Got up at 6:00 and it was 15 degrees outside with a steady 20 mph wind then I found out the camper had no water everything was frozen. The camper has a good furnace but it does not keep the water storage area warm so I took a couple of electric heaters we had and put them under the sink in the bathroom and kitchen and opened all the cabinets and by the time I left I had water to the bathroom so at least Tina did not have to get out in the cold to go to the bathroom. By the end of the day and I got home everything had thawed and we had no more problems and we had no broken pipes.
Like I said up at 6 and met my friend Trent Temperly in the town of Fowler we ate a quick breakfast and went to the piece of property we were going hunt. By law we could not start until 9:00 and had to be off the grounds by 3:00. So we got things ready and took off. This is a state owned piece of property that is planted in habitat for wild pheasants no released birds here. About 10 minutes into the hunt Gem pointed and it turned out to be unproductive. He was solid and I believe it was a rooster that run away from the point. A little further down the property a rooster jumped wild to Trent's right he took a shot but it was a little far and he missed. A point and a rooster in the first 20 minutes was very promising. We went down the first side of the tract and got nothing on the return trip up the property Jet pointed a hen and the Ammo pointed and it turned out to be unproductive also but a rooster got up ahead of us wild and we decided that the birds had their track shoes on.
Our piece of habitat is separated into 2 fields divided by a county road. With the wind blowing at 20 mph steady we decided to hunt the west tract first thinking the birds would fly with the wind and all did and flew right into our next piece of habitat. The bird that got up wild from Ammo's point landed in the same field we were in so we moved around to where it landed it got up again about 40 yards out from me and flew right past me, I had a great opportunity to get this bird but missed with the first barrel and with the wind in his tail I thought he was to far out for the second barrel. This bird flew directly into our other field and we knew we might get another chance at him. We hunted this field for about 2 hours saw a couple more hens but no more roosters. We took a quick break for lunch in Fowler and then back to the fields for the afternoon.
Started out with Jet, Ammo and Gem in the afternoon. I rarely hunt with 3 dogs on the ground usually 2 but with just 2 hunters we had a lot of area to cover and we decided to run 3 dogs. Not 50 yards from the truck Jet locked on point Trent walked in and flushed a nice rooster shot 2 times and missed but I was backing him up and dropped the rooster with the first barrel. Gem promptly went to the bird and retrieved back to me it was a nice sequence. About another 50 yard into the habitat Jet pointed again and Trent was dead on with this bird and dropped him with the first shot.
This field is divided by a creek and we hunted the front half for about an hour and crossed over to cover the back half Gem pointed and Trent tried to get out in front and stop the bird from running but he was too late we walked in on the point and no bird, Gem roaded up about 10 yards and pointed again and this went on for about 50 yards and then the rooster flushed wild from the edge of the property flew to my left I let go with both barrels and not a feather was ruffled another chance at my limit and I missed again. We hunted the back half of the field pretty thoroughly and saw one more hen.
We then moved back to front half of the field to finish covering it I walked up a rooster and a single shot later it was on the ground. I was thrilled this is the first time in about 9 years that I have limited out on pheasant but we still had 1 bird to get so Trent could have his limit. We hunt until about 2:45 and decided to call it a day we were setting things up for a few pictures and I couldn't find Gem to get him in the picture I was yelling and cussing at him but couldn't find him I walked about a cedar tree not 10 yards from the truck and there he was on point and just as I seen him a nice rooster flushed. And there I stood without a gun and Trent going nuts because he heard the rooster flush. We took pictures and called it a day I will post a link to my face book album at the end so you can see all the pictures we took.
Saturday turned out to be a bad day I overslept and did not get up until 7:00 and had all the dogs to take care of and get things loaded into the truck and I arrive at the Mom and Pop restaurant for breakfast about 20 minutes late and I hate to be late. I met up with Trent and his friend Tim Crump. We started the day out at a piece of property that follows along a railroad track and we have always seen birds here not always roosters but at least a hen or 2 but we did not move a bird. While hunting down the tracks I lost the transmitter to my collars the beepers were on but I had now way to stimulate the collars if the dogs needed any corrections so half way up the field Jet decided to make a romp by himself and away he went ignored my whistle just wouldn't listen and I couldn't "tickle" him with the collar to remind him who was in charge so I took off after him and about 1 mile later I finally caught up with him, well needless to say me and him had a heart to heart talk and I think he got the point. But it wore me out I was so embarrassed I am not used to my dogs not listening especially in front of other people I apologized for my dogs disobedience but Trent and Tim made a joke about it because they have both had dogs and they know how it is sometimes. We drove around for a while looking for some private property to hunt and get permission to hunt it we had some luck and hunted a nice looking ditch but no luck not a single bird we went to another piece of property that we had permission to hunt and hunted a long ditch line that I got 4 hens out of last year but again no luck. By this time it was 2 in the afternoon and after my extra walk I was done and we decided to quit for the day. Not a single bird and that is unusual that we don't at least see a hen or 2.
Went back to the camper and took care of the dogs and called it a night early. Got up around 8:00 in the morning and started packing things up and we headed home around 9:45 the weather was nice and we made good time arrived home around 2:00.
Heading back up to the same area sometime in December and I am going to give it one more try. Quail hunting Saturday with my friend Scott Williams and hope to have more to add and of course some more pictures.
Here is the link to my facebook photo album if you would like to see all the pictures.
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