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Arizona Gambles, Scaled and Mearns Quail Hunting Log February 2006 Hunts: 3 February 2006 3 February 2006 - Last Day of Hunting 2006 - San Carlos Indian Reservation
Pistol Pointing Scaled Quail We started this day out finding a road that took us closer to where we wanted to be so we wouldn't have to walk so far to get into birds...and it worked. Within 30 minutes we were into our first covey. We gave chase for about 10 minutes before we finally pinned them down. Pistol would point...move on then point again and this at first seemed like a bad thing, until those birds flew. We had poor luck with any singles, but Kyle managed to bump one and shoot it. We marked where it went down but couldn't find it. Pistol ended up pointing a cactus and I thought it must be in there so I stared to dig around and out came the wounded bird straight into Pistols mouth. Then Pistol pointed a single and here things went down hill. I had forgot my e-collar and when Ice saw Pistol on point she moved in for the flush with Pistol not far behind. The second covey we found 20 minutes later had pretty much the same results as did the singles Pistol found. So I took the opportunity of a false point to do a little training and the day was fine after that. We found one more covey that flew right off the edge into a deep canyon so we headed back to the Jeep.
Kyle's New Gun From there we headed for Mearns Country hoping to get a Grand Slam on our last time out this season and because it would be Kyle's first. We walked (as you do when hunting Mearns) quite a bit and after a short rest moved on into what would be a pretty exciting hour.
Taking a Break in Mearns Country We hadn't gone more then 100 yards from our resting spot when Pistol started acting funny. I saw some mouse holes and thought she was just playing dog and mouse. I called Kyle over to look at a cool rock I had found and after a brief moment of looking we stared moving on and cabooom out flew 6-8 Mearns Quail right in front and all around us.
Fallen Mearns Quail Blending into the Surroundings I was able to take one late rising male from the covey and the others were able to escape. We moved on and shortly came across another covey that flew out of some cactus as I walked buy. I got one more that Ice quickly retrieved and Kyle missed 2 opportunities on a quick flying female. Because it was a small covey we moved on.
Ice Retrieving Mearns Quail The 3rd Mearns Quail covey was "pointed" by Pistol. Once again she didn't really point as much as she just new there was something there and was trying to figure it out. This time I knew what I was seeing and Kyle and I went right in. The birds came flying out and we both missed then I was able to connect with a late flusher and that was all we saw of those birds as the rest flew straight down the mountain into the thick trees and were weren't going looking.
Mearns Quail The 4th and final Mearns Quail covey of the day was found in a very similar manner. Pistol "pointing" and me walking around a fallen tree to a flushing covey of some 10-15 birds. Kyle and I both missed...a lot (I unloaded my 5 shots) and then I was able to take a late flyer (again) that Ice retrieved (above pictures). Kyle headed for a bird he saw go down and flushed and shot it with Pistol retrieving it for him. By this time it was getting pretty late in the day and we still need to find some Gambles Quail to finish off the Grand Slam so we moved down the mountain back to the Jeep and headed out.
Mearns Quail - Dogs and Us back at the Jeep
Gambles Quail - Pistol and I By the time we got to where were hoped to find some Gambles Quail it was already 4:30pm and so we quickly unloaded Pistol (Ice was too tired) I changed into a warmer shirt and we went a hunting. Within no more then 2 minutes a huge covey flushed somewhere around Kyle and flew up a mountain. We saw where they landed and headed straight for them. Kyle saw them jumping up some rocks and shot 2 with one shot. The birds flushed all over the place and the chase was on. We first went to the top of the ridge and were able to get quite a few birds to flush. After some bad shooting and a few good points by Pistol we each had a bird or two and so we headed down the ridge where we had seen more birds fly. We jumped quite a few long the ledge and by the time we got back to where we had jumped the covey the second time the sun was running out. We went about 100 yards past that spot looking for some that may have gone in that direction. We bumped a few birds and headed back to the jeep. I had shot one bird that we were unable to find so with the daylight that was left I thought I would try to go find it and see if I could jump some more birds on the way. Pistol pointed one that I shot and I bumped two that I missed and we never did find that bird I had originally gone looking for. Back at the jeep we counted 8 Gambles Quail. The short Gambles hunt with all the action turned out to be Kyle's favorite. When I got home there was one more bird in my bag that I had missed leaving us with 1 Scaled Quail, 5 Mearns Quail and 9 Gambles Quail. A limit (for one person anyway). A great hunt to end the year. back to January 2005 or go to October 2006 |
