Traveling Pointing Dogs

The last hunt let me know that my dogs weren’t in very good shape. This is my fault for not running them more but the hot weather kept them in their kennel. Leaving them in their pen will not help, so Thursday morning I headed to a Missouri Conservation area. The day was to start cool so it was a good day. Actually, any day with the dogs is a good day.

Mann on point with Sally honoring.

Mann, closer, on the same point.

Boss, in the brush, on point.

The area I wanted to hunt has a lot of bow hunters. Bow hunters worry me because I’m color blind and they often hunt from tree stands, in camouflage. If a quail was to fly between me and the hunter, in a tree, I might hit him with the shot. The first place I checked had two trucks in the parking lot. I drove to the other side.

There were no vehicles in the parking lot. I put the GPS and e-collars on Mann, Boss and Sally and turned them loose. This area has what Vince and I call a phantom covey. We have found this covey most of the time we hunt here but have never got a lot of dog work or killed many of them. But it’s good for the dogs. And the dog owner.

All of the grain in the fields nearby had been harvested but not on this Conservation area. The Conservation department may have asked the farmer to hold off until the deer, gun season, was over. Or there could be another reason.

When we got close to where we usually find the phantom covey Boss went on point. This area is a little bowl, covered with cedar trees and has a small pond at the lower end. All around this bowl is soybeans that haven’t been harvested. Boss was along the edge of the cedar trees near the upper end of the pond. As I watched him across the pond he moved a few feet and went back on point, according to the GPS. I could no longer see him. I started around the pond.

The weeds are tall and the cedars have grown thicker. I couldn’t walk straight to him because of the cover. When I got close he was moving. All 3 dogs were excited and checking everything. I think a covey flushed on him. We worked the area for a while then went on toward the back.

Mann pointing again.

Sometimes the very back side has a large grain field but the last couple of years they just let the weeds take over. It has lots of rag weed and some lespedeza. Good feed for quail.

Sally pointed for a minute or so but when I got close she was moving. We went to the east fence. There is a wooded ridge that runs north to south along the fence row. I walked the down wind side as the dogs went through the draw. When we came to the end the GPS showed Boss on point about 400 yards ahead of me. It takes a while for an old man to walk that far.

Before I got to him, Sally and Mann were honoring. Boss really looked good and I never took a picture. He was standing in a group of cedar trees almost hidden. I made up my mind that even if it cost me shots I would get pictures from now on. He was looking way out front but when I walked through the area nothing flushed. I believe this was a group of turkeys that ran off.

We started back around the fallow field. Going the opposite side from the draw, Sally pointed down in the woods. As I started toward her I could hear turkeys putting. Before I got to her, she was moving but excited.

As I came across the dam of the little pond near where Boss had pointed earlier he was on point again. About the same area. This time because of the pond I had to walk away from him for a while then try to circle around. Again before I got to him he was moving. But all 3 dogs were really hunting the cover. Trying to find something.

We checked the little bowl again then came up to a soybean field. I was watching Boss hunt the edge when I felt the GPS vibrate. Mann was on point about 150 yards away. I went to him and got the picture of him on point and the one of Sally honoring him. If I had of taken a picture further left it would have shown a cedar tree real close. Mann was pointing a single quail that flushed on the other side of the cedar tree. I saw it for about a nano second. No time for a shot but I had pictures of the dogs. I’d rather have the pictures.

There’s a dog in there.

We circled on to the north around the soybean field. I had couple of points but nothing flushed when I went in front. We came back along the edge and as we went toward the truck, Mann pointed again. Sally and Boss honored. I took some pictures and then walked in front of him. One quail flushed and started around a small tree. I rushed the shot and just broke a wing. Mann ran to where it dropped but didn’t see it run off. Boss was coming to help and the cripple ran right to him.

Boss doesn’t retrieve and just started picking up quail, my last hunt. The cripple jumped about 3 feet high and Boss grabbed it. He took a couple of steps away from me and dropped the quail. It started to run and he grabbed it again. By then I was close enough to get ahold of Boss and started petting. I petted him several seconds and he was ready to give the bird to me. I tried to give him the head of the bird. He took it then dropped it and went back to hunting.

Sally pointing quail.

We went on around the soybean field without finding anything else. I started up the road to the truck but the GPS showed Sally on point in the edge of a corn field about a 150 yards away. When I got close she was about 30 yards inside the corn field. The corn stalks were taller than me. From past experience I knew there would be nothing there by the time I got there but I might hear it flush. There is no way to walk quietly through a corn field.

Sure enough when I got to her, she started trailing. The other 2 dogs came in and helped. There was evidently quite a bit of smell but I never saw or heard anything. When we got back to the truck I loaded dogs and we went to the other side, where I had tried to hunt first thing.

There was still one truck in the parking lot but I felt that he was the other way from where I wanted to run. We went into a pretty strong south wind. This side had unharvested corn. I was tired of the corn before we walked half a mile and decided to just move over a little way and hunt back to the truck. And that’s what we did.

Boss pointing quail.

I couldn’t see the dogs most of the time, in the corn fields, and that takes the fun out of the hunt, for me. So when we got back I loaded the dogs and headed home. I will check on the place and hunt it again when they get the crops out. I feel sure there are more quail here than just the phantom covey.

I’m not sure how many opening days of Missouri quail season I have hunted but it’s a lot. I always look forward to opening day and sometimes find it hard to sleep the night before. Vince Dye and I knew there was no reason to go really early so I was awake a long time before time to load dogs and head north. As a younger man I would have been there at daylight but I picked Vince up about 8 am and we stopped for breakfast before going to our place to hunt.

Vince with a bunch of dogs, honoring Mann.

Mann on point.

Boss pointing a single.

I sold Gus and since Vince is without a dog I loaned him Bodie. Bodie has been at Vince’s house for a few days, before the season started, to get used to him. Abby had started her heat cycle so she was at home but we still had plenty of dogs. Vince had his English cocker spaniel and Bodie and I brought Mann, Sally and Boss.

By the time we turned dogs loose, about 10:00 am it was warming up from the over night low of 13 degrees. The wind was out of the south west about 15 miles per hour. With everything rattling the quail didn’t let us get very close. The farm we hunted was about 280 acres of CRP with draws running through it. The CRP was chest high in some areas and really thick. Just a few years ago this had been in row crops and there was some areas of wheat with lots of seeds for the animals.

We hit a draw and started up it. When we got about a hundred yards from the end I crossed to the other side. I could hear Vince yelling at me but in the wind couldn’t tell what he was saying. I started toward the end of the draw and when I got close I could see Sally, Bodie, Boss and even Maggie the English cocker surrounding Vince, honoring. He told me a large covey had flushed before he got there and Mann was pointing where they were.

Vince had seen about where they had flown. Being old and hard hearing doesn’t work well in the wind. We started up the hill toward where the singles had flown and a single bird flushed off to the side. I shot but by the time I saw it and got into action it was a long shot. Then I saw another one way out. I asked Vince where it came from and he said, “almost under your feet.” I did a lot better when I could see and hear.

We moved 6 or so singles without killing a bird. We’ve hunted this place for several years and just knew there was a covey on the back fence row. So we headed that way. We kept the dogs away from a house that was just across the fence from us. We took that fence row all the way to the end of the property without finding the covey we thought would be there.

There’s a dog in there.

We came down the edge to a good draw and Boss was on point in the timber. When we got close he moved a couple of steps and pointed again. I knew there wasn’t enough weeds for them to hide and they were running. Sure enough they got up down in the creek and along the other edge. We never got a shot. Vince stayed on that side and I crossed the creek.

As I walked the edge another quail came from the side that Vince was on. It passed about 40 yards in front of me. I could see the dogs and they didn’t act like they saw it and when I told Vince about it he hadn’t seen it either. No telling how many had flushed that we hadn’t seen.

The draw that we had found the first covey on was real long and we hadn’t hunted much of it earlier. So we headed back toward the truck along that draw. We were close to where we saw the first covey with Vince on one side and me on the other. I heard Vince shoot. He told me later that Maggie had flushed a large covey. He had killed one on the covey rise.

Some of the singles had flown on up the draw in the direction we were going. As I waited on Vince to come on up on his side of the draw I saw a dog pointing and another backing. They were across the draw but just about the time I started to them I saw a quail flush well out in front of them.

Boss, along the creek, pointing a covey.

Vince came on around and as we started on up the draw Boss pointed right in front of me. When I got close a single quail flushed and flew around a small tree in front of me then came back into an opening. It dropped when I shot and one of my dogs was right on it. Boss and Bodie don’t retrieve and from a distance look alike. I started to them and as I stepped into a small ditch my feet were entangles in some low growing vines. Down I went. As I was getting up Boss came back by me but he didn’t have the bird.

I went on to where it had dropped. Vince came to help look but the bird wasn’t there. I went back to where I had fallen. I checked around there and Boss came in front of me. He reached down and grabbed the bird. I know the bird didn’t fall there and I assume that Boss started toward me with it and dropped it. But anyway we got the bird.

The singles from this last covey had flown near where the first covey had flown. We got the dogs in and they were all staying in and hunting really nice. It took me a while to figure out they were all really tired from going through the thick CRP. It’s early in the season and they aren’t in very good shape, yet.

We worked the dogs through the area where we thought the singles were. About the time I saw a quail flying Vince shot. The bird started down and Vince shot again. I hadn’t seen another bird and I thought that first bird was almost on the ground in the tall weeds. Vince could not have seen it to shoot at it. Vince thought he had missed on the first shot and another bird got up and he knocked it down. Vince and Maggie went close to where the dead bird fell. I directed them to where I had marked it down.

Vince was arguing with me about the location. I asked if he had shot at two birds and he said no. Just one. After some more argument we figured out he thought I asked how many he had hit. He thought he missed the first bird. As we were standing close to where I had seen a bird drop Boss pounced on a clump of grass and had a dead quail. As I said before Boss doesn’t retrieve and this is the first two birds I have seen him pick up.

He started away from me and I caught him. Actually, when he started away from me I said, “whoa” and he stopped. I knelt beside him and petted him for just a few seconds. The rest of the dogs came to me when they saw I was on my knees. They wanted petted too but Boss thought they wanted his bird. I blew in his ear and he dropped the bird in my hand.

Where these birds had dropped the cover was really thick. Also, when I directed Vince to where I had seen the bird drop it took him away from where the other had dropped. In the tall CRP it all looked the same. We probably spent 15 minutes or more looking but never came up with the other bird.

Boss pointing quail.

As we wandered around the hillside where we thought the singles were we saw a couple more. Not close enough for a shot but they were in the heavy CRP. Vince pointed another bird out to me and when I asked where it came from he said, “right under your feet”. Dang, I wish I could hear.

To be on the Kansas Walk-in properties you must be hunting something. I have a prairie chicken license along with the general hunting license. When I go, I carry a shotgun to fulfill the hunting part of the agreement. But my main reason to be on the walk-in properties is to get the dogs in shape and check out the quail population. I have shot prairie chickens in the past but I didn’t like to eat them so I quit shooting them.

Abby pointing.

Sally pointing quail.

Boss pointing quail.

Normally I leave the weekends to the guys that have to work for a living. I’m retired and can go any day, so I usually hunt week days. Last Saturday, other than deer season and prairie chicken season there wasn’t much open. I knew there wouldn’t be many people hunting so I loaded dogs and headed west.

I’m hearing that there are more quail than the last few years so I wanted to run on places that I’ve found birds in the past but that were few and far between the last couple of years. The first place was a 160 acre place with a creek running diagonally from the north west to the south east. On one side there was unharvested corn but on the south side of the creek was a soybean stubble field. I turned Mann, Abby and Gus loose.

The south fence row has some pretty good cover so we started east along it. The fence row bisects the creek on the south eat corner. During the good years I usually find some quail along the creek. As we worked the creek to the north west we were going into a head wind of 10 to 15 mph.

I had cut across the soybean field and before I got to the creek Abby was on point. I took some pictures and Gus came close without honoring. Last week he had backed Sally and looked good doing it. I whoaed him but he didn’t stop. I had put an e-collar around his flanks so I reinforced my whoa command with a light stimulation. He stopped but had no style.

I walked in front of Abby and nothing flushed. There was a small brush pile and I shook the limbs in it. Nothing flushed. I tapped her on the head and both of them trailed. Abby just knew something was going to flush but we never got anything to fly. We were just across from the corn field so there may have been a hot spot from where a pheasant had run off.

Bodie honoring Boss.

We moved on down the creek. At the far end, with me about half way down, Mann went on point. He was over 300 yards in front of me. I started to him. I was still over a hundred yards away when the GPS showed him moving. In just a few seconds he and Abby both came by and they were excited. So something hadn’t held or somebody screwed up. But that’s okay. Now’s the time to get that out of their system.

We went through some light CRP and around a pond. We were only able to hunt about half of this 160 acres because of the unharvested corn. I don’t like to have a farmer see me in his unharvested fields. I thought maybe we would find some singles in the CRP if Mann had pointed quail but nothing was found. We went on back to the truck. I loaded the dogs and went to another place.

I drove by several places before turning Sally, Boss and Bodie loose on another walk-in property. This one is a half section and most of the north side was unharvested soybeans. On the south along a creek was a harvested milo field. Usually milo is harvested later in the year but not on this farm.

Sally pointing a single.

I had just got to the milo field when the GPS vibrated showing Sally on point just over a hundred yards away. When I got close I could see just the tip of her tail above the milo stubble and another tail, what I thought was honoring. I was trying to get my cameras out and take a picture, of the two tails, when the covey of quail flushed. After thinking about it I think Boss had come in front of Sally and had got just a little scent and pointed too, without seeing her. Then in the strong north wind he lost the scent and took a step to reacquire it. At any rate I never got the two tails sticking above the milo stubble on film.

Most of the covey had flown across the road, I thought, but as we crossed a small draw running out of the creek area into the milo, Sally pointed. I could see her across the draw and took a couple of pictures then a couple more when I got close. I had a small ditch to cross and as I looked down to make my was across I heard her bird flush.

Abby pointing.

I went on across the draw and saw Boss about 20 yards from where Sally was on point. I took some pictures and got some of Bodie and Sally honoring. Boss was on the edge of the draw and when I got to him a single quail flushed from over the edge of the draw. These were probably young birds because they hadn’t flown very far. But in 3 weeks when the season opens they should be grown.

We went on to the west along the edge of the milo field. There is some CRP type weeds and grass along the edge. The dogs were working the grass and a fox that was hunting in the milo ran real close to me. It must have run from the dogs but didn’t smell me, in the strong wind, until he got real close.

Bodie honoring Sally.

We worked the edge to the west property line then south to the creek and back to the east along the creek. When we got close to where we had found the covey I worked the dogs across the road, which was also walk-in, but didn’t find anything. When we got to the truck I loaded dogs. The temperature was already too warm to start any other hunts. I did drive by some more properties just to check them for later hunts.

I went back to Kansas this morning. To a different area than Saturday. Was a lot warmer than Saturday morning and was sprinkling with some lightning thrown in. I have hunted a lot in rain and even in lightning but that was when I was a lot younger. I really don’t like to hunt with a gun in my hand with the lightning jumping around. Kind of like holding a lightning rod. Anyway I just drove around until it got too hot then headed home. I did mark some places I want to try.