Tur Bo
National Grasslands
National Grasslands
National Grasslands
The second morning started off cold and foggy. I got to the first place I was going to hunt before daylight but I didn’t have long to wait. The last time I hunted Oklahoma I found one covey, along the north fence line, here and it got up ahead of the dogs. Tur Bo pointed a single quail but it got up before I got to him and flew to me. I shot it and Tur Bo retrieved it.
The weather forecast was for strong north winds but as I started north, with Dolly and Tur Bo, there wasn’t much wind. Everything was wet from the fog. We went through some plum thickets and patches of shinnery oak on the way to the north fence line without finding any quail. We went east along the north fence. In the north east corner was a food plot of about 3 acres.
We crossed the fence into the food plot and both dogs hunted it real well. I started south down the east fence line. Tur Bo was in front of me but I didn’t see Dolly so I checked the Garmin GPS and it showed her on point behind us. I saw her standing about 40 yards north of the fence line on private property. I watched her for a while thinking maybe the quail would flush onto the grasslands but nothing moved. Tur Bo crossed the fence and honored Dolly.
I knew they would stay on point until the quail flushed so I crossed the fence. I got about 2 steps across the fence and the quail flushed, flying farther away from the grasslands. The dogs and I hunted on to the south fence line then back to the truck without seeing anymore quail. The temperature was dropping, the wind was getting stronger and I was wet to the waist from the grass.
The next place was knew for me. I had seen people hunting it but I had never been on it. I turned Lucky and Blaze out with the Garmin GPS and Sport Dog e-collars on. We hunted to the south, going with the wind, until we hit the south fence then moved over and worked our way back north. The wind was really howling now and the temperature was falling. We worked all the way to the north fence then back to the truck. I saw several covey roosts but we never came up with any quail.
My cousin, Jim Smith, told me about a tract of the Grasslands that he had found several coveys on last year. When I got to it I recognized it as a place that several years ago I had been driving by when a covey ran across the road on to this place. I had a young dog at the time so I pulled over and put the puppy on the quail. I don’t remember whether I shot any or not but I did get some points.
It was about 1:00 pm when I turned Luke and Tur Bo out on this tract. My truck was showing 28 degrees and the wind was blowing about 40 miles an hour. Luke hadn’t been out yet but after about 30 minutes I returned to the truck. The fog had made the weeds wet and I had gotten wet to the waist. With the cold and wind it was really miserable. I decided that was enough for the day.
The next morning I stopped at a small place that I had been wanting to hunt for a long time and turned Dolly and Tur Bo out. It was cold but the wind was no longer blowing real hard. Both dogs worked through a large plum thicket. They trailed as they came through it but never came up with any quail. We made a circle checking all of the thickets and any cover that looked like it might hold some quail without finding anything.
The next place was about 160 acres and I had found some quail on it a few years ago but I hadn’t hunted it in several years. I turned Luke and Blaze out with the Garmin GPS and Sport Dog e-collars on. We hunted into a breeze from the north. About 1/4 mile to the north we started angling to the east. This is the place that I took the 3 pictures of scenery on. About 50 yards in front of me was a terrace that on my side was about 4 or 5 feet lower than on the other side. The terrace had low growing shinnery oak on it. Blaze came in front of me and went on point.
As I started to her a covey of quail flushed and flew to the north east. They were too far for a shot and I was watching the covey to see where they were going to land. They never got very high and with the ground being higher I couldn’t see them all the way to the ground. As I watched them a late riser got up and flew by me. It dropped at my shot. I got Luke and Blaze in to hunt dead. After a little while Blaze found it. Last year she retrieved but this year she just hunts dead. When she finds it she picks it up then drops it. We are going to work on that in the off season.
I held Luke and Blaze in and went back and forth where I thought the covey had landed. We went all the way to the north fence line then back and forth 4 times without finding any singles. They must have flown off this place. So we went on to the east edge then turned to the south. Blaze trailed through a little grove of trees then went on point. She was really intense. I walked 20 yards in front of her without anything flushing. I came back and tapped her head. She moved up about 15 feet and went back on point. I walked to her and she started trailing. Luke came in behind me and went on point about where Blaze was originally on point. I gave him an okay and he moved up, stopped then moved on. We never found anything but something had been there. We hunted back to the truck.
I went back to the place that Jim had told me about. I hadn’t covered much of this farm yesterday. I parked on the north side and hunted into the wind which had changed to the south. I was using Lucky and Tur Bo. We were on the west side of this place that was a half mile deep. On the east side it ran for a full mile. The dogs and I went to the south line then moved over to the east a little ways then turned back north. There were a lot of thickets but in my opinion they had left the cows on this tract too long. Most of the grass had been grazed off and the cows had cleared the grass out of the thickets. We got back to the truck and it was about noon. It was a long drive home so I turned all of the dogs out, gave them water and cleaned my one quail.
I really enjoy hunting new places and I really like to hunt where I can see my dogs run. Coming to Oklahoma is fun but it’s even more fun when there are a lot of quail. Maybe with a mild winter and a good spring we will have more quail next year. I hated to get in the truck because I knew the season was over.