Kevin Diekroeger took a break from turkey hunting to do a little quail hunting. I set a big covey down in the West Bottom Field and got out my three setters, Mac, Doo and Ava to point the birds. We ran into a couple of pheasant on the way to the covey as well as a stray quail. On the covey rise, Kevin knocked down two, just missing his third bird and I missed my chance at a double, barely hitting my first bird and missing the second. Fun, quick hunt with some nice points and a few good shots.
Larry Jones brought out his new pointer, Ike, for some work on some quail singles, while his young Brittany, King, got some backing practice. After a bit of dog training, Kenny Arnold got out his two pointers, Dottie and Susie, to help out finding some quail coveys in the Clubhouse Field. Jimmy Robinson came along and helped out with the dog work. They had a nice long hunt, worked the field and timber edges hard and came back with all but two of their birds.
Brien and Hanley Guy crawled out of the turkey woods to the upland fields to do a little quail hunting. Brien brought his pointer Rex along to find the the coveys I set in the Clubhouse Field. The weather warmed up and the wind got going, which got the quail up and moving around. Rex still did a nice job on the coveys, singles and running birds all around the field.
Don’t worry Christian I got you backed up.
Tod Benninghoff set up an overnight pheasant hunt for all his boys, Dalton, Austin, Darin, Brian, Brice and Kurtis. The first day, were some of the worst conditions for pheasant hunting, spring cover, warm weather and high winds. Despite the weather the guides and hunters still had a nice afternoon hunt and lots of success with the birds. We had a relaxing evening with a nice meal. The following morning started with a bit of frost, biscuits and gravy and another round of pheasants. They found almost all the new birds and some of the leftovers and heading in their different directions with pounds and pounds of pheasant.
Justin Myers set up an upland bird hunt for his buddy, Ron Braddy. Ron brought along his pair of older shorthairs and a young pointer to find the pheasant and quail coveys, I spread around the southern half of the Tinkerfarm Field and around the old pond bed. Warm weather and 30 mph winds made the hunt interesting, but they found all of the birds plus some extra and got some good work out of their young dog.
Dale Wiegard came out with son, Matt and son-in-law, Devin Burmester for an upland bird hunt. They picked a beautiful, spring day for the hunt, great to be out for a walk, just not the best conditions for upland bird hunting. I set some pheasant, quail and chukar in the Clubhouse Field for Steve Sanders and his posse of dogs to find for the group. I made it out to see a little bit of the hunt and found Matt knocking down birds out of the air all over the field. They lost a few pheasant due to the spring weather or errant shooting, but really cleaned up on the chukar and quail.
Larry Jones and Jimmy Robinson came out to try out Larry’s new pointer, Ike on some quail. I hung around for the first quail covey over at the Tinkerfarm Field and got to see a point by King and one by Ike. I knocked down a quail in the fencerow while Jimmy worked on backing with Ike.
Ray Rudy and his son-in-law, Willie Bone finished up their upland hunting season with a pheasant and quail hunt. I set some pheasant and a couple of mini-coveys of quail in the Clubhouse Field and got a seasoned pair of dogs, Curly and Mac to do the bird finding. The pheasant wanted to run in the mild, spring weather but we eventually tracked them all down. The quail were some tough targets to begin with, but Ray and Willie knocked them all out of the sky.
Michael Williamson came out with his dad, Ray, son, Evan and shorthair, Ranger to hunt some pheasant and chukar. The spring conditions quickly woke the pheasants I set out in the north Cabin Field. Ranger really did a nice job locating and pointing the birds. A couple got a way, but they spent a fun, beautiful spring morning in the upland field.