Tur Bo
Luke
Lucky
On a cool morning, I met Don and Linda Hansen near Emporia, Kansas to hunt some Kansas walk-in properties. Linda doesn’t hunt she likes to watch the dogs work. The first place we stopped was about 240 acres with harvested soy bean fields surrounded by CRP. Don turned his pointer, Tigger, out with a Garmin Alpha around her neck. I put a Garmin Astro and Sport Dog e-collars on Lucky and Tur Bo and turned them loose.
About 50 yards from the truck I saw Tur Bo point. As I got closer I saw that he was honoring Lucky who was on point in some tall weeds. Tigger came by and honored, also. Don and I walked in and nothing flushed. All 3 dogs went on. About 50 yards farther I saw Lucky point again. Don was about 30 yards to my left so I yelled, “point”. When I yelled a bird flushed. I shot and it came down. At my shot another quail flushed near the first one and 2 birds flushed inside some brush to Don’s left. Don didn’t have a shot but the second bird near me dropped at my shot. Lucky found my first bird and Tur Bo the second.
We hunted in the direction that the two quail had flown without finding them. We went along the side of a soy bean field to the north until it hit some CRP. The CRP was split by a wet weather creek with a lot of brush growing along it. All 3 dogs were working the edges of the creek. At the very end was a brush pile. I was watching my dogs as we got to the end. I started around the brush pile and a covey of quail flushed behind me in the CRP. I missed with the first barrel but dropped one with the second. The covey spread out in the CRP but only flew about 75 yards. Tur Bo found the quail I shot.
We hunted toward the spread out singles and Tigger pointed. We walked in and a single quail flushed. Don dropped it. Tur Bo found the dead bird. We hunted through the CRP and about 75 yards from where I thought the singles had landed Tur Bo pointed. Don and I walked in and another covey flushed. I missed with the first barrel but connected with the second. Don dropped two. These two coveys were only about 100 yards apart or less.
We went back to the area the first covey had landed in. Lucky pointed. Don and I walked in and a quail flushed that came my way. I missed with the first shot but it dropped on my second. It really had flown right into the sun. I usually use this excuse on cloudy days but it really did this time. Tur Bo picked the dead bird up and dropped it. I called him back into the area. He found it and dropped it in my hand.
This CRP was real thick and it seemed like the dogs had to be right on top of a bird to point it. A couple of birds flushed out of range that we couldn’t shoot at. We worked this area then tried to find where the second covey had flown to but had no luck. Neither of us had seen where the second covey had flown.
We went on around the edge of the property and were going down a hedge row when Lucky pointed. He was looking into the CRP. Before we got to him a single quail flushed about 30 yards in front of him in the CRP. We were a long way from any other birds we had seen. As we discussed why a single quail was way out here we heard a covey flush on the other side of the hedge row off the walk-in property. Then a late bird flushed going behind us. We hunted back to the end of the walk-in without finding any thing.
We hunted on through the CRP to another wet weather creek with a lot of cover in it. We turned and hunted the creek. We had come all the way around the property and were almost back to the truck. We knew that there should have been more than 4 quail in the first bunch that we had got into so were working the dogs in the CRP close to where we had parked when I walked into a covey. I shot twice and a bird dropped at each shot but neither were hit hard. Don was in the wrong place. The birds had flown from me through some trees that Don was close to.
We got all 3 dogs in to hunt dead. After a few minutes Tigger pointed with Tur Bo beside her honoring. When I got close the quail hopped up and Tur Bo was after it. It got away the first time but he caught it the second. We looked for the second bird but the dogs were tired especially Lucky. He’s 11 1/2 years old and the CRP was thick. As a young dog he looked really good on point and he still does some time but a straight tail isn’t high on his list. I’ve had some pictures of him looking good but sometimes he looks like the picture above. I put them up and got Dolly and Luke out.
Dolly and Luke hunted the area for a dead bird without any luck. The quail had dropped at the edge of a patch of trees. We hunted through the trees to the other side then back down through them. Dolly was about 15 yards in front of me when she went on point. The brush was thick but I finally got close. She moved up and went back on point. I fought my way through to her again but she moved again. I got Luke in to help but we never came up with the bird. We drove to another place.
The next property was 80 acres of harvested soy beans with some draws and a small field of CRP. We went to the south to the property line then west to the road then followed a draw to the north east. We had been through the little patch of CRP and most of the cover had been removed other than right in the draw. I saw Tigger go around a point in the draw and go on point. Don and I started toward her and when we got close we saw that she was honoring Luke who was pointing into a small brush pile.
I walked up to the point of the draw and Don crossed the draw to come in behind Luke. The birds came up in 2 or 3 bunches. I heard Don shoot but the bunch that came by me were right over my head then into the timber. I shot in frustration although I didn’t have a good shot. I heard Don telling Tigger to hunt dead. He got his bird then came around to where I was. I had seen 5 quail fly into some brush about 50 yards away so we went that way.
Tigger was working down along the dry creek. I saw her go on point and 5 quail blew out ahead of us without us getting a shot. We went on down then turned and started back. The GPS vibrated and it showed that Luke was on point. When we got to him he was just across the creek from where Tigger had just pointed. When I got close he moved up and pointed again. Dolly came in front of me and went on point. She couldn’t see Luke for the brush. A quail flushed between them when I walked in. It went behind me and folded when I shot. Dolly retrieved it.
Don had seen where some more birds from the covey had flown so we went in that direction. When we got close the quail started flushing. One of those quail went over some trees that were 60 foot tall or better. We were near the property line so we knew they didn’t stay on this farm. We had educated them.
One more bird and I would have a limit and I had lost one. It was only a little after 1:00 pm but it was a good place to quit. We had moved 5 coveys of birds and all of the dogs had pointed and most had found dead birds. It had been a good day.
My 16 gauge AYA and 7 quail.
Dolly
Tur Bo honoring Luke