Lucky pointing
Luke pointing
Luke pointing Lucky honoring
I was awake early for the second day of my Oklahoma quail hunt. My cousin, Jim Smith, had told me about an area that he had found quail so I decided to try it first. Most of the motel rooms were full of oil field workers so I stayed in Elk City, Oklahoma and this property was on the way.
I put the Garmin GPS collars and Sport Dog e-collars on Luke and Lucky. It was about 40 degrees and we started north into a cool breeze. The area we started into was a 160 acres but the area where Jim had found birds was land locked. We had to cross this one to get to the other. Before we got to the land locked farm Lucky crossed the fence on private land and pointed. He was pointing toward the land I was hunting. I tried to get him to flush but he wasn’t moving. Luke came around, saw Lucky and honored. Now I had 2 dogs that were poaching.
I crossed the fence and went in front of Lucky but nothing flushed. He and Luke both started trailing toward the land we were supposed to be on. We crossed back over. They trailed a ways then went back to hunting. We made it to the land locked area and it looked good. It is far enough back that most people won’t walk that far to hunt. We hunted some draws but it was getting warm and I hadn’t brought any water so we started back to the truck.
We got back to the first place near where Lucky had pointed on private property and he pointed again. This time he was on land we were supposed to be on. I started toward him and about 40 yards ahead of him a covey of quail flushed. Lucky didn’t see or hear them flush. I watched them fly toward some cedar trees right on the edge of the property. Lucky was still on point but all of the quail had already flushed. We started in the direction the covey had flown.
The GPS showed Lucky on point and when I got there he was across the fence but only about 3 feet pointing into a deep draw filled with cedars. Even if this was on the property we were supposed to be on there was no way I would have a shot. The birds were under the cedar trees. I kicked the fence and 2 quail flushed then a third. As I turned to walk away Luke whirled into a point along the edge, just before the cedars. I stayed between the cedars and Luke hoping to flush the birds into the open. A quail flushed and I dropped it with a lucky shot. At the shot another flushed. I knocked it down, too. Lucky retrieved the first bird and we looked for the second. I would make them look where the quail had fallen but they kept going into the cedars. If Luke found it he only picked it up then dropped it. He doesn’t retrieve, yet. We never found the second bird.
Several years ago I had hunted another land locked area. I hadn’t found any quail but there were a lot of tracks around a wind mill. I turned Dolly and Blaze loose with the GPS collars and e-collars on. I started seeing tracks where someone had been hunting this farm either today or late yesterday. I figured they would hunt this place but wouldn’t walk far enough to hunt the land locked portion. I was wrong, I saw tracks every where I went.
Dolly pointed just before we got to the land locked place. Blaze honored. I walked in and about 8 quail flushed. I hit a quail with the first barrel but it wasn’t hit very good so I dropped it with the second barrel. We were close to the edge and all of the covey flew off the place I was hunting. Dolly retrieved the bird. This may have been some birds that the other hunters had found and only about 8 had got back together. All of the coveys I have found were bigger than this.
We hunted the land locked 160 acres by going west along the north fence row to the north west corner. We followed a draw diagonally from the north west corner to the south east then back through the first place without finding anything else.
Tur Bo was the only dog that hadn’t hunted. I paired him with Luke on the next 160 acre place we hunted. Most of these places are about the same. They don’t have a lot of tall trees but the cover they have is very hard on dogs and boots. The dogs have to go through shinnery oak patches, plum thickets, sage brush and there is yucca plants every where. Some of the dogs stop and pull the sand burrs out of their feet but some just carry the foot until they get close to me. Most would rather hunt on three legs than take time for me to get the burr out.
We hunted to the north then started east along the north fence row. There was a little patch of saplings near a cross fence about half way down the fence row that Luke and Tur Bo were in. I saw 4 or 5 quail fly to the south then about 4 or 5 more. I couldn’t see what was going on but I didn’t get a point. I got both dogs hunting toward where the quail had flown.
I was standing on a small hill watching both dogs working out in front. Tur Bo came by a little cedar tree in the field and slammed into a point. Then he adjusted his front end and pointed again. I wanted to see how long he would hold but the quail flushed without him moving. The quail flew straight to me and crossed from my right to my left at about 20 yards. He dropped at my shot. Tur Bo picked it up and dropped it into my hand. He’s not been giving them up without me blowing in his ear but this time he just dropped it.
The last time I hunted this place there was water around the wind mill but today it was dry. We were hunting toward the truck and as we started through a large patch of shinnery oak a large white tail buck jumped up and ran. Luke saw him and I reached for my e-collar transmitter. I had left it in the truck. I yelled “no” loudly to Luke and he came back in front of me. I thought he wasn’t going to bother it but he made a pass in front of me then when he went back the way the buck had run he went after him. When I got back to the truck he showed up for a drink as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
The next farm was about 320 acres with a tangle of plum thickets and sumac near where I parked the truck. Tur Bo hadn’t been out very long on the previous place so I turned him out with Dolly. Dolly started trailing into the tangle just as soon as she got close. We got to the edge of the property and even Tur Bo was trailing. His tail was going 90 miles an hour. I was trying to stay close to the dogs in case the birds flushed. One quail flushed behind me. I shot and it dropped. When I shot the covey flushed across the road off the place I was hunting. Dolly retrieved my bird.
Yesterday Tur Bo came back pretty often to check on me but after finding quail in the last two places he didn’t need me as bad. He stayed in front checking all of the cover. There was an area about 1/2 mile in that I had found birds several years ago so we checked it without finding anything. We made a big circle back to the truck without seeing anything.
It was getting late but I had one more place that I wanted to check. I turned Dolly and Lucky out and to give them the best chance, went into the wind. Both the dogs and I were tired. We weren’t moving very fast but we were hunting. The GPS showed Lucky on point about 75 yards east of me. I started toward him and saw 3 quail fly out. They flew to the east. Then 2 flew out. I checked the GPS and Lucky was still on point. Just before I got to him, he moved about 10 yards and went back on point. Dolly came in and backed. I went into the tangle where I knew if a bird flushed I would get no shot. The dogs must have heard it flush because they both moved. I neither saw or heard it.
I got both dogs to hunt near where I saw the first birds fly to. They both started trailing then Lucky started going back and forth with his head high trying to get the scent cone. Dolly kept trailing. Both dogs would point every once in a while but when I got there they would start trailing again. Dolly trailed for about 150 yards without ever finding a quail. One smart covey of quail. We made a circle back to the truck without having a quail close enough to shoot at.
I fed the dogs on the way back to the motel. We had seen 5 coveys and only killed 4 birds but I was getting dogs into wild birds. The dogs were getting pretty beat up from the cover so I decided I would hunt until about noon the next day and head home. This trip had been good for all of the dogs but especially for Tur Bo and Blaze. Blaze is older but, the last 2 years, there haven’t been enough birds for her to know that she can find them. Now they are both hunting real well.