Blue bird skies
Dolly
I have driven past the Ft. Riley, Kansas army post for years and wondered what the quail hunting would be like. On January 19 I got to try it. I met Don and Linda Hansen at the main gate of the post at 9:00 am. We had to register our shot guns with the M.P.s at the gate. It only took about 5 minutes. We then met David McNeal. Dave has a website that will tell you how to check in and out on the post and has a lot of useful information about hunting Ft. Riley. His website is huntfortriley.com
David has hunted Ft. Riley for thirty years so we followed him to the area he wanted to hunt. Don had his pointer Tigger and Dave and his grandson, Daniel had a wire hair named Mattie. I turned Dolly and Tur Bo out first. I put the Garmin GPS and Sport Dog collars on the dogs but forgot to take the Garmin handheld device. When I first noticed that I had forgotten the handheld device I thought, I will just go ahead and hunt without it. I went about 10 steps and thought, I can’t do this. I walked the 1/4 mile to the truck for it then a 1/4 mile back.
We hunted over the hill to a milo field that had good cover around it as well as some draws, running into the grass fields, next to the milo. Most of the milo had been harvested but they left some for the wildlife. We hunted through some standing milo as well as along the grass beside the milo. Just as we hit the end of the standing milo Tigger, Don’s dog went on point. The other dogs honored. Nothing flushed when we walked in but when we released the dogs they all started trailing or acting really excited. I believe a covey had run through the standing milo and flushed without us seeing them.
We hunted on through the milo field and on to the north west corner. Dave’s dog Mattie pointed in the milo field with Dolly and Blaze backing. When we went in nothing flushed but all of the dogs trailed for a way then went back to hunting. we then turned south down a hedge row along side the milo. The hedge row ran south to the end of the milo then we hunted to the west along some draws and old dry ponds. As we hunted down the draw, Dave and Don both saw 2 quail flush in front of the dogs. We called them back and had them hunt where the 2 quail had flushed from, expecting to find more quail. The dogs checked it real well but we didn’t find any more birds. We made a big circle through some really good looking cover, back to the truck, without seeing anymore quail.
The second place we hunted, I turned out Luke and Blaze. We started off in some milo then worked down some draws to the road. We crossed the road to some cover around a soy bean field. There was an old house place back in the woods. We had seen some elk sign on the first place we hunted but there was a lot more on this one. This is probably the first time I’ve quail hunted where elk were. We hunted around the soy bean field, down a hedge row and through an area full of rag weed without seeing any quail. Both of these areas we have hunted looked perfect for quail.
At the next place we hunted, we parked on top of a hill where you could see a long way. I took the picture of the blue sky at the first of this. It would have been a beautiful place for a house. Luke whips his tail on all of the bushes and gets it bleeding real bad. He and Blaze hadn’t been out very long but I left him in the box and got Dolly out to run with Blaze.
We hunted off the hill and crossed a creek into a bottom of harvested soy beans. We started around the soy bean field next to the creek. I checked the GPS and Dolly was on point then Blaze came around and honored. When we got close Dolly started trailing then went back to hunting. We crossed the soy bean field and went through a good looking grassy area without finding any thing. As we came around close to the creek again we saw Mattie on point. When we got closer we figured out that Mattie was honoring Tigger. Blaze came up and backed Tigger, also. Before we could get close the quail flushed across the creek without a shot being fired.
We crossed the creek and went up the hill through the brush growing along the creek. We stopped to discuss where to find the singles and when Don took a step a quail flushed at his feet. He made a good shot and the bird dropped. Dolly and Don went out and retrieved his bird. We got the dogs to hunt the immediate area and never came up with another quail. There was enough cover in the trees and brush along the creek that they may have lit and ran away from the dogs. We hunted back to the truck.
It was really hot for a January day. It was 66 degrees in Kansas City and that tied a record for January 19 going all the way back to 1906. Don and I had a long way to drive so that was a good place to end the hunt. Each time the dogs pointed and we couldn’t flush birds I think the birds were there but ran then flushed before we got close. I talked to a friend that hunted the same day and his birds did the same.
If you ever decide to hunt Fort Riley the best place to start is on David’s website: huntfortriley.com Dave not only has a good website he does a lot of work with on duty Fort Riley personnel and wounded warriors.