The third day of my Oklahoma quail hunt was supposed to be above 70 degrees, so I was only going to hunt until noon, then drive home. Lucky and Tur Bo had rested on the second day due to Lucky’s age, almost 14 years old, and Tur Bo’s knee cap re-attachment. We were hunting the Sandy Sanders Wildlife Management Area. A 19,100 acre state owned Conservation area that is two parcels. One parcel lies on the west of Oklahoma highway 30 but the largest part is on the west of highway 30. It has no major roads through. Just some two tracks that my 4 wheel drive truck drug on a couple of times.
Sally near and Luke. Divided find.
Luke
Sally
For the first part of this hunt I turned Dolly, Lucky and Tur Bo out with their e-collars and GPS collars. The wind was pretty strong from the south and we were heading to the north, with the wind. About 200 yards into our hunt I saw Dolly go on point. She had been trailing for a little way and I had followed close to her. I had taken only a couple of steps toward her when a covey of quail flushed about 10 yards in front. I shot through some brush and a quail dropped and another tried to get real high and go behind me. I pulled the second trigger and it came down by a small tree.
I went to the second quail first because I didn’t think it was hit very hard. When I got close I saw a streak of feathers where the quail had fallen through the little tree. Dolly retrieved the quail to me. We went to the area the first quail had fallen. I got all three dogs in to search but we never came up with anything. I broke a branch off a tree and placed it in the area where I thought the quail had fallen. I would check again on the way back to the truck.
On the way to the north I ran the dogs past a small pond. We went all the way to the edge of the place on the north then moved over and started back. With the dogs on my left a single quail flushed on my right. I shot and the quail fell near the fence along the edge of the WMA. Tur Bo saw it fall and went after it but it started running. It went under the fence and out to the edge of the highway with Tur Bo right behind. Right at the edge of the highway he caught the quail, grabbed it and carried it to the middle of the highway and dropped it right on the center line.
I laid my shot gun down beside the fence, then as an after thought threw my blaze orange hat down beside it, crossed the fence, went to the center of the highway and retrieved the quail. We went back to find the quail that we had lost. I spent another 10 minutes looking but no luck.
When we got back close to the truck Lucky was going the wrong way. I had the whistle with me and I blew it a couple of times. He came right in. Before this hunt I thought he was totally deaf but he can hear a whistle.
Two of the dogs, a long way off, on point.
Luke and Sally had hunted in the sand burrs at Black Kettle National Grasslands and their feet were sore. When I turned them out they stayed right in front for about a hundred yards then started hunting. We went into the strong south wind. I had GPS and e-collars on both dogs but I had also left the third GPS collar on, at the truck. I know you can mark the truck with the hand held unit but leaving a GPS collar on at the truck works, too. At Sandy Sanders it’s a good idea to mark the truck someway. There are big canyons that twist and turn so that it’s hard to know your directions.
With one dog to the east and one to the west of me we went to the south. The GPS showed Luke on point about 125 yards to the east. When I got close he moved a few feet and went back on point. I started to him and a single quail flushed from behind me and put a cedar tree between us before I could raise my gun. When I got to him he started trailing. Sally came in and started trailing, too.
Tur Bo pointing Sally honoring.
I checked the GPS and we were 502 yards from the truck and at least a half of a mile from the other covey. This, almost, had to be another covey. The dogs trailed then just went on. We went on to the south.
When we got a little over a half mile from the truck we moved over to the east and started back. As we went along I stood on a small hill watching the dogs on the hill side across from me. I like to see how the dogs move through the area and watch to see if they hit all of the objectives. More than that, I just like to watch the dogs run.
Both dogs went around a small cedar tree and then I didn’t see them. I thought they were on point and a few seconds later it was confirmed by the GPS. They were only about 75 yards from me and when I got close I saw they were both on point. They were about 5 yards apart but they were both pointing straight ahead, into the tall grass. A divided find.
I walked in front of Sally because she was closer and they both started trailing. Sally pointed then moved about 10 yards and pointed again. She just knew there was a quail there. When I kicked in front of her she ran her nose into the tall grass and started trailing again. Both dogs trailed for a long way then went back to hunting. I’m sure that these quail have had a lot of pressure and to live this long they aren’t dumb. The ones that flew died and some learned to run. They lived.
Luke pointing quail.
We hunted on back to the truck. Both dogs were tired and had sore feet. It was time to go home. This was the last hunt of the 2017/2018 season. It had been a good season. Most of the places I had hunted have held quail and some of them have had pheasants.
I didn’t shoot a lot of quail or pheasants but I took lots of pictures. Early in the season it probably doesn’t hurt anything to take pictures. The quail will hold but later in the season the quail run or flush quicker and the time I spend taking pictures hurt my chances for shots. That’s okay, I would rather have the pictures.
Dolly honoring Sally.
Dolly on point.
Tur Bo pointing a single.