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Arizona Gambles Quail Hunting Log October 2005 Hunts: 8 October; 15 October; 22 October; 8 October 2005 SEASON OPENER - between Date Creek and Kirkland Arizona
Pistol Pointing Gambles Quail FIRST WILD BIRD POINT OF THE YEAR We headed out for our first hunting trip of the year from my house around 5am. 2 hour later we were scouting some new territory North of Wickenburg, AZ. We found a spot that looked like it would hold some birds and turned Pistol and Terra loose. Working down a small wash we were into birds in less then 30 minutes. And when I say birds I mean over 50 and closer to 80. They just kept flying out and over a hill. We hustled up the hill and Pistol went on point. I took the time to get the camera and snap the shot so of course as I was putting it away 2 birds flew off to the left and back down into a lower part of the wash. We spent the next hour pushing birds around the area and fending off other hunters. There were quite a few wanting to hunt in the same area. We heard a lot of shooting so I'm sure there were a lot of people getting into a lot of birds just like us. There was some pretty good dog work. Once we got back to the truck we traded out dogs and took Zeus and One Eye in the opposite direction of the first hunt. Within about 5 minutes One Eye went missing to the right and we veered off to the left. We came out of a wash and Zeus hit a single. Then we jumped about 5 other birds as we worked our way back up the wash. I saw One Eye off to our left (the direction he had headed earlier) and called him over. Fortunately from that time on he stuck around. Fortunately because we were able to get into about 5 other birds before we got back to the truck. (Short trip. We got cut off by some other hunters.)
Zeus Pointing a dead Gambles We jumped in the truck and headed to a new location. We followed a dirt road for a ways and soon found a spot that didn't have trucks and campers all over the place. We parked in the shade of a tree near a windmill and when we got out immediately headed 2 separate covey's on either side of us. We took the ones on the right first and there were about 25 birds. We chased them into a wash and due to the thick cover and heat (my excuses for the dogs) we didn't get much dog work, but we got into a bunch of singles. After that we headed back to the truck and traded out dogs. This time I took out Ice (my first time hunting with her...I've had her for about a week or 2). We heard some birds to the in the other direction from where we came from and saw 6 birds cross the road out in front of us and the case was on. We got off a few shots, but decided to head back towards the truck and go up a was where we heard the 2nd big covey. We humped around trying to pin point the calling birds and soon we saw them flying up a hill in waves of 10-20 birds. There was a ton of them. So we humped around the top of the hill shooting up the mountain. Above is Zeus pointing a bird that Doug had shot. Doug and I couldn't find it and thought there must be nothing there. After a few attempts at pulling Zeus off point, we walked off and Zeus went in and some how found a gird in that mess. Hurray Zeus.
Zeus Pointing Gambles Quail At one point Ice decided she'd had enough and wouldn't move on anymore (may have been cactus) so I left her at the mercy of the whatever it was that was making her not move and caught up to Doug. Above you can see one of the times Zeus pointed some birds. Right after this Zeus pointed some more and as Doug went in he saw them jumping around in the cactus and as I was getting ready to snap a shot they came flying out and I dropped the camera and brought up my gun. Didn't hit anything though. Dang it. There was a lot of birds on this hill and because it was so hot and the dogs were so tired we called it a day and on our way back picked up Ice and a few more singles, doubles and triples were pointed or jumped on the way in.
Gambles Quail In the end I shot 31 shells and had 3 birds to show for it. That's 1 bird for every 10 shots!!! Not to bad for opening day (for me anyway) just kidding. I know I hit 4 others but finding them proved impossible. Doug I'm pretty sure ended up with 7 birds and at least that many more that he couldn't find. Unfortunately with the cover, heat and whatever else we weren't finding birds today. It was a fun trip and I look forward to going to the area again.
15 October 2005 - San Carlos Indian Reservation Hunt
Pistol Pointing - Scaled Quail Country - San Carlos Indian Reservation If every hunting trip could produce as much action as we had on this one I'd hunt every day! We had a great time and did a lot of shooting. Once again I was about 10 shots per bird. We started off at some traditional spots and got into some Gambles right off the road. We then moved on and with a little work got into some Scaled Quail.
Mountain Side - Hank is Right in the Middle of the Mountain Pointing We had some pretty good dog work at our second stop once we got into birds. Jack has turned out to be a pretty good wild bird hunter.
Jack Pointing Single Scaled Quail
The Guys Walking in on a Point by Mattie After our first stop we headed to some new country we really haven't tried hunting before and got into a very large covey of Scaled Quail almost right away. We chased them around for a while with some good dog work and poor shooting. By everyone...except Eric. He was ON today. The picture below is one of Mattie retrieving a Scaled Quail. she really turned it on today. She had a lot of excellent finds and retrieves.
Mattie Retrieving a Scaled Quail with Gut to the Side
Mattie Pointing Scaled Quail On our way to our next stop (which we never made it to) Preston saw some birds fly to the side of the road so we pulled over and got into a few Scaled Quail with Mattie and Gut ripping up the country side. After hunting around and getting into a few singles we kept walking towards a small creek bed. Once we got there we got into some birds almost immediately...and BOY were there a TON of them. They kept coming up in waves as we moved down the creek shooting up the place. We later found out why. There were coveys of Gambles Quail and Scaled Quail hanging out down there. Gus got his first great find of the season when he pointed a group of 3-5 birds, of which I hit NONE!!! Mattie made some more great finds and also was key to rounding up a few lost birds.
Pistol and 3 Quail In the end I only bagged 3 birds, but true to form I shot 28 times to get them! I'm not sure how many Joey and Preston got, but I think it was around the same.
Mattie with Gambles and Scaled Quail Eric led the group by far with 12 birds!
22 October 2005 - Near Kirkland, AZ- Gambles Quail Hunt
Near Kirkland We started our hunt out today looking for some new "HOT" spots up past Wickenburg. We drove through some really pretty areas I'd never been through before. Namely the Weaver Mountain area and Peeples Valley near highway 89. We parked by a large stock take that was fed by a spring (see picture below titled "Spring") and headed up the mountain. With in 10 minutes we were into birds. Pistol went on point on what to me appeared to be the edge of a fairly large covey. At first about 8 birds got up then about 20 yards to the right another 10-15 birds took to the sky. We headed up the mountain in that general direction but didn't really scare up much.
Pistol Pointing with Terra to the Left From there we headed West and after about 20 minutes of nothing we heard the quail calling back in the direction we came from and so we high tailed it back over there. From this point on we were into quite a few small groups and singles with some good shooting by Doug, pointing by both dogs and some good lost bird finds by Terra. We were headed East along the lower slope of the mountain and after we'd pushed through the regrouping covey we kept going East. With in no time we were into a HUGE covey or multiple coveys that we had pushed together because out about 20-50 yards waves of 20-30 birds were popping up and flying straight away from us.
Pistol Pointing Gambles Quail Unfortunately by this time it had warmed up quite a bit and our dogs were getting worn out. So we headed back to the truck to get some water and fresh dogs. By the time we got back the birds had vanished and another group of hunters about 100 yards to our North were to close for us to pursue anything in that direction. They were shooting up the mountain so there were definitely more birds up that way.
Pistol Pointing Gambles Quail (they aren't in that bush...but were just up ahead) Once again I was on a close to 10 shots per bird ratio with 2 birds down after 26 shots. Hey, I said close! My friend cleaned house and in our 4 hours of hunting brought home 7 birds.
Spring Feeding a Very Large Stock Tank back to Hunt log or go to November 2005 |
