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Arizona Quail Hunting Log February 2005 04 February 2005 - Hunting Scaled, Mearns and Gambles Quail - San Carlos Indian Reservation, Arizona Today we took a father and son from Colorado on a hunting trip to the San Carlos Indian Reservation. There are only 3 days left in the hunting season so we hoped for the best. We first stopped when a covey of about 12 Gambles Quail crossed the road in front of us. We watched them run as we got ready and turned Lacy and Pistol loose. We thought we were hot on their tail as Pistol continued to point as we moved forward...but those birds ran and we never found them. So it was off to our next stop. We stopped near a small hill that has been known to hold Scaled quail and we walked around for about 30 min when Hank bumped into a few birds far off to our left. We headed in that direction and when we arrived at the place the covey flew from the dogs all got really birdie but no birds jumped up. Then all of the sudden I saw a little white dot running through the grass...it was a Scaled Quail high tailing it up the hill! I took a few steps forward as I yelled "bird" and it took off...2 shots...no bird. We walked a few hundred feet in that general direction and 2 more birds jumped up at my feet. Eric shot and missed on and Gabe and I both shot one that was closer to me. Gabe nailed the bird and Pistol retrieved it. We circled around for about 30 minutes and saw a covey jump up way out in front, but never saw another bird.
Pistol Pointing Scaled Quail - Point Produced NO Birds On the way back Hank and Pistol both had some pretty serious points, but never produced any birds. I'm sure they were there...but I'm sure they were smart enough to RUN!
Mattie Pointing Gambles Quail Our next stop took us to a location where we have previously seen Mearns Quail. We hit a shallow canyon that went up hill and once we reached the top we split up to the left and right. Gabe and I were 2 canyons over when we heard a lot of shooting and decided to head back towards the other guys. After hearing a lot more shooting we finally caught up and were able to get in on the action. It was a large covey of Gambles Quail that had spread out over the mountain. Mattie slammed a few good points that produced some singles and we each got a bird or two.
Mattie Pointing Gambles Quail - Pistol Backing - Gabe Going in For The Flush As far as dog work was concerned this was one of the highlight of the trip. We some good finds by Mattie and some and all the dogs were working hard. After this we made one more stop that produced a few single right off the bat. We chased them off a ledge that led us into a semi-steep canyon. As we walked along the canyon we hit a few more singles that made for good sport...but shooting was off and we didn't get any of them. Then we split up 2 on top of the ledge 2 below. Almost immediately we were in a large covey of birds (may have been 2 or could have just been one split up and down the ledge). We hunted back and forth chasing the birds with both parties getting some good action. The trees in the canyon were pretty think (perfect Mearns country but NO Mearns) Pistol pointed a few singles and a double, but I only shot one bird for her. As we came out of the trees we entered a thicket and chased out 5 or 6 Javalina. That was pretty much the last wild life we saw unless you can't tweedy birds until we got back to the truck.
Long Day of Hunting Produces a Few Scaled Quail and Some Gambles Quail back to January or go to October 2005 |
