Transcript for On The Wing Podcast Ep. 345: Action-Packed Public Lands Quail Hunt
Speaker 1 (00:50.702)
Welcome to On The Wing podcast presented by Purina Pro Plan coming at you from a rooster road trip recorded in 2025, but touching your eardrums in 2026. From Kansas, all public lands, all wild birds, pheasants, and quail. And we're going to talk a fair bit about quail on this particular episode.
Thank you to the sponsors bringing Rooster Road Trip to you across our social media and website platforms, as well as this podcast. Here's the list of those partners - Ruffland Kennels, Browning Firearms, Orvis Apparel, Garmin dog products and wearables, Federal Ammunition, Irish Setter Boots, YETI Coolers and Drinkware, SoundGear Hearing Protection, and Purina Pro Plan.
Speaking of Purina, they are the national dog food sponsor of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, as well as the presenting sponsor of On the Wing podcast. All of my pups have always eaten Purina Pro Plan. Pro Plan was created for the working bird dogs like yours and like mine. And my dogs did extremely well today. I'm very proud of them. And thank you to Pro Plan for connecting the dots to their stomachs, to their brains, to their noses. It was a fun day in the field.
Joining me to recap Rooster Road Trip episode number one, the Rooster Road Trip quarterback himself.
Speaker 3 (02:49.486)
I just shake my head, sigh, I don't know. Experience now, Bob. We gotta find a new bit.
shaking a
Speaker 1 (02:57.07)
I wasn't thinking I was going to do that.
There were not a change.
I'm a car deal.
This came right out of your mouth.
I know, it was impromptu. The Vikings here are irrelevant so we won't go there. Tell us about the Rooster Road Trip. For folks just coming in, 16 years in, what's the concept?
Speaker 3 (03:19.564)
Well, we've got now 16 years of content for you to go back in time and watch. So get, get bingen. It's all, it's all on YouTube and some of the early stuff is real entertaining for lots of
Your original bird dog with a camera strapped to its back?
I still say we were one of the first people ever strapped a GoPro to the back of the lab and if it didn't give you a seizure you at least appreciated watching that point of view retreat. Yeah sure. But yeah a long time ago the internet was a different place but people were relatively the same. There was a lot of comments about there's not enough access and there's no birds so what are we doing? And we decided to prove them wrong by just a bunch of average people with
dogs we loved dearly, but average dogs. And we hunted five states in five days on nothing but public land. It was insanity for sure to try and take that on, but it has evolved over the years to what it is today. Which we're still hunting nothing but publicly accessible land. We're giving ourselves five days in a row and we're just seeing what happens. It's no different than.
Anybody else just wanting to plan their own trip, try something new, throwing some darts at the map, you know, looking at the Atlas and figuring out, okay, well, there's a hotbed of public land here. There's some walk-in access there. You know, let's find an Airbnb or camp or a hotel and let's just go for it. That's kind of what we're doing. Now, obviously we have lots of connections places in terms of like all of our fabulous employees and coworkers and friends. Volunteers.
Speaker 1 (04:57.71)
chapter volunteers.
But all those resources and our biologists are available to everyone too. they're, they're information's available on our website. Um, so with the little sleuthing, you can also give yourself a little bit of a legs up. Um, but here we are 16 years later, the, the ethos is still the same. none of the dogs are the same. see a handful of us are the same. Now this has been kind of the biggest change up in terms of, uh, people we've ever had in the history of it.
That's true.
Speaker 3 (05:29.682)
just due to the nature of it being so late in the year since, you know, for those at home, we're hunting mid December right now. you'll be hearing this January 7th. so a couple of weeks have passed and generally we try to kick the, kick out this content as fast as possible, but you'll have to forgive us. There's a couple of holidays and things in between, and we're still trying to do our best here. but.
Due to that, some people just weren't able to attend that normally we lean on and we're used to. So it's been kind of a fun mix up, but we also have some old friends rejoining us again. So it's been fun to reconnect with them and we'll get into that in a second.
You are, correct me if I'm wrong, you are the only person that's been on every single one.
Yeah, is that a like.
Is that a badge you did? That's amazing. Are you going to make your own patch?
Speaker 3 (06:27.982)
We were talking about patches earlier today. We're going need a festoon, our vest's a little better. So maybe that's one of them.
like a decorated war veteran.
That'd be so many rivets at this point.
Brigadier General.
Couple things, so you hear a couple of additional voices. Laura MacGyver. Hi. Thank you for joining. You're going to be our featured guest on this particular episode. So hold on a moment. And you also heard Ryan Sparks, Quail Forever Journal editor. You are going to be our play-by-play announcer. I want to just touch on a couple other components as to why Kansas.
Speaker 1 (07:09.742)
It's an important year, 2025 for Quail Forever. We talked about variety of things for every year discussions about where we're going to go. It's the 20th anniversary of Quail Forever. We thought it important to integrate at least some component of Quail and there very few states that offer a mixed bag like Kansas. So that was one component. The other statistic, now this...
That is a little bit old, but it's jarring to me. So there's 50 states, right? Last I checked, there's 50 states. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan tried to become 51, but right now there are 50. By percentage, the total of public lands by percentage from those 50 states, Kansas.
by percentage is 49th. To me, that's just staggering. The only one like you folks out there like, huh, I wonder what's 50th, Rhode Island. I mean, it's kind of hot.
amazing.
It is.
Speaker 2 (08:24.046)
But you have a lot of private...
It's a freaky island. Everything is small there. But you think 49th, Kansas. Listen to this, 48th, Nebraska. 47th, Iowa. 46th, Illinois. Those are really important mixed bag states, pheasants and quail. 46th, Illinois. 4.1 % is public land. And then there's a huge drop off.
That's good.
Speaker 1 (08:54.958)
Iowa 47th at 2.8%, Nebraska 2.8 % at 48%, the state of Kansas 1.9 % public land.
Thank goodness for Voluntary Public Access Program.
Yeah. Which is super cool. You bring up voluntary public access programs, walk-in programs, private land enrolled into public access. Kansas, WIHA, walk-in habitat and access, it was not the first. I think it was number two. I believe South Dakota was the very first one in 1988. Kansas created WIHA in 1995.
And this is something that's also a pretty cool stat. It's maintained a million acres enrolled in Weehaw, even as CRP numbers have decreased. And Kansas is sort of the epicenter of CRP loss too. I if you look at, I often talk on the podcast, the glory days of pheasant hunting in our generation was that 06, 07, 08 era.
at the high point of CRP, 36 million acres in roll. That's when I got my first bird dog. That's when Rooster Road Trip was getting, well, just shortly after that, it was getting rolling. But Trammell came home with me as a bird dog and she had the glory days to learn on, right? And we have taken so many steps backwards from the total number of CRP acres.
Speaker 1 (10:34.126)
Rooster Road Trip has always been about highlighting public lands and public lands being waterfall production areas, wildlife management areas, and our national grasslands, and these walk-in programs. And Kansas is a fabulous place for walk-in programs. We didn't hunt walk-in today. We hunted state-owned land. So we'll talk walk-in another point down the road. But I'd wanted to kind of highlight the fact that...
We're here for a very specific purpose in Kansas. Quail forever, quail hunting, 20th anniversary, well as Kansas has got some habitat issues right now and we're putting the spotlight on them as part of Worcester Road Trip.
Yep. And just like in the past, was, there's no birds. There's no publicly accessible areas to go. Okay. We'll show you differently. was kind of the point we wanted to make with quail a little bit. And she was like, well, let's go find some wild coves of quail. That was the intention. Now, did I intend for today to become just a straight up quail quest? Like a roach or a roach tries to like what I said.
But it's
We're changing the name, I guess. Like I said, today was just a straight up quail quest.
Speaker 1 (11:51.342)
Almost straight up. There were some boosters involved. But you're right. was one of the more fun days that I can recall. mean, don't know, the of it, it really was. Part of it, as Andrew and I, Andrew left at 3 a.m.,
on what I don't even remember the day now, but it was a negative one with two inches of snow and people like roll their eyes, two inches of snow is no big deal, which is true unless it's on I-35 and the wind is blowing 25 miles an hour and there was semis jackknifed. mean, that was from Minneapolis to Des Moines, that leg of the trip was absolutely brutal. And now here we are in Kansas. It's like spring.
Great.
Breach!
tried to not complain about getting too hot.
Speaker 1 (12:47.918)
So folks listening in January thinking about, know, I've always wanted to go to Arizona, chase merns and scale. Maybe the spring break destination is Kansas because I've hunted here. And Nebraska is the same way, right? Your season goes till the end of January, right? Same thing in Kansas. You know, you can get winter weather, obviously, but here we are.
here in brutal weather.
And no doubt about that, but we have been blessed with, know, day one, I think he got into the fifties. talked to him, I watched
Speaker 1 (13:32.174)
We're getting eight inches of snow tomorrow and it's freezing. just hope I can start to snowblow her. But she's like, at least Dennis is next door. He get the John Deere out and plow the driveway. But I don't have to leave till Thursday. I can work from home. So I was one of the magical pieces of being on the road. Talk to your wife at home and find out what's going on. Anyways, Kansas. Laura, I mentioned.
You're going to be the featured guest. You're no stranger to Rooster Road Trip. This is number three for you. Let's start with, kind of tell folks what you do for the organization.
you
That blows me away.
Speaker 4 (14:19.154)
I am a regional field rep for all of Oklahoma and southern Kansas. So I help my chapters deliver mission, basically, and what works best in their community and how they can connect best in delivering conservation as well as education and outreach and being able to make a difference.
You recall the number, how many chapters in Oklahoma and chapters in Kansas do you work?
Okay, so I have 32 total. So I have to backtrack that. So I think it's about, I think it's like 10 and 22. So, and then Kansas, 22 and Oklahoma.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (15:05.25)
And I mentioned this is your third road trip. Let's start with, not too long ago, you had a conversation with Andrew. Tell us about the substance of that conversation because that, honestly, is why you're sitting here on chair number one as the feature. Tell us about the importance of the last experience on Rooster Road Trip.
for you personally.
Wow, oh yeah, because I didn't tell you guys until the end after everybody went home. when I was with right before the months before the 2019 road trip, I had severely hurt my back really bad and ended up I couldn't drive hardly at all. And it was extraordinarily painful. Went through physical therapy.
And literally the day before I started the trip for a rooster road trip, I got released from the doctor to be able to go. the physical therapist said, if you want to not land back in here again, then you need to go to the gym at least once, if not twice a week. And you need to do your steps of anywhere from seven to 10,000 a day.
That was kind of like that wake up call where you're like, I'm not doing this. I have a grand son on the way. I am not going to be that person that can't lift up their grandson. And so rooster road trip, didn't, was petrified to tell you all because I didn't want you to think that.
Speaker 1 (16:44.78)
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:54.22)
It was pretty intimidating. Let's be honest. It wasn't me, it was him.
And it was one of those things where you just, and Chad and Marissa both covered for me and because they were on that trip. so I wasn't allowed to lift anything yet. so Chad was lifting everything for me. And Marissa was such a sweetheart because she, know, at nighttime and in the morning and getting ready and just kind of helping out and great support. I mean, she's, you know, she's such a sweetheart. And so.
Okay, I can do this. So I can do this. And I had patches, the paint patch, all of that, naming, time.
It's amazing those. I was just using those last week. They work pretty good
Are you good? I do work well.
Speaker 1 (17:43.522)
Meredith thought, like, this is fish oil, right? whatever. And she puts it on,
And I couldn't even hardly bend over to do my boots without cramping up really bad. mean, it was getting ready in the morning and then I get back and I'm like, okay, I made it through.
Yet you never gave off any hint that you were in pain, that you were pitied.
too proud. Stubborn.
We were completely oblivious.
Speaker 2 (18:18.222)
See ya.
also smashing
I did, well, maybe not quite as well as I should have. Yes, I did.
But you had success on that trip. And you had fun.
I had fun. And it also meant so much to me knowing that one, I was proving myself too, because I did it. And if I can do it, then anybody else in that situation with the same mindset could do the same thing. But it taught me huge lessons in adversity and persistence and the importance of taking care of ourselves. So.
Speaker 1 (18:56.334)
And then so when you guys all got back home, that's when I thought, OK, I think I pulled it off.
Hmm
100%.
And I emailed you and just to let you know. just because it was much more of a challenge than most people realize. I had a great time. And it's the camaraderie too.
Speaker 1 (19:18.67)
But you had fun.
Speaker 4 (19:28.652)
It's also one of the few times where I can actually relax when I'm out there in the prairies. My cell phone normally doesn't work. I don't, I'm trying to leave that behind. I breathe again. The whole rest of everything is cut off. And so it gives you that opportunity to ground yourself, your self-reflection. Where am I going? What am I doing?
Am I working from the heart and not for the head? I always call the head noodle soup.
No
BOOP
up, you know, work from the heart. And am I doing everything, you know, that I would want somebody to do with me, you know, for me.
Speaker 1 (20:16.494)
What would you say, you know, work from the heart? Heart. As opposed to the head. There are people out there that hear that and they're like, she's got it mixed up. What would you say to them?
your, your, your mind can overthink things, overdo things, even construe things, right? It's too easy to get things mixed up. And when you work from the heart, you disconnect, whether it's with my people, with my, my comrades in, whether it's home office or
You connect.
Speaker 4 (20:59.822)
here at home or my wildlife biologist. So if I'm connecting with the heart, we're on the same page.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:07.842)
You're just like, I'm good at it. If you think about it, the shot you miss. If you just mount the gun and swing. Yeah, if you think about it, if you try to aim, if you just shoot right at RNG, you can't connect with them.
if you overthink.
Speaker 4 (21:20.834)
Yeah. So...
You've had a tough year.
Yeah, it was amazingly tough. I didn't I'd be at that place where I lost my son. It was tough. It was a shock and we're still kind of, you he was such, he was love and light. I mean, I can tell you that right now. He had a pure heart. He was six foot six. So we call him.
How old was he? 34. And it was almost at this time of year.
This is
Speaker 4 (22:00.428)
Yeah, December 16th was a year ago. and that was basically it came down to kidney failure. So I'm not still can't figure that out as far as, you know, what happened as far as that goes, but he was never somebody that, that did anything as far as like, never did drugs. He never drank. He never stole anything. He never, he was that, that kid.
Hmm.
Speaker 4 (22:27.95)
At work, it was very black and white. You're doing wrong. As opposed to doing what you're supposed to be doing, know, type of person. he was, he had Asperger's, but he was very high functioning and he was also bipolar. So growing up, he was that kid that everybody picked on and bullied. And so of course,
My heart always goes out to any kid that has that coming at them. But he never held it against anybody. had, there's times when in his apartment I would come in and he had invited somebody to come in because they needed a roof over their head. And I'm like, well, you can't do that. That's against the rules. No type of thing, but just pure heart.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I was thinking about that as you were talking about, you know, Rooster Road Trip for you last time was about perseverance. And in my mind, like it's a bit overused term right now, grit. You see grit to every, every sports team, hashtag. And, you know, I was thinking about that. was like, that's not, that's not really it.
I grit.
Speaker 1 (23:52.078)
What's the epitome of you is joy. it's not, it wasn't, this is my perception and you can disagree, right? But you know, perseverance and grit. What I see on last road trip and what I saw today was you leading with your heart, you hunting with your heart, you walking the prairie with your heart and you having joy. You were walking.
And you didn't come from negative two degrees. You were just enjoying beautiful day. That was a gorgeous day. Some action, your beloved Brittany, some friends that you enjoy being with in the prairie. You were having fun.
That's that connection to the prairie that I think all of us strive to have. And we all have moments here and there where it's just like you have, like it just hits you. like, wow, this is amazing. Like sharing a field with Laura, it's continuous. Wow. This is amazing. And it's so genuine and like intoxicating and like contagious. Cause I remember at Fezzin' Fest last year, you know, like
We knew the grief she was going through. like the first time I saw her, know, give her a big hug and like, you know, you're welling up. And the first thing she's, she's like, where'd go for your road trip? Like really? Like, well, I'm actually thinking of going south. you know, just don't get your, I haven't made up my mind where yet, but I think we're gonna go later in the year and go south. So just hold on, we'll see. And you know, the second that it was, you know, Southern Kansas.
Hahaha!
Speaker 1 (25:35.918)
It's really hard to have a bad day in the field.
Right?
Exactly. That's what good hunty buddies should be like. I we all have our moments, sure. I am. Okay, for us. But like, just like, when you're playing Shackleton or like when you're together with your buddies, everybody kind of has a different persona. fill a different role, right? Having that one perspective that like helps you reframe things or at least appreciate what's around you is so dang helpful. And I can see why, you know, the chapters that she's in...
in charge of are so successful because it's authentic. It's like, why do you want to do this? Why do you want to volunteer? Why do you want to spend your time doing this? What's your connection? Have a deeper feeling to this and that'll resonate in the work that you do and your why is so important. And she walks into the room and it's like, well, that's the why.
can't.
Speaker 4 (26:34.938)
Well, Drew was shocked, I think, when he came to our state meeting in August. And he had a roomful, 80-something people. We had almost 100 people there. And they're all passionate, passionate about habitat, conservation, saving our birds, future juni-
Hmm.
Speaker 1 (26:58.623)
You're talking to Drew Larson, vice president of conservation.
Yeah, I heard from several sources that he was wowed at the chapter folks and it goes back to them. They're the ones that do the hard work. I just help encourage them.
One more thing that I want to probe a little bit. When I think about Laura MacGyver, I think 100 % about quail.
There's a re-
You love quail. Like pheasants, yeah. Yeah. They're nice. Yeah. know, prairie chickens, they're okay. You know, other people, they're, you know, I like other people. But I love quails. Tiny. Why do you like birds? Tell me your why. Quail.
Speaker 4 (27:40.172)
Okay.
Speaker 3 (27:50.99)
survivor. Think of the grit that they do. Look at your purds and the best of the best are the ones that always survive year after year.
Hmm. Spoiler alert, we did get some quilt and there were several times where she reminded me specifically, like as she's looking at them, she's like, these are trophy birds. That's her turf. Like these are trophy birds.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:17.922)
Absolutely. Absolutely.
We hunted with some of your beloved chapter volunteers. Tell us about the Ninneska, did I pronounce it correctly? Tell us about the Ninneska chapter in Mark and Tessa.
pronounced it correctly.
Speaker 4 (28:36.206)
Okay, so the Neniska chapter was started a little over four years ago with Eric McManaman, who is a prescribed fire nut, okay, and advocate, I'm gonna say. Probably the nicer term for that, but he contacted me and said, hey, I wanna start this chapter. And I'm like, cool, that's awesome. And I'm kind of picky about how I get my chapter started. So I said, well,
let's set a date and I need to make sure that you bring in a good half dozen people who are also interested in helping to get a chapter started. And so he did. He came through just like that. And I was like, this guy's serious. I was super excited, came up and of course they started rolling. And one of the things at the time that now
do a lot more of nationwide, I think. But I was always an advocate of being community minded and doing the outreach in your community all year long. I don't want to see a banquet and a hunt, a youth hunt, and that's all you do all year. Sorry, that doesn't cut it with me, but it just does it. If you're going to make a difference, you're going to do something, you're going to spread.
You know, your energies, yes, you can choose whatever you do and how you impact your community, but you need to be, make a point about it. You want to make sure that you're doing, and I have a saying, is like, if you don't set a date, it didn't happen. And so I would always encourage them to develop an outreach calendar of various activities throughout the year that engage the community. And that's, they took it to heart. I mean, that chapter they took, they went,
took off running with it. And they are really a great example of getting off there, getting off on a great start, just doing that community outreach. And they did the chili feed and they did the Texas Lake hole pickup. They do that every year now. They're trying to get some of the prescribed burns to work with
Speaker 4 (30:59.864)
some of the public lands that are around here, as well as definitely on the private lands, do, I know that they help on the private lands as well. And they help some of the local landowners with some of their habitat work and that type of thing. And so just in general, just that whole full picture of habitat conservation, outreach, all of the combinations above, you know, above, and the local shooting team, of course, is part of that.
They helped them out and now they've done a Hunter's Ed, just a whole host of things and fishing derby. mean, just a number of outreach types of things and impacting their community in a positive way.
And they won the 2024 Hilarious Habitat Stewardship Award.
Thanks.
Speaker 4 (31:52.654)
Yes, yes, and I was super proud of them. And they understand that community-driven model and how to impact their people.
Hmm.
You were saying that last night at dinner, asked you, how do you measure success with a chapter? And you said they have to be part of the community. Yeah. I was like,
Making a difference. Yeah. Your community should be missing you if you're not there.
I had a fabulous time spending most of the day walking next to Mark Miller. And Tessa was near you, get Trish. Trish. I'm sorry. Trish. Yes. Not Tessa. I was standing next to Mark. So I got his name right. And in their fabulous English center, Sherman T. Potter. Yes. For all the MASH fans out there.
Speaker 4 (32:29.58)
Huh? he's funny.
Speaker 4 (32:35.554)
Fresh Miller.
Speaker 3 (32:49.87)
Can we give a shout out to Ryan and his dogs? were hounds mixed with.
pounds.
Speaker 3 (33:01.164)
That was the most unique brace I've seen run ever.
He was talking to me about his pheasant hunting too and that guy, he's good to be a tourism pheasant.
that look it's just like this guy's a killer just tell this guy gets his birds
Well, and he told me when I talked to him on the phone on the way here, he said, yeah, I stopped at a couple of places between Pratt and my house and that I always know that there's birds there and I've got two birds that in my bag.
That's her spot we hunted today. Somebody asked him how long have you been hunting here? He stopped and thought about it for a second. He said, I think since I've been 12, I've been hunting. That's pretty cool for a day out that history. That's a public ground.
Speaker 4 (33:40.64)
Absolutely. So he knows it backwards and forwards. knew who to call for this one.
Yeah, they were fabulous. They're a great group of folks. All right, so, Brian, I'm going to invite you in here in a moment to do the play by play of the hunt. Before we get going there, I do want to thank Onyx Hunt for being a sponsor of On the Wing podcast. We're proud to partner with Onyx, not just on the podcast, but the PATH program, Public Access to Habitat.
How fitting is it for us to be talking about path on Rooster Road Trip? We've already enrolled 100,000 acres in South Dakota, Nebraska, and new this year in North Dakota, Oklahoma. Laura, there you go. And in Michigan. And we're hoping to get path rolling in a number of other states as we look forward to 2026.
Folks, if you are not yet an Onyx member, please check out the show notes. You can use the code PFQF at onyxhunt.com. You'll get 20 % off your Onyx subscription and they'll throw another donation our way for creating more public places to go. All right. We've teased it ad nauseum at this point. We got into some Quail today. As the Quail editor...
But I'll ask you this, why quail for you? What do you love about
Speaker 2 (35:17.123)
I grew up with quail. they were really my, that's my, my, my touching point with outdoors is that's how I was introduced to everything in nature was through quail going hunting with my dad when I was young. And then as I've gotten older, it's like you mentioned that you, everything in the world is against them, everything in the world. they just, they find a way and I don't know, it's just like this little glimmer of hope. And it is a miracle every time you see one. They're just a little.
wonderful bird that fits in the palm of your hand. They're fun to hunt too as we...
And they're very tasty.
I really had an absolute blast today. So you were in the midst of almost all of the action right from the.
I have a weird thing on hunting trips when we hunt in groups that for some reason I'm usually always in the action. I don't know I could be down in on the end and I feel like a bird hog and then I move to the middle and then the birds are getting up in the middle and I move over there and I don't know why I just have some good some good quail juju I don't know what it is.
Speaker 4 (36:17.506)
do it.
Speaker 1 (36:21.304)
Well, the obvious listeners are like, well, he's got the best dog. you didn't even have your dog out for two runs.
That's right. Yeah. Yeah. But the last run he found three cubbies.
You see a puffist chill one time.
It's on the ground. Yeah. Yeah. But it was a great day. You said you wanted to come to Kansas for some quail. And we definitely, I it was a day full of quail. We were driving into the first spot today, a wildlife management area, and it's dark and the sun's starting to come up. And there's just this beautiful wharf frost across the whole landscape. And I'm like, well, even if we don't find any birds, it's going to be.
pretty for the camera and for us. And it was absolutely gorgeous wading into that grass first thing this morning. And I probably took 20 steps and Mark's dog went on point and he looked at me and shrugged his shoulders and was like, let's do it. And, hen pheasant. So I was like, okay, cool. There's pheasants in here. And then we maybe walked another 300, 400 yards and.
Speaker 2 (37:28.416)
of a quail. And at first, just two birds jumped up and I thought, that's weird. maybe, sometimes I think like a coyote or something will break up a covey in the morning. So two birds go and I'm like, well, there might be something else. Well, then three birds go and then another two birds go and then all of our guns are empty. And then like the main majority of the covey goes and we're sitting there scratching our heads like, yep, they won again.
made such a Minnesotan mistake, like I took a sh- the first shot missed and I cracked my gun open to reload and that's when the next popcorn flushed. mean, I'm such a moron.
But I thought they're not supposed to do that.
they've changed.
They totally sharp-tailed us.
Speaker 3 (38:07.982)
Yeah, we got completely bamboozled by all these popcorn flushes. They've changed. I know, was the smidleman Bob, and you should have a side by side or an over under. And like after then it's like, nah, semi-auto, we're either shut off. And luckily we got some A5s, some humpbacks along for this trip. And it's just like, well, now it makes sense.
Yeah, so then that I shot one out of that covey and then we had some singles. We were kind of working like a main draw where there was some heavier grass next to some shorter grass. And as we continued down, we found a few of those singles and did you shoot one of those Andrews somebody, somebody got one down there. anyway. Yeah, I think it was Mark. Yeah. continued down and, there was a few, I think they were roosters that kind of just flew out the back door and we saw them.
And we got down to the fence line and turned and we're going to kind of loop our way back to the truck. And again, I'd rather be lucky than good. You know, rooster pheasant got up 10 feet to the right of me. Um, I shot it and it dropped, but, um, I had just like taken out a wing and it hit the ground running and, you got your dog over there really quick. And there was a couple other dogs there and I, but I knew when I saw that thing come down, I mean, he.
He had the track shoes on. I was optimist.
He was like 100 % speed, there was no...
Speaker 1 (39:28.43)
With the hoar frost and the moisture and big rooster, I was optimistic I was going to get getchy on that. And she went towards that ag field and I thought she was.
Billy seemed like very birdie and was on on set. Yeah.
I was, I was filled with hubris, excessive pride. was like, she's going to come back hearing that bird in her mouth and I'm going to high five into your work.
I was on the trail a little faster though, like, Gitchy or you? Because I don't think I've ever seen you run.
Yeah, you were running over the rock.
Speaker 3 (40:07.274)
I look up there's Bob in his Irish Sutter tracksuit
Yeah, it was when that hasn't got up. I was clear down on the right hand side of the line and the closest person to me was you but you were you're right.
No, it was, it was Mark between us. I saw, I saw the whole thing. Like I saw you hit that bird, break a wing, the bird goes down and then tried to pop up again and you shot and that bird started running. Cause it was, it was relatively sparse.
right by the fence line where there wasn't a lot of cover.
There's no dog near you and it was a cripple. And I was like, I gotta get Gitchy over there. And Gitchy was on the other side. Like she was over by you, I think. And I was like, Gitchy.
Speaker 4 (40:52.814)
It had stuff
You're running faster than I did.
and I was thinking I, I have a lot of confidence in her to track down a cripple. but she just came up empty today.
Later, I was going say later in the day, had some great dead bird finds. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Well, she found the first one too, in thick cover. And then she found another one later. Yeah. I was real.
Speaker 2 (41:18.238)
And well, guess we'll get to it, but you had one that still had a lot of life left in it too that.
Yeah, she found one that I dropped in a cedar shelter belt, and then she found another one that I wasn't as dead as I thought.
I don't know, it was quite a life, where it could run and fly.
She pointed it and then it made a run for it and I could get it. I couldn't. Because I was trying to tell she's steady, know, and she was on point and it was like trapped. Not so well. I did it. was a chabrot.
Just hear you from the other side of the cedars.
Speaker 2 (41:44.837)
I think they're operating
Speaker 3 (41:59.768)
So far.
Yeah, it got through the cedars and out it went and I have no idea where that one went after it. It was not as damaged as I anticipated.
And that was the third spot we hunted. I guess it was, we really hunted three spots today. So we went three.
multiple directions from
Yeah, Doug has two spots and then the second spot we hit, we went right on one time, we went left to the parking lot on the other one after we had lunch. And yeah, I found several coveys there as well. I don't think we saw any pheasants at that second spot, did we?
Speaker 4 (42:34.905)
Sandy honestly
I want to say there was one head.
Does this second walk, I think we saw one.
There was, but the hoar frost started to come off. My pants were the front of them were starting to get wet. And I was thinking, again, the sitting conditions are going to be great. And then the habitat just looked amazing. Like you picture almost like in my mind, like perfect quail habitat, like these, huge diversity of grasses with little clumps of shrubs mixed all through it. A little bit of elevation change. It's not just like, you know, tabletop flat and then these nice.
head rows that ran throughout it where you could go up one and work back the other way. And throughout the day, we found most of our birds closer to those head rows as well, more so than out in the, you know, that grassy shrubland. Although the
Speaker 1 (43:25.72)
They were near shrubs. Shrub obligate. Shrub obligate.
They are shrub obligates. So the thing that I noticed is that that in the center was a lot thicker. I mean, and there wasn't a lot of bare ground in there at all. And I think that that was why we kept finding the quill. More bare ground.
We found some deer out of there.
I think that is a very astute observation. You're right, because as we were working the middle, the thicker grasses, they couldn't flush out of some of that stuff. it looked like they're doing some habitat work on that WMA. Definitely. They're cutting down some of the volunteer trees.
There were some locust trees that were laid over. I was like, man, that looks like a perfect place for- Yeah, there were some charred stumps and stuff out there.
Speaker 4 (44:11.51)
It's how to burn in there too.
Speaker 1 (44:16.29)
They're beautiful. Completely different sort of landscape than you and I are used to busting cattails.
yeah, mean, some of that grass was thick for sure. But in the back of my mind, it's like, well, maybe this is when we'll find the pheasant, right? Yeah. But the Joaquin's relatively easy compared to what we're, know, upper Midwesterners are used to in December, which is just cattails and snow and just trudging.
Sure, yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:44.622)
I found a couple of what Tom Carpenter would call hellholes today for sure. But that was the course and the. What are you trying to get through them? Yeah.
Was that what we were trying to fight through? Like a lot of the-
Yeah, Sam, a lot of Sam, which is great for quail, but that's why predators like us can't get out.
And like even the one quail I shot today, I dropped it in what looked like either like a burn pile or like one of those, those big trees that was folded over. like, I saw it like smack into it. And my initial thought was, boy, that's, that's going to be a tough find.
That happened a couple times today. That last covey we found today, which for the coveys that I saw, I thought it was the biggest covey of the day. mean, was all of 15 birds, probably closer to 20.
Speaker 1 (45:36.878)
And then there were pheasants
Pheasants in there as well. Yeah. And the second bird that I shot out of there, it dropped in that, you know, where you guys brought your dogs over to that, that, you know, just a very, very dense sand plumb. And you could kind of tell when everybody got over there with their dog and saw where that bird had fallen, was like, this is going to be tough.
What do you think happened in that sequence of events? know like we're way fast forwarding, it's going all over the place. This is the fun hunting talk. So like the last big cubby of the day that you just described. I'm guessing, I think your pup was there first, my like Merle, my dog was honored.
We both almost at the same time were like hard to agree on a like, they're probably together.
Yeah. They're right there together. And they looked, it's like, okay, we're serious.
Speaker 2 (46:22.92)
Yeah, it was like walking into a painting like they're both locked up. You got one dog on point. The other one's on point back. Yeah, it was beautiful. was cool. And I'm over that little rise and they're both just.
Excuse me.
Speaker 3 (46:33.166)
And then like you walked in first and then your pup moved, mine pup moved and it like.
Why are they?
He relocated multiple times.
Why are they relocating? cause we're so used to quail, right? I was like, this was, this is serious. Then all of a sudden some quail get up, but then the pheasants get out. I'm like, were they like seeing, smelling like pheasants running and then they hit the quail or do they hit the quail? then, like, what is the sequence? I don't know. It happened that both of our dogs started like moving when normally it's like, no, they're right there.
That's where my mind went.
Speaker 2 (47:09.71)
And it wasn't, when we first saw them, they were both like 100 % serious. you you can read your dog. was doubt. No, 100 % solid. And I'm thinking, Covey a quail. And I get up maybe five or 10 feet in front of Gus and he scampers a few steps and relocates and it's the exact same amount of intensity that he had before. And then my mind went to, okay, we've got a pheasant in here on the run. And then as soon as I thought pheasant,
Here goes all the quail. And again, it was another popcorn flight. And if I had waited, not shot, I mean, we got some birds out of there, I had some better shot opportunities than the ones that I took, for sure. Yeah. And I was glad I had three shells in my gun because I needed that third shot for the sir.
Hmm.
Speaker 1 (47:57.152)
Merle had a good
yeah. Yeah. I was impressed.
It's, it's fun having, having her. Um, for those who were along for the rephrase that for those who were riding shotgun last year, uh, I was, I was dogless. I was just like the wandering mooch, the pooch just hanging out just with a gun in my hand, just trying to suss out which dogs are on fire and who am I going to kind of like stand next to in the field? You know, I'm here to support other people's birds, that type of a deal. And you know,
alluded to the fact and it wasn't for sure that well if things work out the way I'd hoped I would have a bearded dog. And so now I've got Merle and we've discussed her on previous podcasts, but I'm just so smitten with her in general. And for me, this hunt has been interesting because we just got back from Oregon.
There you go listeners. Andrew made it happen.
Speaker 3 (48:59.52)
You don't want to save it for another podcast? No. Well, yeah. So I made it happen. So, Brian and I both got out West and we met up with Katie Willis and, I consider it the most fun upland hunting.
We will bring that as a full podcast after road trip ends. Most hunting, the most fun hunting you've ever had. So Merle has had quail as...
so that so so they're
boss from upland honey.
Speaker 3 (49:28.078)
She's done quail on the sucker. don't know. don't know. She's done Bob. She has now. but for me it was interesting because being out there with her, mean, but the range is just spectacular in terms of like, you know, they slowly increase their, how far out they have to go in terms of until they start finding coveys. And so it's like two hundred like just way out there. then here she's like tightened way up.
She has now.
Speaker 3 (49:57.9)
And so like, was just kind of like fascinating to like see like that switch happen so quickly. I, this is the first time I've hunted her since that trip. I kinda was wondering like, is she going to start camping at 100, 150, like right on the gates or not. So was it was fun just to watch her immediately react to the cover and this kind of.
I think we were in a line of people and worked the whole line back and forth and was keeping track of not just you individually but how the whole group was hunting.
was a lot of fun and I was super pumped that, you know, that quail I talked about a couple of minutes ago, I dropped into what carp would call a hill hole. It's like, that's a needle in haystack. And for her to eventually be the dog that like, sussed that out.
I could hear the joy in your voice. There were two moments. You were thinking she was gonna recover that one towards the end of the day, too, that was in secondary hellhole, because she was super brave.
We're grad.
Speaker 3 (51:00.114)
it was, I was absolutely.
Speaker 3 (51:12.334)
She found one that Mark shot that we were searching for. was like her first retrieve of the day. I was like, all right, here we go. And then she got mine, which I was related for. Then there was a third one where I was like trying to peer through this lump that gets standing like halfway in to motivate the dogs to actually go all the way in. And I thought like, I saw like her like lock up for a second and then like take an aggressive like move. And like, I was like, that's it. We did it. We found it. I was like,
There is a third.
Speaker 1 (51:41.518)
Yeah, you almost had a proud Papa Hattrick there, but it's settled for two fabulous retreats.
Your mom!
Speaker 3 (51:49.986)
Now last year was a lot of fun. Every road trip is super fun, but holy Hannah, does it feel good to have a dog back? Being dogless is just not the life for me and I don't recommend it being the life for anyone.
Ah, dogs are fabulous. All right. So we're going to go around the horn. Your favorite moment of the day. So think on that as we do a little bit of business and thank once again, our Rooster Road Trip partners. Bring in year 16. You can check out the video that accompanies this podcast. Obviously the podcast, photos.
Contests, there is a Rooster Road Trip raffle for the first time ever. I'll put a link in the show notes. You will undoubtedly be able to find that on our home pages as well. There is a membership offer.
Browning bone handle knife.
bone handled knife from Browning. So whether you're interested in joining Pheasants Forever, Quail Forever, get involved in 904-905-9000,
Speaker 3 (53:00.918)
If you're already a member, increase your membership. A life member right now we're running the Getty loadout box.
That's combo color one.
It's the brown and then blaze orange. It's someone who has, I don't know if you can ever have too many, but I have enough loadout boxes that they work. They work well and be careful. They're addicting. You're going to want more.
How many do you have in
You're not answering that publicly because my wife already shames me.
Speaker 1 (53:30.094)
They are addicting. All right, speaking of Yeti, Yeti is one of our nine proud Rooster Road Trip partners, as well as Rofflin, Kennels, all of our dogs are sleeping literally right now, probably chasing Covies a quail, pointing Covies a quail in their sleep. I know Gitchy is laying on her back, making all sorts of noises, reliving the day. Winter is too.
Browning Firearms. Thank you to Browning for always being along on this fun event. We got a combination of A5s and Satoris in the crew today or this year. Orvis Apparel. You won't be able to miss all the slick Orvis vests, hunting pants, shirts, all the hats, all the Orvis gear we're wearing. Garmin dog products.
The Alpha, the wearables, the watches, federal ammunition, been along on every single rooster road trip as well. Irish setter boots. We got vapor tracks and wing shooters, Yeti coolers, loadout boxes, drinkware, sound gear hearing protection, making sure that we can hear that covey rise and those wing beats in then.
title sponsor of On The Wing podcast and rounding out our nine Rooster Road Trip partners, Perina Pro Plan. My dogs have a full belly right now because we just got done feeding our pups before we came in to record. All right. Highlight of the day, we'll go around the horn. I'll start with Ryan. What was your favorite moment of Rooster Road Trip? Day one, Kansas pheasants and quails.
I think we already talked about it a little bit, but that last Covey of the day was pretty cool because we were also probably 200 yards from the truck and we had had, it was a little bit of a slog before that. We'd done quite a bit of walking and we hadn't really seen much. And then we were just about to turn to go back towards the truck and the dogs went on point the other direction. We walk over there and big Covey, few roosters. Yeah. And then
Speaker 1 (55:50.808)
Flaaasss FU-
Right after that thinking, because knowing we were done for the day, thinking, you know, we're out here on public land. I think we found seven coveys of wild quail. found coveys, nice coveys, every single one of them. And I saw seven pheasants today. I mean, some of them were way off of it, but just to have those mixed in and to be quailed, to have quail be the flagship bird of day one, where they're not the bonus birds, the pheasants were the bonus birds.
That was pretty cool. Anybody could come and do this on public land and have, you if you want to put in the work and, and the steps and, know, enjoy the prairie if you're not getting into birds, but we got into birds today and that was, I mean, good day one.
If you want to support our Build a Wildlife Area program or PATH program, you can help us make more public land. Laura, day one, high point for you.
Actually, I think the best part was when you're not the covey that busted because I walked in and busted the covey and because the dog was on point and You're surprised at all the birds that kept coming out everybody's
Speaker 2 (57:02.726)
we were all in the line walking in the...
Is this the very first Covey?
No, This is second to the last one.
yeah, I shot a couple. is. Okay, when I had the single get up, and you guys all came back to where I had been.
We thought Ryan's dog was pointing the dead bird. Yeah. So like we like clustered up like to go help like, where's this bird? But then like a real deal Covey just exploded and cause.
Speaker 1 (57:24.728)
Yeah, yeah.
hilarious.
Speaker 4 (57:29.454)
My expectation was there's a Covey in here.
was mine. It was very odd because Gitch went on point and one bird got up and I shot and I sailed it into the shelter belt. And again, Irish Shutter track boots. I went the opposite way over the hill and you guys are like, what kind of just happened? And you all came back and that's where I lost, didn't.
Well, guys, think, said that there was a dog on point and I'm walking towards him like, he's dead on.
saw Bob shoot the bird and then my Garmin buzz and it said that Gus is on point. First thing I said was, well, Gus has got Bob's bird over there, no doubt. And we walked over there and he's on point. I'm like, well, okay, he's pointing it. And we're in like a...
I'm new.
Speaker 1 (58:24.782)
gonna start a little as I shoot at
Yeah, we were lined up single file, Warren. Huddle up, ya?
here.
And here I didn't even know that he had shot a bird. So I'm walking in on his dog Nick on the dog is a guess Yes, okay, so I'm walking in going. there's a coffee in here, but I knew that We were all like, yeah just join it and I'm like, I don't want to get shot And sure enough all this all there they go everywhere
Yeah, go.
Speaker 2 (58:54.094)
Or I was right.
Another covey? High point, Andrew.
Um, besides not being able to feel my hands for most of the walk, like right away in the morning.
Were you that cold to start? I wasn't cold.
And it took a long time for my hands to kind of break that barrier where you go through that super painful pins and needles and then you feel like you don't have wear gloves the rest of the day. Like I needed that to happen. was like right on the cusp of that for far too long. But the air was like, the air was crystallized. Like we were in a fog. The sun was out, but it just looked like a weird blue light disc. And the amount of
Speaker 3 (59:40.504)
frost covering everything. I've never hunted through anything like that. yeah, like this wasn't, this wasn't snow. This wasn't like that, like that amount of just frost covering absolutely everything for that long. was like a weird in a Hallmark movie. was just, it's like, where's the business lady that's going to fall in love with the Christmas tree.
Serious?
Speaker 1 (59:58.478)
Yeah, dear.
That is stunningly beautiful.
Speaker 1 (01:00:08.352)
You watched a little too much, normal assertive.
Speaker 2 (01:00:16.746)
It was stupidly beautiful. it was.
Really?
Like it was just like
Well, and then to find birds right off the bat. I mean, that was fun. That was total fun because I can't tell you how many times I've walked that first field and it's like, okay, next pot.
How will that show up on video? you think it'll capture it?
Speaker 3 (01:00:36.558)
Probably not. mean, it never does it justice, right? And so some like behind the scenes action where we're technically missing two cameras that we should have in the field right now. So we have one main videographer and then Ryan's like doing part-time photography, part-time hunting. And it's like, we kind of looked at each other, like, I'd probably be doing photos right now.
Yeah, I was thinking that too. it's like, was surprised because the sun came out. was really not the clouds kind of burned off and that frost stayed until 10, 1030. And then when it started to melt, was just like, yeah, my pants are wet now.
Let's just ignore it.
of all.
Speaker 3 (01:01:19.752)
Yeah, I've never hunted through anything like that ever. So that was, that was pretty cool. Like that's going to be like one of those memories, like where you think back five years ago, it's like, yeah, well the quail are great, but it's like that landscape and how it looked is going to be kind of the thing like seared.
Georgia.
Speaker 1 (01:01:37.208)
So I won't go, I'm going to go opposite of high point. It's kind of funny, but so winter, my, my youngest pop about 15 months old, first bird she ever pointed was a Woodcock and I got it. Right. So that was great. Turn the light bulb on. She's pointed three rough grouse, missed them all. She's pointed three pheasants, missed them all.
And today she pointed, like her first walk, she pointed a covea quail within 15 minutes and I fumbled to safety. That dog. And she, I'll go to bed tonight and she'll put her head on my chest. She is the sweetest, heart of a dog I've ever had. She forgives me more than any dog should.
Hahaha!
Speaker 2 (01:02:32.782)
I was like, I cannot turn a light bulb on. mean, she's got the light bulbs going. I just cannot connect the dots with this dog. But we'll get it.
Bro, tomorrow's another day.
Something a very good friend told me when I was riding the struggle bus with my shots. Like this year has been a weird year for me in terms of just generally a very confident guy. This year has been like an off year for me. I can't figure out why. And I was lamenting, I think I missed a hon. And the comment was, it was such like a whatever.
Yes, sir.
Speaker 3 (01:03:15.714)
like who cares type comment, like it's stuck with me and it's good thing. bet those dogs will be happy to find you another one. Like, there's like kept on walking. Like, like, why are you even like thinking like they're having just as much finding a point in those things. So it's like, it's you that's in your head. Don't be glad. That just means they get to find you more. They'll be glad to do that again for you. So like, keep, keep moving.
I think that's great advice. The other thing that I'm in my head about, you know, I've had Esky for 11 years. That passed away last year. And before that tram, like, I think I learned how to read my dogs and where they're pointing as time goes on. And I become a better shot based on how I'm reading them.
And now, I don't know, maybe I'm way overthinking it, but like I'm reading where that bird's going to flush and I haven't quite figured out my... no, the heart's cadet shade is the sweetest sweetheart of all. yeah, I'm still learning. I'm still learning. Laura, thank you very much for essentially setting this up, Linen. Well, setting up with the chapter.
The heart's not connected quite yet.
Speaker 4 (01:04:24.542)
You and the field.
Speaker 1 (01:04:37.064)
You figuring out where we're gonna go. I had an absolute fabulous time. I enjoyed, as always, sharing a field with you. Thank you. Having you smiling no matter what happens. I look forward to doing it again tomorrow. Looking forward to getting back out there for day two of Road Trip. What's gonna happen?
You're just going to have to listen and find out. will drop episode two next week.
We don't even know where we're going tomorrow. I gotta look at some maps. I've got some B.O.S. in our future.
Speaker 1 (01:05:17.112)
Well, we're gonna figure that out.
gonna say I'm honored and you guys that to see the evolution of the intermittent years that I've participated from 2016 then 2019 and now oh my word it's like super organized.
Well, you're fooling one person.
Compared to what it was before. Yeah So now the evolution though of how it's progressed. It's really cool to see too
roosterroadtrip.org. Follow Pheasants Forever, Quail Forever, all of our social channels. Follow along, Ride Shotgun. We will be back with episode two next. In the meantime, I'm Bob Sapier reminding you to always follow the dog. Something good will rise. Thanks for listening, folks.