slabstacker

Went and hit a conservation area this morning that I have not hunted before. The place has some of the best quail habitat I have ever seen, we ran a ton of it and never found a single bird. Place was loaded up with rabbits though. We got 5 of them, pushed twice that out but couldn’t get them. Was a good time despite the weather.

Quail numbers seem to be down bad around the areas I typically hunt them. Plenty of rabbits to go after though! My little Brittany dog will point rabbits as hard as she does birds and it works out pretty well, she will find and point the area the rabbit is in and then I’ll go around the side and send her in and she will bump it out. Made a quick walk down a drainage in a small price of public land and she pointed 4 rabbits and I was able to bag two of them. Pretty good time and I sure do like eating those things!

Hey you bet, I’ll do that. I will be taking a little time off of the bird hunting here for a couple weeks. Need to work the rest of this week into next week then I am leaving out Thursday to go to Oklahoma on a hog hunting trip. I’ll get back out and start quail hunting again after that so if I am planning to hit bois de arc I will shoot you a message and get something setup!

Yes they for the most part hold for a point. There are some that flush wild but the majority of them sit really tight until I come up and flush them. I have found all of them in this one particular type of grass that’s growing inside the timber line, I have no clue what it is. I will try and get back out to some of these spots and take some pics of it. I have not found any birds deep within the timber, they are always close to the edge of the timber within 20 or so feet of the edge. We have done this now 3 times on 4 different pieces of public land since last Friday and killed our 3 bird limit each time out. I live in Nixa and the places are from 30 minutes to an hour from me. First trip out was on Kickapoo Praire Conservation area, second trip was at Bois De Arc Conservation area, and today we started at Talbot Conservation area and got one there then moved 10 minutes north of there to Providence Praire Conservation Area. Found a lot of birds at all 4 places, I would imagine based off what I have seen you could find them at just about any area that has timber. I hope this helps some, if you have any other questions let me know, I am by no means an expert on any of this. Last Friday was the first time I ever went for them and I wasn’t even there for woodcock initially, that’s just where the dog ended up taking me.

Last morning hunt for them today, season closes tonight. Found them in the same type of grassy cover just inside the timber draws, hunted at Talbot conservation area this morning to start then up at another patch of public land just north of there. Was a great hunt, took a little longer this time which was fine, shooting on my part was not so good but we eventually got it done. Added a couple rabbits to the pot as well which I don’t mind shooting at all, I have an equal opportunity frying pan….

Went out to a different spot this morning and hit them again. Just to darn much fun! I am going to try them one more time tomorrow, it’s the last day the season is open for them. We had a blast this morning, same as it was last Friday, worked just inside the draws around creek beds. Terrible picture but was in a bit of a hurry to get things loaded and head back towards the house.

I was pretty surprised by it all, I have flushed a couple here and there but always just one and it was usually by accident. I don’t know much about them at all but I guess they migrate through here just like doves. I would guess it is hit or miss hunting them, sometimes they are here and other times they aren’t. We definitely hit a stretch that some wanted to be in this morning. Sure was a good time, was a hunt for the memory books for sure!

Went out with my Brittany this morning to bird hunt for a while on one of my favorite prairie conservation areas. Was going for some quail but she kept working down into the woods along all the draws we were around. Finally I just said ok and we shoved off into them and then she locked up. Walked over and flushed a woodcock then proceeded to completely miss both shots. Reloaded and took two steps and second one got up and I was able to down it. We kept working down through the timber and ended up getting 5 total woodcock up and I was able to kill my 3 bird limit. This was a first for me, I have always known they would come through but I didn’t think it would be so much fun to hunt those darn things! We had an absolute blast, should have tried it before now, she worked those birds better than she has ever worked anything. Hunting them in the timber might kind of be her thing, to bad season ends next Tuesday. I will definitely be out after them again!

Tried bois de arc one more time Wednesday afternoon, we never found a bird. Tired of walking mile after mile for a handful of birds. Loaded the dog and went and hit a quick preserve hunt just to get some birds in front of her. Had a good time, lot of shooting!

She is good! We hunted opening day and she did great. We had 3 covey flushes in just a couple hours up at Bois De Arc. Shooting wasn't to great I only killed 4 but it was still a great time. Went back out that following Friday and got one big covey up and killed a few out of it. The day after that she got sick and took a couple weeks to get over. She is all good now and back to normal, we are going to go it tomorrow afternoon and give it a go. Probably going to run out to talbot and try out there. I have never seen so many people out that first week as I did this year. Every parking lot had trucks with dog boxes in them. I think with bois de arc being so close to Springfield it gets hunted a bunch. Here is a pick from opening morning. Anyone else been out hunting this season and having any success finding some birds?

Finally had enough of the deer hunting so I went back out to bois de arc conservation area this morning to do some more quail hunting. First spot was a bust, second spot we hit my dog hit a rock solid point and I walked in and quail went everywhere. It was hard to pick one out I was spinning left then right then left again but was able to pick one off there. Was not able to follow that covey up after the initial flush because the all went straight for the off limits area for the shooting range. We loaded up and went to a third spot and she pointed hard again and I walked in and flushed them, it was a smaller covey this time so it wasn’t as hard to get on one and knock it down. That covey flew straight over a small thicket and across the road onto private land so we couldn’t follow it up either. Was kind of frustrating not being able to work the coveys a bit more but had a good time and the pup do a great job, ended up with a nice male and female pair.

It was Missouri, we where at bois de arc conservation area

Got out this morning for the first quail hunt of the year. Never had or trained a bird dog before but decided to pick up a Brittany pup last December. She found and pointed a nice 20 plus bird covey right out the gate and I was able to pick one off of it. Followed up a couple singles over the next hour from the first covey and killed them. 3 birds in and hour and a half wasn’t bad for her first go around especially on public land.

Came down to Norfork for a family get together. We headed out to try and catch some crappie which was a complete bust, found some fish on brush piles but couldn’t get them to go. Ending up finding some bluegills still up on beds in the back of coves. Ended up catching quiet a few, made for a good dinner!

Crappie fishing has been killer up there the last serval years. I have a hard time going some place else when I can take a 20 minute drive to fellows and catch a load of crappie. Last year in particular was the best crappie fishing there I have seen in years. The weed beds that usually grow did not do very well at all which had the crappie concentrated on shallow brush piles. You could scan a brush pile and see hundreds of crappie on it. I do agree with you though on the length limit. I wish there was at least a 9” length limit because I have also seen people hauling loads of 6” and 7” fish out.