Saturday Hunt 1-14

M

MAB7799

Member
Originally I wasn't planning on hunting. But after the forecast changed and it didn't show the ice starting until Saturday night, I figured I would go out and see if I could get some birds. Started out on public ground finding 3 coveys and shooting 4 quail by about 10:00 am. Called a farmer I had talked to earlier this season that owned a killer piece of ground that didn't want me to hunt. He said he MIGHT be willing to let me go at the end of season (because he hunts himself and so do his kids). On a gamble I called him up and asked if I could go. Said I was by myself and was hoping to get permission to walk his ground.

He said ok. I was SUPER excited as this piece of ground is the kind of things you dream about. Managed fully for the birds. About a 250 acre piece with small 30 acre milo fields broken up surrounded entirely by 20 yard wide CRP patches.

I start walking.... 75 yards in.. point. Covey.. bird down. Another 75 yards. Point.. covey.. bird down. In 1 hour we had 4 coveys and had finished the limit of quail on that ground. To top things off Olive pointed 2 roosters and a group of about 30 pheasants which got up on the edge of gun range. I about stepped on a rooster that she was on the wrong side of the wind on. Got up 5 feet to my left... scared the crap out of me and of course I didn't pull a feather. My only miss all day.

Was a rough day for hen quail. Every bird I shot except one happened to be a hen. But that's how it goes when quail hunting sometimes. Ended up with 7 coveys and 30-40 pheasants seen. Quit at 1:00. The pictures of Olive pointing are from the public ground. Didn't bother to take any on the private, but now I regret it!
 
Mark,

Thanks again for sharing. Sounds like a fantastic day. You and Olive are having a great season. I will be getting a lab puppy the first part of April. Hearing your stories and seeing the progress Olive has made gets me excited to go through the process with my new pup.
 
Nick said:
Mark,

Thanks again for sharing. Sounds like a fantastic day. You and Olive are having a great season. I will be getting a lab puppy the first part of April. Hearing your stories and seeing the progress Olive has made gets me excited to go through the process with my new pup.
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Olive just turned 1 year old on January 12th. She is my first bird dog. I had only basic training knowledge when I got her as I have a lab I use for waterfowling that I have trained perfectly. (voice, hand signal, whistle, etc) So I knew enough from that to get me started but training a bird dog was new ground for me.

Me and Olive training camp down in Oklahoma at Ronnie Smith Kennels. Was a 2 day deal where Olive was introduced to birds the right way and Ronnie teaches you how to train your dog. She was 12 weeks old at the time and was the youngest dog there. Ronnie taught me what I needed to do and I quickly realized.... I need pigeons! Long story short I came back from the camp, told my wife we were getting pigeons (we live in the city) and she about freaked.

I got my pigeon coop from - check this - bed bath & beyond (not kidding) for $130. Got 4 homing pigeons, and started calling farmers around the outskirts of town to see if I could train my dog. I got a land owner to give me permission who also happened to have a wild covey on his 160 acre piece. So at the age of about 4-5 months old I started taking her out to that land and working her on pigeons EVERY SINGLE DAY. I used remote bird launchers to simulate the real deal as best I could. I did that from April/May until the beginning of August. I got her steady to flush on my own but that was about as far as my knowledge went. A buddy of mine has a friend who runs field trail and who has a kennel. I sent Olive to him for 90 days and he put the polish on her. She came back a freaking rock star man. The best part was how controllable she was. Whistle trained, collar trained, voice commands, the whole deal. Retrieved to hand.. was really great value for $400 a month. After I got her back I kept working her on pigeons right up til season started.

I will say the first 4 hunts were painful as hell. She would bump birds left and right. She just didn't understand the difference between pen raised/pigeon scent and wild bird scent. But by hunt 5 she figured it out. Now she doesn't really mess up unless she's on the wrong side of the wind which you just can't help.

So my advice.. get you some pigeons and a remote bird launcher and get that dog in as many birds as you possibly can. That's what I learned from my first season with a bird dog.
 
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One other important thing to note... I have hunted her literally every Saturday and Sunday since season started and sometimes I take a day off work and hunt her then too. My goal - get her in as many wild birds as I possibly can. Birds make a bird dog.. hunting 1-2 times a year isn't going to cut it if you want a good dog.
 
Mark,

Do you ever hunt quail and/or pheasants with your lab? If so, do you intend to hunt the lab and Olive together in the future? Just curious.
 
Nick said:
Mark,

Do you ever hunt quail and/or pheasants with your lab? If so, do you intend to hunt the lab and Olive together in the future? Just curious.
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Before I had Olive I hunted with my lab some. He is not very good on upland though. He's a waterfowl dog. He is too fat to be good at upland.. runs 1 field then he trails behind you. Originally I was going to hunt them together but after a few hunts with her I changed my mind on that. I'm looking to get a 2nd dog in a year or so (got bit by the bird dog bug).

I prefer pointing dogs because I love quail hunting and I like watching them work. I live in eastern KS and most of my hunting is NE or NC Kansas and pheasants are a bonus bird around those areas. Plus I hunt by myself a lot and quail hunting is much easier if you plan to hunt by yourself.

Also quite frankly - the days of great Kansas pheasant hunting are long gone. Drought and farming practices combined with ever reducing CRP acreage are writing on the wall for the demise of the Kansas pheasant (just my opinion). Sure numbers seem to be "up every year" but I'm a pessimist as I think that is KDWP just keeping the tourist dollars coming. Quail are easier to find and it seems like with the cleaner farming practices at least a few coveys hold on and live in the tree rows where as in those same areas pheasants used to be everywhere now you never see em.

I know folks will disagree with that last statement, it's just my personal opinion and another reason I don't really see the need for labs. Now if you were in SD, ND or Nebraska, that's a whole diff story. But KS, MO, OK, TX... no need for labs.
 
When I started running labs in the late 80s we still had a pen full of pointers. Dad said if my labs didn't work with his pointers they were staying home. I just worked them in chasing quail and after a couple walks they all worked as a team and were better all around. I ain't a dog trainer just a dog lover. The pointers point the labs retrieved and then the labs started honoring points and one the pointers started helping on cripples and then we had fun. Before the labs the pointers did good on downed birds just not great. Now I have mixed labs that do fine by me and since I am the one feeding them that's all that matters.
 
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