Lady pointing Wendy backing
Dolly.
Lucky
I got my copy of the Shooting Sportsman yesterday and the editor, Ralph P. Stuart, had an editorial about recovering shot game. I, too, think this is real important. I decided to tell about some retrieves that I thought were above the normal, that I have experienced. Some of these, I have written about before but I’m old and I repeat myself. And a good story is worth repeating.
A lot of years ago I had an English setter, that was my stud dog pick of the litter, that I called Susie. I hunted her mostly with her dad, Rusty, who was a good retriever. Rusty got most of the retrieves and I didn’t even know if Susie would retrieve as this was her first year of hunting. In those days there were a lot of quail and to train a dog we would just take them hunting.
We were hunting near Atchison, Kansas on some private land leased by a club I belonged to at that time. I don’t remember whether it was over a point or not but I hit a quail that dropped into a deep ravine. Susie saw it drop and she went after it. By the time I got to the edge of the deep ditch she had the quail in her mouth and was trying to climb the bank. Both sides were almost straight up and down. I called her and she would run at the bank, start up but fall back. She still had the quail in her mouth. After she tried several times I finally laid down on the ground and called her to me. She ran up the bank and I almost caught her collar. The second or third time I finally grabbed her collar and pulled her out. She spit the quail into my hand. She was a good retriever for as long as I had her. When she was 5 or 6 years old she was stolen from me.
Lady another English setter that I had was probably the best retriever I ever owned. Most of it was a natural desire to retrieve. I bought Lady in St. Joseph, Missouri but every dog I own now has some of her blood in them. She was a natural retriever but at the end of her first season she quit retrieving. I force broke her and she learned to love to retrieve.
In her second year we were hunting in northern Missouri. I had her, and probably Rusty, out hunting when a quail flew toward me then turned and crossed in front of me. I shot and it dropped into a ditch that was fairly deep. Both dogs were out in front of me and neither saw it drop. I called Lady in. When she got to me I motioned to the ditch and said get in there. She went. When she got to the bottom of the ditch I said hunt dead. She went straight to the quail, picked it up and brought it to me. I didn’t know I could send her but it was neat.
A guy, Don Beard, bought a couple of puppies off me and we became friends. He had a lease, with several other guys, out near Abilene, Kansas and invited me to hunt with them. Most of these guys were more pheasant hunters than quail. We were going out for the last drive of the day. As we started around a corn field a covey of quail flushed well out front of us. I hit one that flew back behind us into a hedge row. It flew a long ways but I knew I had hit it. I told them I would pick it up after the drive we were on.
I think I had left Lady in the truck for the last drive and when we got back the guys started cleaning the birds we had killed. I put the birds I killed with theirs and told them I was going to go find that quail then I would clean my birds. One of the guys said, “if you find that quail I’ll clean your birds”. I got Lady out of the truck and we walked to the hedge row where I thought the quail had dropped. I told Lady to hunt dead. She dropped her nose and went straight to that quail, picked it up and brought it to me. That was pure luck. We weren’t gone 5 minutes. When I dropped that quail in with the other birds those guys were really surprised but they cleaned my birds.
Vince Dye and I were hunting near Greensburg, Kansas. We had just started and Vince said I’ll bet you a quarter on the first rooster. I had sooner said I’ll take that bet when a rooster pheasant flushed in front of us. It was on my side not very high off the ground when I hit it. I knew it wasn’t dead but it wasn’t high enough to get a second shot off. Vince had a short hair by the name of Roxey that was a good retriever. We got her, Lady and another couple of dogs to hunt dead. We spent several minutes without any of the dogs even acting birdy. Then I noticed Lady was gone. We finally gave up.
I checked the Garmin GPS and Lady was on point over 100 yards away. Just as I told Vince one of the dogs pointed right in front of us. When the quail flushed in front of us, Vince dropped one. Roxey scooped it up and started toward us. I looked and here came Lady with the rooster pheasant. I took it from her just before Roxie dropped the rooster quail in Vince’s hand. The pheasant was still alive but had no tail feathers left and looked like it had been in a hard fight. Lady had worked hard for the quarter I got from Vince.
A friend from North Carolina, Mike Goldsmith, stopped by to hunt with me for a day or two. We were hunting out near Emporia, Kansas. We were finishing up on a small farm getting ready to go to another when we lost a quail. It was hit hard and we thought we knew right where it went down. We got all of the dogs in to hunt dead without finding the bird. Mike said he had had some luck in coming back later and trying to find the bird. I had never done this but since we couldn’t find it we may as well try. He tied a rag, that he found, to a bush near where we were searching.
We hunted another small farm near there and came back about an hour later. I got Lucky and Lady out. Mike brought his dogs along also. We went back to the area where we had put the rag on the bush. We had everyone hunting dead. We still weren’t having any luck. Then Mike said, “we got a dog on point”. Lucky was standing a good 50 yards from where we thought the quail had fallen. I went in front of him and he jumped in and picked up the dead quail. I don’t think we were that far off on the mark but we could have been. The big thing is we found the quail. It’s worth the effort to come back later.
Don Hansen and I were hunting in the same area last year when he dropped a quail that the dogs couldn’t find. He was just adamant that it was right there. He said, “I never took my eyes off the spot”. He found a little bowl, like cottage cheese comes in, and set it down. “It’s right there”, he said. After about 20 minutes we went on.
We continued to hunt this farm then we came back to that area and searched some more. Still nothing. I told Don that Dolly was pretty good dead bird finder and when we got close to the truck I would get her out. So we hunted on back to the truck. I got Dolly out and we went back. I got her and the other dogs to hunt dead again. Still nothing. Right where we were searching the grass had been real tall but had fallen over. Don took his gun barrel and raised some grass and the quail was lying there within 6 inches of the bowl he had set down to mark the spot. Maybe the tall grass kept the scent from getting out, I don’t know but the third time through worked.
I saw Dolly point a chukar at about 30 yards with a 20 mile an hour wind hitting her in the butt and I have seen dogs step on dead birds without smelling them. Dennis Garrison and I watched a really good bird dog run by a quail sitting in a harvested corn field 3 or 4 times without pointing it or even knowing it was there. I wish I knew more about scent and how dogs smell. One thing I do know, if you even suspect that you got some shot into a game bird it deserves to be found.
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Lucky
Tur Bo
Luke