Missouri Quail Season starts tomorrow, Man I'm excited!!

[Mr. Crappie]

Can't wait to get my new pup out tomorrow. Seems like quail season would never get here. My 11 month female (Bess) is all healed up and ready to go tomorrow and Monday. Hoping to see her point her first wild birds in the next two days. This is almost as exciting as watching your child take their first steps !!!

[Sharon]

Glad to hear she's o-kay now. Have a great day.

Wish I was down there. No more quail here in Ontario.

[Mr. Crappie]

Thanks Sharon. Her paw healed unbelievably fast. She is ready. I think there should be more quail this year than last year. I have lots of places to hunt and if you lived closer I would take you in a heartbeat.
Brent

[live4point]

I'm mid 40's and still can't sleep the night before season starts! Outlook is down again here in Mo.,but can't wait to get out there and give it a go.

[Mr. Crappie]

Well, the weather was very warm today, but of course I had to take the pup out. If I didn't have my two kids with me I would never tell this, but my pup pointed not one but three skunks!!! Thank goodness she held. Each time I went in for the flush I found myself staring at a skunks butt!! What a deal. I have quail hunted for over thirty years and have seen dogs point everything but never a skunk!! Got lucky as none of the skunks sprayed.... Anyone else have that happen. Was only out 1 1/2 hours and no birds. Not many crops out up here.

[Sharon]

three times!!? That's what I call lucky!

[birdogg42]

Brent, sound like you had an interesting day! LOL Well, I hunted for four hours and found five coveys. The day didnt start as well as it sounded. I was ready to give two dogs away or just leave them out there in the field after the first thirty minutes. They pretty much said to heck with having manners on their game. They just ran like idiots till after they ran up one covey and about four singles, they finally realized that i was beyond upset. Other than the first thirty minutes it was a pretty fun day.

[Big Dave]

The morning hunt was bad, we were in some of best cover and saw two singles. Muddy and most crops still in. After lunch it was well over 70 degrees but we managed to find three covies on the family farm. My brother and I shot a few birds and had some good dog work.

[Mr. Crappie]

We didn't get out until after 1 p.m. so it was pretty warm to start things out. Crops were still in most of the are I hunted. I was impressed in the way my dog handled though. She was running well, but always seemed to keep me in mind. She is a really easy handling dog. Just wished we would have found birds instead of skunks. I had a guy tell me that I should have hit her with the collar when she pointed them, but I was thinking rabies and getting sprayed. I think I did the right thing by just getting her out of there.

[gspmo1]

I was out for a couple hours in the late morning early afternoon. It got pretty warm and I did not move any birds My first year pup did handle pretty well so it was not all bad.

I will be back at a couple more days this week, also headed to north Missouri to chase some pheasants, looking forward to that!

[Mr. Crappie]

gspmo1,
I'm headed to a farm north of here that usually carries both quail and pheasants, so I'll give you a report this evening. In the past years it has been a great place, but last year was really down. Two years ago we pushed six coveys in about three hours, but last year I only found one covey with my old dog. I'm just hoping to get my pup into a covey or two. With it being a little warm and the crops still in the fields it will be a bit more difficult. Hopefully I get to report on something other than SKUNKS!! Now I know the true meaning of getting 'skunked" ! Ha!

[r.r.rouse]

Ya know Skunks are egg suckers!!! Might need some critter controll if your not seein birds ,think about it.

[birddogger]

Well, the weather was very warm today, but of course I had to take the pup out. If I didn't have my two kids with me I would never tell this, but my pup pointed not one but three skunks!!! Thank goodness she held. Each time I went in for the flush I found myself staring at a skunks butt!! What a deal. I have quail hunted for over thirty years and have seen dogs point everything but never a skunk!! Got lucky as none of the skunks sprayed.... Anyone else have that happen. Was only out 1 1/2 hours and no birds. Not many crops out up here.

I posted this on another thread a while back, but last year we had two dogs pointing a skunk. One of the dogs got sprayed. It was bad and ended our hunt.

Charlie

[Mr. Crappie]

I hunted hard today. My pup and I were out for four hours. It was hard hunting as the crops weren't out and the cover we hunted was tall and thick. Sorry to say with all that work I didn't push a covey !! It was a beautiful day and I guess it's a plus that we disn't find any skunks. I really worried about the bird situation up here. I'm thinking that we should have least bumped a covey today, although it would have taken three or four veteran dogs to cover what we covered today.

[Meller]

What part of Missouri are you in? I know it has to be north.

[gspmo1]

Mr. Crappie,

Well at least it sounds like you had a good day with your pup. I know its tough though when your finding any birds You may have said but did you hunt public land or was it a private farm? Pretty much all my hunting is on public land. I wish Missouri would put together a Walk in Management Area program like some of the other states. I think a lot of farmers would go for that and be more interested in improving habitat on their land. Anyway I'm sure yet if I'm going up that way Thursday or not but I'll update if I do.

[hpvizslas]

Well, the weather was very warm today, but of course I had to take the pup out. If I didn't have my two kids with me I would never tell this, but my pup pointed not one but three skunks!!! Thank goodness she held. Each time I went in for the flush I found myself staring at a skunks butt!! What a deal. I have quail hunted for over thirty years and have seen dogs point everything but never a skunk!! Got lucky as none of the skunks sprayed.... Anyone else have that happen. Was only out 1 1/2 hours and no birds. Not many crops out up here.

This was not a good posting for me to read. I took my two out tonight and the oldest got skunked. I kept smelling something but could not tell where from, my nose has never worked the greatest. It took me getting home and the wife telling me that the dog stinks before I realized she was the one that got sprayed. FYI tomato juice does work, otherwise the dogs and I would still be outside.

[Mr. Crappie]

I am located in northeast Missouri. I hunt almost 100% provate ground. The landowner I hunted on yesterday called last night to tell me he had spotted a covey while combining on a place I have yet to hunt. The sad news is where I hunted yesterday, two years ago I found six coveys. Last year I hunted it with my old dog and was met with the same results as with my pup. It's certainly depressing to go out and hunt that hard and not find any birds. Hopefully things will change as farmers get crops out and the weather gets a bit coller.
Brent

[CHJIII]

My first day went well. four hours in the field two coveys, two birds down. And it wasn't in Northern Mo. Took two of my 3 shorthairs; left the setters and LM home.

[setterbud]

Opening day Went to Whetstone got into two covies, we got hot and tired. I am getting older every year and when the temp gets in the 60's i really wear out, dogs got hot and tired, they were really on them early. it was good to hear some others shooting, i drove arounda little bit and saw 7 more vehicles, in only ran in to one group while i was hunting

went tues 11/03, 3 hours, didn't find any heard ,three or four covey shots there were several other hunters there also. going up north to rebels cove, unon ridge or locust creek this weekend

Buddy on point,


buddy and ellie (she is on the left hard to see)on point


Ellie brought back one


mr crappie ever go to Sever, used to find a lot of birds there in the 80's,mid 90's then the ca started changing things, grew some weeds you couln't walk thru, wasn't worth the long drive up there for maybe 1
covey

[BellaDad]

I'll be going to Whetstone this weekend, couldn't make the opener. I'll let you know how it goes. I figure it will be a little slower between the duck opener this weekend and everyone prepping for next weekend's rifle deer season opener.

[gspmo1]

Fun day on some released birds. Mocha held her points and retrieved all three birds! Also these were the first pheasants shot over her.

[CHJIII]

Not sure where I'm going Sat. My step-dad is coming down so I need to get him in some birds. Sunday I'll hit a small CA near the house that I know has two coveys. Just make a short day of it, probably take the dogs that haven't been out for a day yet.

[Mr. Crappie]

Setterbud,
I haven't ever hunted the Sever area. Although I hunt a few conservation areas, I mostly hunt private ground. The Atlanta Wildlife are used to be really good hunting (still is the best looking quail ground around) but I have never found many birds there.
I put some tame birds out (non-dizzied) scattered out in a brushy field this morning and my pup got a in some good bird work. It has turned off so hot here (mid 70's) that it's hard on dogs and is certainly keeping the vegetation green.

[birdogg42]

Went out today and with the wind blowing 20 + mph the birds didnt want to sit very tight. Saw three coveys and never even tried to establish a point. Maybe the wind wont be blowing in the morning.

[Boxa]

My Dad and I went out Saturday morning and found one covey and two woodcock before it started to get up to 80 degrees. We rotated out dogs to try and make the day but all of us were tired by about noon.

Shot two out of the covey, one on the rise and one single. I was pretty surprised by the first woodcock and didn't get a shot off. On the second one I thought I was ready and hit dead center on the tree branch he flew behind!! HAHA!

Nice start to the fall season, and it was real good to get the dogs out for a run

[BellaDad]

I went out Saturday and it was tough. We went out to Whetstone CA. In about 4-5 hours didn't see a single bird. Jumped some ducks off of a little lake but didn't have steel in the gun so I didn't shoot them. The dog had two great points on where a bird used to be. Plenty of feathers and a little burrow.

As Caleb said, it was still great to get the dog out. But I was hoping for at least a couple of wild flushes for her to teach her some things, but no such luck.

[CHJIII]

Spent about 4 hours Sat. and didn't move a bird. Temp. is just way too high. Took the 10mo. setter pup out for her first trip. She did alright. Going out Wed. to my "go to" spot. Have to shut it down for deer season after that.

[gspmo1]

Hunted Whetstone on Friday, I found one single and woodcock. With the crops still up and being pretty warm the hunting was pretty bad. I spent about 5 hours out there. I will be trying different areas this week.

[bowhunter1221975]

went out sunday to happy holler didnt see a bird dog locked on one point about 80 yards in front of us and by the time we got there no bird the wind was baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddd went to a private farm worked some grass near water pulled up 3 coveys bbut they hit the wind and were gone i got one shot off it got hot so we stoped by 11

[stlgsp]

Went out Thursday morning and didn't get into anything. Farmers were combining like crazy while it's dry so we were limited as to where to go. Went out again on Friday morning to one of the conservation area and got into a small covey and one woodcock. Later in the mornings, before it got too warm, took the pups to our training area and put them on birds, they had a blast pointing, chasing and swimming in the pond.

[gspmo1]

Went out today, only got two Bobs but Mocha handled well. If only the shooter was a better shot

These are her first wild quail, she did a great job pointing one of them. I flushed the other, she did retrieve both of them!