Versatile dogs

[fishinwrench]

16 minutes ago, Gumboot said:

To be fair, they'll find a bird too.

Good looking pair of blockheads !  

[moodyfour]

I would have to dig to find a photo, but one day we had a dog stop in the middle of a cut field, and every dog would back her which made the front dog back the others. It was one giant circle of 5 dogs backing each other. 

[tjm]

Fescue pasture did the quail in. Quail can't nest in turf, they need clumps of grass with bare spaces between for the babies to walk in. But wet cool spring times took my last two coveys many years ago; three consecutive bad years left no brood stock.

[Dutch]

36 minutes ago, tjm said:

Fescue pasture did the quail in. Quail can't nest in turf, they need clumps of grass with bare spaces between for the babies to walk in. But wet cool spring times took my last two coveys many years ago; three consecutive bad years left no brood stock.

That plus clear fence rows.  Several years ago I was talking to the neighbor who bordered one of our farms.   He was a vet from the Korean War.  He said when he returned home the 200 acre farm had 8-10 coveys.  I asked him the difference in the farm.  His comment was the fence rows were grown up, the pastures were lespedeza, and they had 1 field of milo.  At the time we shared 1 covey.  Both  farms had fescue and relatively clean fence rows.

[fishinwrench]

Yep, quail started disappearing drastically in the mid-late '80s where we used to hunt.  I've heard it blamed on turkey, foxes, ect, ect, and everyone that hunted them had their own theory on why.  Nothing related to fence rows or farming practices had changed up there.....so who knows?   Several guys (clubs) tried bringing in birds to help re-establish them but it didn't work.

[Quillback]

My grandad was a Missouri Bootheel farmer and back in the 60's they left pretty wide cover on the fence rows, I can't remember how wide, but I guess 30-40 feet.  There were always quail around and they lived in those fence rows.  Farming practices changed, and there's just nothing left for quail in that part of the state on those farms.  

Last time I hunted out in central and western Kansas there were quail around on public and private property.  

[tjm]

Nothing hurt quail as much as fescue. Quail don't migrate and don't travel far enough to cross a field of fescue and  repopulate an area of good habitat in the middle of it. They survived eons of coyotes, foxes, turkeys and hawks. Fescue is alien.

[ness]

We’ve started seeing more quail pheasant hunting the last several years. But this would be in CRP or grassy areas. 

[oneshot]

On 8/31/2019 at 9:26 AM, tjm said:

Fescue pasture did the quail in. Quail can't nest in turf, they need clumps of grass with bare spaces between for the babies to walk in. But wet cool spring times took my last two coveys many years ago; three consecutive bad years left no brood stock.

Yelp I remember back in the '60's, go in Doze Timber and plant everything in Fescue. I've made bunch of money off Fescue but hate what it has done to Quail and Rabbits.

Use to be there was two different types of Dogs. Hunting Dogs and Worthless Dogs. Didn't matter breed.

oneshot

[fishinwrench]

I've always heard a bird dog that won't hunt called a "Roop".

This here is a Roop