Tur Bo
Dolly
Blaze
Lucky
I met Don and Linda Hansen at Beto Junction in Kansas about 9:30 am. The first farm we were to hunt was a wheat stubble field surrounded by CRP. Don and Linda had brought their pointer, Annie and I turned out Tur Bo and Dolly. Don has the Garmin GPS with training collar and I use the Garmin Astro GPS coupled with a Sport Dog training collar. We turned out near an old home place.
The wind was really howling from the north as we got started. About 300 yards from the truck I saw Tur Bo point with the wind at his back. We started toward him and he made a large circle. He and Annie went on point side by side. Now the wind was in their face. We got within about 10 yards of the dogs and a covey flushed. I missed the one shot I had but Don dropped one. As we moved up to find his bird Tur Bo picked it up and brought it to me.
This old home place had quite a few trees scattered around and we weren’t able to see where the covey had flown to but we searched in that direction. This is a large farm and last year I had found a covey across a huge field of CRP but I hadn’t been able to locate them this year. We decided to try one more time.
There were some trees growing along the edges and some plum thickets out in the CRP. The dogs were hunting real well. Looked like they were covering all of the ground and Don and I were walking along talking, checking our GPS every once in a while. A quail flew right over the top of us. The quail was flying with the wind and it was really moving. Neither of us got a shot. We didn’t know what had happened but probably the birds didn’t hold because of the wind.
On the north edge of the farm was a grove of trees and we thought the quail had probably flown into them. As we got close I checked the GPS and Dolly was on point. She had pointed in a small thicket just before the trees. When I walked in nothing flushed and she started trailing. All of the dogs started trailing and we followed them into the trees. It was frustrating for the dogs and us as we saw quail flush before the dogs could even get close.
As we came out of the trees and started to the west 2 more quail flushed from in front of the dogs. We made another pass through the area without finding any more birds but we had seen about 5 quail in that area. As we went on to the west I was thinking, there will be a covey here next year.
We hunted on to the western edge and came back through the area we had got the first covey up without finding anything. We had a couple of points with the dogs trailing after we walked in, like the birds had run out and flushed. In this much wind the quail are going to be spooky. We hunted back to the truck.
We ate lunch on the way to the next farm. A lot of these farms have marginal land that is left in either CRP or pasture with just small areas that are good for row crops. This is good habitat for quail. I had hunted the next farm only one time this year finding 1 covey of quail. Annie was tired so Don left her at the truck. I turned Lucky and Blaze out with the GPS and e-collars on.
We walked about a half mile back in and I showed Don the plum thicket where Luke had pointed a big covey the last time I was here. Lucky came by that thicket then on up to a fence line and got birdy. I was watching him when a single quail flushed about 25 yards in front of him then about 15 more. We were not close enough to get a shot so we tried to watch where they landed but they flew over a hill before going down. We spent about 45 minutes trying to find where they had flown with no luck.
We hunted into the strong north wind to some soy bean fields that were along a creek. As we came around the north edge of the farm and started to the south Lucky pointed. He was on the edge of the soy bean field pointing into the thick brush and trees along the creek. Don and I walked in and when the quail flushed I shot a limb off of a cedar tree but didn’t connect with a quail. Don said he got a nice limb, also.
The quail had flown across the creek so we started across. I checked the GPS to see where the dogs were and Lucky was already on point about 85 yards ahead of us. When we got to him he was in a large plum thicket. Don started in on my left as I started straight in to Lucky. I was bent over trying to get to him but was still about 15 yards from him when a quail flushed in front of me. When I tried a shot I hit some limbs and didn’t even get close. Blaze had been honoring Lucky. She moved about 10 yards and went on point. She was out of the thicket but I was still in it.
I told Don she was on point and we started to her. She was pointing into the wind but before I got out of the thicket she moved about 10 yards and went back on point still looking into the wind. I finally got out of the thicket and was standing watching Blaze and waiting on Don to get there. He came through the thicket about where Blaze had originally been on point and a quail flushed in front of him. He was still in the thicket when it flushed and never got a shot. Then Blaze’s quail flushed and I made a lucky shot. Last year Blaze retrieved but she just picked it up then dropped it. She is hunting dead real well now so we may have to work on the retrieving.
We checked the area for more singles without finding any. Where these 3 had been was on the edge of this farm so the others may have flown off of this property. We hunted back to the truck without finding any more quail.
We had found 4 coveys and got some dog work on a day that I thought would be too windy. This late in the season, with a mild winter, which it has been so far, and a good spring we should have lots of quail next year. The main thing was that Blaze and Tur Bo both had pointed birds. They also had both found the birds that had been shot over their points. Tur Bo had retrieved. It had been a good day.