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Arizona Quail Hunting Log February, 2008 Hunts: 2 February, 9 February 2 February - Arizona
Pistol & Ice Pointing Today started out with us looking for some new country to hunt Mearns Quail. We'd been pretty fortunate finding new spots with fairly good bird numbers this year and so we'd hoped for the same at our first stop. The country looked good and the weather was right for hunting. However, no matter how ready we are, that doesn't always put the birds in the right places at the right times. We walked for quite a ways with no sign of birds. We hopped over a hill and came back down towards the truck and not to long into the downhill wammo...all the dogs go on point. Mine on one side of a creek and my friends on the other side. The birds came up over by my friend and there were only a few birds in the covey. We waked on and shortly there after a few birds flushed up as Ice rounded a corner. I took a wild shot and missed. From there not much else happened and we were back at the truck. Ice Pointing Mearns Single Our next stop was made after we took a drive looking for a new area. Funny thing about this road, it took us to the same canyon just down the canyon from our first spot. (we started out going to the east of the first stop and ended up on the west). We hadn't gone too far when Ice went on point. We worked around and flushed one bird up then another flushed up farther down. There may have been one or two more, but with such a small group, we didn't take any birds.
Ice Pointing Mearns Covey - Pistol Backing As we walked down the canyon things weren't looking to hot. We had walked quite a ways and found nothing. Sign was there...and in some places a lot of it, but just no birds. Then all the sudden I found Pistol stopped and soon realized she was backing Ice. As I moved in my friend also moved in from a different location. Soon we both had birds flying up all around us. I got one that turned out to be hard to find and with in no time the birds were gone and no remaining singles were to be found. We moved on. Here is where the trip took a turn for the worse. After we had walked another long distance, I found Zeus on point. We got the rest of the dogs stopped and moved in. Nothing. So we released the dogs and bam...Zeus and went on point again. This time not all the dogs stopped and soon there were birds flying all over. I took a few shots and got on. The dogs were off! Then I saw birds running along the hillside and just about to pass a tree line that would make for near impossible shooting odds. I saw dogs coming back towards them and so I ran as fast as I could to beat them up the hill and to the flush. I got there in time and took a few shots taking another bird. As I picked up my shells I noticed one of them had a drop of blood on it. My first though was quail blood, but then I though no that would be impossible. So my friend and I went up the hill, me in search of my birds and he in search of singles. He quickly realized he was missing a dog and upon beeping her found her sitting near where the covey had originally been along the slope of the hill. She had been shot. There were bb holes from nose to toes. She was covered and hacking a horrible sounding noise. After a short break and some watering I started to carry her back to the truck, following my friend who was careering the guns. It wasn't long though that she started to struggle and so I put her down and she trotted the rest of the way back to the truck. She's doing fine to date.
Mearns Quail Two Mearns Quail at the end of a scary day.
9 February - Arizona
Ice Pointing - Everyone Backing Today started out HOT and it ended even hotter. But it also started out with the prospect of some really good bird numbers. Only...it didn't end up that way. Above you can see Ice pointing and the rest of the dogs backing. This was a great site to see. Unfortunately there were no birds. This seemed to be a patter for the day. Point after point with some really fresh sign, but no birds.
Ice Pointing Mearns Quail Covey As we worked our way down the Canyon we found Ice on point looking into the above clump of trees. Sure enough there were birds, about 4 or 5 and they all flew out where we really had no shots. My friend took one, but that was it.
Zeus Pointing - Everyone Backing We worked the canyon for quite some time, switching over and finding no real good place to go we dropped back down in. The day seemed nice, but no birds. Well, no birds shot anyway. In all in our first walk we got into about 6 or 7 extremely small 2-5 bird coveys. Dogs were pointing like crazy, but every time a bird would come up there was no shot.
Ice Pointing - Everyone Backing At our next stop we worked down a canyon we had been down before, just coming in from a different road. Once again we found lots of sign, but at least in the beginning there were no birds. Dogs kept going on point and we'd work around and find nothing.
Pistol Pointing Mearns Quail Finally as we worked along the flats I saw some birds flush up and saw 2 dogs stopped to flush. One came so close I was able to take it. Then a few more flew up and went in different directions. My friend moved in to the location as it was close to him and found nothing more. As I walked around a deadfall to find my bird Pistol went on point. The "always trust your bird dog" had kinda worn off today so I wasn't real confident that anything was there. In fact, I assumed it was residue sent from that covey that had just flushed to the side about 50 yards. As I walked over in that direction thinking to my self...hey maybe she's pointing the bird I shot...about 6 or 7 more birds flew up. I took 3 shots and 2 birds. This is where it got fun. We couldn't find any of the 3. I saw where the 2nd 2 went down, but wasn't real sure on the 1st one. We when to the last bird first. Nothing. The dogs were pretty excited though and then all the sudden a bird popped up and "T" the puppy was on him. He had her, dropped her, had her standing on his foot and couldn't find her, saw her again and boom...she flew off (note...this was a high point for my friend and his dog...the light switch had been turned on and now "T" was a bird dog.) I took another 2 shots and hit her again. Couldn't find her. Then...wam...Terra nailed her and we had the 1st bird. Now on to the 1st bird I shot. I walked around the dead fall again and found it on the ground. Now...back to the 2nd bird I shot. I had seen where it went down and it wasn't there. Or so I thought. We walked around and around then...wam again...terra found my bird.
Windmill At this point the dogs were HOT. We got back to a windmill that had plenty of water and after a short break we were off. After the windmill we didn't have much luck, but we got into one more covey of which I took 1 bird and then we headed back towards the truck.
Ice Pointing - Everyone Backing We had gone quite a ways from the truck so we had to hopped over 2 large and steep hills. On the last hill we as we topped over the edge my friend found the dogs on point. Steep as could be and right on the top, our hopes weren't high, but the dogs looked really serious so we moved in. Boom! birds flushed up we shot...we missed, the birds sailed down the hill and that was pretty much the end or our trip.
Ice Pointing - Everyone Backing In the end we had 4 birds and one set of antlers. The high was in the 70's and the dogs were beat so we went home. For the final day of the year it wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best either. Sad to see this season to come to the end. As usual I can't wait until next year.
January 2008 back to Hunting Log |
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