COLUMN: Outdoor Type: Quail Memories

November signals the start of full out hunting. Rabbit, quail and deer are on many hunters' minds. Guns are being or have been cleaned, hunting apparel has been checked over, and deer scouting is underway.

Quail and rabbit season opened Nov. 1. Quail ends here in the south on Jan. 10, and rabbit ends Feb. 28. Deer firearm season is Nov. 16 to Dec. 1 and muzzleloader Dec. 7 to 22. Archery ends Jan. 5. Lest we forget, squirrel harvests are still legal until Jan. 31.

I miss the good ol' days of quail hunting. I grew up with bird dogs and hunted bobwhites near my northern Perry County home. Dad had a good dog before my shotgun time, but sadly Lady got old and feeble. I won't forget the scene when my dad walked her over the hill with his double barrel, not to go hunting with her. For days he was down in the dumps. "She was a good dog," said my heartsick father. But it was not to be the last time he was to be saddened over a bird dog.

The pointer I grew up hunting with was Pretty Boy, a castoff who was nearly shot by his previous angry owner. PB was wild, ranging as far from us as he could. He was also impatient when he found birds. If you weren't around, he just couldn't resist getting too close and busting the covey. Then he would bark, and we would finally figure out where he was. The reason we often wouldn't be around our dog is that the areas we hunted were hilly and brushy, often concealing a dog on point. Of course, this was way before electronic collars. We could've really used that kind of technology back then. Dad said he got the dog really cheap. I believe him. I'm sure his former owner, a dentist who could probably afford a good dog, bid good riddance to P.B. Just when we were ready to shoot him ourselves, he would make a beautiful point and hold it, pretty as a picture. But then if he could find it, his hard mouth would mangle any bird we managed to down.

When we were in college at Indiana State, a friend of mine invited me to bird hunt with him and his uncle, who had three Brittany spaniels, beautiful dogs who stayed close, worked the cover thoroughly and found birds. No need to rush up to the point with these beauties. They held their ground, and they even kindly located and retrieved downed birds without crunching them. Ah, a taste of bird hunting heaven.

Naturally, I was interested in getting one of these dogs for myself, so the uncle let me know when he had a pup available. Aptly named Freckles, he was the cutest thing. It just seemed like a natural name with the orange spots covering his light-colored coat. I knew he would make a great dog, but I was still in college and couldn't care for it. Dad, without a dog at the time, said he would mind it until I was able to.

About a month later on a visit home, I inquired about Freckles and how he was doing. Dad hesitated, then in a low voice told me that the pup had been killed on the highway. Freckles followed Dad around a lot, and once when Dad crossed the highway in front of our house, he thought Freckles was right behind him. He turned, saw the dog on the other side of the road and was dumbstruck when Freckles dashed out right in front of a car. Heartsickness number two.

There are few quail around these days in most areas. Fence rows aren't the wide and wooly terrains they used to be. Farmers naturally want to get the biggest bang for their ground, so most plant crops up to the edges, and who can blame them? A state program sounds promising though. The Indiana Private Lands Access Program's main idea is to encourage landowners to allow limited hunting on their property. Something like 99 percent of Indiana land is privately owned, so that leaves only the fish and wildlife areas for many hunters. Information is available on the Indiana DNR website.