff, from the motel room, into the truck, I ate a leisurely breakfast at the café. It was really foggy so there was no hurry. I had decided to brave Kansas even with deer season going on. It seems like everyone decided to go to Nebraska to hunt while deer season was on in Kansas. I will make sure no one is on the properties I choose to hunt.

Sally on point, Mann and Dolly hoinoring.

A point when we were almost back to the truck.

Tur Bo on point.

We drove by several places just looking for a place to hunt. About 9:00 am I came to a large farm that had a harvested soy bean field with pasture all around. Some of the pastures in this area had been grazed down to nothing but this one still had some cover left. Just as I started to get out Austin Farley called me. We had been out here before season and had found some birds. My map wasn’t marked with where we found the quail. He called to tell me which places we had hunted. I told him if I didn’t find anything on this one I would try the ones we had found birds on.

I put the e-collars and GPS collars on Sally and Dolly. As I was putting the collars on Mann I looked to see where Dolly and Sally were. Dolly was about 40 yards from me on point. Just as I saw her a single quail flushed from in front of her. I finished putting the collars on Mann, got my gun and followed the dogs to the north.

Right here both sides of the road was in the walk-in program. I must have stopped right where a covey was crossing from a grass field into the soy bean field. The dogs worked down the grass on the east side of the road. A little way in front of the truck Sally pointed with Mann and Dolly honoring. When I walked in front of her a single quail flushed. I had to shoot through some brush and the quail dropped in the tall grass. I was afraid that it would be hard to find but when I got close Mann reached down and picked it up.

We went along the edge of the road until the walk-in stopped on the east side. There was a tree row on the west side of the road along the soy bean field. We went along this side until we came to a draw that ran back into the soy bean field. We went to the end of the draw and started back toward the truck. Sally pointed in some grass alongside the tree row. When I walked in a single quail flushed. It dropped when I shot and I was close to Sally when she picked it up. She dropped it into my hand.

The tree row stopped and we crossed back into the grass field on the east side of the road. We worked it back past the truck then crossed the road to the west and started around the soy bean field. When we got to the west side of the soy bean field there was a huge pasture. The cattle that were in this pasture hadn’t been there very long. There was still good cover, for the quail. We started into a north east wind.

In this kind of cover, I could see all of the dogs as they hunted. A quarter of a mile into the pasture Mann pointed, looking into a small bush. He was only 40 yards from me. He was on the west side of the little bush with a high head and tail. I came into his front from the east. I kicked the bush and nothing happened but he didn’t move. As I started to kick again a covey of quail flushed. I got on a quail that flew from my left to my right. Just as I started to pull the trigger I saw another quail right behind the one I was on. I shot and both quail dropped. I, probably, had time to shoot the other barrel but I was so astonished I didn’t even look for another shot.

Sally on point.

I have done this before. I don’t know why it surprised me so much other than I saw the bird line up and knew both birds were going to be hit. When I walked out where they fell they were both stone dead and about 2 feet apart.

We went in the direction the singles had flown. Just over a little hill the GPS showed Sally on point. As I came over the hill I saw her but Mann had went on point about thirty yards from her and closer to me. I knew he wouldn’t hold if I flushed Sally’s bird so I went to him. When I got close a single quail flushed and stayed low flying right over Sally. I couldn’t shoot. When the quail flew over her she moved and I guess her bird flew. I didn’t see it.

The dogs stayed in checking this area. After a little while Mann pointed and when I walked in a single quail flushed. It, too, stayed low but in knee high grass, on a cloudy day and there were no dogs in the way, I missed it, twice. This single had flown up a small draw into the soy bean field. We went up this draw and on our way back down the north side Sally pointed in a small brush pile in a snow drift. Mann and Dolly honored. With the snow drift and the brush I couldn’t get close. I kept trying to get the dogs to move and flush the bird. Finally, without them moving we heard a quail flush out the other side. I never saw it.

Dolly on point.

We came on around the soy bean field back to the road we were parked on. As we got close to the truck Sally went on point with Dolly and Mann honoring. When I walked in a single quail flushed and I only had one shot and I missed. I loaded the dogs.

I had told June I would leave for home at noon. It was now about 11:00 am. It was about 6 hours home. I had three other dogs that hadn’t been out yet. I drove to another farm.

I put the e-collars and GPS collars on Luke, Babe and Tur Bo. We started in a pasture next to a harvested corn field. This pasture had been grazed down to nearly bare ground. Since both sides were walk-in I crossed the road and checked the other side. It had more cover but as we went to the north it got more grazed down. I decided to head back to the truck and leave for home.

Luke wasn’t ready to quit and I was beeping him with the tone on the e-collar but he wasn’t responding like I wanted. I bumped him with some electricity. As I watched the GPS he started to me. I wasn’t paying attention to the other dogs like I should have been. I started to put the GPS away and thought they are on point. Sure enough. The GPS was showing Tur Bo and Babe both on point. Only 45 yards from me.

I started toward them and I heard quail flushing. Tur Bo came through a fence row where I could see him and went on point. He was about 20 yards from me. I started to him and when I was about 15 yards from him several quail started flushing in front of Tur Bo. I had one shot, through the fence row. It was a long shot but the quail folded when I shot. Tur Bo and I crossed the fence and he started looking for the dead bird. Babe crossed over and went straight to the quail. She never did pick it up, just nosed it around.

The singles had flown to the north east. Where they had flown were a herd of cattle. I didn’t want the dogs around the cows but I wanted to find the singles. I went as close to the cows as I could without spooking them. We made a circle and went back to the truck. I loaded the dogs and headed home. Only about an hour late. June will be proud of me.

Quail from the first part of the hunt.

My final tally.

Tur Bo and Sally

The second day, I got up early and had a leisurely breakfast at the café. Being close to where you are going to quail hunt is great. Austin Farley and I had been in this same area before quail season opened, running dogs. We had found quail but I wasn’t starting on any of the properties that we had seen when we had been here before.

A point when we were almost back to the truck.

Mann on point.

Luke on point, Mann beside him, Tur Bo and Bray backing.

I drove by several spots close to the town I stayed in then found a large parcel with harvested soy beans. There were several draws with good cover running into the soy bean field. As I drove around the walk-in property to make sure no one was hunting it I saw a covey of quail run across the road. They had crossed a soy bean field to get to a harvested corn field. The closest cover of any kind other than some soy beans that hadn’t been harvested was on the property I wanted to hunt. With the use of herbicides there was no cover in the soy beans. I drove down the road, turned around and came back to watch the covey run through the corn field.

We had a strong south wind so I turned Dolly and Luke out with the e-collars and GPS collars around their neck. We went down the fence line with the wind and my plan was to come back down a large draw into the wind. With Luke it’s hard to stay with a plan. He went off the place to the east and went on point. I had to go find him. He will be on point until the birds fly, no matter how long. I got within about fifty yards of him and he was moving. He was all excited.

I made him stay with me and we went down the big draw back to the truck. We didn’t find anything in the draw but the quail I had seen on the road had to live close to the big draw. There was no other cover around. I loaded the dogs and drove down the road to another draw.

I put the e-collars and GPS collars on Sally, Tur Bo and Mann and turned them loose. It was about fifty yards to a draw that started through the soy bean field. The dogs had just started down the draw when I saw a covey of quail flush about half way down the draw. The dogs weren’t even close.

We went on down the draw. All three dogs were hunting inside the draw and I was trying to walk the middle. Plum thickets in this part of the world are hard to get through and they grow anywhere it hasn’t been plowed. As we went down the draw I saw Tur Bo slam on the brakes but about 6 quail flushed well out in front of him. All I could do was try to watch them down.

I got the dogs in where I thought the quail had flown to and I got a text on my phone. I checked it and it looked like a scam so I deleted the message. I looked to see where the dogs were and Sally and Tur Bo were where I wanted them to be. I looked for Mann and he was about 20 yards from me on point.

Mann is only 7 months old and I really wanted to shoot a bird for him. Usually, just having that thought can cause me to miss. I went in front of him and two quail flushed. I hit one with the first shot and missed with the second. Mann saw the quail fall and ran to it. Sally beat him to it and I took it from her and showed it to Mann. He sniffed it and went back to hunting.

We went through the area several times without finding any of the other quail that had flown into that area. We worked the draw to the end and came back down the side back to the truck. I loaded the dogs.

Sally on point.

I ate lunch while I drove to another property. It was above freezing and these roads had had some snow on them. Without 4-wheel drive I wouldn’t have been able to find these properties. It was a little iffy as it was. I parked in between two draws that ran into a harvested soy bean field.

I turned Luke, Dolly and Babe out. Both of these draws had lots of cover. There was no fence on this place so they hadn’t turned cattle in to graze the cover down. I was about half way down the draw when I checked the GPS and Luke was almost to the end on point. By now the wind had turned out of the north. I got pretty close to Luke and I saw a quail flying at about Mach 1 down the center of the draw. I poked a shot at it but missed. Another quail flew down my side of the draw and I turned and shot it going away. It dropped in the soy bean stubble. Dolly was going down the side of the draw near the dead quail but was oblivious of me calling her. She will be thirteen in February and I believe she is deaf. Luke came by and found the dead bird for me.

Several times I saw quail flying down the draw but I wouldn’t make a very good driven bird shooter. I shot but didn’t connect. As I walked along the edge of the draw a single quail flushed from the edge right in front of me. I shot and it fell in the soy bean stubble. None of the dogs were close so I picked it up.

Where the draw came down to the road there was a big plum thicket. I think those quail knew that they were safe in the thicket. We went back and forth without finding any others. When we got close to the truck I put Dolly up. She was tired. I got Mann out.

While I was putting the collars on Mann, Luke went up the other draw. I saw several pheasants in the air before I got to the draw. The wind was out of the north so we should have had the wind right as we went down the draw. I heard a quail flush down in the draw with nothing close to it. As we continued to the end of this draw I saw a quail fly back toward the road. When we got to the end of the draw I saw another draw to the north still on this place. We crossed the stubble to it.

Luke pointing a covey of quail.

This draw was smaller than the other two had been. We were almost through it when Babe went on point. Just as I saw her a single quail flushed, flying out the other side without giving me a shot. I started through the end and saw Mann on point. When I got close he flushed the quail. Because he flushed his own bird I didn’t shoot. No more chances than we have now that was hard but, hopefully, he will get the message. I flush the birds not him.

When we got through that draw I could see another. This place was a mile long and the next draw was along the road to the north. I saw Luke run all the way to the end of the draw and turn and come back. The way the wind was, there was no reason for me to go check that draw. We turned back to the truck. We went down all of the draws on the way back without finding anything else. I loaded the dogs.

Because deer season had opened the day before in Kansas a lot of people had decided to do what I had decided. Go to Nebraska. I had seen hunters at several places and others had driven by while I was hunting. The next two places I wanted to hunt had people on them. I found one that some one had already been on but I turned Sally, Tur Bo and Mann loose.

Tur Bo on point.

The dogs and I were just happy to be alive and out there hunting. We went up a big draw with plum thickets, really thick. I took pictures of where I had come from and where I had to go. If the deer had not have made trails there was no way I could have got through. We went all the way to the end of this draw then crossed a milo field to an abandoned road. Some of it had plum thickets but part of it was just tall grass.

As we went back toward the truck I saw a single quail flush down the road way. I tried to watch it down but couldn’t. I got the dogs in where I thought it went but we never found it. When we got back to the truck I fed dogs and cleaned the birds.

As I was feeding the dogs 4 guys from Florida stopped and talked. They were going to hunt this place if I hadn’t of been there. They left to try somewhere else.

I don’t know if the birds were wild because of all the pressure, from lots of hunters or because there was a storm coming in the next day. But they didn’t hold very well. Their survival tactics is life or death for them. If they all held really well, they would be killed off and we wouldn’t have anything to work our dogs on.

Some of the plum thickets in Nebraska.

I had been through the thicket on the other picture. This picture was where I had to go.

A pond with the trees reflecting off the water.

I wanted to go quail hunting. Iowa was covered in snow and the deer season opened in Kansas. I checked the weather and it was supposed to be in the fifties for south central Nebraska. If they had snow it would be melting. I left the house about 4:00 am on 11/28/18.

Dolly honoring Sally.

Some of the plum thickets in Nebraska.

I had been through the thicket on the other picture. This picture was where I had to go.

I drove until I was tired of being behind the wheel and turned up into Nebraska. The dogs needed to be out of the truck, also. I wasn’t close to where I wanted to hunt but I drove by some walk-in properties until I saw something I liked the looks of. In protected areas there was still some snow.

I put the GPS collars and e-collars on Sally, Dolly and Babe and turned them loose. This first place was a large parcel, 160 acres, of CRP with big blue stem. They must have allowed the farmers to cut hay on the CRP. Part of this place was in pasture. We started around the edge of the blue stem next to where they had cut the hay.

The blue stem was about 4 feet tall and it was hard to see the dogs. I checked the GPS often. Pretty soon it showed Sally, on point, about 175 yards across the blue stem from me. Dolly is old and can’t hear very well so I had to make sure she was coming as I went to Sally. When I saw Sally she was looking into a clump of brush. When I got close to her she moved about 15 yards into the brush and went back on point. I heard a covey of quail flush way down in the brush. I couldn’t see them or in which direction they had flown.

There was some plum thickets in the clump of brush and they are impenetrable. I have never seen plum thickets like these. Some of them are about shoulder high and if the deer have been going through them you can use the deer trails. Some of the thickets are 10 feet tall. Even if you get on a deer trail without getting on your hands and knees you can’t get through. Deer need to be taller.

The dogs were all in the brush and I came around the outside. Dolly hit a fence row and as I watched her a single quail flushed about 15 yards in front of her. She never heard or saw the bird. As we came around the other side the dogs all got excited but we never came up with anything.

As we got back close to the truck there was a little thicket in the pasture that the cows had most of the cover eaten and trampled down. Sally went on point near the end of it with Dolly honoring. When I got within about 15 yards of Dolly a covey of quail flushed. I shot through the brush twice but couldn’t see whether I had hit anything or not.

When I got around the brush I saw Sally playing with a dead quail. She was just across a barb wire fence. I didn’t want to cross the fence then re-cross it. I kept saying, “fetch” but she didn’t pick up the bird. Dolly came by and I told her to fetch. She grabbed the bird and started toward me and Sally took it from her. Dolly went back to hunting. I reached over the fence with my gun and moved the quail closer. Sally picked up the quail and she was close enough for me to reach her. I petted her for several seconds then said, “give”. She dropped it in my hand.

Sally on point.

Sally stayed across the fence so I had to follow. She went to the top of a mound and went on point. Dolly came by and honored. I climbed the mound. When I got to her she started trailing. About 35 yards away about 8 or 10 quail flushed out of a brush pile and flew across the road.

I had seen a few of the singles fly back onto the property so we went back trying to find them but didn’t. I have been having some problems with Babe loading into the truck. Neither of the pups, her or Mann, like to ride in the truck box. I loaded Sally and Dolly. Babe was standing about 75 yards from me. I walked toward her but stopped about 25 yards from her. I called her and she started toward me. She started to lie down and I bumped her with the e-collar on a low setting. She came to me and we went to the truck. I loaded her.

Two guys were hauling the dirt, for lack of a better name, from their hog pens and piling it in their field. I pulled up the road a ways to make a sandwich to get away from the smell. As I thought about it I went back and asked if I could work my puppies on their side of the road. I wouldn’t even carry a gun. They gave me permission.

I turned Babe and Mann loose and they could smell the quail. As I watched them I saw the quail tracks in the snow. The quail were gone. Probably, when I pulled up there to make a sandwich the quail had run.

As I drove by another property I saw a man, on the side of the road, working on a 4-wheeler. I asked if he needed help. His house was just a short distance and I hooked my tow strap to the 4-wheeler and hauled he and the machine to his house. As I unhooked the strap I saw quail tracks in the snow. When I mentioned them he said the quail sometimes came into his yard. It took a lot of restraint not to just turn dogs loose in his yard.

Sally pointing Mann backing.

I drove back down to the corner of this 160 acre place and turned Tur Bo, Luke and Mann out with the e-collars and GPS collars. This farm was in CRP but next door was a harvested corn field. As we started up the edge pheasants started flying out ahead of us. Mann didn’t know what to do but he was doing it in a hurry.

I saw Tur Bo To my left as he slowed down. Just as he went on point a rooster flushed. At first I thought it was too far but when I shot he was hit hard. I walked toward where he had fallen. I saw Tur Bo pick up the pheasant and I called him to me. He came right to me and when I told him to give he dropped it in my hand. Wow. He acted like he liked retrieving.

We went on to the back, moved over and came back to the truck. I loaded them up and pulled to the west side of this place and turned the same dogs loose. We went to the back and moved over and came back to the truck. Mann came close but then went back toward the back, again. Across the road was another 80 acre place that was walk-in. Luke, Tur Bo and I went across the road. Mann was still on the other side.

We went to the back, moved over and started back. Luke went on point in some really thick CRP. He was 150 yards from me. After fighting my way through the CRP, with Tur Bo honoring, a hen pheasant flushed. We went back to the truck. I loaded Luke and Tur Bo but Mann was 750 yards north of me.

I put my gun away and started back toward Mann. As I was walking in my GPS decided to ask me a bunch of questions. I don’t know why but I just wanted to see where my dog was. Finally, it went back to showing the GPS collars. It showed Mann at 73 feet. I looked up and he was standing in the trail looking at me. I knelt and called him. He was happy to come to me. I hadn’t brought a leash with me but he went ahead of me back to the truck.

It was almost dark and I fed the dogs then cleaned the one quail and one pheasant before looking for a motel. I love being on the road with my dogs.

Tur Bo pointing a single.

Sally on point, Mann and Dolly honoring.

A pond with the trees reflecting off the water.