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Our Christmas week hunts have been modest affairs, but no less enjoyable for being so. Mostly within an hour or two from home, these are all self-guided, what I like to call "Blue Collar" hunts -- look over the cover, pick a spot, and let the pup loose. Our weather has gone from frigid and snowy to downright balmy, so Elaine and I hit the road for a two day affair in the far Northwest of Missouri -- Atchison County. We'd been years ago and had recently gotten reports of fair bobwhite numbers. So we hit the road to this, at least to me, unique landscape. The rolling hills west of Maryville are farmed hard with the only cover being the deep drainages and odd corner that was too wet to plow. This area not far from the Missouri River is composed of the same windblown soil that created the more well known Loess Hills regions of Missouri and Iowa. The area's rolling hills grow corn and beans...and some quail and pheasants. The hunting is hard, with birds in the very deep drainages (everything is called a "ditch" in Missouri, no matter how large or small). At times Elaine and I thought it not unlike a lunar landscape -- seemingly endless miles of steep, rolling fields of cut corn and beans.
On a blue collar hunt, you take your chances, rely on experience, and pray for a break. We did find birds, had incredible weather, and brought home some wonderful memories.
Photos:
1.2.3. This is big open country and, at least to my artist's eye, cluttered with wind turbines. It's a bit unnerving to hear the drone and swoosh overhead when you're walking in to a point. Nonetheless, the beauty of the rolling fields, especially during this spate of extraordinary weather days, still made us stop and gaze. Photo 3 provides the contrast of the history of this land's use and, alongside old windmills and new, we found derelict houses, evidence of life and the passage of time in this never-ending landscape.
4. All "new" places offer their own unique features. We encountered stands of rushes -- thick, almost impossible to wade through, and squeaky when tromped over. And, lo and behold, we found quail roosts in the middle of some of these stands. What a perfect place to roost as no predator, save perhaps an owl, might get close without significant warning. One covey's singles we flushed near their "rush roost" plopped back into the stuff, never to be found again.
5. Here I am shooting a single (the bird inside the circle) while standing in a stretch of rushes. I dropped this bird into the thick cover, and search as we might -- Rill, Elaine and I -- it was never found.
6. & 7. I didn't get many open shots, and when you flush your own birds you almost always get shots shielded by covert...or over the hill (can you see Rill pointing in the shadows of photo 6?). It didn't help that I brought and used multiple guns, as it takes me several shots to get the feel for a new-to-me gun. It's my contribution to conservation according to Elaine.
8.& 9. Two of the guns I blooded during these Blue Collar Hunts -- a beautiful 0 frame PH 16 and an A2 L.C. Smith 12 gauge, took birds on their very first shots, the kind of alchemy that I appreciate, all the while knowing it's luck as much as skill that makes this kind of magic. Still, I'll take it.
10. On our Christmas Day hunts we break out our matching red flannel shirts. This was my idea some years ago. Elaine calls me a dork because of it, but she goes along with my ideas. Aspen poses with us, but he's still out of commission with an injury, and you can see the sadness in his eyes.
I hope all of you have had a great Christmas week, no matter how you celebrate it.
__________________
"Doubtless the good Lord could have made a better game bird than bobwhite, and better country to hunt him in...but equally doubtless, he never did." -- Guy de la Valdene (from A Handful of Feathers )
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
The Following 27 Users Say Thank You to Garry L Gordon For Your Post:
A nice way to get out a have a great time. Are you hunting some type of walk-in public hunting or is it all private? The shirts are nice!
Ken
Ken, we hunt a mix of public and private. The private is through a leasing organization…that unfortunately caters to deer hunters. Missouri has a very small walk-in program, unlike Kansas.
__________________
"Doubtless the good Lord could have made a better game bird than bobwhite, and better country to hunt him in...but equally doubtless, he never did." -- Guy de la Valdene (from A Handful of Feathers )
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
The Following User Says Thank You to Garry L Gordon For Your Post:
12-28-2025, 02:21 PM
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