The snow has chased me into the house. My neighbors must think I’m senile at the very least. Before the snow got really heavy, I was mowing the leaves in my front yard. My neighbors can’t see what I was doing but they can hear the mower running. They probably don’t think I’m “all here” anyway and that just confirms it. Oh well. I had a couple of good hunts this week.
Austin going in to flush a single that Boss has pointed.
Mann pointing a single.
Austin and a couple of quail. We did have permission.
I hunted in northern Missouri with Austin Farley. He has some private places to hunt and is working to get more. I met him about 8:30 am and we drove to the first place. A corn field with a creek running through it and some other cover along the fence rows. A hundred yards or so in the GPS vibrated. Austin was on one side of the draw with me on the other. As I told him Sally was on point, he said, “there they go.” He said that there were dogs on point and another dog ran through the covey. We aren’t sure what happened, but the birds flew behind us, along the creek.
As Austin walked along the other side his English setter puppy, Bess, pointed. Just as she pointed a single flushed right in front of her and fell to Austin’s shot.
I crossed to Austin’s side and we went back along the creek. Boss went on point in the edge of the corn field. I took some pictures as the other dogs honored. Austin went around to flush the quail into the open where he could get a shot. Most of the time, the quail has already got it’s mind on the direction it will travel. This one flew straight toward me before turning and flying through the trees along the creek. Austin shot but the bird already had distance and several trees in his way.
The dogs checked everything as we went back close to the edge. We started down a fence line and Mann went on point. When I got close he had his feet crossed and his tail was low like he was afraid to move anything, or the bird would flush too early. I crossed the fence to run the bird out for Austin, which worked this time. Austin made a long shot and Sally came back over a terrace with the quail in her mouth. I thought she would give it to Austin, but she bypassed him and brought it to me.
We went on down the fence row to the end of the property then back down the creek. The dogs were birdy several times but we didn’t get any more quail up. When we got to the trucks, we loaded dogs and went to another place.
Mann pointing a single.
They had cut hay on the CRP on the front part of this property, but the back half was still standing. We walked back to it along the fence row. The property next to this, that we didn’t have permission to hunt, had row crops along with some pasture and CRP. When we got to the tall CRP Sally and Austin’s puppy Bess, went on point right in front of us. Then they moved a few feet and pointed again. They did this several times without ever actually staying on point. Then off to my left and behind me a rooster pheasant flushed. By the time I got into action it was too far, but I shot once anyway.
The GPS vibrated showing Boss on point. We got as close to him as we could, but he was on the property next door to where we had permission. After just a few minutes we saw several quail flush back onto the property we were on or close to it. I think a covey was spread out in the harvested soybean field next door and had flushed back into the CRP on our side.
As we came around the end of a draw the GPS vibrated showing Sally on point. We were still quite a way from her when Austin saw some pheasants in the air. Then she was moving according to the GPS. We worked the dogs into areas where we thought some of the quail had flown but never came up with anything.
Boss pointing a covey. Abby honoring.
Austin had stuff to do in the afternoon, so we headed back to the truck. We only hunted about 2 1/2 hours and had seen 2 coveys of quail and several pheasants. Not a bad morning’s work.
A few mornings later I decided to go to Kansas for a hunt. I didn’t leave very early, 8:00 am, because of the fog. I didn’t know that it was even worse in Kansas. On the two-lane roads it was hard to see cars coming even with their headlights on. And I saw a couple of people driving with only parking lights on. Talking about living dangerously.
I don’t do sit and wait, very well. So I kept driving. A couple of times, trying to turn on crossroads I pulled into people’s driveways. Visibility was not very good.
Sally pointing a single.
It was after 1:00 pm before the fog lifted enough for me to turn dogs out. By this time, I was a long way into Kansas. In an area I was unfamiliar with. I had driven by an area earlier and put a question mark on the map. This was a good time to try it. There was a harvested soybean field close to the road with a pasture next to it. I turned all 4 dogs out, Sally, Abby, Boss and Mann.
We had only gone a little way around the edge of the soybean field when the GPS showed Sally on point. Before I got close I saw Abby honoring her. Sally was standing in some scrub brush near a cedar tree. when I walked in 3 quail flushed, one at a time. Each one flew through the cedar tree without giving me a shot. With there being only 3 birds I wouldn’t have shot anyway. I don’t know whether someone else had hunted this earlier and had flushed a covey or if there were only 3 birds.
We did check the area to see if we could find any others. The dogs got birdy but never came up with anything. We went on around the edge of the bean field to the south edge, turned east and went to the center of the mile long property. I found a harvested corn field with a lot of good cover along a waterway and the fence rows. We turned to the north along the fence line.
Mann honoring Sally.
In between the corn field and a soybean field was a hay field. It was, probably, CRP that the farmer had been allowed to cut the hay for his cattle. There was some good cover along the fence row but Boss saw a little clump of brush in the middle of the hay field. I was watching him when he checked it out and went on point. As I went to him Abby honored from about 50 yards behind. I turned and Sally and Mann were behind me honoring, also.
I took pictures of Boss and Abby but the other two were too far. When I got to the clump, I put the camera up and kicked the edge of the brush 3 times. Nothing happened. I backed out and crossed behind Boss and came around to the other side of the little clump. On my second kick a covey exploded. I shot and one quail fell in the hay field. An easy retrieve for Sally.
There was a thick draw about 75 yards to the north and all of the dogs were in it, birdy. Boss pointed again and when I got close I saw him move up. I cautioned him. As I got closer, he moved again, and I saw 2 quail flush from the other side about 20 yards in front of him. He chased and I yelled, “whoa”. I normally don’t say anything to the dogs. Shouldn’t have on this one. Those birds ran out and flushed. If they would have held, he would have.
We worked on down the draw to a larger one. The GPS vibrated and showed Boss on point at about 200 yards. When I got to the larger draw Boss was on the opposite side on point. He was still 65 yards from me. That’s how wide the draw was. I started across and it had to take me more than 5 minutes to get across. When I got to him, I could tell that the bird was gone. But I had yelled at him for moving when the last birds got up, so he wasn’t moving. I tapped his head and we went back to hunting.
Abby and Boss honoring Sally pointing a ‘possum.
When we got to the north road we went through a really good-looking area with lots of cover between two crop fields. We didn’t find anything but it was close to a road so it could have been hunted before I got there. As we came around the end of the cover the GPS vibrated. Sally was on point. By the time I got close the other dogs were honoring. Sally was inside a clump of brush but her tail wasn’t even, even with her back. I said, Sally, “I bet you’re pointing a ‘possum.” Sure enough, when I passed her I saw a ‘possum about 15 yards in front of her. Sally has done a skunk before and I don’t want her doing fur of any kind. Some places I hunt have porcupines. I don’t need them either. I tapped her on the rump and said, “no”. We left.
We worked back along the fence line near where Boss had found the covey but didn’t pick up any more singles. It was getting late, so we started across a pasture toward the truck. I don’t like to move birds real late. The pasture hadn’t been grazed way down. There was a good stand of blue stem or some tall grass. As we crossed the GPS vibrated and it showed Boss on point just 79 yards south of me. I could see his tail and part of his head sticking above the cover.
He looked really good, so I took several pictures. We were close enough to have a single quail from the first birds Sally had pointed but when I got close to him a rooster pheasant flushed. It didn’t get very high and I didn’t make a good hit on it. I knew it would hit the ground and run but Boss was right on it. He was holding it to the ground when I got to him. Sally tried to take it but he whirled around. I grabbed his collar, but he still didn’t want to give it up. I blew a puff of air into his ear, and he turned it loose.
From an earlier hunt in Kansas.
We started on toward the truck and Boss went about a hundred yards and pointed into a little clump of brush. This was close to where Sally had pointed the 3 when we first got here. Sally and Abby were honoring and I tried to get pictures. The sun was all wrong and I couldn’t see him. finally, I gave up and started to him but he wasn’t there. He had moved.
I went on to the clump and saw him on the other side, on point. He had circled the clump. When I kicked the clump I just saw a quail flush low to the ground. It never got high enough for a shot. We went on toward the truck. I saw one more quail. I think Sally got one up close to the truck. But it was a good short hunt. In maybe 3 hours we had seen 2 coveys of quail and a pheasant. We had got a lot of dog work and I had taken several pictures. A successful day.