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Arizona Quail Hunting Log November 2004 Hunts: 8-9 October; 30 October
Pistol - 4 Scalies 1 Gambles Quail - Wilcox Arizona - 8 October 2004 The season opened on 8 October 2004 with us hunting an area near Wilcox, Arizona that I hadn't been to in a few years. On the opening morning we got into a nice covey of Scalies and a small covey of Gambles. I hunted Pistol (pictured above). Later that day after it cooled down we went and hunted 2 other draws that proved to be a lot of walking with no birds to end out the day.
Pistol - Pointing - Wilcox Arizona - 8 October 2004 The above picture of Pistol is from our second outing of the day and the point produced no birds. The draw looked promising from down low but as we got into it we could tell there were probably no birds. Notice the lack of any good places for the birds to go had there been any there.
4 Gambles Quail - Wilcox Arizona - 8 October 2004 This picture of Pato and I was taken on the second day of the season with Pato pointing 2 singles. One of the singles was actually stuck in a weed of some kind and couldn't get out. As I walked in he broke free and I shot him. Pato didn't retrieve him but because the bird was so close I had no trouble retrieving it myself. We ended up with 2 males and 2 females. We ended up taking one more stop on the way out around noon. I turned Balls and Pistol loose with only Pistol wearing a e-collar. Within 2 minutes they were gone and I never did see them again till we got back to the truck. They had showed up about 15 minutes before I did and were spotted by a Game and Fish Officer as they almost were hit by a truck. He waited for everyone to get back to the truck, checked our licenses' and told us he thought it might be a good year around there if you knew where to go. I personally will go back, but not again in the 2004-2005 season. It was very dry and I don't think the birds did very well down there. Hope for rain.
30 October 2004 - San Carlos Indian Reservation
Pointing Gambles Quail - San Carlos Arizona - 30 October 2004 30 October 2004 - I can't quite remember if we took any hunting trips between the opening season and the 30th but I'm sure we did. On this trip there was 7 of us and we all had dogs so it was a lot of fun when we all had them out. The day started out with us spotting a males Gambles perched on a cactus looking at us as we drove by. We all jumped out and as we walked we thought we had lost the birds when all of the sudden I was in the middle of a 20 bird covey with birds flying all over the place. I got off 2 shots and missed both times. I was pretty excited. 2 friends off to my left were taken by such surprise they didn't even fire one shot between the two of them. We chased the covey around and I think we were able to get one or two birds. Then we were off.
Black Balls - 5 Gambles Quail - San Carlos Arizona - 30 October 2004 At our next stop we walked for about 40 minutes before Hank went on point. The covey was pretty large and I was so excited I didn't get a good count. I shot one bird and a friend shot one. Balls retrieved them both. He loves to retrieve. The rest of the group was pretty spread out so we waited for them to get over to us and we moved on and chased what must have turned into two coveys for about 30 minutes. There was a lot of good shooting and good dog work. Balls pointed is first wild bird as I walked over a hill with him and I shot it and he retrieved. Then it seems like the light came on and he pointed one more time at which point I missed and the light went back off.
Pistol - 2 Gambles Quail - San Carlos Arizona - 30 October 2004 Next we didn't move the cars but hunted off to the East of where we had parked. We immediately ran into a large canyon too steep to walk down into, but not too steep for the birds to fly into. We had a lot of "no opportunities" as the birds were quick to fly down. As we were hunting near the large canyon a covey of birds flew out in front of us and the chase was on. They stayed on top and flew into a group of small brush. The first picture in the 30 October series of Pistol is when Pistol went on point. The point produced a single which I shot and Pistol retrieved. It was great. Within 5 minutes she did it all again and that was it for bird work that produced birds from Pistol that day. There was some good bird work from all the other dogs. I remember Monk and Mattie going on point on the way back to the cars and some friends walked in and both shot the single Scalie.
5 Gambles Quail - San Carlos Arizona - 30 October 2004
Gambles Quail - San Carlos Arizona - 30 October 2004 |
