Tur Bo wearing his second cone to keep him from ripping the stitches out.
Luke pointing Dolly honoring.
Luke
An update on Tur Bo’s condition after getting hung up in the barb wire fence. I was supposed to take him back to get the stitches out in 10 days. On the ninth day he tore, the cone he was wearing, in 2 or 3 pieces. I took him to the vet’s office. I got there before Dr. Becker came in so Dr. Wengert looked at his wound. He put another cone on him and said to leave the stitches for another 2 weeks. The wound is in the elbow of the front leg and Dr. Wengert said this was one of the worst places to get a cut. So Tur Bo is out of action for at least another 10 days or so. Hopefully, he will be able to hunt after the stitches come out.
Robin Barrows and I quail hunted near Colony, Kansas on a rainy day. It didn’t start out rainy but after the first farm it rained most of the day. This area has quite a few farms listed in the Kansas Hunting Atlas. Most of the places where you buy your hunting license will have the Atlas.
The first place, Robin turned Emma and Molly out with Garmin GPS Astro tracking and training collars. The Garmin GPS collars that I put on Dolly and Luke were from before Garmin made the track and train in one unit. I put 2 collars on each dog, the Garmin GPS and a Sport Dog 1825 training collar. The Sport Dog collar has a tone or vibrate and I use the tone to call my dogs to me.
The first place we hunted was 120 acres of harvested corn and soy bean fields with hedge rows on one side and the back. With a couple of nice draws through the middle it looked ideal for quail. This was the first time either of us had hunted this farm so Robin hunted one side of the draw and I went down the other. The draw was wider than we thought and we got separated. I wasn’t sure where Robin was so when Emma came by me I called her to me and held her collar. I knew this would show on his GPS as her being on point and he would find her. Sure enough in about 5 minutes he came to us.
We hunted around a small harvested soy bean field that was surrounded by CRP. When we got around the field Molly wasn’t with us and we separated again. I hunted a hedge row back to the road we were parked on and started toward the truck. I checked the GPS and it showed Dolly on point about 50 yards a head of me. I was watching the GPS as I went toward Dolly and when I got within about 20 yards of her it showed her still on point but Luke was also pointing about 100 yards ahead of us. I got to Dolly and went in front of her and nothing flushed. I tapped her head and said okay. She trailed about 10 yards and went on point. I walked in front of her kicking and nothing flushed. She started trailing and pointing but we were getting closer to Luke. He was still on point. I saw Robin come in about 50 yards in front of me. He was near where Luke was on point. I heard 2 shots then Luke was no longer on point.
Robin came to where I was and said Emma had pointed and he had missed when he flushed the quail. Most of the covey had flown down the other side of the draw we were on. As we moved back down the draw Dolly pointed in a thicket. As Robin and I started to her quail flushed in the brush near us but without giving us a shot and Dolly’s bird flushed, too. We heard some more quail flushing but we never got a shot. We loaded our dogs and starte looking for another place.
The next farm was 160 acres with about 1/2 in a harvested soy bean field and the other half was a hay field. The hay field had some nice brush filled draws through it not far off the soy bean field. I had turned Lucky and Blaze out and Robin was again using Emma and Molly. We hunted down the fence row separating the soy bean field from the pasture with the dogs checking the draws that were close. As we got close to the back I checked the GPS and it showed Lucky on point 220 yards ahead of us.
We got close to the back of the property to see a hedge row with 50 yard buffer strip along side. Lucky was across the fence, in the soy bean field side, along the hedge row. Robin and I crossed the fence and when we got close to Lucky I had to whoa Blaze to get her to honor him. I walked in front of him and nothing flushed. I said okay and he moved about 15 yards and pointed again. Blaze honored without me saying anything. I started in front of him and a covey of quail flushed out the other side of the hedge row without either of us getting a shot.
We followed the hedge row toward the road. I saw 1 quail flush ahead of the dogs but couldn’t see where it went down. The dogs stayed in front of us hunting both sides of the hedge row and the buffer strip without finding anything. We turned around and hunted back through where the quail had originally flushed. We hunted the 1/2 mile of hedge row without seeing another quail then turned and hunted back to the truck.
We ate our lunch as we drove in the rain to find another farm to hunt. The third place was a place with a fallen down house with lots of bushes. We parked in the driveway and I turned Luke and Dolly out. Robin had hunted his dogs both of the farms before so he left his in the truck. We hunted the old house place and the dogs got birdy without coming up with anything so we ran them up a fence row next to a harvested soy bean field.
We hunted most of the available cover then started back to the truck. when we got close to the house place Dolly went on point with Luke backing. I went in front of her and she moved up then went to trailing. First Dolly would point with Luke honoring then Luke would point with Dolly backing. They trailed all around the house place and one time I thought I heard a covey flush but I wasn’t sure. With the rain coming down we decided to call it a day.
So far this year I have only hunted 2 places where I haven’t found quail. That is counting the last place today where I thought I heard a covey flush but I never saw anything conclusive. This season is starting out much better than last. Not only am I finding more quail than last year, most of my friends are also. May be time for a road trip.