Austin Farley and I had hunted the last day of the Iowa quail season but I wasn’t ready for the season to end. On Monday the 12th of February I loaded the dogs and headed for Oklahoma. The quail season closes the 15th of February, in Oklahoma.
Dolly honoring Sally.
Sally
Dolly
It’s about an eight hour drive and after leaving home a little before 4:00 am I arrived, about noon, at the Black Kettle National Grasslands. Last season this whole area was heavily hunted. Although the quail are down this year there were several groups hunting this area, today.
One of the places I wanted to hunt had a group hunting it so I went to another. I turned Dolly and Sally out wearing their Garmin GPS and e-collars. This section (640 acres) has a quarter section (160 acres) of private land but the rest is part of the Grasslands. It’s real dry and one of the reasons I wanted to hunt this parcel was that it had 2 windmills. When I ran the dogs by the windmills they were both not working. No water in the tanks.
The wind was strong and from the east. We went to the south through the shinnery oak patches. As we got close to the south east corner Sally pointed into a plum thicket along the fence row. Dolly honored when she saw her. When I got close Sally and Dolly started trailing down the fence row. About a hundred yards down the fence line Sally went on point again. When I got close they both went to trailing again.
Dolly crossed the road, trailing. The road was real sandy and I walked along the edge watching for tracks. Sure enough I saw where 3 quail had run across the road then a little farther down the road 2 more had crossed. Dolly was still trailing on the land across the road but it was private land and I called her back.
Evidently, there was plenty of rain early in the spring. There is a lot of cover but it’s been a while since a good rain. As the dogs ran through the cover I could see dust flying off the weeds. That has to be hard on the dogs.
After the second windmill had no water, I worked the dogs back to the truck. When I know there is no water I carry some, for the dogs, in my hunting vest. I also have a water cooler, with water, for the dogs. In dry country I, usually, leave the water cooler open, next to the truck, in case a dog comes back, looking for water.
I loaded the dogs and drove to another parcel. At the next place I turned Lucky, Tur Bo and Luke out. Lucky will be 14 years old in May and I don’t hunt him very much. He’s almost deaf and he can’t see very well but he still wants to go. When I turn him loose he runs for a short time almost like he did when he was young.
Tur Bo tore his knee cap loose, some how, and I had to have his knee cap surgically repaired. He spent most of November in my basement, in a small cage. I had to be close to take him out, on a leash, several times a day so this kept me from traveling very much. I haven’t hunted him very long at any time this year and not very many times. I want to build the strength back up gradually, without him re-damaging his knee.
Tur Bo honoring.
This parcel was a mile long by a half mile deep. I took the dogs to the north side then went toward the east. For some reason I never do very well during an east wind. All 3 dogs were in front of me but off to my left. There was a big thicket that they were checking as well as the fence row had a lot of cover. I was walking through the shinnery oak about 30 yards from the fence when a single quail flushed about 30 yards off to my right. No dogs or people even close. I don’t know if a covey had run from us and that was the only one I saw or if someone had hunted here and that was one of their singles but if it hadn’t flushed I wouldn’t have known it was there.
I got all 3 dogs in to hunt the area where the bird had flushed from. The dogs got birdy but we never found any others. We continued to the south and east then turned back toward the truck. It was after 5:00 pm when we got back to the truck so I loaded the dogs. It had been a long day and still needed to feed the dogs and find a motel.
The quail in this area and almost all quail, that have lived this late into the year, are really smart. I hunted two areas that last year I saw a lot of quail on and this year I had seen exactly one quail and hadn’t fired a shot. Tomorrow will be a better day, I hope.
Sally near and Luke. Divided find.
Sally
Luke