Luke pointing
Dolly
Blaze
I met Don and Linda Hansen south east of Emporia, Kansas for a quail hunt. Don had his young pointer, Tigger, with him. A friend of his by the name of Jim also had a pointer named Emma. Jim couldn’t stay very long. I put the Garmin GPS collars and Sport Dog e-collars on Dolly and Luke. Don runs a Garmin GPS with training collar on Tigger. Jim had a low tone beeper collar on Emma. A lot of these I can’t hear very far but this one I could hear for about 200 yards.
We were hunting Kansas’s Walk-in Hunting Areas (WIHA) from the Kansas Hunting Atlas. Kansas has a lot of land in this walk-in program. The Kansas Hunting Atlas can be picked up from any license dealer. Kansas also has state owned land that is open to hunting.
We started through some CRP that was along side of a soy bean field. About 100 yards ahead of us we saw 4 quail fly out of the CRP. We had dogs in the area but we didn’t know what happened. We followed in the direction the 4 quail had flown. We started down a fence row with Don and Linda on one side and Jim and me on the other. Fifty yards down the fence row Don said he had a point. Jim and I couldn’t get through the fence row at that point so we told Don to go ahead.
We heard a shot then “dead bird.” We saw a quail flash by through the hedge row. It gave us no shot. I finally made it through the hedge row in time to see Dolly pick up Don’s bird. I called her to me and gave her the head. Giving her the head seems to make a better retriever out of her. It’s not for all dogs.
We started on around the fence row and I saw Luke pointing in a grove of trees across the soy bean field. Jim and I walked in and a single quail flushed. It went up through the trees and I made a lucky shot. It dropped and I got the dogs in to hunt dead. Don said here it lies. I had went past the quail by fifteen yards. No wonder the dogs couldn’t find it. Don earned the head but he wouldn’t take it.
We continued down a hedge row and on through the CRP without finding anything else. Jim had to leave so Don, Linda and I went back up to the area where the original 4 birds had flushed from and started through this. Dolly was trailing and finally pointed. Don and I started in on the point and a rabbit ran right back by Dolly. Don said it’s a rabbit. I told him she usually doesn’t mess with rabbits and when I took a step a quail flushed from in front of me and flew to my right. When I shot feathers boiled off the quail. I knew I had shot too quick. Dolly picked the bird up but I wasn’t sure she was going to retrieve this one. I went to her and took the bird. I didn’t give her the head this time.
I checked the GPS and it showed Luke on point about 50 yards from us. Don and I walked in but nothing flushed. I released Luke and he started trailing. Dolly and Tigger started trailing when they came to the area. All three trailed and we even had a couple of points but we never came up with a quail. We made another pass through the area and started to the truck. I looked at my GPS and it showed Luke on point 209 yards away. We started to him.
We got within about 30 yards of Luke the GPS showed him moving. When we saw him he was trailing. If the quail had of flushed close to him he would have been real excited. Tigger and he trailed for a while but never came up with anything. We went back through the CRP to the truck.
We drove a few miles down the road to another walk-in property. Don turned Tigger back out and I put the collars on Blaze and Lucky. We went north on a hedge row that was next to a soy bean field. We made a circle around the harvested soy bean field without finding anything. When we got back close to the truck it started a light freezing rain. After talking it over we decided it was a good place to end the hunt.
I enjoy hunting places that I’ve never hunted before. I had never been to either of these before and we found quail on the first. The second place makes 3 farms I’ve hunted and didn’t find quail, this year. Of all the places I’ve hunted this year I have only hunted a few of them more than one time. If I go back and hunt the same coveys over and over until they are gone will they come back next year? I don’t know but it’s not worth taking a chance. Knowing where I can find wild quail is important to me.