I met Don and Linda Hansen near Emporia, Kansas for a Kansas quail hunt at about 8:30 am. The day started cool but quickly warmed. We were in short sleeve shirts when we started. I turned Luke and Lucky out with Garmin e-collars and GPS collars. Don had his Garmin track and train on his pointer, Trouble.
Luke buried in the weeds on a Kansas quail hunt.
Luke
Lucky backing Luke.
We started to the north then as we came around a point turned to the west along a fence row with lots of brush and trees. I crossed to the south side of the fence row while Don and Linda stayed on the north side. As we followed the fence row down I checked the GPS and Luke was on point behind us, 112 yards. I need to pay more attention to the GPS. We started back with me watching the GPS. We got within 43 feet of Luke when the GPS showed him moving.
He had been on point where the east west fence row intersected with a north south strip of brush and trees. When I saw him he was trailing. I followed him. Don was still on the other side. As Luke and I worked through the cover a single quail flushed and tried to fly to the west. I made a lucky shot on him. Luke ran to where it dropped and rolled it around. That’s as close as he comes to retrieving. Don, Linda and I worked the area without seeing any more quail.
We went on down the fence row to the west. We have hunted this place for the last couple of years and sometimes find singles in the sedge grass field to the south of the fence row. Don and Linda crossed to my side and as we stood watching the dogs Trouble started trailing right in front of us. Before she could point 2 quail flushed in front of me flying straight away. Three or four flushed in front of Don. He was closer to the fence row than I was and his birds crossed the fence row. He shot once but he really didn’t have a shot. I missed with the first shot but dropped a bird with the second. Trouble picked up my dead bird and Don and I started walking away from her. She took it to within a few feet of Don and dropped it.
We hunted on to the road on the west then back east to where a hedge row ran to the north. Luke went on point where these two came together. As we got close he started trailing. The bird must have either ran out or flushed. We continued on to the north.
At the north edge of this property I saw a small pool of water and called Lucky to me. As he started through some tall horse weeds he went on point. He was only about 10 yards from me. I told Don he was on point and while I waited for him to get there I thought about Lucky’s career. He is 12 1/2 years old and I’m amazed at how well he hunts.
When Don got there we went in front of Lucky and nothing flushed. I released him and he moved up about 20 yards and went back on point. This time when we went in front a bird flushed in front of me and a couple in front of Don except he had a brush pile in front of him. Mine dropped on my second shot. Don shot but, again he really didn’t have a shot. Lucky picked my bird up and I was right beside him. He dropped it in my hand.
A couple of the birds that got up in front of us flew to the south west and landed in the sedge grass field. We started after them. I checked my GPS and Luke was on point to the north east of us. We left the sedge grass to go the other side of the hedge row. Lucky came in front of us, saw Luke on point and honored him. While I waited on Don to come around I took pictures of them both. When Don and I walked in a single quail flushed on my side. It went right down at my shot. We looked for the bird but while we were looking Luke pointed again just a few yards away. When we went in front of him a single quail flushed to the left and dropped when I shot. Luke found the dead bird but just nosed it around. I picked it up.
We went back to where the other bird had fallen but after about 5 minutes of looking we never came up with it. We went back where Don had seen a quail land and it got up behind us and flew away without a shot. We continued on back to the sedge grass field where we knew a few birds had landed. Lucky and Luke were working the field in front of us and a quail flushed in front of Don. Don shoots 3/4 ounce reloads and I think the quail was hit with the whole load. As Lucky sifted the feathers where the bird went down I picked it up.
We hunted on through the sedge grass field without finding any others. It was getting warm and as we went around the field I had given the dogs all the water I had with me so we hunted back to the truck.
I had two more dogs, Tur Bo and Dolly, that hadn’t been out of the truck so we found another place. This was a large, unharvested milo field. The temperature was well into the 60’s so we just made a pass around the outside edge without finding anything. With the warm weather and all of the cover in the unharvested milo field the quail could be anywhere. I hope to come back after the milo has been harvested.
We called it a day. It was only about 11:30 am but the temperature was in the upper 60’s. Too hot for the dogs. This was one of those days where I was in the right place and Don was in the wrong place as the birds flushed. The next hunt it could be reversed.
Dolly in Oklahoma
Tur Bo
Sally