Karnes County ...

... is windy and very dry. I'm still getting some red on the hankerchief when I blow my nose. And the grass burrs are terrible, and traffic on the roads is horrendous. But the food at Edgar&Gladys Cafe is great ... oh, and the dogs found 4 coveys in what essentially ended up being two ~3-hr hunts. Plus Tues evening we made a quick tank shoot and bagged a few doves and even 1 snipe. I forgot my camera, so only have a few bad pics on my phone. The worst thing of all, I accidently deleted the best pics of my dog on point. Hopefully there will be more opportunities. I'll post a couple of pics for what its worth when I get more time.

Great that you got them in some birds, conditions are bad out west (but found I have a pup that will run in stickers, love tough feet). Don't think I'm heading out again till we get a rain. What size coveys?

Great news. Can't wait for the pictures.

All 4 coveys held 10-12 birds. This love grass field contained the least amount of grass burrs.




I only had my phone, and somehow deleted the shots of points, when trying to send them to my computer. But here's at least one distant shot of my dog on point on a fence line, at a 10-bird covey.



One patch of brush and cactus where birds weren't, but the dogs would check out each such spot.



I tried to get the obligatory pic of the bloody tail (which Bob had), during a brief pause, but just wasn't close enough with my phone to capture it.



Can't wait to get back there.

Is Bob's range more to your satisfaction now?

No range problems with Bob, since ~1yr old. He's been doing very well this season <knocks on wood>. The only range problems have been with me, trying to find the range with my shotgun. I know this is a public forum, but I have enough self esteem to go ahead and admit it ... I shot at 8 birds total, and dropped 1. Maybe it's my sub-conscience, not really want to kill a quail. But that's not what I told my wife yesterday. I told her I need a new shotgun. That's got to be it, right?

Anyway, we were just glad to find birds especially Tues afternoon, with the hot dry windy conditions. Wed morning scenting conditions was much better. I sure hope they get some rain there.

you are on the right trail with the shotgun story, I have used the same one for 55 years, one of these days I will get the right gun.....

What was the range problem and what is it now

Long-story-short, as a pup (<1 yr) I got onto him pretty good on one occasion, when he was loose in the yard and ended up in the street and ~ a block away. This resulted in him having a very short range, which lasted a few months; but I discussed it on PDJ and with Bill by PM if I remember correctly.
Anyway, just running him with other dogs, and taking him out often, pretty quickly got him working back out to 100-200 yards, which is fine with me.
Today in the Atchafalaya basin, he worked from ~50 yards to ~200 yards, furthest, while wearing a tracking collar, and did just fine. It was a pretty tough day, but he found 10 birds in ~4.5 hrs of running. Actually, if it wasn't for the tracking collar, I'm to the point now where I really don't want him to get out of sight, especially in the woods or swamp. I don't bother putting a bell on him anymore, cause I can't follow the sound of it too good anymore, anyway. And besides, I prefer the quiet.