Blaze backing Lucky
Blaze pointing.
It has rained for the last 2 days and as I drove to Kansas it started to rain, again, with about 30 mph gale from the north west. Kansas, allows the hunting of turkeys, in the fall, with dogs. As I drove through the rain, I kept thinking, even if it rains all day it’s better than sitting at home. I got to the first place I wanted to hunt and it quit raining. The Lord continues to bless me.
I found the first farm in the Kansas Hunting Atlas. It shows all of the Walk-in hunting areas as well as all public lands. It was an 80 acre place that I have hunted for the last 5 or 6 years. From the road it looks like a harvested corn field with no cover but over the hill is a nice draw that runs from east to west. Both fence rows, also, have lots of cover. I put the e-collars and GPS collars on Lucky and Blaze and we started from the north west corner.
I thought that we might get out of the strong wind once we got over the hill but that didn’t work. As we started down the fence row the dogs acted birdy but they didn’t come up with any thing so we continued on to the back. There was a lot of corn left in the field and I walked up several doves. Although the season on doves was open I didn’t try to shoot any. We hunted to the back then took the draw across to the other fence row and back to the road. At the top of the hill there was a little cover that crossed back to the west side so rather than walk through a picked corn field we took the ridge. When we got back to the area that the dogs had got birdy in before Lucky pointed and Blaze backed. I got a picture then walked in front of them. There was a long brush pile in front of Lucky that I kicked but I couldn’t get anything to flush. I tapped Lucky on the head to relocate. He went down the brush pile one way and Blaze the other. Blaze went about 10 yards and pointed. I got a picture then went in front of her and nothing flushed. I looked for Lucky and he was slinking along like he was trailing birds but he never came up with anything. A lot of times in strong winds the birds will run and flush before the dogs get close. In the strong winds it’s hard for me or the dogs to hear them. We hunted back to the truck but I really think a covey either ran off or flushed ahead of us.
The next place I wanted to hunt had soy beans that had not been harvested, so we passed it by. When the soy beans start drying out a dog can knock a lot of them off. If it was my farm I wouldn’t want to see a hunter turn 2 or 3 dogs loose near one of my fields.
The next farm I turned Dolly and Tur Bo out with e-collars and GPS collars. It was another 80 acres that had CRP on the east and west with woods on the north and a creek on the south. We were only about 50 yards from the truck when a young doe deer jumped up out of the woods and started trotting away from us. Tur Bo saw the doe and started chasing. I had plenty of time so I turned his e-collar up to the max and held the button down. He stopped chasing and I let off the button. He started again and I held the button down again. He stopped quicker the second time. I let off the button. He decided to hunt in another direction than the one the deer had taken. We went all the way around this field checking all of the available cover without finding anything.
Luke was the only dog that hadn’t been run and I didn’t want to hunt him alone and Tur Bo needs the experience so I turned him out with Luke. This place is about a mile by a half mile. The first part was through some trees to get to an open area and the wind was howling as it blew through the trees. We had only gone about 100 yards when I thought I saw some quail get up in front of the dogs. Luke was over to my right away from where the quail had come from and Tur Bo was in front of me. Neither dog was close to the quail when they flushed. I called Tur Bo to me and started to where I thought the birds had landed. As we got close I walked a quail up. It was so young that it made no noise when it flew. The wind howling through the trees probably covered part of the noise but I could tell it was a baby quail.
Tur Bo came back in front of me and went on point. The quail flushed before I could get a picture or take a step. That fired Tur Bo up and he really started combing through the grass. Another quail flushed then he pointed and another bird flushed. These baby birds weren’t even holding in the strong wind. Finally he pointed and I walked in front of him and a quail flushed. He chased a few steps then came back and pointed again. I walked in front of him and flushed another quail. I wasn’t trying to take pictures I was just trying to get in front of him before the bird flew. Had I been shooting Luke would have been with us but in the wind he didn’t know we had birds. We didn’t find any more singles so we started on around the field.
Luke on a covey.
We hunted around the field and Luke made a big cast and got lost from me. The GPS was showing him where I was headed later and in the wind he couldn’t locate me. Tur Bo stayed with me and hunted out front. After a while the GPS lost Luke and was no longer tracking him. Tur Bo and I went on around the field then I got worried about Luke. I headed in the direction I thought he had gone and finally when I got to the top of the hill it showed Luke on point almost 600 yards away. I’ve had dogs get lost and go back to the truck. That’s what I thought Luke had done. I was walking in that direction but in no hurry. Then it dawned on me that he was in the direction of the truck but not exactly where the truck was. When I figured this out he was still over 500 yards away. I started walking in earnest. I would check the GPS every few yards and he stayed on point until I got within 140 yards then he started moving. I don’t know how long he was on point before I saw him on point, on the GPS. He wasn’t leaving the area where he had been on point so I went to him. Tur Bo started getting birdy and a quail flushed in front of him.
I checked the GPS and Luke was on point. He was only 25 yards away but I had to make a big circle to get to him and it wasn’t easy. The cover was really thick with trees on the ground that I couldn’t see. It was really hard to get to him and when I did he moved up. Two quail, or more, flushed about 10 yards ahead of him in some timber. This had to be the quail that he had pointed when he was lost. It was so thick in there I called the dogs and started back to the truck. Both dogs were about 100 yards ahead of me when I saw a turkey fly near where they were. I checked the GPS and Tur Bo was on point. I started toward him checking the GPS as I walked and it showed Luke backing. I got within about 40 yards and they both were moving. I called them and started for the truck.
I checked the GPS as I walked. Before I had gone very far it showed Luke on point about 40 yards away. I went to him and was able to get a picture. Before I could get another a covey flushed about 5 yards in front of Luke. There was about 10 or 12 birds in the covey and they looked like grown quail. We followed in the direction the quail had flown and pretty soon Luke was on point again. I got within about 10 yards of him and a quail flushed right under my feet. I started toward him and another bird flushed. We went on to the truck but after him finding that many quail it wasn’t easy to get him to come in.
I really don’t know for sure how many coveys I saw today but I hunted this place 2 or 3 times last year and only found 1 covey, one time. Kansas has a lot of places to hunt with the walk-in, state land and federal. Their upland forecast predicted more quail this year. This is the first time I’ve been out this year but after today I’m optimistic. But then if I wasn’t optimistic I wouldn’t feed 5 bird dogs.