My cousin, Jim Smith, drove out from eastern Oklahoma to quail hunt with me at Black Kettle National Grasslands. We met about 8:00 am. Black Kettle National Grasslands is 30,710 acres scattered over Roger Mills county Oklahoma plus another 576 acres near Canadian Texas. There are 114 parcels of the Grasslands in Oklahoma. These are farms that the taxes weren’t paid, in the dust bowl days and were taken by the Federal Government. Now they are used for pasture but most have plenty of cover to hold quail.
Sally pointing a quail.
Betsy pointing a quail.
Dolly in Oklahoma
The first place we hunted, Jim turned out Dottie, that was 4 days younger than Sally, and his male English Setter that is a couple of months older than Sally and Dottie. I put Garmin e-collars and GPS collars on Lucky and Dolly and a GPS collar on Sally and turned them loose. We followed along a ridge then dropped down along a creek. The temperature started in the mid twenties but it warmed up in a hurry. We made a circle without finding any quail. We circled back to the truck, loaded the dogs and drove to another parcel.
I put the e-collars and GPS collars on Luke and Tur Bo and turned them, along with Sally, out. Luke had worn a dropper chain (a chain that dropped from his collar and bumped against his knees when he ran) the day before to keep him from running so big and I put it on him to start the day. He pouted for about 50 yards, by following right behind me, then went to hunting.
We went to the east, close to the road then moved over about a hundred yards and hunted back to the west. As we got close to the top of the hill I saw Tur Bo on point in some shinnery oak. We started to him and I saw he was honoring Dottie who was honoring Sally. We passed Tur Bo and Dottie and when we got close to Sally she moved up 3 or 4 yards and went back on point. We kept moving and when we got close she moved another 3 or 4 yards and pointed. When we got close a covey of quail erupted in front of her. Most of the quail tried to fly off the parcel we were hunting. Jim dropped one and I also knocked one down.
Jim’s dogs found his bird real quick and they came over to help find mine. Jim’s male, Willie, found mine 10 or 15 feet from where I thought it went down. I don’t think it ran. I think I didn’t do a very good job marking it down.
We hunted to the property line then to the south without finding any of the singles. We continued on to the south and east. As we went along, talking I checked the GPS and Tur Bo was on point. Before we got to him about 5 birds flushed in front of him. I saw where one landed so we went toward it. As we got close to where Tur Bo had pointed 3 or 4 quail flushed. We both shot and one bird dropped. We had both shot at the same one.
We continued to where I thought one of the singles had landed. Although the dogs got birdy we never came up with anything. We turned to the east, where some more had flown, without finding them.
We went on to the east, crossed a creek and a low draw. We looked onto the side of a hill and Willie was on point looking into some shinnery. We were a long way from where any other birds had been but when we walked in only a single bird flushed. It went Jim’s way and dropped at his shot.
The dogs got excited where the single had come from but we never found another bird in that area. We continued along the hill side. As we walked along a covey of quail flushed well out in front of me. I never saw or heard them but Jim watched them down.
Sally pointing a pigeon.
As we got close to where he thought they had landed a couple of singles flushed in front of the dogs. As we got closer Dottie pointed with Sally and Tur Bo honoring. Dottie moved up and went back on point. When she moved Tur Bo went to her left and pointed. Sally was still honoring Dottie. Jim went to Dottie and I went to Tur Bo. Dottie’s bird went through the brush without giving Jim a shot. Tur Bo’s bird went straight away and I had one shot before it got into the brush and I missed.
We had more birds spread out but another hunter turned out close to where we were so we went back toward our trucks. The hunter probably didn’t have any idea that we were there. We had parked on the north west corner and had hunted to the south east corner. That’s where he had parked.
When we got back to our trucks it was about 3:00 pm and was pretty hot. We cleaned our birds and started home. I was going to hunt another day but the weather forecast was for 80+ degrees the next day and my dogs were really tired.
Jim and I are cousins but also life long friends. I really enjoyed being able to hunt with him again.
Dolly honoring.
Luke
Tur Bo