Lucky
Dolly
Blaze
When I left the house it was 33 degrees and misting rain. I got on I-70 and it was bumper to bumper going about 10 miles per hour. I got off I-70 and took back roads to I-470. For about a mile it was 50 miles an hour then slowed to 10 miles per hour with stops occasionally. It took 2 1/2 hours to get where I usually get to in 1 1/2 hours. I was about 30 minutes late meeting Don and Linda Hansen.
We drove to a farm, near Emporia, Kansas, that we haven’t hunted this year. Several of the places we have hunted in the past were taken out of the walk-in program because of a wind farm they are building in this area. It seems like each year we lose more places that we hunt to different factors.
Don put the Garmin Alpha on his young pointer, Trouble and I put the Garmin Astro and Sport Dog e-collar on Luke and Dolly. Luke has had a severe pulled muscle and hasn’t been out of the kennel for over 30 days. This was a large farm and I was hoping he would stay on it.
We went around the edge of a harvested soy bean field and were crossing some CRP to get to another soy bean field when a covey of quail flushed from the CRP and flew deeper into it. I don’t think we even had a dog close and we were at least 50 yards from them. Had they not flown we might not have seen them. They flew across a small rise so we couldn’t see them all the way to the ground but we went in that direction.
The CRP was tall and pretty thick. Dolly came in front of us and went on point after trailing for a little way. A single quail flushed when we walked in front of her. It came my way and dropped into a small plum thicket at my shot. Don’s pointer, Trouble saw it drop and retrieved.
We went back to the area where Dolly had pointed and she pointed again. She was in some tall CRP and when Trouble got close she also pointed with out seeing her. We walked in and a quail flushed behind us. Don shot and it fell. The dogs didn’t see it fall and we got them in to hunt dead. Dolly located it in the tall grass and when she stopped with her head right over the top of it Trouble moved up next to her and paused head to head with her. Dolly knew the bird was there but she moved away to let Trouble get it. I’ve never seen a dog do this before. Dolly’s mother, Lady, would back out and go back to hunting if she was on point and a dog went past her to steal the point. She never flushed the birds she would just back away then go back to hunting.
A few minutes later the GPS showed Dolly on point again. She was in the tall CRP where we couldn’t see her and as we searched for her Luke came in front of me and went on point. As I searched for Dolly I had went into a small draw with some plum thickets between Don and me. I waited for Don but the plum thickets were in the way. He told me to go ahead and flush the bird. I took a couple of steps and a quail flushed going between the plum thickets. I shot and it fell in the edge of a plum thicket. When I shot I heard Dolly’s bird flush off to my left. Luke doesn’t retrieve but he did pick the dead bird up then dropped it. I went over and picked it up.
After checking for other singles in the area we went to the east through the CRP. Some of the singles had flew in that direction. As we came near the top of a small hill the GPS showed Luke of point about 75 yards away. I saw him pointing into a small plum thicket with Dolly honoring. When we got to him he started trailing. Dolly came in and also started trailing. I believe a covey had ran on the ground for away then flew. We followed in the direction that the dogs were trailing.
About 150 yards later I saw Luke go on point. Don and I were separated and I called him over. Before he got there I saw that Luke was honoring Dolly. She was about 20 yards in front of him. Before we got to Dolly about 6 or 7 quail flushed in front of her. My one shot was through a hedge tree and I missed but Don dropped one. Dolly retrieved his bird.
I checked the GPS and it showed Luke on point. When we found him he was pointing into a large plum thicket. After all of these years of bird hunting I still occasionally think I can push a quail where I want it to go. I told Don I would go in and flush it out to him. I went in with the plum bushes grabbing me from all sides the bird flies where the only one with a shot is me. I shot from a bent over position trying to protect my gun from the sharp limbs. I caught the bird with the edge of the pattern and it was still flying with it’s butt down. Don wasn’t where he could see where it went down and neither could I. We looked for quite awhile without finding it.
A couple of quail got up ahead of the dogs and flew to the east. After checking this area we went on to the east. We were working into a strong wind and Dolly pointed. Don and I were separated and I called him. Before he got there she started moving. She was trailing and I followed her. Don and I were about 50 yards apart. A covey of quail flushed about 30 yards in front of me and flew across my front. I shot and a quail fell. A few seconds later I heard Don shoot. Dolly had seen my bird fall and brought it to me. I went over to help Don find his bird. Don had marked it down and the dogs found it with no trouble.
This whole covey had flown to the east so we went after them. As we got into the area that the birds had flown to, with all of the dogs in front of us, a quail flew from behind us to our front. Luke was in front of Don and went on point looking into a plum thicket. With Don on the other side I tried again to run it out for him. When the bird flushed I had the best shot but when I raised my gun it caught on my coat and the barrel hit a plum bush. I pulled the trigger and the bird was centered. The most surprised person there was me. I just knew I had missed. Luke rolled it around on the ground then went back to hunting. I picked it up.
Luke was out of shape because he had been kept in the kennel for over a month so we started back to the truck. We had just crossed a small creek with Trouble in front of us and Luke and Dolly on the other side of the creek when another covey of quail flushed in the trees along the creek. It was hard not to follow the covey but I was afraid that I had already left Luke down too long. We hunted back to the truck without anymore bird contact.
It was after 3:00 pm when we got back to the truck. The weather people were saying that freezing rain would be moving in so I decided to head for home. I let the other dogs out to do their business then headed home. We had seen 4 coveys and killed 7 birds. It had been a good day.
Again I have to recycle pictures. this hunt would have been a good one to take pictures on but I left my camera in the truck. At least I brought it with me this time.
Luke
Tur Bo
Blaze