The second day, I got up early and had a leisurely breakfast at the café. Being close to where you are going to quail hunt is great. Austin Farley and I had been in this same area before quail season opened, running dogs. We had found quail but I wasn’t starting on any of the properties that we had seen when we had been here before.
A point when we were almost back to the truck.
Mann on point.
Luke on point, Mann beside him, Tur Bo and Bray backing.
I drove by several spots close to the town I stayed in then found a large parcel with harvested soy beans. There were several draws with good cover running into the soy bean field. As I drove around the walk-in property to make sure no one was hunting it I saw a covey of quail run across the road. They had crossed a soy bean field to get to a harvested corn field. The closest cover of any kind other than some soy beans that hadn’t been harvested was on the property I wanted to hunt. With the use of herbicides there was no cover in the soy beans. I drove down the road, turned around and came back to watch the covey run through the corn field.
We had a strong south wind so I turned Dolly and Luke out with the e-collars and GPS collars around their neck. We went down the fence line with the wind and my plan was to come back down a large draw into the wind. With Luke it’s hard to stay with a plan. He went off the place to the east and went on point. I had to go find him. He will be on point until the birds fly, no matter how long. I got within about fifty yards of him and he was moving. He was all excited.
I made him stay with me and we went down the big draw back to the truck. We didn’t find anything in the draw but the quail I had seen on the road had to live close to the big draw. There was no other cover around. I loaded the dogs and drove down the road to another draw.
I put the e-collars and GPS collars on Sally, Tur Bo and Mann and turned them loose. It was about fifty yards to a draw that started through the soy bean field. The dogs had just started down the draw when I saw a covey of quail flush about half way down the draw. The dogs weren’t even close.
We went on down the draw. All three dogs were hunting inside the draw and I was trying to walk the middle. Plum thickets in this part of the world are hard to get through and they grow anywhere it hasn’t been plowed. As we went down the draw I saw Tur Bo slam on the brakes but about 6 quail flushed well out in front of him. All I could do was try to watch them down.
I got the dogs in where I thought the quail had flown to and I got a text on my phone. I checked it and it looked like a scam so I deleted the message. I looked to see where the dogs were and Sally and Tur Bo were where I wanted them to be. I looked for Mann and he was about 20 yards from me on point.
Mann is only 7 months old and I really wanted to shoot a bird for him. Usually, just having that thought can cause me to miss. I went in front of him and two quail flushed. I hit one with the first shot and missed with the second. Mann saw the quail fall and ran to it. Sally beat him to it and I took it from her and showed it to Mann. He sniffed it and went back to hunting.
We went through the area several times without finding any of the other quail that had flown into that area. We worked the draw to the end and came back down the side back to the truck. I loaded the dogs.
Sally on point.
I ate lunch while I drove to another property. It was above freezing and these roads had had some snow on them. Without 4-wheel drive I wouldn’t have been able to find these properties. It was a little iffy as it was. I parked in between two draws that ran into a harvested soy bean field.
I turned Luke, Dolly and Babe out. Both of these draws had lots of cover. There was no fence on this place so they hadn’t turned cattle in to graze the cover down. I was about half way down the draw when I checked the GPS and Luke was almost to the end on point. By now the wind had turned out of the north. I got pretty close to Luke and I saw a quail flying at about Mach 1 down the center of the draw. I poked a shot at it but missed. Another quail flew down my side of the draw and I turned and shot it going away. It dropped in the soy bean stubble. Dolly was going down the side of the draw near the dead quail but was oblivious of me calling her. She will be thirteen in February and I believe she is deaf. Luke came by and found the dead bird for me.
Several times I saw quail flying down the draw but I wouldn’t make a very good driven bird shooter. I shot but didn’t connect. As I walked along the edge of the draw a single quail flushed from the edge right in front of me. I shot and it fell in the soy bean stubble. None of the dogs were close so I picked it up.
Where the draw came down to the road there was a big plum thicket. I think those quail knew that they were safe in the thicket. We went back and forth without finding any others. When we got close to the truck I put Dolly up. She was tired. I got Mann out.
While I was putting the collars on Mann, Luke went up the other draw. I saw several pheasants in the air before I got to the draw. The wind was out of the north so we should have had the wind right as we went down the draw. I heard a quail flush down in the draw with nothing close to it. As we continued to the end of this draw I saw a quail fly back toward the road. When we got to the end of the draw I saw another draw to the north still on this place. We crossed the stubble to it.
Luke pointing a covey of quail.
This draw was smaller than the other two had been. We were almost through it when Babe went on point. Just as I saw her a single quail flushed, flying out the other side without giving me a shot. I started through the end and saw Mann on point. When I got close he flushed the quail. Because he flushed his own bird I didn’t shoot. No more chances than we have now that was hard but, hopefully, he will get the message. I flush the birds not him.
When we got through that draw I could see another. This place was a mile long and the next draw was along the road to the north. I saw Luke run all the way to the end of the draw and turn and come back. The way the wind was, there was no reason for me to go check that draw. We turned back to the truck. We went down all of the draws on the way back without finding anything else. I loaded the dogs.
Because deer season had opened the day before in Kansas a lot of people had decided to do what I had decided. Go to Nebraska. I had seen hunters at several places and others had driven by while I was hunting. The next two places I wanted to hunt had people on them. I found one that some one had already been on but I turned Sally, Tur Bo and Mann loose.
Tur Bo on point.
The dogs and I were just happy to be alive and out there hunting. We went up a big draw with plum thickets, really thick. I took pictures of where I had come from and where I had to go. If the deer had not have made trails there was no way I could have got through. We went all the way to the end of this draw then crossed a milo field to an abandoned road. Some of it had plum thickets but part of it was just tall grass.
As we went back toward the truck I saw a single quail flush down the road way. I tried to watch it down but couldn’t. I got the dogs in where I thought it went but we never found it. When we got back to the truck I fed dogs and cleaned the birds.
As I was feeding the dogs 4 guys from Florida stopped and talked. They were going to hunt this place if I hadn’t of been there. They left to try somewhere else.
I don’t know if the birds were wild because of all the pressure, from lots of hunters or because there was a storm coming in the next day. But they didn’t hold very well. Their survival tactics is life or death for them. If they all held really well, they would be killed off and we wouldn’t have anything to work our dogs on.
Some of the plum thickets in Nebraska.
I had been through the thicket on the other picture. This picture was where I had to go.
A pond with the trees reflecting off the water.