Tur Bo
Blaze
I have been guiding at Bird Fever in Richmond, Missouri a lot using Lucky, Dolly and Luke. Then when I hunt I usually put out the older dogs before I use Blaze or Tur Bo so they get very little experience. I decided that on this day I would just take Blaze and Tur Bo.
Some friends told me about finding quail in south eastern Kansas so I drove a long ways south to hunt the walk-in properties. The first place I hunted today had a soy bean field along the road on the south with a brush filled creek on the west side. The soy bean field was only about 1/4 mile deep then the north side had some rougher ground that was in CRP.
I put the Garmin GPS collar and Sport Dog e-collar on Blaze and Tur Bo. We started up the edge of the creek along the soy bean field. We passed the soy beans and went on to the north through the CRP. I really enjoy hunting young dogs. They have lots of energy and they have to explore everything. A couple of deer ran out of a thicket with the dogs close behind. The Sport Dog collars convinced them that they shouldn’t chase.
When we got to the north side we went east through the CRP to the east edge then south to the soy bean field. The dogs were birdy when we turned west along the north edge of the soy beans. Tur Bo was in the CRP but right along the soy bean field and Blaze was about 40 yards into the CRP but both were in front of me. A scattered covey flushed in front of me with neither dog very close. I dropped one with the first shot and missed one farther away with the second. I got Tur Bo and Blaze in to hunt dead.
It was really getting warm (about 50 degrees when we started) and dry. I had some water with me so I watered the dogs when they came in to hunt for the downed quail. They made a pass then wanted to go on but I kept calling them back. Pretty soon Blaze pointed. I could see the quail lying there so I tapped her head saying “it’s dead”. Finally she picked it up then dropped it. We made a circle in the direction the covey had flown without finding any of the singles. We hunted back to the truck.
The next farm that we hunted had some CRP close to the road then it fell off into a bottom with harvested corn fields. The corn fields had water ways running through them. We checked the CRP on the way in. I saw several quail roosts so we checked the CRP really well then went down a water way through the corn field. Blaze and Tur Bo got really excited when about 100 meadow larks flushed out of the corn field.
As we came back up a water way in the corn field Tur Bo pointed and Blaze backed. When I got to him he and Blaze started trailing. We checked the immediate area and went to some close CRP. We checked the CRP then back down the water way. They trailed for a while then went back to hunting. We followed the water way almost to the road and Blaze pointed at the very end. Tur Bo was honoring when I walked in. I went about 10 yards in front of her with nothing flushing. I went back and tapped her head but she wouldn’t move so I went about 20 yards in front of her, down the water way. Still nothing flushed. I tapped her head and this time she started trailing.
We checked the water way back down, the close CRP and crossed the road to check that without finding anything. Maybe, more experienced dogs would have come up with something but this time of year a lot of these quail have become pretty good at getting away from hunters. We hunted back to the truck.
I watered the dogs at the truck and when I started to the next farm the temperature was 61 degrees. That’s too hot for the dogs so I headed home. The season is already over in Missouri but I’m going to try to get these two a lot of experience in what is left of the Kansas season.