I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything for a while but it’s either raining or too hot for the dogs and even too hot for the birds. When you put a pigeon in a release trap there is very little wind flow through the trap. Abby is 17 days from her due date on her litter. She looks really miserable in this heat. I’ve got the shed ready, the air conditioner is working and I’ve cleaned everything. I will put her in the shed about 4 days before her due date. My vet says there are as many puppies born on 60 days as 63.
Tur Bo in Iowa a few years ago.
Sally on point.
Sally on point with Dolly and Mann honoring.
I’m going to put some older pictures in this since I don’t have much to write about. I have several of Tur Bo who is Sally’s sire. He’s also Abby and Boss’s grandsire. A few years ago we were hunting in Kansas. One of the places I chose to hunt had a mud road on one side and a busy gravel road on the other. I chose to park along the seldom traveled mud road.
This place had some pasture next to row crops. The pasture hadn’t been grazed down too much and there were some draws running through the pasture. I turned the dogs out, Tur Bo and Mann, as I remember. We went along the pasture next to the row crops. When we got to the north end we hit a draw and started back toward the truck. This draw ran to the mud road and across. Both dogs were well out front of me as we got close to the road.
I was still about 150 yards from the road when I saw a dump truck come over the hill. About the time I saw him I heard him hit his brakes. I may have heard him hit a dog but I really don’t remember anything. I just knew it was bad. I checked the GPS and it showed Tur Bo on point at about the road. There was no sound out of Tur Bo. I needed to go to him but I didn’t want to see what I knew I would see. That was the longest walk of my life.
He was killed instantly. There was nothing anyone could have done. The truck driver tried to stop but he was going down hill, with a load, on a dirt road. I could see where the truck slid in the road. I loaded Mann and drove the truck close to Tur Bo. The truck driver hadn’t stopped but as I stood beside Tur Bo a truck came back from the opposite direction.
I started toward the truck and I could tell the young man didn’t want to get out but he did. I told him he had done everything he could. It was just an accident. He said it wasn’t him that had hit him. It was another truck. They were cleaning a feed lot and hauling the manure away, I think. He helped me, very gently, lay Tur Bo in the back of my truck. I was about 3 hours from home.
I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to write something like that, again. When it happened I wrote about it but sitting here typing this I just relived it again. Now we will go to something more uplifting, I hope.
The 6 quail from a Kansas quail hunt.
The pictures with Sally on point and some other dogs honoring was in Kansas. I had hunted a couple of days in Nebraska and was on my way home. I stopped off in Kansas and was supposed to just hunt until noon then head on home. As I put the GPS and e-collars on the dogs I happened to look around and saw Dolly on point about 25 yards from the truck.
Both sides of the road were walk-in. Dolly was standing in a hay field on point. I grabbed a gun and started to her but a single quail flushed before I got to her. It dropped at my shot and several flushed in front of Dolly. I think a covey was spread out heading to the soy bean field across the road to feed. We followed the singles and got a few more points. As we came back toward the truck we found more of the covey. Sally had a couple of points. That’s in the pictures.
When we got to the truck we crossed the road and went along the south edge of the soybean field to the west side and started to the north through some more pasture. Mann was just a puppy, he was born in April and this was his first year, but he pointed at a little bush in the pasture. When I got to him a covey flushed and as I shot I saw two quail line up. I knew when I shot I was going to hit them both. For that to work out it must have surprised me. I never even tried to shoot a second shot. When I went to the birds they were about a foot apart, dead.
Some of the thickets in Nebraska.
We went on to the north. When I came over a hill Sally and Mann were both on point about 25 yards apart. Sally was closer so I went to her. A single quail flushed and I made the shot. When I looked at Mann he was still on point. I marked that bird down and went to Mann. He was on point in ankle high grass with not a tree in the area. I walked in and a single quail flushed. I calmly raised my gun and missed with the first barrel quickly followed by missing with the second barrel. When I really want to kill a bird, especially for a young dog, I miss.
We made a circle and when we got back to the truck we went to another spot. We got into another covey near a pond next to a corn field. On this spot I had turned out Babe and Tur Bo. We chased the covey around for a while and I managed to kill one or two. I wound up that day with 6 quail by 1:00 pm and I headed home only about an hour late.
I probably should have told a little about my trip to Nebraska before I told about hunting Kansas on the way home. This was the trip when Mann started pointing birds. Mann was born late April and this was some time in November. He was at the most 7 months old.
I drove by a walk-in property in Nebraska and saw a covey of quail fly off the place. They had come out of a draw to the edge of the road and flushed when I drove close. I thought maybe there were more there. I turned dogs and Mann was one of them. As we started down this draw I saw Tur Bo point on the other side. Before I got to him the covey flushed flying up the draw. There was really good grass cover and it was really thick brush where they flushed. As we went up the draw the grass cover stayed good but there was less brush.
Dolly pointing a quail.
As we went down the draw Mann pointed along a bank. I walked to him and when I kicked in front of him nothing flushed. I went to him and tapped him on the head but he wouldn’t move. I went back in front and about 5 feet in front of him a single quail flushed. On this bird I was luckier and Mann saw it drop. He didn’t pick it up but he nosed it around on the ground.
We had some more dog work on that place then went to another walk-in property. I don’t know whether it was due to pressure or weather conditions but we got into a covey of quail that wouldn’t hold. I got a lot of dog work but I would see the dog on point and before I got there the quail would flush. This may have made Mann and Babe more cautious. I had 5 or 6 points and I killed 1 bird and it was flying back past me. On every point the birds moved.
There was another fence row on the other side with a draw running along side for a short distance. Several pheasants came out of this draw before I got close. There were a few quail in the fence row, maybe out of the covey in the other draw. As we got right to the end of the draw Babe was coming from behind me and hit a scent cone and slid to a point. I took about 2 steps toward her and a single quail flew back down the draw without drawing a shot.
I’m not sure where this one was but it’s November of 2018.
I didn’t know what I was going to write about today. I just knew it was 95 degrees outside and I wasn’t going to work dogs. Sitting in the basement writing this is much better than being out side. It’s going to be warm for a while so I may write about another hunt over the last few years. Hopefully, the next one will be in a little better order than the way I jumped around in this one.