My 20 gauge and 2 quail from this mornings hunt.
The quail were in a black berry patch.
Tur Bo honoring Luke.
Quail season in Missouri opened on the first of November. Vince Dye and I hunted private property so I didn’t write about that hunt. It’s been so warm that I didn’t go again until this morning. It was still warm but I went anyway.
I didn’t make up my mind where I was going until I was on the road. I decided to hunt near Truman Lake on Corp of Engineer land. I ran dogs near here a few weeks ago but I haven’t hunted in this area before. Several years ago I hunted Corp land but not in this area. There is a lot of land around Truman to hunt on.
The first place I turned dogs out was a harvested corn field with weed fields around 3 sides. Some of the corn was still standing around the edges. We have had a lot of rain this year and it was too wet to plant some areas. These areas are over grown with weeds some of which are chest high. The tops of the weeds shield the quail from flying predators but there is still open ground down low for the birds to run through.
I turned Lucky and Blaze out with the Garmin GPS and Sport Dog e-collars on. We went straight east along a draw. We went from one small corn field into another. The way these small fields are planted gives a lot of edge for the quail to be in. We went east until we hit a low area that was extremely thick. We turned north and hunted to the road then back west to the truck.
We had only hunted about half of this place so I put Lucky and Blaze in the dog box and got Luke and Tur Bo out. We headed south from the truck down a hedge row. We were only about a hundred yards from the truck when Luke pointed with Tur Bo just behind him backing. When I got close Luke started moving and Tur Bo passed him. They both went on point about 10 yards from where Luke had originally pointed. They were standing, high on both ends, almost side by side. Would have made a beautiful picture except I forgot to take it. When I walked into the black berry patch that they were pointing into a covey flushed out the other side of the hedge row. One quail came in front of me and dropped at my shot.
Tur Bo didn’t see it drop but when he came in front of me I started saying, “dead bird” over and over. He started going back and forth in front of me. When he flash pointed I said “it’s dead”, he grabbed it and brought it to me. Both hands were bleeding when we got out of the black berries. I wasn’t able to see where the rest of the covey had flown. We went the way the birds had flown without finding any of them. We hunted back to the truck.
I drove a couple of miles and saw another harvested corn field. It was getting warmer but Lucky and Blaze hadn’t been into quail so I turned them out again. We circled a corn field then crossed the road to circle another one. We didn’t find anything. I saw another corn field that I hadn’t seen before. We started around it. The field to the west of the corn field was really thick. I stayed in the corn field heading north. I got to the north side and looked at the GPS. Lucky was on point behind me in the edge of the thick field.
I went looking for him. I found him and he was pointing into a thicket on the edge of the thick field. There was no way to get close in front of him so I made a circle about 15 yards in front of him. Nothing flushed and when I released him he moved past me and pointed again. By this time we were out in the real thick field. I went out about 40 yards in front of him and started working back toward him. there was some grass that looked like marsh grass. As I started through this a quail flushed in front of me. I shot and it came down. I saw the grass moving near where the quail had flushed from. Another quail came out of the grass. When I see a quail on the ground I usually don’t shoot well. This was no exception. I missed with the second barrel.
The quail I had hit fell into the real thick field. I was afraid I wouldn’t find it. I called both dogs in and walked to where I thought it was. Both dogs were hunting dead. When they got close to me Lucky pointed then moved on. Blaze stuck her nose in the weeds right in front of my feet and picked the bird up. We stayed in the thick grass for quite a while but never came up with any other quail. I don’t know if the other birds in the covey had run out on us or if someone had been here before we got here. We hunted back to the truck without finding any other quail.
It was getting warm so I drove around looking the area over but didn’t turn any more dogs out. Usually, in Missouri, it’s really hot the first part of the season. This year has been warmer than most but it will get right before long. When we quit it was 62 degrees. When it gets at least 30 degrees cooler we will do better. I can wait.
I didn’t take enough pictures so I had to recycle some from my Kansas trip.
Luke pointing a single quail.
Tur Bo pointing a covey in Kansas.
Luke pointing a single in a plum thicket in Kansas.