Vince Dye and I drove to Oklahoma on a Thursday night, 12/8/16. We stayed at the Bedford Inn in Elk City, Oklahoma and got up early Friday morning to hunt the Black Kettle National Grasslands. Oklahoma quail are up from last year and last year was a good year. I had been here opening weekend and it was wall to wall hunters. I was hoping for less competition.
Black Kettle is hard on dogs and boots.
Luke
Tur Bo
We saw some hunters camped at Skipout Lake but none out hunting as we drove to the first place. I put the Garmin e-collars and the Garmin GPS collars on Luke and Dolly. Vince turned out his English cocker spaniel, Maggie and his pointer, Buck. Buck was wearing an e-collar and a Garmin GPS.
Although this part of Oklahoma had a rain last weekend it was really dry. We hunted to the west fence line then south along the edge of the property to a wind mill. I carry water for the dogs but I like to get them into water as often as I can. The second day of the season I had found birds around the wind mill but they weren’t close today. We headed to the east and a single quail flushed about 30 yards from Vince and flew away without either of us getting a shot. Then a covey flushed. Vince shot once but they were too far away.
We followed the singles with no success but as we hunted to the north east Dolly pointed in a thicket. Vince was on one side with me on the other. He knocked a bird down but I had a clean miss. Maggie went in and found his dead bird. This covey also flew to the north east.
We hunted all the way to the road without finding any singles. They may have crossed the road. We circled back to the wind mill. After the dogs got water we headed into the strong south wind. As we got into the second half of the section we were hunting Dolly started trailing. I knew she was working birds so I called Vincent over closer to her. She pointed then moved about 15 yards and pointed again. Four or five quail flushed about 30 yards in front of us. I shot but missed with the more open barrel then three or four more quail flushed. I pulled the back trigger shooting the tighter choke and a quail dropped. Dolly saw it fall and pounced on it.
We followed the singles on to the south. The dogs were quartering the field in front of us when I walked a quail up. It dropped, at my shot, just on the other side of a bush so I marked it down. I called the dogs in and they started searching. About 10 yards from where I saw the bird drop Luke went on point. He doesn’t retrieve but he usually rolls the dead bird around. When I got to him I encouraged him to get the dead bird. He dove in and held a wounded but still alive quail in his mouth until I took it.
We checked the area but found no more singles. We continued on to the south edge then started east. I checked the GPS as I walked. It showed Luke on point about 101 yards away. I started to him. It was a cloudy day and I walked toward the direction I thought he was in but after a long walk he was still about 100 yards away. I thought he was moving but it was me. I wasn’t going in the direction that I should have been. Finally, I got going in the right direction. I saw him standing with a high head and tail right where he had been all of the time.
He was standing in some scattered trees. I got close then waited for Vince to get where he could shoot too. When he was ready I walked in and a huge covey erupted. I shot one of the trees right in front of me and heard Vince griping, “I shot a tree.” Long story short, after Luke being on point for over 5 minutes, the largest covey either of us had seen in years flew off without us hitting a bird. The whole covey had flown to the north so we followed.
Luke came in front and went on point about 30 yards in front of me. I told Vince he was on point but before either of us could get closer a single quail flushed about 15 yards in front of me. I shot but it was too far. When I shot 3 more quail flushed too far away to even draw a shot from either of us. We checked the area for more quail but didn’t find any.
We were about a mile from the truck so we hunted back. When we got close to where the other singles were Maggie flushed a single and Vince shot it. She saw it fall and hustled it right back to Vince. We checked the area but think most of the birds crossed the road.
We ate lunch and moved to another area. Black Kettle National Grassland is over 30,000 acres scattered out in a lot of different parcels. The next area Vince left Buck, his pointer, in the box but took Maggie along. I put Tur Bo and Lucky down with the e-collars and GPS collars on.
As we came down the edge near the road a covey flushed between me and the dogs and flew off the property. The dogs were trailing in a thicket and, I think, the birds ran from them but heard me coming and flushed. Neither of us got a shot. We continued into the south wind.
The GPS showed Luke on point about 65 yards to the east in a clump of trees. When we got close we still couldn’t see him. Vince got on the north edge of the clump and I went in. I saw about 5 birds fly to the north but they were too far away for Vince to shoot. He watched them to the ground.
We got the dogs to hunt where they had gone down. Although the dogs got real birdy we never found a single quail. We hunted on to the east.
Another covey flushed in front of the dogs and flew east. That made 3 coveys that we had seen on this property and neither of us had fired a shot. We finished the day at this property without shooting at all.
We had found 7 coveys, only killed 4 birds but had had a good day. Of the 7 coveys both of us had not been in a position to shoot on at least 4 of the coveys but it had been a good day for the dogs. When I was here opening weekend there was too many hunters for me to hunt where I wanted. Now it seems the Oklahoma quail are back.
Dolly in Oklahoma
Luke
Lucky backing Luke.