On Quail HuntingSecond season... Jon, Just wanted to write and thank you and your staff for another satisfying year as a member of the Mid America Hunting Association. As a second year member finding the correct properties for bird hunting has become easier. My 1st year in the organization I spent quite a bit of time driving to properties that were great for deer and turkey, but not too exciting for quail but, what can be expected when there is so much land to look at. I really expect by my 3d year, “if you’ll have me” that I will have my map book marked with the properties that meet my expectations for quail bird hunting. I will tell you this is all the property we hunted this year held birds and made for good hunting. If I had any disappointments it would be that it sometimes seems there are a lot of properties that are heavily pastured by cattle leaving almost no cover for birds, but I do accept that they may possibly be good for deer or turkeys and that someone as myself “99% quail hunter” has to accept that other members might appreciate these properties more than I do. In one of your updates you told of having members who complain that they did not find the birds they had expected to find and blamed the club for having poor properties. I have to ask what was it they expected. If they think the birds are back to what they were in the early 90’s they are just plain mistaken. Any one who has hunted Missouri and Kansas knows these last 3 dry years have been extremely hard on birds. Heck up to 4 years ago if a property in Kansas had a milo filed and a ditch or corner with cover you could always find birds on it. The last 3 years that same field had the milo pastured by cattle leaving nothing for the birds. Lets all hope that the rains come back so the Once again I want to thank you and all your crew for the great service they gave me in setting up hunts. I especially want to thank John Wenzel for all his help especially for the help in finding a setter pup. I took John’s advice and contacted “King Llewellin” and am now the proud owner of a new pup, “Bandit”. Buck and Trip are a little jealous, but next season they will be 13 years old and I’m sure they will appreciate a little help from a younger dog. If I’m allowed one wish from the club it would be that if you have the opportunity to lease more ground around [location deleted] you would do so. For my own selfish reasons I really enjoy this area. Thanks for everything, John Heitkamp
Phil and Stephen hunted the last weekend of deer season in [deleted] and Stephen took a spike buck. They were completely happy that the piece of property they were on was as you promised not crowded with other hunters. Last weekend working with Jennifer, "completely enjoyable experience" we were assigned properties to hunt in [deleted] for quail and pheasant and what an experience. Friday we found 6 coveys, Saturday we found 4 coveys and Sunday 1/2 day we found 2 coveys and a few pheasants. I wish I could tell you we limited out, but I'm afraid that if any one that knew Phil and I were to read this they would think the whole story a lie. Phil is a little worried we have done more damage to the quail population by spreading lead all over the fields from missed shots than we will ever do by actually ever hitting one. Phil and I have done a great job of convincing ourselves its not how many birds you bag, but how many points the dogs get. We can't think of a better excuse for all of our misses, and did we ever have good dog work. The grand champ of the whole weekend was that Stephen's new pointer pup on about his fifth hunt started honoring the other dogs and pointed 3 coveys on his own. I'm not that great of a letter writer, but everything was just as you promised and I wanted to say thanks. You are welcome to use me as a reference, but warn any body that calls as all quail hunters I'll gladly tell them how great the hunting is, but never where I was at. P.S. Phil wanted me to let you know that if we ever actually bag enough birds so that they would show up in a picture we will definitely send it in. Thanks, John Heitkamp
Thanks John for a great letter complete with humor all quail hunters can laugh with. |
pastures have plenty of grass for watering and grazing and our milo fields and ditches will again provide the cover to hold birds. 
