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Arizona Quail Hunting Log - January 2010 Hunts: 2 January, 10 January, 16 January, 30 January 2 January 2010
Johnny & Blu Pointing Gambel's Quail Today my brother came with me. It was great to have him out. This was his first time out this season so his dogs were glad to be out too. The morning started out at a brisk 31 degrees. I was in a tee-shirt so it felt extra cold, but I knew it would warm up fast and I didn't want to tote a jacket around so I left it in the truck. On this walk my brother took mostly video so you can see the highlights in the video right below this paragraph. Basically we had walked for about 30 minutes before we got into birds, but once we did we were into covey after covey for about 2 hours. These were the big covey's that would fly 100+ yards before you got to them so we see the covey fly and then go to where they landed and get into singles and small groups. This walk didn't have a lot of great dog work as far as finding and pointing the birds, but they did help to find the birds which is always a treat in this type of country...you know...the type where everything has a thorn ready to grab and scratch and rip. Fun stuff!
Johnny & Blu Pointing Gambel's Quail Here is the short video of the morning walk. After this this the battery died in the camera so the rest was shot with the digital camera. The video is 4+ minutes. Enjoy.
Fixing The Water Line As we were nearing the truck we came across this busted water line. About 20 yards down was the dry water tank so we patched the pipe with some PVC pipe we found lying around to see if we could get the tank filled again. When I came back the next week I found the tank about half full. The pipe busted again so I repaired it a little better. This tank is at the cross roads of about 6 canyons. So far I've worked 4 of them and so far there have been birds in each one. If I make it back this year we'll see if there are birds up the other 2. I've also found birds in this general area, but always with a water source near by.
Water Tank Half Full
Great Horned Owl We ran into three Great Horned Owls Today. We saw this one right at the beginning of our second walk and right after we'd sent parts of a covey in his direction.
RT Pointing Gambel's Quail Single The first covey we found on this walk was large, but not huge...maybe around 30+ birds. As we chased after singles we had some great dog work by all three dogs we had out (RT, Ice & YoYo). RT was finding singles right and left and the ones that held long enough to get a shot...well...my shooting today was 1 bird for 3 shots so I got some and missed some.
YoYo Retrieving Gambel's Quail Working up the draw towards a larger group of the singles we were chasing proved to be a good idea. We saw a group of 50+ birds flush up about 100 yards in front of us. As was customary they flew up out of the bottom to the top of the other side of the canyon making for a long, hard walk. But as was also customary it also made for some fun shooting. At the top of the canyon where we saw this covey fly I was able to get a bird or two as the singles flushed up and I was quite excited as YoYo fetched up a bird. I was especially excited when she almost brought it to hand after which she decided to turn and go in the opposite direction. Having not worked on fetch with her I was still encouraged.
RT Pointing Gambel's Single
Ice Pointing Single Gambel's Quail
Fallen Gambel's Quail Hiding Out After working the singles up on top of the canyon we worked down into a draw and found RT on point (1st picture above). As we worked down in a bird flushed up and I got it (last picture above). Then we saw Ice on point to my left (2nd picture above) and YoYo pointing behind by brother and to my right. Birds flushed up in both places and I missed both shots...more just from not knowing which one to take! RT was already down looking for the bird in the last picture. My brother and I had both seen where it had gone down, but when we finally found it he was about 10 feet up and hiding in the grass. He was dead by the time we found him.
YoYo Pointing Gambel's Quail With all the birds there was plenty of opportunity to get YoYo in on some action and figure out what it is she's suppose to do out here. Having not spent any time training her since August (when she was 5 months old) she did great. She'd point, wait until we got there and then creep in. The creeping will have to stop, but for now I'm not worried about it. She'll figure it out. As we moved back up to the top of the canyon where some birds had flown I saw YoYo go on point and since she was at the top, and I knew if those birds flew I wouldn't see where they went, I started to run up the hill. When I got to the top the birds still hadn't flown. YoYo moved in as I did and away they went! I got one out of the covey and fortunately for us the flew down the hill and landed near the bottom instead of all the way down the hill and then back up and over to the other side like normal.
YoYo Running After Bird I Shot It's really hard to see but if you look in the left corner of the picture about 1" down and 1" to the right you can see a bird that I shot. This was as we were getting down to where the covey had landed and this was the first single we got into.
Flying Shell Capture In Picture The covey was large so there were plenty of singles. It seemed they had spread out pretty good after they landed because they were popping up all over the place. In the above shot my brother caught a shell as it flew out of my gun. I think it's cool when my brother comes along and takes pictures. You never know what your going to get, but you always get some good stuff like this.
Ice Retrieving Female Gambel's Quail That shell above produce a bird and Ice ran in and grabbed it. She was doing a great job finding the birds I shot on this walk.
Ice & YoYo Pointing Gambel's Quail Singles With all the bird work there was also plenty of time to see YoYo figure out backing. She used the "I'll get in here and see if I can smell it too before I stop" method, but it is quickly turning into "oh...I see you on point...I'll at least wait for the gun to get here before I move." She's smart. Must be from her mom, Ice...or it could be her dad, RT. Fun hunting with the whole family!
Hard Working Dog My brothers dog RT was doing a great job finding the singles that were spread out along the bottom of the canyon. You can see him here with the foam dripping from his lips and a cactus needle in his ear and one near his eye. It's dangerous out there!
RT Pointing Gambel's Quail Single This point happened while I was out in front of my brother. He called me back on this one and I walked in thinking there wouldn't be a bird because I'd just walked though this area. As I made it in near where he was looking out flushed a single quail and I missed! Sorry RT.
Ice Pointing Gambel's Quail As we were driving/eating a late lunch we were scouting out a place for a 3rd stop when my brother spotted a Gambel's Quail crossing the road in front of us. We stopped and looked and the covey flew down into the was. I jumped out and grabbed my gun hoping to make an easy shot (and man it was nice not having a pack on!) only to jump the covey and miss. I jumped back in the truck and we drove up a bit to find a place to park. As we moved forward we found a 4 wheeler already parked in that are. Disappointed we drove on not wanting do disturb whoever it was that owned the quad (we found another one parked about 50 yards up the road). After getting to the end of the road, we turned around and came back and this time we bumped into the hunters. They were hunting deer and Javelina and so after we spoke we headed down in looking for those quail. It took a little while, but we finally started to have dogs go on point. The covey was on the move so we'd get a point then another and the dogs would relocate until finally some birds showed up.
Flushing Gambel's Quail Covey
More Flushing Gambel's Quail
Fleeing Great Horned Owl This was when we saw the third Great Horned Owl of the day. As the birds were flushing up the hill this big guy flushed up right after them. Wonder if he made a meal out of any of them before we made it up the hill?
Pistol Retrieving Gambel's Quail The first bird I shot landed about 3/4's the way up the hill and Pistol was right on it and brought it back down to me. The second bird landed very near the top of the hill and neither Ice nor Pistol saw it go down so I made the journey up and it was steep! Once there Ice found the bird for me. Since we were already up I decided to stay up top and find singles. If one of the dogs had grabbed the second bird I would have let that covey go. It was quite warm and I didn't want to hump my way up that hill to see the birds flush off and go back down or over another canyon. Once up top we only found a few of the singles and I missed each one. At this point we called it quits due to the heat and the fact that the two of us were exhausted, plus, the dogs were pretty tired too.
Gambel's Quail Take Of The Day At the end of the hunt I had 9 birds 4 Male and 5 Female. Counting my shells, and I think I got most if not all of them, there were 33 empty casings. It's always fun to get birds, but it's just a bit more fun to shoot a lot AND get birds. I obviously could have had a limit if the shooting was better, but that's been the story of my life and I kind of like it that way. Bragging rights would be cool, but hey, maybe subconsciously I'm missing on purpose so I can always be chasing that elusive goal. That would explain why I feel compelled to hunt weekend after weekend during the quail season. But, more likely I just need shooting lessons. 10 January 2010
Cool Arizona Temperature I headed out alone today planning to start where we left off last week and then explore some new areas. The weather was right for hunting at a cool 24 degrees so I was pretty excited. Fortunately today it would only warm up to 54 degrees so the day was nice throughout.
Johnny Pointing Gambles Quail Double Thought I had planned on starting where I left off last week, when I got the dogs out I changed my plan and walked out to the West instead of to the East. It proved to be a much easier walk, but that also meant less birds in this case. After walking for 45 minutes and not having a single point I was ready to turn around and head back. Then suddenly I found Ice on point midway down a wash to my right. She was looking pretty serious so I moved right in. Nothing. She moved down about another 10 yards and slammed on point. This time when I moved in 2 birds flew out. I missed them both. Thinking there must be more we circled around and then worked farther down the wash and found nothing. The dogs didn't even get birdy. So after about 15 minutes we hooked back around and worked close to a mountain side heading back towards the truck. We'd gone maybe 20 minutes when Johnny went on point. The first time there was nothing, then I relocated him up the draw where he was pointing the first time and this time he found them. Once again there were two birds. This time however the first one flew and I shot it and when Johnny went to get it the second one flew up just past where the one I shot went down so I didn't get a shot. Thinking again that there must be more birds we worked the area and once again the dogs didn't even get birdy. The good was that both dogs found and pointed birds. The bad was that there was only four birds.
YoYo Pointing Gambel's Quail Single For my second walk I took out Pistol and YoYo. YoYo has pretty much figured out what her purpose in life is and she seems to love it. We worked up a canyon I wanted to try the last time we were in this area and about to the end I decided to hook over to more familiar territory since we hadn't seen any birds. Still wanting to be in new country I kept working up higher in the next canyon. At one point not too long after entering this canyon I stopped to listen (one of the reasons I love Gambel's Quail is the give away their location much too easily). I thought I heard a chirp of a quail below us and about 100 yards down. I listened for another minute or so and sure enough there it was again. I brought the dogs around and we started down at an angle towards the sound. After we'd closed about 75 yards the birds started flushing up out of the bottom of the canyon. They flushed in waves and one wave came my way and I was able to get a bird right about the time it spotted me and tried to veer off in the other direction. Pistol scooped it up and since we were close I took the dogs the rest of the way down and YoYo went crazy in the scent of the now departed birds.
Pistol Pointing Gambel's Quail Single We then headed back up to the top to work the singles. YoYo and Pistol both had their turn at pointing singles and I stumbled across a few myself. As we walked along the ridge and back down the other side we entered into a canyon I'd walked last week and found another covey which flushed up ahead of us. We worked these singles pretty good to, but didn't get into as many as the first covey we found. In all on this walk we ended up with 6 birds out of 2 covey's.
Pistol On A Gambel's Quail Covey At the truck I loaded up and headed down the road to a new location. One they way I stopped and ate lunch in the road and listened for quail. Once again they gave away their location. I finished up lunch and drove up a bit further and parked the truck. I was going to take Pistol and Ice this time. Before I got the dogs out I was listening again and heard some birds to my right (I was planning on going left where I'd hear the birds earlier). Since these birds were closer I headed off up the canyon they were in. I hadn't gone far when I noticed a truck parked a bit closer to this canyon's entrance. I wasn't sure if they were hunters or not, but I didn't want to go in a direction they may have gone so I headed back after the other birds I'd heard off to my left. I thought I had hear them at the opening of a canyon into a big wash, and though I wasn't positive I headed up that way anyway. The canyon was narrow rough and at one point I fell as rocks slipped out from under me. I went so hard and fast that my gun went flying up in the air. It came down hard on the rocks in front of me and ended up pointing at my left leg. I moved it quick and thought what it would be like trying to crawl out of that canyon with a banged up knee on one side and half my other leg blown off. Thank goodness for safeties and quality craftsmanship. If this was my old 1920 something side-by-side I was hunting with back 10 years ago I probably wouldn't have been so lucky. Anyway...after having traveled about 3/4's of the way up the canyon I decided I could go no further and started heading up the North East side. At the top I saw Pistol on point. I wasn't sure how sure she was, but then I heard a quail call and I knew there were birds. I moved in and they flushed out in all directions, but mostly back down into the canyon. I missed 2 easy shots and called the dogs up out of the canyon before they were too far down. I headed in the direction I saw 2 birds fly up top and was able to jump one single and hit it. I got into one more and but missed again. At this point I'd reloaded my gun and to my horror realized I had failed to put more shells in my pouch after my last walk. I was down to the 5 in my gun and the 4 in my pouch. Not enough for as much walking as I still intended to do. So I started a round about way back to the truck hoping to see birds and telling myself each shot from here on out has to count. Well...I must have siked myself out because it didn't work that way. We started down the opposite side of the canyon I'd just come out of only to see 100+ birds come out of the bottom. I was still pretty high up so I was able to make a good calculation as to where they would be and headed that way. Once down there I got right into birds. After a point and a miss and few wild flushes which resulted in one shot and a miss I was down to 7 shells and I was kicking myself hard for missing!
Pistol Pointing 6 Gambel's - Ice Backing After we'd worked the birds on the base of the hill with no shooting results I headed down into the wash where a bunch of them had flown. We walked for about 5 minutes with nothing to show for it when I found Pistol on point. Ice came in for a back and I moved in. One bird flew right off and I missed. Then another flew and I thought I hit it, but it kept going! I turned to pick up my shells and 4 more birds flew out of the same area, plus 3 more off to my right! I was in the center of a bunch of birds with only 5 shells left. We moved off had a few more fly up with out a shot, then Pistol pointed again and as I moved in 3 more birds flew out. The cover was pretty think, but I had a textbook shot and put way to much thought into it and missed. Down to 4 shells I was sure we'd get into a big chunk of birds and I'd miss them all, but unfortunately we didn't see any more birds on the way back to the truck.
Gambel's Quail - 5 Males & 4 Females Back at the truck I sorted out the birds and had 1 from the first walk, 6 from the second and 2 from my last walk. It was 1:30pm and I and the dogs were tired so we headed home. It was a good hunt with some good dog work. Only wish my brother was there to take some pictures. One in particular that would have been cool was when the first covey on my second walk flushed up. The 2nd wave flew farther down and as I watched them fly I saw them fly right over a nice sized buck. 16 January 2010
Hank & Blu Ready To Mearns Hunt Today my brother and I headed down South to meet some folks from Colorado and one from Chandler for a Mearns Quail hunt. We met up at a familiar gas station and headed down into the way out there lands near the boarder. The road in was rough but we all made it without much incident and the hunt was on.
Darby Hunting Mearns Quail We parked in what seemed like a decent draw and after unloading the dogs headed up what seemed to be some pretty good Mearns Country. After a short distance things began to tighten up and we pulled out of the draw and off to our left. There really wasn't any dog work and since the dogs seemed to do well later on that day I'm assuming there just weren't any birds. After we had turned one of our hunting partners had swung wide and his Pointer Darby pointed a double. He shot, but didn't get one. We continued on down the new draw we had entered and followed it past the truck and then back up to the truck with no success.
Dog Pointing Mearns Covey - The Rest Backing At our next stop I knew we would get into some more birds since I'd been in the area earlier that year and had some success. Sure enough, not 200 yards from the truck Nitro (Marks Dog) went on point. The rest of the dogs backed nicely, but as you can see from the doctored photo we didn't get a wide shot with them all in it. This covey held tight and once the birds finally flushed the first few flew straight at my brother who was taking video making a shot unsafe. A few more flew up and presented a shot at Mark got a female Mearns Quail.
Sandy Pointing Mearns Quail Covey A bit further down the draw we had some good dog work on old scent but no more covies. Than finally a nice point by Sandy (Frank's female pointer) presented us with a nice little covey. Frank & Rod walked in and up came the birds. Rod was able to shoot one male. Mark and I moved in and a few more flew up and I got one female.
Dog "Faking" It We had a few false points as is especially typical with any Mearns Quail Hunt. In the above shot Mark (from Facey Kennels in Colorado www.faceykennels.com) moved in as his dog Nitor pointed. Our new hunting buddies would often call out "faker" when a dog pointed and nothing was there. In this case I think there was a rabbit that we ended up jumping at the end of the trail. Nitro really looks good on point.
Ice Pointing 2 Mearns Quail After walking a bit further down the wash we ended up running into some private property. We took a short break and headed back up the draw on the opposite side. The idea was to work the drainages on the way back up to the truck. It worked out. Ice pointed a nice double from which I was able to get one male Mearns. Working over the hill and down into another draw Mark spotted a bird flushing and Ice running up after it. Then we saw Nitro on point and we moved in. I had a few birds fly out right at my feet and head straight to Mark & Rod. Rod got one male.
Mark Shooting A Mearns Quail We looked around for some of the singles and didn't have any luck. Moving over into the next draw we came across a few more birds and Mark was able to take one female Mearns.
Bitsy Retrieving Mearns Quail Bitsy, Rod's 2 year old English Setter ran up the hill to grab one of the downed birds. It was my first time hunting in the field (not counting field trials) with an English Setter. Bitsy had a really nice run on her and seemed like she could go all day. She opened up nicely and was really starting to figure out these Mearns Quail. After this we headed up to the truck and swapped out dogs for one more hunt before the sun went down.
Darby & Blu Pointing Mearns Quail We headed down into a draw and once at the bottom we started getting points. We had 3 or 4 false points and that was starting to get discouraging.
Blu Pointing Moving Mearns Covey Not much further down the draw Blu went on point. After moving in on her point nothing flew up and we assumed she was "faking" and gave her the "OK". What really happened is the birds had moved off to her left about 20 yards and were all hunkered down feet away from Mark. They must not have been there long because a few of the dogs ran right through where they were and didn't smell a thing.
Female Mearns Quail Fleeing The Scene As we started to move on all of the sudden there were birds in the air flying off in all directions. And in typical Mearns style just as quickly they were up in the air they were gone. Not so fast though that my brother didn't catch a shot of one female making her escape. Working our way back up the draw we walked and walked and finally heard some birds that Blu bumped up on top of a hill. We never found any singles from that covey.
Blu & A View We walked some more with no results and headed back to the truck. With the sun in our faces my brother was able to get some really need shots. Here is one of Blu with a windmill behind her.
Male & Female Mearns Quail Back at the truck it took me a while to count up my take for the day. Kidding. I had two birds. Mark had three or four and Rod and two or three. We had some nice finds that resulted in 7 or so covies. Each covey was small, smaller than I'd seen so far this year, with covey sizes from 2-8 or so birds.
The Hunting Party Even though the bird numbers were low we still had a great time chasing those bird dogs in some of the worlds most beautiful country. It was great to meet some new people and see some new dogs working in Mearns Country.
A Short Video My brother has been having fun shooting some video too while we're out hunting. Here is a short video of some of the highlights of our trip today. 30 January 2010
Boarder Patrol Searching For Aliens Today I headed down South after Mearns Quail one of the guys we'd met a few weeks ago. Our first stop was at a location that was new to me and it looked very promising. In the first 2 hours or so all we found was a dead juvenile Javelina, some water running down the creed (which was nice to see) and the above boarder patrol agents looking for illegals.
Pistol Pointing a Small Mearns Quail Covey Back at the truck we switched out the dogs and headed down the canyon in the opposite direction. This walk too would also turn out to be a long one. We walked down the canyon about a quarter of a mile and saw another canyon that looked promising so we headed up it. After spending a little time searching we finally got a productive point by Pistol which resulted in 1 or 2 birds flushing up out of the cover before we could even get in for a shot. It was the first action of the day so it was very welcoming, but we wanted more! As we got to the top of the canyon we hiked over to the other side and started a long walk down. There were a few more false points and then Pistol (pictured above) went on point. The grass was tall and I could barely see her until I got up closer. As we worked in the birds flushed from all around us. I shot at one that went straight out and my buddy shot at one that went off to our right. After my first shot I spun around and took another shot at another bird that flew up behind me. I thought I'd hit both of them, but to my disappointed we didn't find either one...so I'm thinking I must have missed. In all there were only about 4-6 birds in this covey and though that was more than the last one it wasn't very encouraging.
Sandy Pointing Mearns Quail Single Back at the truck I realized time had gotten away from us and it was already past 2pm. We jumped in the truck and headed off to a new location which was about 30 minutes away. This location was grazed down and still had cattle on it so we drove on another 30 minutes to find another location to hunt. Finally we reached our destination and started our final hunt right around 4pm. After a few great false points that seemed promising but delivered nothing I was beginning to think we weren't going to find any birds here either. Than as we were preparing to turn and go up other canyon back to the truck I realized I hadn't seen Ice for a bit so I called her. This is the 2nd or 3rd time this year that I failed to think she may be on point and as soon as I whistled for her we heard the birds flush. Who knows how many there were, but there sounded to be more than 2-4 so that was nice. We worked up and over to the other side of the canyon and after a bit found Sandy pointing. We moved in and nothing flew up. My buddy released her and she took a stop and looked down even more intently. With a few more steps the bird flew out at my buddies feet and he shot the bird.
Ice Retrieving Mearns Quail Ice quickly ran down the hill and brought the bird back up to us. It was a female Mearns Quail and our first bird of the day at nearly 5pm.
Pistol Pointing Mearns Quail Single We worked the side of the hill a bit in the up the hill direction and found Pistol on point. I moved in and this time when nothing flew out I released her and she flushed up a female Mearns Quail. The bird was immediately behind a tree and presented no opportunity for a shot. It was getting late so we continued on up the top of the finger in the direction of the truck. Not much farther off Ice & Pistol went on point but nothing flew up. Then a bit further up and Sandy went on point, but we didn't find anything but diggings and lots of them spread across the hill top. A bit further up and Pistol went on point. After working the cover the bird flushed out a foot away and because it was another hen my buddy let her go. After that it was a long walk back to the truck with no action to speak of. This wasn't the way I like to end a hunt, but at the same time there was a bit of good dog work and I think we found the birds that were there to be found. We had a great time in spite of the fact that we only came home with one bird. ∞ Back to December 2009 or go to Hunting Log |
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