I haven’t missed an opening day of quail season in Missouri in the last 50 years or more. Today was no exception. I had trouble sleeping last night and this was time change too. The time change always screws me up. I didn’t change my clock before I went to bed and each time I woke up I had to do mental arithmetic. I had my alarm set for 5:00 am, on my phone which resets on the time change, which was the old time of 6:00 am. I was awake when the alarm went off.
Sally on point.
I took my camera out of the hunting jacket to take this picture and forgot to put it back.
My Webley&Scott 20 gauge.
Usually, I don’t go quail hunting real early of the morning. I believe quail aren’t early risers but sunrise was at 6:45 and I was at my place just shortly after. I was hunting a Missouri Conservation area in northern Missouri. You never know how many people will be on the Conservation lands. When I got to the parking area there was no one else there.
I had brought Sally, Mann and Boss with me. I put an e-collar and GPS collar on Boss and heeled him across the parking lot, whoaing him every few feet. He knows whoa in the yard but he doesn’t know yet that he has to whoa every time I say the word. I put him back in the box on the truck until I had the e-collars and GPS collars on Mann and Sally, then turned all three loose.
The wind was strong from the north west. Right in front of the truck was a narrow, long, harvested corn field. We went down the north edge to the east. We got to an area where Vince Dye and I had found a covey a couple of years ago. When we had been here before this had been a weedy field but now it was harvested soy beans. There was very little cover for birds.
On the north edge there was a buffer strip around the soy beans and we hunted this. We went on to the south where we had found another covey a few years ago. Again we came up empty.
After I had covered most of the ground, where I normally found birds, I loaded the dogs and we moved to the other side of the area. On the way to the other side I saw an old house and got my camera from the hunting vest and took a picture. I forgot to put the camera back. I would rather have a picture than to shoot a bird.
There has been a covey on the east side of this place every year. The most we have been able to kill out of it is, one year we got two. They always know how to use the trees to their advantage.
Boss
I turned the dogs loose and we started toward where I expected the covey to be. There is an old hedge row that ends near a pond. there is a lot of other brush and trees near where we usually find the birds. I worked the dogs up the hedge row then across the dam on the pond. No birds. We continued on to the east.
There is a good field with hedge rows and thick stand of trees along the edge. In the past we have found a few coveys along the edges. When we got near the end three deer hunters walked in and started putting up stands. I called the dogs and we started back toward the truck.
As we got back close to where I just knew there should be a covey of birds two more hunters were in front of us. I made another turn to get away from them. As we came along the end of the pond that was in the area the GPS handheld vibrated. It showed Mann on point near the opposite end of the pond from the dam.
Boss and the backing dog.
I have been working Mann and Abby on the backing dog and when I saw Mann, Boss was honoring. Mann was on point almost under a cedar tree with several more cedar trees real close. I tried to get in front of him and saw the quail running on the ground, going out the other side. I ran around the tree in time to watch the covey fly into a small corn field.
I got all three dogs to hunt close and we went to the corn field. The dogs got birdy and didn’t want to stay in the corn field. I went real slow along the edge, watching the dogs. There was an edge of the woods close that Boss was really interested in. Ahead of him about 40 yards I saw 2 or 3 quail flush. He wasn’t close enough to see or hear them.
We went through the corn field and around the edge and I thought it was like most coveys. Never find any singles. I started to the truck with Mann and Boss when I felt the GPS handheld vibrate. Sally was on point about 125 yards from me along a harvested soy bean field. Me and the two boys started to her.
Abby and the backing dog.
Mann saw her and honored and Boss was on the other side. When he got close I whoaed him. I went to Sally and a single quail flushed down in the trees without giving me a shot. Sally took a step and went back on point. When this bird flushed it tried to fly down the edge of the trees and when I shot it dropped into the edge of the woods.
Sally saw the bird drop and went after it. I stood along the edge watching her. I thought she was in the right place. She was working back and forth. I happened to see Boss on point about 15 yards away. I got close to him, the bird fluttered and Boss pounced on it. The trees were so thick it was hard to get to him. He held the bird down with his feet. The quail got loose and ran a few feet before he caught it again. I took the bird from him.
We went back along the edge around the corn field that the covey had flown into. Sally did point once but whatever it was ran out on her but it was an opportunity for me to whoa Boss into an honor. When I got to her all three dogs started trailing. We went on toward the truck.
Boss honoring the backing dog.
As we got close to the truck there was a draw running through a harvested corn field. As we started down the draw I happened to see Boss on point. When I got close I saw he was honoring Mann who was honoring Sally. She was in a clump of cedars.
When I got close 3 quail flushed out the other side. One bird made a turn that put him flying from my left to my right. My favorite shot. Just as I got in front of it and pulled the trigger another cedar tree was right there. That tree has to learn to live with an ounce of number 7 1/2 shot.
Abby honoring the backing dog.
It was warm for the dogs and they aren’t in very good shape, so I loaded them and we headed home. It had been a good day. Boss learned to honor today. I may still have to whoa him occasionally but he understands after working on the backing dog and a few times seeing dogs on point today, what he’s supposed to do. That is the reason I go. To see the dogs learn. Quail are too valuable to shoot. We need them to train the dogs.