Last Quail hunt of the year

old timers always said it takes birds to make a bird dog, talking about quail here, I remember a time we even had specialists, singles dogs, covey dogs, now we are lucky to see enough quail to find out!
 
oldandnew said:
old timers always said it takes birds to make a bird dog, talking about quail here, I remember a time we even had specialists, singles dogs, covey dogs, now we are lucky to see enough quail to find out!
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What characteristics made a good "covey dog" and which made a good "singles dog?"
 
kansasbrittany said:
What characteristics made a good "covey dog" and which made a good "singles dog?"
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I could only guess and somewhat base this on what I have seen, but a good "covey" dog might run a little bigger, but hold for ever and try to keep chasing them if the hunters weren't there yet. and a good single dog, maybe swings in around the bird and pushes them or holds them in between the hunter and the dog. I hunted with a gentleman several years ago that had an excellent english setter that was a master of "tame" bird hunting. She had 1000's of pen raised quail shot over her for years and years, but never got into wild birds. She would always swing wide on birds and "run" them back to you or hold them in between you and her. This did not work out so well on a wild covey, as they tend to run away from the hunters, and would end up running right into her and bam, flushing far away.
 
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I have seen where certain dogs seem to do better on coveys or singles.
In general the dogs that seem to do well on coveys, tend to range a little more and be objective hunters. They are the first to the hedge row or the plum thicket.

Some of the good singles dogs have been a little more deliberate, maybe handle a little easier where they can be gotten into the area where you know that the singles have gone. Another thing about the singles dogs is if they are broke, they don't blow out additional singles by chasing. On coveys, once one goes they all generally go up.
 
kansasbrittany said:
What characteristics made a good "covey dog" and which made a good "singles dog?"
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Well big covey dogs were usually male, often pointers, ran pretty big, seemed to develop a knack for covey finding, could look at a piece of quail country and just know where the birds would be, even if they hadn't ever seen or hunted it before. Staunch almost to a flaw, you could let one out on a 40-80 acre piece, that you had hunted before, and let the dog out, if he came back in a few minutes, there weren't any birds, and you could hang your hat on it. Some didn't retrieve, some did, but in either case, were anxious to be on their way to the next covey, even in the midst of obvious singles. Just to fine a work to interest them. Lived for the big covey explosion, always believe there's a hundred bird covey over the next rise. The singles specialist would work much closer, usually a setter or a female pointer, would find coveys as well but birds that were burried in cover. Backed at sight and at distance, manytimes I had to relocate the backing dog, because I could'nt find the pointing dog some 100 yards out in open country, one reason we had almost all white dogs. After the covey flush it was the light footed singles dog, you know the type, moves with purpose but caution and precision, makes you believe there's a bird in every clump, lifts her feet like they have glue as she pins down the single. Singles dogs retrieve, many times on a covey rise I have seen two dogs a pointer and a setter retrieve 2 birds a piece in one trip, heads out either side of the mouth and not a mark on them. I guy could make a living with just a singles dog, but a guy sees more birds and gets more thrills with a covey dog along too, way out there on a limb finding birds. It spoiled me for life. I never had to really hunt, just followed the dog.
 
Not that a bigger running dog can't hunt singles, but I've always considered close working (and well mannered) dogs to be better on singles and dead birds. I can get them in and get them to work close and they SLOW down and work. Nice pics!
 
oldandnew said:
Well big covey dogs were usually male, often pointers, ran pretty big, seemed to develop a knack for covey finding, could look at a piece of quail country and just know where the birds would be, even if they hadn't ever seen or hunted it before. Staunch almost to a flaw, you could let one out on a 40-80 acre piece, that you had hunted before, and let the dog out, if he came back in a few minutes, there weren't any birds, and you could hang your hat on it. Some didn't retrieve, some did, but in either case, were anxious to be on their way to the next covey, even in the midst of obvious singles. Just to fine a work to interest them. Lived for the big covey explosion, always believe there's a hundred bird covey over the next rise. The singles specialist would work much closer, usually a setter or a female pointer, would find coveys as well but birds that were burried in cover. Backed at sight and at distance, manytimes I had to relocate the backing dog, because I could'nt find the pointing dog some 100 yards out in open country, one reason we had almost all white dogs. After the covey flush it was the light footed singles dog, you know the type, moves with purpose but caution and precision, makes you believe there's a bird in every clump, lifts her feet like they have glue as she pins down the single. Singles dogs retrieve, many times on a covey rise I have seen two dogs a pointer and a setter retrieve 2 birds a piece in one trip, heads out either side of the mouth and not a mark on them. I guy could make a living with just a singles dog, but a guy sees more birds and gets more thrills with a covey dog along too, way out there on a limb finding birds. It spoiled me for life. I never had to really hunt, just followed the dog.
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Thanks for your response! It makes perfect sense when I compare it to my experience. I'd say of my 3 dogs, I have 1 good singles dog and a good covey dog. The other is an older dog and she seems to have the game figured out. She ranges a bit and finds some coveys, but also does a great job of working singles.....oh what it must have been like back "then."
 
My granddad used to hunt around Yates Center back in the '60s. I asked him once how many coveys they would find in a day and he said he wasn't sure. They would scatter a covey and find another covey before they would get to the singles. He figured 10 to 15 coveys was the norm. Sometimes more than that. I asked granddad once how many coveys they usually found on a really good day. He shook his head and said "Maybe 20 or so."

He said it wasn't worth the drive unless you had three or four guys. They were driving from Wichita. By yourself, you'd be done in about a half hour. This was with two brittanies. Average dogs. He said the first time they hunted this place, a covey ran in front of the car (didn't even have a truck). They got excited, stopped and let the dogs out. Didn't even return to the car until everyone had a limit. Covey after covey after covey after covey...... Dad (he was about 10 at the time) remembers stopping to buy shells for the next weekend on the drive back to Wichita. The party usually consisted of my granddad and his brother and 3 or 4 boys. I'm assuming that KS had a limit of 8 birds back then too. You do the math. Limits every Saturday for all of them. Must have been incredible.

I hunt on a ranch in Osage Co. Oklahoma and can usually find 5 or 6 coveys in a day's work. Not this year of course, but over the last ten years, this has been the norm. I actually found a couple of really big coveys in there this year, but the cattle have really eaten down the grasses. Dogs point and the birds take off running. Already looking to next year and hoping we don't have another hellish summer like the last.
 
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Nick

I am 44 years old. I grew up in Stilwell, KS (small town near the Johnson/Miami County line) in eastern KS, south of Kansas City about 20 miles. When I was a little kid, not even old enough to shoot yet, my dad and his hunting partner would limit on quail pretty much every Sat and Sun without having to go more than 20 minutes from our house. Then when I was in college and just after, my mom and dad had a neighbor who grew up southwest of Lacygne, KS. His family still owned the farm. First time he took my dad and I down there, we saw a covey next to the road under a cedar tree. It was his ground and we were ready to get out and turn the dogs loose. He said not to worry about that covey we'd see plenty. Man was he right. We had a stretch of about 4 hunting seasons where it was really uncommon for us not to limit every time we went. As mentioned in the post above, we would flush a covey, go after the singles and flush another covey before we got to the singles. We would go out west hunting pheasants opening weekend and one or two other weekends a year, but the rest of the time was on his farm hunting quail. He had a lawn/landscape business so didn't have much to do in the winter. When I was home for Christmas break during college he and I would hunt two or three days during the week while my poor dad was at work. Sorry for the long winded post, but the story of the good ol' days got me thinking about what was probably the best stretch of a few years I've ever had as a hunter.
 
Nick said:
I am 44 years old. I grew up in Stilwell, KS (small town near the Johnson/Miami County line) in eastern KS, south of Kansas City about 20 miles. When I was a little kid, not even old enough to shoot yet, my dad and his hunting partner would limit on quail pretty much every Sat and Sun without having to go more than 20 minutes from our house. Then when I was in college and just after, my mom and dad had a neighbor who grew up southwest of Lacygne, KS. His family still owned the farm. First time he took my dad and I down there, we saw a covey next to the road under a cedar tree. It was his ground and we were ready to get out and turn the dogs loose. He said not to worry about that covey we'd see plenty. Man was he right. We had a stretch of about 4 hunting seasons where it was really uncommon for us not to limit every time we went. As mentioned in the post above, we would flush a covey, go after the singles and flush another covey before we got to the singles. We would go out west hunting pheasants opening weekend and one or two other weekends a year, but the rest of the time was on his farm hunting quail. He had a lawn/landscape business so didn't have much to do in the winter. When I was home for Christmas break during college he and I would hunt two or three days during the week while my poor dad was at work. Sorry for the long winded post, but the story of the good ol' days got me thinking about what was probably the best stretch of a few years I've ever had as a hunter.
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I'm 57 and that sure hits home. I grew up in south KC, hunted from Jaudon corner on Holmes west to Bucyrus. Quail everywhere. Shot a zillion doves to! Now all plowed under, in sod farms, paved over, or cut up into fescue pasture for the suburban horse crowd.
 
akp said:
My granddad used to hunt around Yates Center back in the '60s. I asked him once how many coveys they would find in a day and he said he wasn't sure. They would scatter a covey and find another covey before they would get to the singles. He figured 10 to 15 coveys was the norm. Sometimes more than that. I asked granddad once how many coveys they usually found on a really good day. He shook his head and said "Maybe 20 or so."

He said it wasn't worth the drive unless you had three or four guys. They were driving from Wichita. By yourself, you'd be done in about a half hour. This was with two brittanies. Average dogs. He said the first time they hunted this place, a covey ran in front of the car (didn't even have a truck). They got excited, stopped and let the dogs out. Didn't even return to the car until everyone had a limit. Covey after covey after covey after covey...... Dad (he was about 10 at the time) remembers stopping to buy shells for the next weekend on the drive back to Wichita. The party usually consisted of my granddad and his brother and 3 or 4 boys. I'm assuming that KS had a limit of 8 birds back then too. You do the math. Limits every Saturday for all of them. Must have been incredible.

I hunt on a ranch in Osage Co. Oklahoma and can usually find 5 or 6 coveys in a day's work. Not this year of course, but over the last ten years, this has been the norm. I actually found a couple of really big coveys in there this year, but the cattle have really eaten down the grasses. Dogs point and the birds take off running. Already looking to next year and hoping we don't have another hellish summer like the last.
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I would second yates center. When I was a youngster in the early seventies, It was nothing to find 10 or 12 coveys in a 3 hr hunt. We never pursued singles, if we found one fine, but it was almost as long driving as it was hunting. One way we would extend the day, was to go to Westphalia and pass shoot prarie chickens in the morning, on some fields my uncle had acess to. Then quail hunt on the way home. Although I don't remember limits of chickens and quail, I do remember days with one or two chickens and a limit of quail.
 
oldandnew said:
I'm 57 and that sure hits home. I grew up in south KC, hunted from Jaudon corner on Holmes west to Bucyrus. Quail everywhere. Shot a zillion doves to! Now all plowed under, in sod farms, paved over, or cut up into fescue pasture for the suburban horse crowd.
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I remember buying shells for my .410 at the little store in Jaudon.
 
Westphalia......yes!

I love this topic....boy does it hit home!

I began hunting SEK around 1996 near the Westphalia area.
My father, myself and a good friend w/ 4 good pointers would travel each November from Kentucky and usually stay in Garnett or Iola. We would stop in KC / Leawood to visit my grandparents....Then head down toward Anderson and Allen counties for opening weekend. The hunting was damn good and the locals were more than friendly. One farmer would invite us for dinner every year. He recently past away I'm sad to report. Anyway he had several sections of the finest quail ground you could imagine.....milo, beans and corn surrounded by bushy fence rows, creek bottoms and tree lines....pastures mixed w/ warm season grasses and wild plumbs.

From 96 thru 2005 we would move 3-4 coveys before lunch and 5-7 in the afternoon.....so 8 to 12 covey days were very common! If we killed a limit, we would stop and clean the birds, put them on ice. Put away the guns and just run the dogs for the rest of the day.....that was really great. Dad and I would get out our camera's too. We made journals of each hunt and often found the same coveys year after year....each covey had a nickname: "ditch covey" or "hilltop covey"...."home skillet covey" and so on.

The motel in Iola always had trucks from TX, GA, TN, AL and all over....died in the wool bird hunters w/ excellent pointers and setters. I miss those days as do you all....

This tread really brought back some great memories.....thanks!
 
another thought....

After re-reading the posts and mine....I noticed 1 prevailing theme. You can see the number of birds / coveys decreasing by the decade....

The guys that hunted in the 60's and 70's had amazing quail numbers and their posts reflect this....like moving 10-12 coveys in 3 hour hunt.

In the 90's and early 2000's.....8-12 covey days were common.

Now fast forward to today.....I would expect that most of us....hardcore quail guys are lucky to move 3-5 coveys per day....anywhere.

Birds are coming back in some areas....where habitat programs are used. However clean farming, modern equipment and chemicals plus extreme weather events are really hurting our beloved sport!

Viva la Quail!
 
This fits my recollection exactly. Of course I didn't experience the 60's or 70's, but I was following dogs in N Lyon/S Wabaunsee county in the late 80's. We only went out after lunch and never stayed past 3pm. My uncles would shoot limits regularly and I went through a lot of .410 shells. A trip down memory lane indeed.

In the 90's I was old enough to hunt on my own. Walking down the RR tracks to some pastures in N Lyon county, my first "very own" bird dog and I would see 2 or 3 coveys in a 2 mile walk. When I could drive I had about a section of land around Americus where I could put 8-10 coveys/day up and often I was surprised by a rooster there. A particular quarter section a few miles up the road held 5 coveys. It seemed nearly every homestead and draw had a covey or 2 still then.

The past 5 years have been the toughest, though I did seem to manage one fantastic day of quail hunting in the sand-burr infested cow-pastures of C/SW KS. There was one day in SE KS that I found 5 coveys on what I'd consider ideal private land.

We were lucky to find a covey this season.
 
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