Lucky
Blaze
Dolly
I met Don and Linda Hansen at Beto Junction, Kansas and we started south on 75 Highway looking for walk-in properties to quail hunt. I have 2 dog boxes in the back of my truck that will hold 3 dogs each. I had my 5 dogs in these and Don and Linda had their dog, Tigger, in the backseat of their truck. If my dogs ever unionize my truck will be full.
The first farm we hunted was a large bottom with a couple of water ways running through them. On the east side the bottom hit some higher ground that had some brush and tall weeds. Don put his Garmin GPS and training collar on Tigger and I put the Garmin GPS collars and Sport Dog training collars on Dolly and Luke. We hunted through the tall weeds on the higher ground then went down one of the water ways. The other water way split and I went down one and Don, Linda and Tigger the other.
We were only about 50 yards a part when I checked the GPS and Dolly was on point. I yelled at Don but an airplane was coming over real low and he couldn’t hear me. After trying several times to get his attention I went to Dolly. Her head was up high and she was looking way out front. I went about 20 yards in front of her and walked back to her. Nothing flushed. I tapped her head to release her. She started forward then dropped her head and started trailing. She trailed for about 20 yards then threw her head up like she had heard something flush. Because of the airplane I never heard the quail flush.
We continued on down the water way. Luke and Dolly both were trailing. Two or three times they went on point but then went back to trailing. I saw one quail flush far enough in front of the dogs that they didn’t even hear it. We hunted on back to the truck.
The next place we hunted was a soy bean field that was not very deep but ran along the road for about 1/2 a mile. On the other side of the bean field was a buffer strip of tall grass with some bushes. I turned Lucky and Tur Bo out with the GPS and training collars on and Don released Tigger. We made a round of the field to the back side and went through the tall weeds and brush then back to the truck without finding anything. Lucky had pointed in the tall grass but after trailing a ways he went back to hunting.
The third place we stopped looked about like the second place but this one had CRP at the back that rose up from the soy bean field. The soy beans were about 300 yards deep then the CRP ran for another 400 feet. We started on the east side and went along the edge of the soy beans then back to the CRP. We hunted the east side then turned west and went through the CRP on the north. We got to the west edge and moved down next to the soy beans and started back east. We were watching Tigger trailing when I noticed Lucky on point on a strip of unharvested soy beans.
Don and I walked in front of Lucky. We went about 20 yards in front of him with Blaze and Tigger honoring. Nothing flushed so I gave Lucky an okay to release him. All 3 dogs started trailing and pointing as we went through the left over beans. We had 6 or 8 points as we went through the soy beans. Finally, at the far end of the soy beans a covey of quail flushed and flew north into the CRP. (After we finished here, I came back and placed a GPS collar at the end of the soy beans where the quail had flushed from and drove back down the road to where Lucky was pointing. That covey of quail had run 247 yards before they flushed.) The quail were so far in front of the dogs they didn’t even hear them flush.
Don had not seen the covey all the way to the ground but they were real low when he lost sight of them in some trees growing in the CRP. As we got to the area where we thought they had gone down the dogs started getting birdy and trailed for a little way. About 50 yards farther into the CRP I saw 2 quail flush in front of Blaze. She followed them a little way then came back and in the same area went on point. Don and I walked in and scattered quail started flushing. Don was on my left and most of the quail flew his way but I heard some quail flush behind me. I turned to shoot at the birds behind me and looked right into the sun. Finally 2 quail flushed that weren’t into the sun. I missed with both barrels.
Don had knocked a quail down and we got all 3 dogs in to hunt dead. Lucky came through and acted like he was looking but he really wanted to go find some more birds. I made Blaze stay in and look. Tigger was also looking. Then Blaze pointed. I tapped her head to get her to move but she didn’t want to. I kicked in front and the quail tried to fly but had a broken wing. Blaze tried to catch the bird but lost it in the CRP. I made her come back in and hunt close to me. She pointed again. I tried to get her to jump in and catch the bird but she didn’t want to move. The quail ran through the grass again. Blaze wanted to leave and I called her in again. She pointed again. I tapped her head to get her to catch the quail and she finally pinned it to the ground. I took the quail from her. Blaze doesn’t have much experience with downed birds but a few more of these and she should get good. We followed in the direction most of the birds had flown without finding any more quail then back to the truck.
We had time for one more hunt before dark. We chose a place that was CRP along the top edge of a field then dropped off into a bottom with a harvested corn field. I turned Tur Bo and Blaze out with the GPS and training collars on. Tigger was tired but she was still going good. We hunted the CRP then went off the hill and down near the corn field. When Tur Bo runs through a corn field he sounds like a bull dozer so even if the stubble is tall you know where he is. A scattered covey of quail started flushing in between Don and me. They flushed in 2’s and 3’s going in every direction. I shot twice and missed both times. One of the quail I shot at had not flown far so we went in that direction.
We went into some scattered trees just out of the corn field. All 3 dogs were in close acting birdy. Tur Bo went on point about 30 yards from us. He was on point about 10 seconds and the bird flushed without either of us getting a shot. We made a circle through the CRP next to the corn field and Tigger pointed. Don and I walked in and 2 quail flushed. I hit one bird with the first shot but missed with the second. It kept flying. Don hit his bird with the first shot but had to shoot it again to put it down. We found his bird right away this time.
We were crossing the corn field to get to an area we thought some of the singles had flown to when we noticed Tigger on point in the corn field. Blaze and Tur Bo honored but I had to whoa Tur Bo. That may have been the first time he has seen a pointer on point. Don and I walked in and another covey flushed but didn’t get very high. I shot once without any luck but Don didn’t get a shot. Tigger is young but he is turning into a real good bird dog.
We went on across in the direction this covey had flown. We went along the edge of a water way that had a lot of brush growing in it. We were still on the edge of the corn field. We had come around until the water way made a point in the corn field and Tur Bo got real birdy but before he could point 3 quail flushed out of the corn field. About 30 or 40 yards out in the corn field about 10 more quail flushed with nothing close to them. This wasn’t a new covey. I think that the singles from the last covey that Tigger pointed had run ahead of us until the got together and flushed. They flew across the water way and it was getting late so we headed for the trucks.
This may have been the worst day of shooting I have ever had. As I wrote this I counted 7 misses and it very well may have been 9. Linda and I killed the same number of quail and she didn’t even have a gun.