Todd, it is getting harder and harder to find bobwhites that are wild but there are some places to find em. Belle hasn't smelled california quail or mountain quail yet. I want to get her on them in the next few years.
Temps have finally dropped enough that I can take Belle out after work to run off some energy. She finds at least one bird each afternoon. One evening we found a covey of about 30 birds.
This weekend I was finally able to get out to the WMA I love to chase woodcock, wild quail and woodducks on. Temps were awesome. The deer hunters love bird hunters there so when I pulled up to my first spot to try and saw a deer hunters truck, I slowly began getting ready.
Next thing I know the deer hunters are there and we do the typical hunter pleasantries thing. As I am getting ready to head out, I ask if they had seen any. They said yup, a big one went into that swamp right there. We were thinking of setting up to see if you or the dog would push him out. I offered to push it for them. Their faces just lit up and were like Would you really?!?!
Sure. The quail hangout down there too so may as well check for them. I gave them about five minutes to get in place and then Belle and I set off. The blackberries and wild roses are thick but the quail love that and woodcock will hide in that stuff. Four does heard me and Belle getting closer and boogied on out of there in a rush. Belle flushed about 20 woodducks off the pond but since she doesn't retrieve much and I didn't want to swim, I let them go. I continued my push through the brush while Belle bounced ahead of me looking for more woodducks.
As I am walking, Belle is running the pond edge back towards me when all of a sudden the world next to me explodes. I turn to look and this big brown body is coming at me. FAST! Horns down, body low and fast. I do not think the buck saw me until I moved my gun into position to shoot if he didn't veer off. He was going to run me over. He veered off away from me about ten feet from me! I could have killed him with bird shot. However, it is not legal if I have a dog out while bird hunting.
So the deer continued running and I hollered at the hunter HERE HE COMES! HERE HE COMES!
He shot.
He MISSED!!!!!!
UUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I helped check to see if they could find any blood but not a single drop was found. Ah well.
Belle and I continued on. We managed to flush a woodcock but that was it for the day.
I do enjoy hunting the little pond edges. Never know what you will find. This time it was a little demon deer.
We didn't find any quail but it was great to be out again.
Sunday found us out there earlier. It was supposed to get warm quicker and I planned to hunt an area that didn't have as much water around like the previous day. Belle was rarin to go.
We wandered over hills, through the woods, across a road, down to the back side of a place that often has a woodcock or two. Belle busted a few does. I was walking a tree strewn deer path on the edges of the thicket. As my leg is way up in the air to go over a pinetree that is across the path, a woodcock flushes right from under me! Of course.
By the time my leg was rested on the log and I was balanced, the bird was gone. I never found him again.
Belle and I headed back up over the hills and through the woods looking for quail.
Belle worked hard. She found a covey after a lot of pointing and then repositioning. Finally she pinned them in a thick thick thicket. I was walking in on them and they flushed.
Sadly, they went out the other side. Ah well.
It was getting hot and I was running low on water so we stopped to rest a bit. Let the woods chill out a bit. We were probably close to a mile from the truck.
On the way back to the truck, Belle got birdy again and she slammed on point. These birds have played this game before and didn't let me get close enough. By that point it was mid to upper 70s and I was out of water so we did not try to follow the covey to look for singles.
Belle was worn out though. She was done.
We got home, she had her bath and then we watched the sun go down.
It was a mighty good weekend.
Temps have finally dropped enough that I can take Belle out after work to run off some energy. She finds at least one bird each afternoon. One evening we found a covey of about 30 birds.
This weekend I was finally able to get out to the WMA I love to chase woodcock, wild quail and woodducks on. Temps were awesome. The deer hunters love bird hunters there so when I pulled up to my first spot to try and saw a deer hunters truck, I slowly began getting ready.
Next thing I know the deer hunters are there and we do the typical hunter pleasantries thing. As I am getting ready to head out, I ask if they had seen any. They said yup, a big one went into that swamp right there. We were thinking of setting up to see if you or the dog would push him out. I offered to push it for them. Their faces just lit up and were like Would you really?!?!
Sure. The quail hangout down there too so may as well check for them. I gave them about five minutes to get in place and then Belle and I set off. The blackberries and wild roses are thick but the quail love that and woodcock will hide in that stuff. Four does heard me and Belle getting closer and boogied on out of there in a rush. Belle flushed about 20 woodducks off the pond but since she doesn't retrieve much and I didn't want to swim, I let them go. I continued my push through the brush while Belle bounced ahead of me looking for more woodducks.
As I am walking, Belle is running the pond edge back towards me when all of a sudden the world next to me explodes. I turn to look and this big brown body is coming at me. FAST! Horns down, body low and fast. I do not think the buck saw me until I moved my gun into position to shoot if he didn't veer off. He was going to run me over. He veered off away from me about ten feet from me! I could have killed him with bird shot. However, it is not legal if I have a dog out while bird hunting.
So the deer continued running and I hollered at the hunter HERE HE COMES! HERE HE COMES!
He shot.
He MISSED!!!!!!
UUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I helped check to see if they could find any blood but not a single drop was found. Ah well.
Belle and I continued on. We managed to flush a woodcock but that was it for the day.
I do enjoy hunting the little pond edges. Never know what you will find. This time it was a little demon deer.
We didn't find any quail but it was great to be out again.
Sunday found us out there earlier. It was supposed to get warm quicker and I planned to hunt an area that didn't have as much water around like the previous day. Belle was rarin to go.
We wandered over hills, through the woods, across a road, down to the back side of a place that often has a woodcock or two. Belle busted a few does. I was walking a tree strewn deer path on the edges of the thicket. As my leg is way up in the air to go over a pinetree that is across the path, a woodcock flushes right from under me! Of course.
By the time my leg was rested on the log and I was balanced, the bird was gone. I never found him again.
Belle and I headed back up over the hills and through the woods looking for quail.
Belle worked hard. She found a covey after a lot of pointing and then repositioning. Finally she pinned them in a thick thick thicket. I was walking in on them and they flushed.
Sadly, they went out the other side. Ah well.
It was getting hot and I was running low on water so we stopped to rest a bit. Let the woods chill out a bit. We were probably close to a mile from the truck.
On the way back to the truck, Belle got birdy again and she slammed on point. These birds have played this game before and didn't let me get close enough. By that point it was mid to upper 70s and I was out of water so we did not try to follow the covey to look for singles.
Belle was worn out though. She was done.
We got home, she had her bath and then we watched the sun go down.
It was a mighty good weekend.
