I drove to Oklahoma on Friday the eleventh of November to hunt Black Kettle National Grasslands. My game plan was to quail hunt for a while in Missouri where the season was already open then go on to Oklahoma. When I saw what my GPS said the drive time to Oklahoma was I changed my mind. I just drove close to where I wanted to hunt and ran the dogs for a little while before dark.
Betsy
Dolly in Oklahoma
Feeding dogs in Oklahoma.
I stayed at the Bedford Inn in Elk City, Oklahoma and got up early the next morning, ate breakfast and drove to my favorite place. There were already two groups of hunters on it so I drove to another place. This one had 3 trucks parked on it. I went to another and there were 3 trucks full of guys just getting out. I started driving on when I remembered that the other side of the road was also grasslands. I turned around and came back. There was already a truck on it. One of the guys from across the road came out to talk. I asked if they would be alright with me hunting the far end of this place as it was a mile long. They had no problem so I headed to it. When I got there, there was already someone parked there. I drove on.
A couple of miles down the road was another place. I saw a truck parked on it. I drove in to check a wind mill. Before I could get to the wind mill I saw the two guys that were going to hunt this place. Rick and Daniel Camp, from Tennessee, invited me to go with them. I went.
I turned Dolly and Lucky out. Rick and Daniel were hunting a couple of Brittanies with two more at the motel in reserve. This parcel was really thick with lots of shinnery oaks. Shortly after we started the GPS showed Lucky on point. We fought our way through the shinnery oaks to him. He was hard to see in the cover and just as I got to him he started trailing. Dolly came in and they both started trailing but we never saw a bird. We hunted to the road on the west and Daniel saw one quail fly across the road.
We moved over and went back through the cover toward our trucks. Before we got back we heard shooting from near our trucks. When we got closer there were two guys hunting near the wind mill. They said they saw a covey of quail running down the two track road to the wind mill. They jumped out and chased them. Rick, Daniel and I hunted back to our trucks. After talking and exchanging phone numbers we went our separate ways. That’s a nice way to make new friends.
Now I wasn’t even looking for one of my favorite places, I was just looking for an empty parking lot. I found one and turned Tur Bo, Betsy and Luke out. I went to the east parallel to the road. I had only gone a couple hundred yards when I saw some guys in front of me. I called the dogs in and went to the north to get away from the other hunters.
As I went to the north Betsy decided to go on to the east. I kept calling her and going to the north. She finally got with the other hunters so I made a circle back to the truck. I loaded Tur Bo and Luke then drove to the east to get Betsy. The other hunters were parked on the east end and had her tied up. They had tried to call and text me but I was in an area that had no coverage. It was about 11:30 am and they said they had found 9 coveys. I had seen 2 quail on this place without getting a shot or any dog work.
I hunted another small place without seeing anything then decided to drive back by some of my favorite places. Just as I turned off a black top onto a gravel road the low tire light came on. I jumped out with my handy air gauge but when I looked at the left front tire I could see I didn’t need it. The first flat I’ve had in years. Never in this truck. I crawled under the back to get the spare tire out. That didn’t work.
I had to get the book out to see how to get the spare tire off. As I worked on this a nice man, Jerry Sides, stopped and helped. He had just lowered his spare for the first time just a few days before. He was in a Toyota and I drive a Ford but they were similar. Between the two of us we got the tire changed. The spare was low on air but had enough to get me going. The flat tire was ruined. I had hit something that made a large hole.
I went to Reydon to get air in the tire but there was no air hoses at the station so I headed into Cheyenne. I didn’t find any air hoses there either and since I needed to buy a tire I headed to Elk City. I did get air for the tire but all of the tire stores had closed at noon. Oh well, I really only need 4 tires.
Sunday morning I was on my way back to check on my favorite places when a guy flagged me down. He had a gas can in his hand and asked me to drive him into Reydon. I had the cab of the truck full with all of my gear for the weekend but he said he didn’t mind riding in back. We were only a couple of miles from Reydon. When we got there the station wasn’t open on Sunday. Knowing how hard it had been to get air the day and how Jerry Sides had taken time out of his day to help me I drove him into Cheyenne. While he filled his gas can I stacked some of my gear so he could ride in the cab of the truck. After we got back to his truck I waited until it started before leaving.
The first 4 places I drove by had hunters on them but the same people was hunting a mile long place that had said they wouldn’t mind if I hunted the very north end. No one was parked there. I turned Lucky and Dolly out with their Garmin e-collars and GPS collars on. Shortly after we started Lucky’s GPS collar quit tracking him. I think something bumped the control and it asked me if I wanted to quit tracking him, maybe. I don’t want all of the frills I just want it to tell me where my dog is but I answered wrong and it quit tracking him.
I tried to keep up with him but I was getting frustrated. I called him in and took his GPS collar off and started trying to get it to work. I stopped at a wind mill for the dogs to get a drink and cool off. I was working on the collar and the dogs moved away. I had the collar in one hand and my gun in the other. I looked up and saw Dolly about 50 yards away on point. I tried to shove the GPS collar in my game bag and as I started toward her a covey of quail flushed flying back toward the truck. Too far for a shot. Then I saw Lucky on point about 30 yards from where Dolly was. A covey flushed in front of him. Again, too far for a shot but they also flew back toward the truck.
I started toward where the coveys had flown still working on the GPS collar. I looked at my hand held unit and Dolly was on point behind me near where the coveys had flushed from. She was less than a hundred yards from where the other two coveys had been. She was deep in the shinnery oak patch and when I got close a covey flushed. I dropped a quail with the first barrel but missed with the second. Dolly found my dead bird.
We went in the direction of the singles. All 3 coveys had flown in the same general direction. I finally got the GPS collar working. I called Lucky but he didn’t come in. I started looking for him. A single quail had flushed wild in front of me in an area and I had run the dogs through it without finding anything. As I looked for Lucky I swung back through that area and found him on point. Lucky is 12 years old and doesn’t see the need to be stylish. He was rigid but he was lying down. At his age I think every point may be his last and I so wanted to kill this bird. When I walked in two quail flushed and I missed, twice. Lucky didn’t bite me but he probably should have.
I had another couple of points on the way back to the truck without me getting a shot. The wind was blowing pretty hard from the south and the birds ran before flushing out the other side of the thickets they were in. I watered Lucky and Dolly and put them in the truck.
I’ve been running Betsy with a neck collar and flank collar so I put the Garmin e-collars on her and put Sport Dog e-collars on Luke and Tur Bo. We went to the east and Luke crossed the road and went on private ground. The post before this details what all I went through to get him back. When he came back we went on to the wind mill to cool down and see if they could find any of the singles. Tur Bo was at the wind mill and Luke went on point just about where the first covey had flushed from. Before I could find him Betsy came by and instead of honoring went by him and flushed the bird.
When I loaded the dogs I saw that I hadn’t turned on either of the e-collars on Luke and Tur Bo. We started home. At 11:00 am it was already 66 degrees. Too hot for November and definitely too hot for bird dogs.
When I started this blog I decided that I would always tell the truth. When I tell about a quail hunt it is the way I remember it. It doesn’t always make me look good or make my dogs look good but it’s always the way I remember it.
Luke buried in the weeds.
Lucky backing Luke.
Tur Bo