We're not in Kansas any more...

[mobirdhunter]

Photo key:

1: When we found coveys, it was easy to tell they'd seen a dog and hunter a time or two. We talked with a local conservation area manager who noted how much more wary birds were here than in central or western Kansas. They reminded us of our North Missouri birds, running far and fast, and flushing quickly.

2-5: Our last day was really too hot to hunt, getting up to 73 degrees. We quit after a morning hunt and went back to our cabin to sit in the shade with the dogs. With about an hour left in the last day of the season, Elaine asked if I wanted to get out for the last hour. I did. Right from the truck Aspen showed signs of scent. Photo 2 is the beginning of his unraveling the mystery of scent from a late day, running covey. He made long casts searching for more scent across the harvested bean field before heading into a broom sedge buffer. He finally pinned another large covey which gave me a bird on the rise and another on a follow-up single -- both delivered by Aspen.
6: I'd told Phil Yearout that I'd use one of my Fox guns in his honor if he was able to join us. Our plans fell through for a hunt, and my little DHE 20 was the only gun I used on the trip. It's a great prairie gun with its 30 inch barrels and 6 lbs. 10 oz. heft to keep it swinging. I call it my "pandemic gun" -- it was born during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic and came to me just as we entered our current pandemic. What a gun!