Tur Bo honoring Luke
Luke
Luke pointing a single quail.
I left, on this hunt, early enough to stop by Walmart for a new license. I was to meet Don and Linda Hansen near Emporia, Kansas and I knew where a Walmart stayed open 24/7. I had heard that Kansas was going up on their non-resident license but I didn’t know how much. It went from $72 to $97.50. It had been $72 for a lot of years and is still one of the best bargains in non-resident licenses. Kansas spends a lot of money leasing land for their walk-in hunting program. I would rather they raise the license fee instead of cut back on the walk-in properties.
Luke is almost well from his muscle pull but he has about another week of rest. Don had brought his young pointer, Trouble and an older one, Annie. I turned Blaze and Dolly out with their Garmin GPS and Sport Dog e-collars on.
The first farm we hunted was on both sides of the road we drove down but there was a large creek on the west side that was too deep to cross. There was a small soy bean field that ran between the road and creek. The east side of the farm ran up a small rise with a soy bean field that ran into some CRP. We hunted down the edge of the creek then crossed the road to the east side.
As we went around the soy bean field into the edge of the CRP we came to an area of weeds that were chest high. A single quail flew out. It flushed about 20 yards in front of me and Don was on my right and a little farther away. He shot but the quail was too far by the time it came by him. Blaze came in front of me and went on point in the edge of the weeds. I could only see her rear and tail. I stopped and told Don she was on point. He started to us but the quail didn’t wait. A large covey flushed with most of them flying west but a couple came my way. I missed with the first barrel but stayed with that bird and dropped it with the second. Don hadn’t been as close as I was and the covey had put more distance between him and them. I got Dolly and Blaze in to hunt dead. Blaze picked it up. I petted her until she dropped it.
The main bunch of quail had flown across the road to the edge of the creek. We started after them. When we got close to the creek we heard quail flushing. The birds that lit on our side of the creek flew on across. When we got to the trees along the side of the creek we saw that there was no cover under the trees. It looked like the water in the creek had been high enough to kill the grass and weeds. That may have been the reason for the quail to flush before we got to them.
We crossed back over to the east side and went around the soy bean field. My dogs were showing signs of having sore feet. They had hunted the day before in Missouri on snow with a icy crust on top. When we got close to the truck I put Dolly and Blaze up and got Tur Bo and Lucky out.
As I was getting Tur Bo and Lucky out 4 people in a truck stopped wanting to know if we had seen any deer. Gun season for does was open. The guys acted like they wanted to set up in front of where ever we were going to bird hunt. That wasn’t going to happen. Don showed them a walk-in property that he had seen a lot of deer on and they left. We had no idea that another deer season was going on.
We started around another soy bean field then crossed it to go down a hedge row. As we got near the end of the hedge row I saw several turkeys fly out then a coyote started across the harvested soy bean field with Tur Bo right behind him. If he can’t find birds he’s starting to work mammals. In Oklahoma he got into a porcupine, the day before when we had hunted in Missouri he pointed a raccoon that was hiding in the CRP. A few days before it was an opossum. I held the button on the Sport Dog transmitter down on level 5 but he didn’t slow down. I turned it to level 8 and he stopped. I didn’t say anything I just kept walking. He came back.
The dogs were at the end of the hedge row when I got there. An armadillo ran in front of Tur Bo and he followed. I tapped the button on the transmitter on level 5 and he came back. I don’t think he’s cured. I think I was too close for him to disobey. We decided to go to another farm.
When we got to the next farm Don parked on the edge. I decided to drive around the property to make sure no deer hunters were on it. When I got back Don was looking at his pointer, Annie. She had a cut on her chest and another on her leg. Don was going to have to get them sown up so that ended our day. I could have kept going but my dogs acted as though they had sore feet so it was good place to end the hunt.
It seems like each year we have more days of gun deer hunting in every state. I understand it. The conservation departments make more money for each deer tag sold. I understand it but I don’t like to have my dogs down during any deer gun season.
Blaze
Lucky pointing.
Dolly pointing Tur Bo backing.