Luke pointing a single in a plum thicket.
Tur Bo pointing a covey.
I think this is Luke on point.
Kansas allows turkey hunting in the fall with dogs. You can’t run dogs on walk-in property. You must be hunting so I carry a gun and have a turkey license. This allows me to be on walk-in land. The first 2 days I never saw a turkey. The third day I saw 2 different bunches of turkeys when I was driving between farms. If a turkey holds for the dogs I will shoot at it but I never saw one while I was hunting.
The second day, of my hunt, near Greensburg, Kansas started real cool at about 33 degrees. I have never hunted this farm before but had seen people hunting it last year. It was mostly CRP with a soy bean field across the road from it. I put the Garmin GPS collar and the Sport Dog e-collar on Luke and turned him and Rocky loose. I walked down a trail for about a hundred yards when I remembered I hadn’t filled my water bottles. I went back to the truck and filled the bottles. When I came back Luke was wound up like he had got some birds up. I had him work the area but we never came up with anything.
Some of the areas here are extremely thick from all of the spring rains. The wind was from the north and we went south about a quarter of a mile then turned east down a hedge row. At the end of the hedge row was a large plum thicket. Luke went on point about 50 yards ahead of me inside the plum thicket. Rocky and I started into the thicket and the covey of quail flushed out the other side. I couldn’t see all of them but I saw where a couple flew into another thicket about 50 yards away.
Luke went into the plum thicket and pointed. I got close to him and took two pictures. It was still early and there wasn’t a lot of light. The flash went off on both pictures and Luke looked at me after the second like, would you flush this bird. I flushed the quail and another flushed farther away. I whoaed Luke and he never moved. We hunted back to the truck but I knew we needed to find farms that had less cover. If they all were as tough to walk through as this one I wouldn’t last even half a day.
The next farm was one I’ve hunted in the past. It is CRP with a harvested corn field for part of the way and a harvested soy bean field the rest of the way. I turned Tur Bo out with the GPS and e-collars on. Rocky and I followed along. Every time a dog comes close Rocky tries to run with them. After about 10 yards he’s left behind to return to me. Since it’s still early I hunted the CRP. We were headed east with the wind out of the north. I was about 100 yards off the fence row. About a quarter mile into this farm was a rise in the ground that had some trees and plum thickets close to the fence. I got Tur Bo to hunt this rise.
As I was crossing the rise my GPS unit vibrated. Tur Bo was on point about 50 yards north of me. He was across the rise and back out in the CRP, in a plum thicket. I finally saw him and took one more step to get a better picture when a covey of quail boiled out. He started to chase and I yelled whoa and held the button on the transmitter down. He went about 10 yards and stopped. I was watching him and didn’t see where the covey flew. I went to him and tapped him on the head to release him, after petting him.
Since we were in the CRP we went on east toward the end and would hunt the rise on the way back. There were a lot of plum thickets in the CRP and Tur Bo was going from one to the other. We were almost to the back when Tur Bo slammed on the brakes and pointed. He was looking a long way in front of him in the CRP. I took a couple of pictures then made a circle well out in front of him. A single quail flushed out front. I thought that is a long way for a single to fly. He started moving when the single flushed and I yelled whoa and he stopped. Then the covey flushed and he didn’t move. Again, I was watching Tur Bo and didn’t see where they went. I went to him, stroked his sides telling him what a good boy he is then tapped his head to release him.
We hunted on to the back, crossed to a hedge row, back down the fence row across the rise and back to the truck without seeing any other quail. I put Rocky and Tur Bo in the dog box and drove to another farm.
I turned Blaze and Rocky out on another farm. Rocky doesn’t cover much ground but he’s always ready to go. This was the only farm in this area that I turned dogs out on that I didn’t find some quail. It had water, CRP and plum thickets. Ideal habitat but we failed to find birds but if I come back, close, I will give it a try. I drove to another farm.
At this farm I turned Luke and Blaze out with the appropriate collars on. I left Rocky in the truck. The north wind was really starting to blow. We hadn’t gone far, maybe 100 yards, from the truck when Luke pointed. He then moved up and started trailing. He trailed to another plum thicket beside the road and a covey flushed in front of him. It flew across the road. I whoaed Luke and he stopped. I released him to hunt.
Last year this farm had cattle on both sides of the road but this year it’s all in CRP. Where the cattle were pastured the grass is not real thick but what has been in CRP several years is real thick. When we got to the thick stuff I told Luke that we weren’t going to hunt the thick stuff. He went into the thick stuff about 50 yards and went on point. I crossed over into the thick stuff and when I got about 20 yards from him a rooster pheasant flushed right in front of me. Then another and another. Then a fourth. I still couldn’t see Luke but when I took a step a hen pheasant flushed. A step or two later a covey of quail flushed about 20 yards to my left. I don’t know what he was pointing but he had a bunch of birds.
I watched the direction the quail flew but they went over a small hill. But they were out of the thick stuff. I got Blaze and Luke to hunt where I thought they had flown. They checked it real well then tried to go back to the thick stuff. It was getting warm so I called them back. They were hunting well out in front of me when I walked up about 8 quail from the covey. We hunted back to the truck without finding any others.
I put those two dogs in the truck and got Tur Bo and Rocky out. We crossed the road to see if we could find the covey that had flushed in front of Luke. I had marked them down. Tur Bo was working into the wind and getting birdy when 2 quail flushed out in front of him. I yelled whoa and he stopped. Rocky came across in front of me and about 10 quail flushed right in front of him. Tur Bo didn’t move. Rocky got pretty excited and really started to hunt. We checked that area without finding any others and worked all the way to the back. We hunted back to the truck without finding any more birds.
It was getting pretty warm so we quit for the day. This was the only place I ran two of the setters together. I left Lucky and Dolly at home. If I had of brought all of the dogs and ran two at a time I might have found more birds. As it is, I’m more than satisfied with the number of birds we are finding. This was a dog training trip but also it was to see how many quail I could find. Oops, it was a turkey hunt. It wasn’t as good as the good old days but it was better than it has been for a long time.
Rocky
Lucky pointing a pigeon.
Blaze pointing a pigeon.