I’m going through withdrawal symptoms since quail season ended. As I think about the season that just ended it seems like a lot more people are hunting than have in the past few years. Quail numbers being lower in Texas and Oklahoma may have put more hunters in Kansas than normal. Maybe I just hunted where a lot of people were.
Sally near and Luke. Divided find.
Luke
Dolly
Austin Farley and I were hunting in Iowa on the last day of the season. We had made a big circle through an area where we had found 2 coveys of quail a few weeks earlier. As we got back close to the truck and as we were going through some horse weeds that were taller than our head, I saw some red ahead of us. I moved over so I could see better and sure enough it was a hunter coming toward us. If we had flushed a covey of quail before I saw him he could have been shot. It worked out for him this time.
We were hunting about 3 or 4,000 acre conservation area and we saw no other hunters that day and this guy parked right beside us. He hunted an area that had already been hunted when he could have gone anywhere else. That really doesn’t make sense to me.
Don and Linda Hansen and I were hunting a 160 acre place in Kansas. The wind was out of the south so we went to the north end and were working back toward the south. We had gone south then east down a fence row then started back south. We were less than a quarter mile from the south edge when someone started shooting. They had dumped out on the same place. Our trucks were in plain sight but they hadn’t even looked. When we got to our truck there were two other hunters ready to hunt this place.
These were bad but the one that takes the cake was in Kansas. I was near Greensburg. I had driven out early to the place I wanted to hunt. It was still before full daylight. When I pulled off the highway a truck had turned off behind me. I pulled over on the place I wanted to hunt and the guys behind me, parked 150 yards behind me, jumped out and were hunting before I could hardly get out of the truck. Most hunters have more common courtesy than these guys.
In late October Dr. Becker reattached Tur Bo’s knee cap. I’m not sure how he tore it loose but he may have jumped onto his house, run his foot through the chain link fence then pulled the knee cap loose as he pulled his foot out of the fence. I don’t know but he hurt it at home. I kept him in a cage in the basement for several weeks just letting him out 4 or 5 times a day on a leash. I had planned to go to some of the western states that I haven’t hunted before but I couldn’t leave him at home. So I didn’t get to go.
But if the whole season had of been bad I wouldn’t be having these withdrawal symptoms. Don, Linda and I had several good hunts in Kansas. One trip we found probably 4 coveys of quail on a 160 acre place with lots of dog work. This was one of the times that the quail were running a lot and Don said, “Sally is too young to know that much about running quail but she knows.”
Austin Farley and I hunted Iowa several times but we didn’t start until late December. We found quail and pheasants most places we hunted. Had we started at the first of the season we would of had less educated birds.
20 gauge AYA No 2 and 4 quail.
Some people think pheasants are bad for a young dog but I disagree. The way quail run now days, dogs must be willing to relocate. I really like the way Sally works. She goes on point then waits for me to get to her before moving. Usually, I can tell when the birds have run off because she loosens up a little. If she points then moves up and points real rigid I know she has them.
Luke does the same thing only he is usually farther out when he goes on point but he waits until I get within about 30 yards of him, then he moves. Sometimes, the birds hold while I walk 400 yards to get to him and sometimes they run. Sometimes, the birds flush before I get to him but most of the quail he points I wouldn’t find if he hadn’t went on point. His casts are big and not only straight ahead but off to the side as well.
Once when Don and I were hunting in Kansas there was an area that was wall to wall black berry vines. We had already decided not to put the dogs through that area when the GPS showed Luke on point along the edge. He was 3 or 400 yards from us. When we got close enough to see him two quail flew across in front of us landing in the thickest part of the black berry vines. Luke was still on point after we saw the quail but then he started moving.
Don and I were spread out a little when we came over the hill looking for the two quail we had seen. Sally was close to Don and as we watched she whipped around and pointed. A quail flushed before we could even start toward her and Don made a good shot on it.
Sally pointing a single quail .
We had four dogs hunting and we never came up with the other quail nor any others that were in that covey. On public hunting areas any quail that live through the first few weeks are well educated.
I went to Oklahoma after the seasons in Iowa and Kansas had closed. It is an eight hour drive so I didn’t turn dogs out until about 1:00 pm. Although, this was the end of the season, it was a week day and there were very few birds, I thought I would have the area to my self. Not to be. I knew where I wanted to hunt and in the little that I drove around I saw 5 or 6 bunches of hunters.
Hunting Black Kettle the first afternoon and an east wind I never saw a quail. I did see some tracks in a sandy road where a covey had run off after Sally and Dolly, pointing then moving up and pointing again, had tried to get them to hold. As the dogs moved through the weeds I could see dust coming off the plants. It was really dry.
The next day and a half, hunting on the second day with my cousin, Jim Smith, I moved at least 5 maybe 6 coveys of quail. This on a bad year for quail in Oklahoma. We had a lot of good dog work.
Now I sit here thinking about some of the western states open their quail season in September. That’s not that long and right now all of my dogs are healthy.
Tur Bo pointing a single.
Luke
Sally honoring.