Blaze honoring.
Dolly honoring.
My new dog sculpture.
It snowed Thursday night so I didn’t leave the house, to go hunting, until about 9:30 am. I met Don and Linda Hansen near Emporia, Kansas and we went to some walk-in areas that Don knew of. We hunted 4 different places and of these I had been on two of them but not this year.
The first place we hunted was a CRP field of thick blue stem across the road from a harvested soy bean field. With the snow and strong north wind we thought the quail would be snuggled down in the CRP. There was about 3 inches of snow so it made for hard walking. Don put Garmin Alpha collars on Annie and Tigger while I turned Tur Bo and Luke out with Garmin Astro and Sport Dog e-collars on.
I had my AYA 16 gauge with two triggers. With two triggers I don’t like to wear heavy gloves so I was wearing thin brown jersey gloves. About half way around this field I knew that I didn’t have heavy enough gloves. We circled the CRP field and when we got back to the truck I dug out some hand warmers that I always have in my truck. We loaded our dogs and drove to another place.
The next place was a large property with only about 10 or 15 acres of cover. There was a creek that started in a drainage that was covered with tall grass and weeds. The cover was next to a busy road and Don had never seen anyone hunt this. I had never noticed it although I had driven by several times. Don turned his pointers out and I used Dolly and Blaze this time.
We had just crossed the fence when I saw 2 quail fly over us. I looked ahead and saw some singles settle into the tall grass off to our left. The last month this is what most of the quail have been doing to us. Flushing ahead of us then running out of the country. I saw exactly where some of the singles had flown and started to them. They had settled around a small bush that was growing in the weeds. Before we got close Blaze came in front of me and tried to go on point. A single got up behind me and flew back toward the creek. When I shot it dropped and another one flushed in front of Don. Annie saw Don’s drop and went to retrieve. As Don was waiting on the retrieve another bird flushed and he got it, also.
I had to call Dolly and Blaze in to look for my bird. Blaze found it right away. I went over to make sure Don had found his birds and while we were standing watching the dogs work another quail flushed. It went down at my shot and Annie retrieved it. That was 4 quail out of this covey and Don and I decided we wouldn’t shoot anymore out of this covey. We went to the other side of the creek and worked back to the truck.
There was a few sumac bushes growing on the other side and as we passed them a quail flushed without drawing a shot. We called the dogs in to hunt the bushes and another flushed out the other side. The dogs were working along the creek and another quail flushed down in the brush.
When we got close to the road Don saw Annie on point in the fence row. The other 3 dogs came in and honored. We took pictures then Don flushed the quail and we watched it fly across the road. There were 12 or 14 birds in this covey and we took 4 of them. Neither of us will hunt this property again this season. If we don’t leave some to raise the next generation pretty soon they will all be gone. It’s important to have birds to work our dogs on.
The next place was also a CRP patch across the road from a harvested soy bean field. I turned Lucky and Dolly out with Don’s pointers. It didn’t take very long to circle it without finding anything so we loaded our dogs and drove to another farm.
I turned Dolly and Lucky out again on the next farm with Don’s pointers. This was a large farm with CRP along side of a harvested soy bean field. There was a water way running through the CRP that we started working up. We were about 150 yards into the field when Don noticed that Tigger was on point behind us. When we got close to him he started trailing. Annie came by and started trailing, also. Soon all of the dogs were trailing. We never came up with anything.
We went on north and the GPS showed Lucky on point about 200 yards ahead of us. When I got within about 50 yards of him the GPS showed him moving. Then Dolly was pointing in the same area. When I got to them they both trailed for a while then they went on. The wind was strong from the north and we decided maybe the birds went with the wind by flying south. We worked all the way back to the snow packed road. As we went toward the trucks we saw where a quail had crossed the road. We got the dogs in and they trailed for quite a distance but we never came up with the quail. We loaded the dogs and called it a day.
That is my normal experience with quail on new snow. They usually run and flush when anything gets close to them because their camouflage does not work. Sometimes, after a few days and especially after some of the snow melts, giving them some areas that they can hide in without snow, they will hold.
I’ve hunted Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma and almost, all year the quail have run instead of holding for the dogs. The snow may have made it worse but not much but anytime you can get out with your dogs is a good time.
Luke
Tur Bo
Blaze