I decided to go to south central Kansas, on a quail hunt. I set my alarm for 3:00 am but I woke up about 1:30 and when I didn’t go back to sleep by 2:20 I got up and started getting ready to go. The last time I loaded the puppies in the dark they pulled me all over, on the way to the truck. On this morning it was about 10 degrees so I knew the ground was frozen. I drove the truck to the kennel. I loaded all 5 dogs one at a time. Problem solved.
Mann pointing a pheasant.
Sally honoring Mann.
Josie honoring Mann. This is her first honor.
I stopped along the way to let the dogs out. I had to stop at a place where even the dogs could see that there was no chance of going hunting. The last time I was down here I lost Luke for most of the day and only got him back when a man called that he had showed up at their house. He was nine miles from where I turned him loose. The next morning he didn’t stay with me so I decided to retire him but when I take all of the dogs, I can’t leave him home.
The first place I hunted I turned Luke out along with Sally and Abby. I had GPS collars on all three but e-collars on just Sally and Luke. There was a strong wind from the south and we went south east. Luke tried to go to the west but I called him back and got him started in the right direction.
It wasn’t long until Luke was a long way from me. He was going almost straight south. I didn’t even try to call him back. He just kept on to the south. Pretty soon with me going south east the GPS showed him .87 of a mile from me. He turned to the east and pretty soon he was .8 of a mile to the east. Then he went back to the south. Sally, Abby and I had gone about a half mile south then turned straight east. In a little while I saw that Luke was back to the east, again.
Pretty soon he was only 900 yards to the east. A little later he was getting closer. We continued to the east. I was surprised to see that he was only 300 yards from me. Then I saw him coming and I called him to me. When he saw me he ran as fast as I’ve ever seen him move. He was wagging all over.
We went farther to the east and Luke stayed within a couple of hundred yards of me. We turned to the south and started back toward the truck although we were a long way from it.
As I started up a small hill with my gun in my left hand and the GPS handheld in my right it vibrated. I checked and it showed Luke on point about 160 yards from me. I got to the top of the hill and started down the other side. I could see Luke about 100 yards away. As I watched him, the covey of quail flushed. The hill on the other side had a lot of plum bushes and the quail blended in with the bushes. I had no idea where they landed.
I got all of the dogs in to hunt for some singles. They checked back for a quarter mile with no luck. We were then going to the north west. A little farther I felt the GPS vibrate just after I saw Sally go into a small plum thicket. As I checked the GPS I saw that it was Sally on point, about 20 yards from me. I only took a couple of steps before a rooster pheasant came up, laughing at me. Anyway, that’s what I always think they are doing.
This time of year if you’re not in the thick stuff you’re not finding birds.
I’m glad it cackled because without the sun it was hard to tell if it was a rooster or not. As the 16 gauge came up I went to the back trigger, to shoot the barrel with the tighter choke. The pheasant may not have been as far as I thought because even with it flying straight away from me it went right down. Sally has been retrieving quail but she ran to the pheasant and just held it to the ground. I called her but she wouldn’t move. I waded into the plum thicket and got the young rooster.
When Luke was younger he was really good about responding to the tone on his e-collar. All the way back to the truck he stayed within 200 yards or a little more. If he got farther out I toned him and he came in. If he would hunt like that I would take him out of retirement. When we got to the truck I checked my phone app and it showed that I had walked 6 miles. The last half Luke had hunted with me.
I ate lunch on the way to another place. The next place was a pasture that hadn’t been grazed too much, that ran beside a huge corn field. The corn field had been harvested but it was private. I turned Sally, Mann and Josie out. They all had GPS but only Sally and Mann had e-collars.
As I walked along I saw a lot of human tracks. I didn’t expect to be the only hunter to have walked down this field but there were a lot of tracks. We were in over half a mile when I felt the GPS handheld vibrate. It showed Mann on point about 75 yards in front of me. I was walking down a cow trail and saw a single quail flush and fly to the north, the way we were going. When I got close to Mann, Josie saw him and honored. Sally saw Josie and backed her.
Luke when he knows the bird has left.
I think the bird he was pointing was the one that had run toward me but when it saw me it flushed and flew to the north. All 3 dogs trailed for a few minutes then went back to hunting.
Maybe a hundred yards away Sally pointed. When I got close to her she was on the side of a straight up hill. The hill wasn’t real tall but where she was pointing was real steep. As I got to her a single quail flushed and flew up the hill. When I shot it dropped both legs but kept on flying. When I shot about 40 yards south of me another 6 or 8 quail flushed. I bet this was the covey that Mann had pointed but had run away from him. I looked for the quail I had hit but never found it.
We went on to the north. Not far ahead, maybe 200 yards, the GPS showed Mann on point. When I got close he was about 30 yards on the other side of a cross fence, on this place. When I hunt with someone and need to cross a fence we hold each others guns. I was by myself and I usually unload my gun and lay it on the ground, as I did here.
Sally came by and went on point just inside the fence, as I crossed it. Josie was right in front of me and before I could pick up my shotgun from the ground she pointed then ran right through the covey of quail. It was a huge covey and they got up in a large circle. And they didn’t all get up at one time. There were probably 5 different bunches flushed. By the time I got shells in my gun it was all over. Some of these birds could have been out of the other bunch. I don’t know but some flew this way.
Most of these birds flew to the south. We went on to the north for a couple of hundred yards then came back to the south. We made a couple of passes but it was too thick to see where they went down. We moved over and hunted back to the truck without seeing anything else.
Sally with Abby honoring.
I leashed all of the dogs to the fence near where I was parked and fed them. While they ate I cleaned the pheasant. Luke and the two puppies ate real well but Sally and Mann ate very little. For them it doesn’t matter whether it’s canned dog food or dry they don’t eat much on trips.
The next morning I thought I would drive east, toward home, and look at walk-in properties that I had never seen. If they looked good turn the dogs out. So after breakfast I headed east. About 2 miles down the road I got to thinking, “I know there are birds in the area I hunted yesterday. Why go somewhere else”. I turned around and drove to the west of town.
I don’t like to put a lot of pressure on the same birds so I hunted a different area. But it was an area I had hunted in the years past. The temperature was in the teens and the south wind was really blowing. The cold cut like a knife.
I turned Luke, Sally and Mann loose. Everyone had a GPS and e-collar. I wanted to see if Luke was going to stay with me. I would love to have my dog back. We went into the strong wind for about a half mile when the GPS handheld vibrated. It showed Luke on point a little over 500 yards to the north west. I started to him. I came over the top of a hill and could see a white dog standing on a terrace looking into a huge plum thicket.
Sally on point 144 yards off the walk-in. I set the camera on the fence corner post.
I thought that’s Luke and started to him. I had to go around plum thickets and through some by following deer or cow trails. It took a long time to get close enough to see that it was Mann I was going to instead of Luke. When I checked the GPS Luke was moving. I went on to Mann.
Before I got to him Sally honored him. I remembered the camera and took pictures of both dogs. I was almost to Mann when a hen pheasant flushed in front of him. Plenty close enough had it been a rooster. But a lot of hens hold.
This area is more plum thickets than pasture land. We didn’t go very far when Mann pointed, again. He was only 40 yards away but I had trouble finding a way to him. When I did see him he was buried in the plum thicket. I kicked in front of him but he didn’t want to move. I kept trying to get him to move and finally he started trailing. Sally had honored and she was helping trail. About 40 yards away another pheasant flushed. I’m not sure if it was a rooster or not. It didn’t cackle and I didn’t shoot.
Luke was with me and he pointed, looking into a plum thicket. As I went toward him I knew whatever it was had left. He wasn’t moving but his tail had come down to level with his back. If he’s still got the bird he’s got a great tail. I kicked in front of him and said, “okay”. He went back to hunting.
I finally got them away from this patch of plum thickets but on the way north there were plenty more. We had made a big circle and when we got back to the truck, I loaded the dogs. Luke had stayed with me. I may have my dog back. We started driving east to look at new walk-in. New to me at least.
Sally honoring Mann.
I did find one walk-in that I really wanted to hunt but when I drove around it to make sure no one was hunting it there was an out of state pickup parked near a gate. I didn’t see a dog box so he could have been a deer hunter but it doesn’t matter. Unless I know for sure there is no one on the walk-in, I don’t hunt it.
I knew I could be home before dark so I started driving. When I got home I put the dogs in their kennels and fed them. Sally, Luke and Mann hadn’t finished their food before we left. I always mix water with it and the food in their bowls was frozen. I dumped the food in their runs and put new fresh food in their pans. Each one of these dogs started eating the frozen food. Mann even picked his frozen chunk up and carried it into his house.
We think we know what is good for these dogs and what they will like but we really are clueless. I’ve gone down to check on the dogs when it was real cold and snowy and there have been dogs lying on the ground, covered with snow. I have a top over my kennels now and that doesn’t happen but it has before.
I didn’t kill many birds, only one pheasant, but I got quite a bit of dog work. That is fine for me. I’ve killed plenty of birds in my life I just need dog work and see the puppies learn. It didn’t bother me that Josie flushed that covey. It’s one more bunch of birds for her to learn that she can’t catch. Next year she will be a good bird dog and I’ll probably have another puppy along to flush the birds. I have a blessed life.