An Iowa Quail Hunt, 10/31/18

Austin Farley and I went to Iowa Thursday morning, 10/31/18, Halloween, to hunt quail. The reports said that the area we usually hunt was down for this year. Pheasants were up but quail were down. I’m okay with pheasants but I really prefer to hunt for quail.

We stopped at the Conservation area that we had decided to try. I turned Luke and Sally out with their GPS collars and e-collars on and Austin turned out Lucy, his English setter. He had The Alpha 100 track and train collar on her. As we started around an unharvested soy bean field, Austin saw a covey of quail flush from the soy beans.

The covey had flown into some really thick brush, along a creek, between two soy bean fields. As we went into the brush to follow the covey I checked my GPS and it showed Luke on point about 65 yards east of us. We started fighting our way to him. We got within about 10 yards of Luke and the quail started flushing.

I was on the bank with Austin on some lower ground but we both were in head high brush. I shot and missed with the first barrel but connected with the second. Austin had dropped one as well. When he pointed where his fell I thought we might have shot the same bird but his was closer than mine. We looked for his for a few minutes without finding it. We went about 10 yards farther and Lucy found my bird. We went back and looked for Austin’s bird with no luck.

Most of the birds had flown to the south east. To get the wind right for the singles we crossed the creek and hunted through some buffer strips along the creek. Several pheasants flushed ahead of us without giving us a shot. Sally pointed a hen pheasant that held.

We hunted the buffer strip to the west end, crossed the creek and started back where we thought the covey had flown. As we started back to the east Sally and Luke both were pointing birds in some really tough cover. When we got close we would hear the quail flush. Most times it was too thick to even see them.

We came to an area that was filled with black berry vines. Maybe 3 or 4 acres of black berry vines that were so thick we couldn’t get through them. We started around the black berries. A quail flushed off the ground and lit in a cedar tree just ahead of us. When we got close it flew from the tree without giving us a shot.

Finally, we got into a clearing where the black berry vines were scattered. As we went through this area a quail flushed and dropped to Austin’s shot. We went on through this area, crossed back across the creek and started around a small soy bean field.

We had gone about 150 yards along the soy bean field when a quail flushed from the grass along the bean field. At his shot Sally came in and I thought this would be a good time to work with her on retrieving. I walked her over where the bird had fallen. She picked it up and I called her to me. I took the bird from her and threw it a couple of times. She retrieved it each time. She’s not happy about it but she did it.

We continued around the soy bean field. When we got to the east side two quail flushed from beside me. When I shot they both dropped but one was hit and the other just lit. We got the dead bird and the dogs all searched for the one that had lit without finding it. The bird must have lit and then ran.

As we came around the soy bean field Austin could hear the quail whistling. We called the dogs in to hunt along the creek. Sally and Lucy came but Luke didn’t. I checked the GPS and the batteries had run down. No problem I always have batteries with me. Except today. The pocket I carry them in was unzipped and the batteries were gone. I had one battery in another pocket. I took one battery out and tried to use the hand held with one good battery and one old. That didn’t work.

The truck was about 200 yards away, so we went back. We put Sally and Lucy in the box. I found some batteries in the truck and put them in the handheld. The GPS showed Luke on point to the south at 146 yards. We went to him. When we got close another covey flushed. I was in the wrong place to get a shot but Austin dropped one. Luke found his bird for him. These birds flew into the toughest part of the black berries.

We had already decided to go to another place. We started toward the truck and as Austin walked a path near where he had lost his first bird he saw it lying in the grass. I hate losing birds. I’m glad he found it. We had other dogs to get out so we headed back to the truck.

When we got back to the truck Luke wasn’t with us so I called him. As I watched him coming in, on the GPS, he went on point. He was 164 yards from us near where he had been on point before. So back we went.

When we got to him he was pointing along the edge of the huge black berry patch. Five or six quail flushed. They weren’t together but scattered in the thick cover. Austin dropped one and I missed one as it flew around a tree. After we found his bird I snapped a leash to Luke’s collar and led him back to the truck. I think this is the only time I’ve ever leashed a dog to get him away from birds without me having a limit.

After talking it over we decided to check another place. We had killed 6 birds out of 2 coveys, maybe 3 coveys of quail. None of the coveys were hurt and we can come back later and hunt this again. The dogs and we too were bleeding from all of the black berry vines.

Our next area Austin turned out his, 6 month old English setter, Joker and I turned Tur Bo and Sally loose. This area had small soy bean fields with hedge rows running along side and through the bean fields. We walked back in on this property quite a ways then started down a hedge row with Austin on one side and me on the other.

About 40 yards in front of me I saw a single quail fly to the north out of the hedge row. As it flew over Joker he followed it. The quail crossed the hedge row to the north of us. I took another few steps and a hen pheasant and a covey of quail flushed from 50 or 60 yards ahead of me, flying over the hedge row to the north.

Austin came through the hedge row and we started looking for a way through the hedge row on the north. These hedge rows are really thick and we had to walk a ways to find a deer crossing. Then we had to get on our knees to get through. I wish deer were taller.

When we got through we found a huge grass field. A lot of big blue stem and again black berry vines. We went back to the east along the hedge row for about a half mile then moved over and came back through to the west. As we came back I checked the GPS and Tur Bo was on point about 65 yards to the south west of us. I should have taken his picture but I can’t carry a gun and take pictures both.

I got to him and a hen pheasant flushed. Austin was behind me. My gun came up but with Austin yelling, “Hen! Hen!” I didn’t shoot. Austin said, “I was looking right down your gun barrel. If that had been a rooster, he would have been dead.”

A little later Tur Bo running with the wind came in front of Austin, slowed down and dropped his nose. A quail flushed right in front of him. He smelled it but didn’t have time to stop.

A rooster pheasant flushed way ahead of us and we saw where he landed. Austin decided to see if he could get Joker to point it. We had already walked a long way and I went an easier route.

A lot of the big blue stem was shoulder high to over head high. As I moved along I checked the GPS and Tur Bo was on point. As I went toward him, watching the GPS as I went, the GPS showed Sally honoring him. They were standing in some real tall weeds about 10 yards apart, facing each other. When I kicked the cover, a rooster pheasant jumped about 2 feet in the air with a wing hanging and hit the ground running. Someone’s cripple. I shot him. I don’t want to see something suffer and the wing wasn’t going to get better. Tur Bo pinned him down for me.

Austin didn’t find the pheasant that he went looking for. Hunting time is over a 4:30 pm in Iowa. When we got back to the truck we only had 25 minutes to go so we started home. We had seen 3 or 4 coveys of quail and some pheasants. We had gotten a lot of dog work. It had been a good day.