Tur Bo pointing a pigeon.
Blaze pointing a pigeon.
Luke pointing a pigeon.
The temperature was in the fifties this morning so I planned a “prairie chicken hunt”. I really don’t care whether I find any prairie chickens or not. You can only run dogs on Kansas walk-in lands if you’re hunting so I use this to check out the quail hunting.
I stopped by Bass Pro Shop in Independence, Missouri, twice, to get the Kansas Walk-in Atlas, where I usually buy my license and get the atlas. They didn’t have them. Someone else had told me Kansas wasn’t printing them this year. They could only be accessed by smart phone. I have a smart phone but you have to be smart to really use them. I can make phone calls and use the camera. I stopped at a Walmart in Kansas and they had a whole stack of Kansas walk-in atlases.
Before leaving the Walmart I looked at the maps to see if one of my favorite places to quail hunt was open for hunting this early. This farm from the road doesn’t look good at all. You can’t see anything but row crops with no draws or cover of any kind but you walk over the hill and it’s perfect. A draw goes across it from east to west and hedge rows surround it. Some of the farms aren’t open until the first of November. The farm wasn’t in the map book.
I thought this has to be a mistake, I’m not reading the book right. It was only a few miles out of the way to drive by. It was right in the middle of a wind farm. There was a huge wind mill right where I usually turned the dogs out. Not a good way to start the day.
I drove by several more that still had crops standing in the field. I came to one that still had crops standing but also had a large field of CRP. I thought I could hunt the CRP and stay out of the standing crops. I turned Blaze and Luke loose with Garmin GPS collars and Sport Dog e-collars on. I had parked in the shade of a small grove of trees. When I tried to go through the CRP it was so thick that I came back to the edge of a bean field. All of the spring and summer rains increased the cover.
I was about 400 yards from the truck when the GPS showed Luke on point 185 yards to the north, in the middle of the CRP. I started fighting my way through the CRP. I got within about 50 yards of him and saw 2 deer just in front of me. Then I saw that Luke was moving. Neither dog followed the deer.
I fought my way back to the edge of the bean field and started back toward the truck. I had both dogs in the CRP in front and to my right when 5 quail flushed in front of me. I tried to watch where they went but the one I had my eye on went over a hill. I called the dogs in and they immediately got birdy. As they worked the ground where the quail had flushed from another got up about 15 yards from us and flew over the hill.
After the dogs worked the area where the quail had flushed from we went over the hill in the direction the quail had flown. Just walking through the CRP is hard. The GPS vibrated showing Luke on point about 45 yards from me. I started plowing through the CRP toward him. I saw a deer then the GPS showed him moving. Neither dog followed the deer.
We never found any of the quail that had flown in that direction. We kept on going toward the truck. As we got close to the truck the GPS showed Luke to be on point again. He had pointed two other times and was moving when I got close so this time I yelled whoa at him. He was about 75 yards out in the CRP. I kept fighting my way through toward him and almost stepped on him. He was on point standing in some thick grass. When I got to him 2 deer jumped up about 20 yards in front of him and ran off. After I said whoa he wouldn’t move until I released him. I kicked the cover and nothing flushed. I released him and he hunted out a ways then started in the direction the deer had run. I called him and he kept going the same direction of the deer so I bumped him with the e-collar. He came back.
The wind was blowing pretty hard and I think the deer were bedded down in the thick CRP. That was 3 points and each time I had seen deer. With the deer not moving Luke’s instinct said point them. Once they moved he could move, also. That’s just a guess on my part. Before we got back to the truck another deer came close to both dogs and in between Blaze and me. Neither dog chased it.
It was starting to warm up and the next place I turned Dolly, Tur Bo and Lucky out. They were each wearing a GPS collar and an e-collar. I had learned my lesson at the last place and started out around the edge of a milo field. This milo was planted real late or something because most of it didn’t have any grain on it. The wind was out of the north and I took the side with the least amount of cover south then across the end and back north into the wind down a good hedge row.
We had gone about 200 yards to the north on the hedge row when Dolly pointed. She was only about 30 yards from me but without the GPS she would have been hard to find. When I got to her Lucky was honoring her but she didn’t look like she usually does when she has game birds. I kicked in front of her and nothing flushed. This hedge row was the edge of the place I was hunting. Lucky crossed the fence and went into the bean field on the other side. He grabbed something. The sun was in my eyes as I started toward him but every once in a while I saw something dark above the beans. I got to him and saw him trying to hold a huge bird down with his feet. He acted like he didn’t want to put his mouth on it but he didn’t want to let it get away. My first thought as I reached for his collar to get him away was that he had a turkey but it was a buzzard. As I led him away the buzzard held his wings out like he was drying off.
I don’t know if he was sick or wounded but he never tried to fly away. I looked back and he was still standing with his wings spread out. Lucky seemed happy that I led him away. He never tried to go back. We hunted on back to the truck without finding anything else.
I have hunted some of these farms for 5 or 6 years and have never seen the CRP as thick as it is this year. Right now, in a lot of places, it’s too thick for quail but if we have a bad winter some of it will get knocked down and it may be really good for the quail. There may be areas inside the CRP that isn’t too thick for quail and if all of the predators have as much trouble getting through it I did, the quail will be safe.
I forgot to take my camera with me so I’m recycling pictures. Thanks for reading my blog.
Dolly pointing Tur Bo backing.
Lucky pointing a pigeon.
Dolly pointing a pigeon.