I met Don and Linda Hansen a couple of hours drive into Kansas. Normally I have a bunch of dogs with me but this time I had only brought Mann and Boss. Sally is in heat but almost through and the males are chasing Abby so she must be about ready to go into her heat cycle. I still have a couple more, Luke who is retired and Bodie that is too young. I will take Bodie for a while just when I hunt by myself.
Boss honoring Mann.
Goofy honoring Mann.
Mann pointing a covey of quail.
Don had Goofy and Ace with him. He ran Goofy first and I put Mann and Boss out. We had a couple of small harvested soybean fields on one side of the road with a wide area of CRP on the other side of the road. Mann had a lot of energy and had almost run one of the fields before we got started. I enjoy standing in one spot and watching him circle a field. He doesn’t leave much out.
We didn’t find anything feeding in the first soybean field so we walked to the next one. This one had a low area with a waterway running from east to west. We went down it then on around the field. Nothing home here either.
We crossed the road and started through the CRP. I saw Goofy go on point. Then he started trailing. Boss was trailing too. We decided if there were any quail in the CRP they would be close to the road. As we walked along I felt the GPS hand held vibrate. Mann was on point about a hundred yards farther into the field. Not close to the road at all.
Before we could see Mann I saw a hawk fly over a plum thicket. When we got close Mann was pointing into the thicket. Don went on the right side and I went on the left. One single quail flushed from the thicket and flew up and away on my side. It folded when I shot. I took a step and another bird flushed from behind me and several more went with it. They got up behind me and about 20 yards out into the CRP.
As I tried to get the dogs in to find my dead bird, Goofy went on point back close to the plum thicket. As Don was trying to flush in front of him I thought I heard a quail flush quite away out. We hadn’t been out of the truck long and it was hard to get my dogs in to hunt dead. Finally, Mann came by and stuck his nose down close to where I thought the bird would be. Sure enough, he picked the quail up and dropped it into my hand.
Neither of us saw where the birds had flown to, just the general direction. We hunted along a creek on the eastern edge of the CRP. Then back through the whole field to the truck without seeing a single. When we got back to our trucks we loaded dogs and drove down the road to another place.
Abby and Bodie near the pond.
The next place was a lot larger but we didn’t hunt all of it. We usually find the birds in the first part. There is a really long CRP field that over the years has gotten too thick, in our opinion. On this place Don turned Ace out with my two. The dogs hit the edges and saved us a lot of walking. I like finding quail but even if we’re not, I enjoy just watching the dogs stretch out and run the edges.
In the past, I have found up to 4 coveys in the area we run the dogs through. On this day, try as we might, we never saw a quail. When we got back to the truck we ate lunch then drove to another walk-in place.
When we got to the next place I saw some trucks and a combine. A couple of times I have hunted where they were combining and really got into the birds. One time the highway department was mowing the ditches and next to the conservation place some farmers were combining. Dennis Garrison and I got our limits in just a couple of hours.
Abby in the pond.
Another time I had to be back to work at 6:30 pm. I got to the back side of a place that was a mile by a half mile. There were 2 combines running and the dogs started pointing birds, pheasants and quail. I was shooting really bad and had to go back to the truck to get more bullets. I finally got my limit and made it to work on time. It was close but I made it.
This time the combine or trucks never moved. They may have been through with this farm and getting ready to move to another. Don turned Goofy out with Mann and Boss. The wind was getting stronger, from the west north west, as the day wore on. We parked on the south side and worked the dogs into the wind.
We have hunted this farm for several years and we discussed where we had seen quail in the past. We were almost to the north edge when I looked ahead and saw Mann on point. He was looking into a small thicket next to a harvested soybean field. Boss honored then Goofy honored behind Boss. There was one honey locust tree in the thicket and I went under the limbs to flush the birds. Eight or ten quail flushed flying into the wind.
Mann honoring.
My only shot was through the honey locust and I missed but Don knocked one down. Mann grabbed the dead bird and dropped it in my hand. I had moved out from under the tree but Mann had the bird and was back before we could move far. It was about half grown. We had no clue that the birds weren’t grown birds but we both said no more shooting on this covey. We did try to get some dog work on them.
We worked to the edge on the north and started back toward the trucks through the cover. We had come out on the road to go around some real thick cover when Don’s GPS handheld told him that Goofy was on point. We were almost on top of Goofy before we could see him in the thick cover. Before I could grab my camera 4 quail flushed from directly in front of Goofy. Neither of us even raised our gun. In two or three weeks they will be old enough to hunt, maybe. We worked our way back to the trucks, loaded our dogs and called it a day.
Abby pointing a chukar.
The weather people said that the wind would be blowing really hard in afternoon, today. I thought it would be a good day to get Sally out. She hasn’t been out this season because she’s been in heat. Hunting by my self I could hunt her with Abby and Bodie and if she was still in heat it wouldn’t hurt anything. I didn’t think bout the weather 2 hours west is our afternoon weather. When I got to the area I wanted to hunt the wind was howling.
I turned Sally, Abby and Bodie out in some heavy CRP next to a harvested soybean field. At just over 4 months old Bodie really tries. He runs hard but doesn’t pay attention to which direction. When I turn the other dogs know and turn also. He just keeps going until he realizes that he’s alone. When I call he will come to me.
We went along a hedge row after circling the soybean field without seeing anything. When we came by a pond Bodie went into it and drank. Some puppies are bothered by the water but not him. He waded out until his belly was wet and would have gone farther if Abby or Sally had. I tried to get pictures of him deep in the pond but he came out before I could get a picture. When we got close to the truck I loaded them up.
Boss on point, Allie and Abby honoring.
I knew with the wind blowing so hard I didn’t want to hunt long but I still had Boss and Mann that hadn’t been out of the box. I went to a small farm that had been planted with soybeans but they hadn’t grown well. They were really clean so the weed killer worked but the soybeans were only between ankle and knee high. In the past I have found quail near this field.
I turned Bodie out again with Boss and Mann. On the back side of the soybean field is a wide buffer strip that sometimes holds birds. Not this day. We went around the field and back to the truck. I watered the dogs and as I took their e-collars and GPS collars off a hedge apple fell from a tree and hit on the top of a dog box. It didn’t bother the dogs but I may be a little gun shy. I really jumped.
Bodie pointing a pigeon.
Sally hasn’t been hunted or even out of the kennel for over 3 weeks. It was good to have her back but she isn’t even close to being in shape. A short hunt was what she needed. The other dogs are a little better shape but in the next couple of weeks they will get more work, I hope.