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Arizona Quail Hunting Log December 2004 Hunts: 10 December; 17 December; 31 December 4-5 December 2005 - American Field Trial - Sonoita Arizona
AM Field Trial - Sonoita Arizona - 5 December 2004 This month I took off every Friday to go hunting. The first weekend I skipped hunting and went to an American Field Trial. It rained pretty much all day Saturday and I only ended up riding in one brace before they stopped for the day. Pistol took a 3rd place in the Open Derby. Jack took a 2nd in the Open Derby. Preston had a few other dogs take placements in the amateur class.. 10 December 2005 - Quail Hunting - San Carlos Indian Reservation Arizona
Hank Pointing Gambles Quail - Pistol & Blue Backing - San Carlos Indian Reservation December 2004 This trip started out with us seeing a large covey of Gambles crossing the road as we were pulling into our first stop. We all got out and for some reason didn't take a dog with us. We jumped some birds...missed the shots...headed back to the truck. Bummer! Then Preston got a shot...hit the bird...bird flew really high...went down and we never found it!!! Always take your bird dog. The next stop was very unproductive. However, Preston and I saw about 7 very large Javalina. And it was off to the next stop. Here we finally got into some birds with Hank being the bird finder. He pointed a covey that I think we didn't get any birds out of. Then he pointed a single in the picture above.
Mearns Country - San Carlos Indian Reservation December 2004 The rest of the day was pretty slow with really no more birds to speak of until our last stop when we hiked up a steep mountain and got into a covey of about 8 Mearns quail. As we nearing a clump of trees the covey flew out from under an oak tree that all 3 of our dogs had been by. I was ticked...first Mearns for me this year and the dogs couldn't smell them. Then to make it worse...I missed 4 easy shots!!! Here are some other pictures from our 10 December 2005 hunt:
Blue Rail - San Carlos Indian Reservation December 2004
Blue Rail - San Carlos Indian Reservation December 2004
Blue Rail - San Carlos Indian Reservation December 2004
San Carlos Indian Reservation December 2004 17 December 2005 - Quail Hunting - San Carlos Indian Reservation Arizona
Pistol - Pointing Gambles Quail - San Carlos Indian Reservation December 2004 Pistol and I went hunting alone to the Rez. We went to a place we had been earlier that year and spent the day there. We walked for about an hour and didn't see anything. On the way we kept running into a herd of cows so I finally decided to turn around. So did the cows. We cut across and behind them and they finally stopped following us. After about 5 minutes of losing the cows I saw Pistol go on point about 50 yards away and so I took off running towards her. When I got close and started to slow down I could see birds running all over in front of her. I took a few more quick steps and off they went. I unloaded my gun and got one bird. Pistol had taken off so I had to retrieve it myself. We circled around the area we saw the birds go down and I bumped a few birds and shot one, reloaded took a few more steps and shot another. Pistol showed up and retrieved one for me then we went looking for the other. We walked around for a few minutes with no luck. Then all of the sudden I heard a strange humming sound. I tried to locate the source but it was so faint it seemed like it was coming from far away. I took a few steps back in the direction were I last saw the bird go down and saw a male Gambles sitting in a cactus. I sent Pistol in and the bird took off running. She grabbed him and we were off looking for more. Had it not been for his humming I'd have never found him. We circled around the area for about another 30 minutes with no luck and headed back to the truck.
Pistol - Gambles Quail - San Carlos Indian Reservation December 2004 After a short break at the truck we went back out and within 20 minutes Pistol went on Point. It was a single hiding in a cactus and I shot him. Then all of the sudden I see this horse jump up in the air about 30 yards from where I was...I had shot him! He was in a clump of trees and I couldn't see him there. He was thrashing around on the ground so I headed over there thinking I was going to have to slit his throat or something. Then all of the sudden two other horses came running at me snorting and huffing. I waved my gun in the air and yelled and that stopped them. But they didn't leave. They watched me as they trotted back and forth between me and the fallen horse. The horse had stopped thrashing and I thought he must be dead. As suddenly as he had flopped down he jumped back up and he and the other horses wandered off. I went back for my bird, but he had crawled into a thick cactus and neither I nor Pistol wanted to go in after him. We hunted for about another 2 hours and got into 3 more coveys, but they were all along the top edge of a steep canyon and when the flew it was straight down. 31 December 2005 - Quail Hunting - San Carlos Indian Reservation Arizona
GRAND SLAM - Gambles Quail - Scaled Quail - Mearns Quail - San Carlos December 2004 What more needs to be said! We went hunting just after a bunch of rain so we decided to avoid the crossing of any big rivers and stuck close to the main roads. We hit an old faithful and got into a few birds right off the bat. More importantly they were Scaled Quail. The first bird of our Grand Slam. We hunted around for a while and bumped 2 Scalies that flew up by Doug towards me so he had no shot and as they flew buy me I missed them. As we got to the top of the hill Pistol pointed what I think was a wounded Scaled Quail (maybe I did hit one), because when I went in on it the bird just sat there. When I kicked at it the bird took off running and I sent Pistol to retrieve it. She cased it around a bit, and it ended up taking off and I didn't get a shot. At this point we circled the mountain then separated. I went down to walk a flat and bumped a Scalie and shot him. He was huge (as far as Quail go) and so I was happy. Then we were off to a place Doug had been to before to get some Mearns. Only in this location we only found Gambles. We chased around a covey of about 20-30 birds for awhile and we each came out with a few birds. Then we were off to our final location for one more shot at Mearns. Here we walked and walked up this hill in search of some Mearns Quail. Terra spooked up the first covey and we chased them around for a while and then all the sudden Zeus was on point and Doug went in thinking "yeah right" but then he saw the birds beneath a tree and off they went. It was a lot of fun for about 40 minutes after that chasing the birds around. Zeus and Pistol both had some good points. Pistol pointed one bird that I shot and one that I did not. back to November or go to January |
