Tur Bo pointed 3 of these 4 quail
Dolly is in front but Tur Bo was on point first.
Dolly pointing
Tur Bo honoring Dolly
Quail season is almost over and I’m not ready for it to end. I had a real good hunt yesterday and another today. It was already getting warm at 10:00 a.m. when I got to the first farm I was going to hunt. This farm is mostly CRP but there is a small soy bean field, over a couple of hills, that I hope not very many people know about. I put the Garmin GPS and Sport Dog e-collars on Tur Bo and his mother, Dolly.
We were going with the wind so I tried to keep the dogs going around the edge until we got to the soy bean field but they had a different idea. I had forgotten the transmitter for the e-collars. Usually, I can beep the tone on the e-collar and they will come in and I can send them in another direction. They stay with me pretty good but not as well as when I have the transmitter. If it had been the handheld for the GPS I would have gone back to the truck.
I checked the GPS and it showed Dolly on point about 80 yards from me. When I got to her she was on the top of a hill pointing into a plum thicket with the wind blowing from her back. Tur Bo was backing. I walked in and heard the quail flushing over the hill on the other side of the plum thicket. Finally, I caught a glimpse of one but not long enough to shoot at. Then a quail went straight up about 25 yards from me and I knocked it down. It wasn’t hit very hard. I got Tur Bo and Dolly in to hunt dead. The quail was running around and the dogs almost had it a couple of times but it got away. I finally had to shoot it again or it would have run off.
I had no idea where the singles had flown to so we hunted to the north then back to the south. I was watching Tur Bo when he got birdy then pointed. He was about 10 yards from a plum thicket looking into it. I walked between him and the thicket. The quail flushed from the grass in front of the thicket and it dropped in the thicket at my shot. Dolly and Tur Bo went into the thicket to find the bird. Dolly found it, picked it up and dropped it. Tur Bo was right beside her. He grabbed the quail and brought it to me.
One of the reasons that I wanted to hunt this farm was because of the huge thickets interspersed across the hills. Tur Bo needs to learn that the birds will be found in the thick cover. Before we got to the soy bean field the GPS showed Dolly on point. She was in a huge plum thicket. I started trying to get to her. I found a deer trail through the thicket and started toward her. I had to bend over to get through because deer trails don’t have to be very high and I’m 6 feet tall. Deer trails aren’t very wide either and I had to turn around twice to pick up my hat that the limbs pulled off. I got within about 20 yards and I heard the quail flush. I never saw a bird, I just heard them.
We were close to the soy bean field so I started toward it. Before we got out of the big thicket a quail flushed behind me. We went on to the soy bean field. Tur Bo and I crossed the bean field and started down a grown up fence row. I looked across the bean field and saw Dolly on point standing in the soy bean field looking back into the thicket. I crossed back toward her and Tur Bo honored her. I walked in front of her and 2 quail flushed about 40 yards on the other side of her. They flew across the soy bean field. I threw a shot at them but by the time I shot they were out of range.
Tur Bo went on down the edge of the soy bean field, turned around and slammed into a point. I started toward him and Dolly came by me and didn’t act like she was going to honor Tur Bo. I whoaed her and she stopped. That is the picture at the first of this post. It looks like Tur Bo is honoring but he was on point first. From her style, I think Dolly could smell the quail. I knew if I didn’t shoot real quick the quail would be in the thicket. The quail flushed and tried to go into the thicket. I made a lucky shot and Tur Bo retrieved.
We went on around the edge of the soy bean field in the direction that the 2 quail that Dolly had pointed flew. We checked all around the soy bean field without finding anything so we started back through the thicket and back to the truck. Earlier we had crossed the east end of the thicket now we were trying to cross the west end. I knew where a trail crossed. As I came through part of the thicket it opened up into a small clearing and across the clearing stood Tur Bo on point. I don’t know how long he had been on point but without saying anything I started to him. The opening was only about 10 yards wide where he was standing. I got within 4 or 5 yards of him and about 5 quail flushed. One tried to fly straight away and I dropped it in the thicket. Tur Bo saw the quail drop, grabbed it and ran straight to me with it.
It was getting really warm for the dogs so I followed a creek back as far as possible then we went by some ponds on the way back to the truck. I loaded the dogs and ate my lunch on the way to another farm.
This would be the first time I had hunted this farm in several years. I put the collars on Blaze and Luke. It was already real warm so I knew we wouldn’t be able to hunt very long. We crossed some CRP to get to a soy bean field. The warm weather has all of the water sources thawed so the dogs could drink whenever they wanted.
I was watching Luke run a hedge row then he went into the CRP to check a small plum thicket. As he rounded the thicket he whirled into a point. I was about 150 yards from him when he went on point. I started to him and when I got within about 75 yards of him he threw his head in the air like the quail had flushed. He ran like he was following some quail. I call him in with the tone on his collar and I hit the tone. He came back and went on point in almost the same place. As I got close, he looked so good, I decided since the quail had already flown I would take some pictures. I wanted to get close. As I started to turn the camera on, quail started flushing. They were coming up in twos and threes. I shoved the camera back in m pocket and was in time to make a lucky shot on the last quail to flush. Blaze pointed the dead bird then picked it up and dropped it.
Most of the quail had flown over the hedge row and I wasn’t able to see where they had flown to. We hunted the other side of the hedge row and both sides of the hedge row. On a hill side, in the CRP, I was watching Blaze trail and a quail flushed about 40 yards ahead of her. I got her and Luke in to hunt the area real well without finding any others. Blaze made a point then when I walked in she tried to dig a bird out of the grass. When a quail wasn’t in the grass she started digging in the ground. I have no idea what she was thinking. That may have been where the quail had flushed from.
It wasn’t as hot as it had been the day before but with less wind it was hurting the dogs more, I thought, so we hunted back to the truck.
My decision to keep either Tur Bo or Blaze hunting whenever I have dogs out was a good decision. They both have shown that they are ready to become bird dogs. Tur Bo made 3 points on singles, honored several times and made a couple of retrieves. Blaze didn’t make any points but she honored Luke’s point and she hunted dead real well finding a bird. I should wait until the season is over to say this but all of the dogs have become better at finding dead birds. I haven’t lost one in quite a while.