Let me start this off right. I do not want to shoot a prairie chicken but to be on walk-in properties you must be hunting something. Austin Farley and I left my house at 5:00 am on Tuesday, 10/16/18, to go to Nebraska with a load of dogs. We had six English setters and two German short haired pointers.
My truck with enough boxes for 8 dogs.
Luke pointing a covey of quail.
Sunrise in Kansas.
When we got into Nebraska we stopped to buy a hunting license. The first place told us we would have to buy them on line so we went to another place. He told us the same thing. Austin got on his cell phone and started trying to buy a license on line. He said, “okay, I have mine”. I told him my phone wouldn’t do that. He took my phone and got my license for me. My phone will do that with another operator.
We started on the walk-in properties west of Beatrice. Most of the walk-in properties were CRP that were really thick and tall. As we drove along we would say, “this one isn’t as thick as the others. Let’s try it”. We would turn some dogs loose and find out when we started walking that it was just too thick for quail or even prairie chickens. We saw a few pheasants but they got up way in front of the dogs.
Once the temperature got up close to 60 degrees we started just driving west and looking at the walk-in properties. A lot of the walk-in is in CRP that is too thick for even pheasants to be in, in my opinion.
We drove until we were in the Alma, Nebraska area. It cooled down some and we needed to get the dogs out so we picked a huge place to run them on. We turned all 8 dogs out at one time. We had dogs that started with us but soon we had dogs everywhere. Both of the short hairs were really small and one of them had a GPS collar slip off. We thought we could just track it when we finished running dogs so it was no big deal.
As we were trying to figure out where all of the dogs were Tur Bo came by us and went into a point near a milo field. He was going with the wind and as he entered the brush along the point a big covey of quail flushed. There were probably 12 or 15 birds in the covey. We could just see them flying through the brush but not where they lit. Just as we said, “that’s a big covey” another bunch flushed into the standing milo field.
Tur Bo came out of the brush looking like he knew he had screwed up. I’ve never seen him look so apologetic. I don’t think he had a chance with the wind blowing. He was into the covey before he got any scent but I said, “what did you do”. He kept apologizing.
We waited until we got the puppies close to us and then went into the milo. We just wanted the puppies to smell the birds. We didn’t care whether they pointed or not. As we went along a single quail flushed but went right back down. As we got close to where the first one went down 8 quail flushed then 3 more. The puppies were going crazy in the milo. As we went on 2 more flushed. Then 2 more flushed from a little way apart. Then a single quail flew off. That was 17 quail from just part of that covey. One of these birds was probably the first quail that only flew a few yards and went back down but that’s still would make 16 birds. All of these birds flew to the south and landed in this milo field.
The puppies were really fired up but Bray that lost the GPS collar wasn’t with us. We weren’t sure where she was. We were standing about 50 yards from where the covey had flushed from when Austin heard quail whistling near where they had got up.
Luke pointing with Drifter backing.
We called all of the dogs in and went into the brush. Luke and Sally don’t think I know very much about where birds are so they made a pass through and went on. Tur Bo wasn’t sure whether he was in trouble or not so he stayed with me. Mann and Babe were close, too. When we got within just a few feet from where the covey had originally flushed Tur Bo went on point.
We tried to get the puppies in close. Babe came in behind Tur Bo and I said, “whoa” to her but she didn’t stop. She knows whoa at home but not in the field, yet. As she went in front of Tur Bo another 12 quail flushed. With the birds from the milo field that made at least 28 birds in the covey. Or was this two coveys real close together. I don’t know but it was a lot of birds and was really good for the puppies.
We worked the dogs back along the milo field and loaded up the dogs that were with us. Austin left a jacket close to where we had parked the truck. We drove all over looking for Bray. Finally, as we drove back close to where we had turned them loose Bray was there. We loaded her and went to look for the lost GPS collar.
Austin getting ready to flush Tur Bo’s single.
The closest we could drive to the area of the GPS collar was 183 yards. Austin went to get it. After a few minutes I went to help. Not ever having lost a GPS collar I thought it would be easy to find. Not so. When you get close it will change readings. As you get close it will say 0 feet. Then as you look the hand held will say 17 feet or something. This happened to be a Sport Dog but my Garmin works the same way. I can lay 3 collars down, together and my hand held will say one is 12 feet, one 9 feet and the other is 17 feet or something close to that. We were in CRP grass over my head. We never found the collar.
We saw some pheasants on the first day but not a lot. And for me, even if they are pointed it’s not as memorable as when the dogs point quail. I don’t know why but for me it’s all about quail.
We went into Alma Nebraska for supper and a motel. We had driven over 400 miles and walked over 6 miles. So after a good meal and a shower a good nights sleep was in order.
Sally on point.
Tur Bo on point.
Luke on point, Mann beside him, Tur Bo and Bray backing.