Quail Quest 2016
Inspired by the writings of Jim Fergus (A Hunters Road, and The Sporting Road), we set out an epic adventure this year. When I say we, I speak of myself, my brother Nick, whom I have been hunting birds with since my first BB gun, and my good friend Lee (who I met in college and tell the story of how we met about as often as I tell the story of how my wife and I met) and 9 pointing dogs. Our initial goal was to pursue and bag4 species of quail. Having never hunted Mearns, rarely hunted Scaled, and only been fortunate enough to be around a few bobwhite and Gambles quail, our plan was to go after these 4 species in early January 2016.
This plan was magnified by a text I sent to both Nick and Lee saying that if we hunted Valley (California) quail in Idaho before we left, we could hunt and take 5 species of quail in just over 8 days. One of the eight days days in Idaho happened a week in advance, due to the fact that the 3 of us have jobs and young families we only have so much time for this sort of adventure. Thanks again to the inspiration of Mr. Fergus we set our plan into action.
Day 1: Friday, January 1st hunting in Idaho on some of our favorite spots for quail we set out on a cold day. Highs were in the low teens, snow was on the ground all set for the dogs and us to have a great day. The first quail of the day was pointed by Jazz (my young liver colored Brittany). Lee’s son Jordan was with us on this day, and him and I both shot at the same time bringing a nice male Valley quail to our vests.
The end of the day, I was able to have one of those magical walks back to the rig in the twilight hours when the starts aligned with the quail and myself. I had Milly and Jazz with me out of my 3 britts and Lee’s young setter Abbie had joined me. There were several occasions when we pointed single, double, and multiple quail on the walk back towards the vehicle. We were fortunate enough to take many Valley quail and a bonus Hungarian partridge.
Day 2: Saturday, January 9th. We were supposed to leave early Friday January 8th and make our way into the great state of Colorado in pursuit of Scaled Quail. None of us had ever hunted there. Due to the loss of my uncle departure time was delayed. We left Friday night at about 9 pm and drove the night through snow storms in both Wyoming and Colorado. The 9 hour drive turned into about 12 hours with the road conditions. We pulled into a Walmart in Colorado and bought our 1 day small game licenses. Thanks to a dear friend of ours pointing us in a general direction on some public land we pulled into our parking spot about 10 am.
With little sleep and snow on the ground we geared up a few of the dogs and headed in the direction we hoped would have quail. Within a few minutes Lee’s English Pointer Belle pointed a small covey of Scaled (Blue) quail. Nick’s French Brittany Ranger got involved with this same covey and it wasn’t too long before we all had bagged some Scalies. I was able to take a Scaled quail over both Harley and Jazz, 2 of my 3 Britts) on that same walk.
We got back to our vehicle, ate some quick lunch, switched out dogs, and went on a walk in a different direction from where we started the morning, leaving the vehicle in the same place. The snow and the conditions were working in our favor. Not only were we able to track the birds effectively, the snow had them holding nicely. My brothers old but effective American Brittany, Annie, had a fine afternoon putting us into multiple coveys of scaled quail. All the dogs and all 3 gunners were having a fine afternoon. A few hours later we start taking count and all three of us had our Colorado limits of Scaled quail. The trip was starting off like a well-executed game plan. As we departed for Kansas, we watched a couple coveys flying in to group up for the evening and stay warm.
Day 3&4: In respect for the Lord’s day we didn’t hunt on Sunday, and believe me we needed a day of rest. So, we took our time driving into Southwestern Kansas. Monday January 11th, we took to chasing dry river bottoms and edges of old fields for Bobwhite quail. Lee had never taken Bobwhite and my brother Nick had shot one in Nebraska a few years ago. I had hunted in Kansas January 2015 and had the good fortune of getting into a good number of coveys, so we stomped around many of those same places I had hunted the previous year.
The first covey of the day was found by my Brittany Milly, though we didn’t take a bird from that covey, it was on. We started finding around 2 coveys an hour, the dog work and wing shooting was incredible. We had a fantastic day and a half pursuing Bobwhite quail. My personal highlight was on our 2ndday of Bobwhite quail hunting when my oldest Brittany Harley locked down a covey of Bobwhites and I tripled on Bobwhite, both Harley and Milly retrieved all 3 birds to me.
We learned a lot about “Gentleman” Bob and how he isn’t always a gentleman, how he will run, and he doesn’t always cooperate and hold, but when they do it’s a real treat. The habitat was different from when I hunted them in in Missouri and Illinois when I lived in that area for a short stint. In Illinois and eastern Missouri it was much thicker grassy patches near corn fields and rows of trees. Often food plots were our source of finding quail there. It also seemed that the Bobwhite were a little larger in body sized there then in the desertlike conditions of southwestern Kansas.
In Kansas, we often found Bobwhites near nasty prickly pear cactus patches, very difficult for dog and man to navigate. In fact, booting the dogs up for Bobwhite was a must. It was interesting to see the white on the faces of the Male Bobwhites stained purple from the prickly pear fruit they were gorging on. In addition to quail, we had 3 occasions in this same habitat where the dogs pointed and we kicked out wild Turkeys. We called an end to day 4 a little early to begin our 2nd drive through the night and hunt that same day experience.
Day 5&6: Mission to Mearns, after hunting Bobwhite on Tuesday in Kansas, we started our trek through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and eventually making it to Southern Arizona at about 3 in the morning. Before getting some rest we picked up our Arizona day licenses (3 days worth), got a couple hours of sleep and started hunting the steep grassy slopes in pursuit of Mearns Quail, aka, Harlequin or Montezuma quail.
This particular species has been hovering atop my (our)bucket list for many years, and to be quite honest was the primary goal of the trip. I had heard that the habitat was like Chukar hunting, which was somewhat true, the elevation wasn’t nearly the same as where we hunt Chukar in Idaho. Like Chukar habitat in Idaho, it was steep, rocky and grassy slopes. The first point of the day was by Lee’s English pointer Belleand backed by Milly. Both Lee and I took a beautiful male Mearns. Once again, the game plan was coming into perfect fruition. It wasn’t long after that we all had taken birds.
I have never seen a bird hold so tight, they explode at your feet and dive through trees and brush leaving a short window for good wing shooting. It may be the only wing shooting that I can compare to ruff grouse shooting, when you have such a brief moment or there isn’t a shot. We spent 2 days pursuing these birds, dogs were phenomenal and we shot okay. My brother managed to pull off a double on two male Mearns pointed by Annie.
Day 7: A little Gambling- well with 4 species now found, an acquaintance of mine gave us some directions for Gamble’s quail and off we went. Changing terrain drastically and hunting the desert where gambles hang out is nothing like Mearns country, in fact one time it was rather entertaining watching my old girl Harley trying to catch a road runner. Once again, it didn’t take too long for the dogs to get us into birds. I’m not saying we didn’t have to work for these birds, because we did.Like the other 4 species, all the dogs and all the gunners were able to participate in our 5th species of quail.
We found these quail eager to run, like I said earlier, we had to work. We had found some smaller covies and a few singles on our first sweep for birds. The next round was much more productive, where we ran into two large coveys that, once separated, we were able to get several good points and good bird cooperation. I will never forget when Jazz locked up on a steep edge in a thick patch of brush. I moved in expecting a single or double rise, when to my surprise a large covey of 15-20 quail erupted. I went O for 2 on that flush.
So, we did it! Our dream hunt for 5 species of quail was accomplished, all of which were taken on public land. We didn’t have any private secret spots. We did however have some help from some great friends and acquaintances that pointed us in the right direction that I must say thank you to (you know who you are).
Day 8: We began our long journey home. Most of the trip home we were talking of stories and experiences we will be telling for the rest of our lives. The entire quest went better than planned. The only glitch was pulling into my driveway and entering the garage with the cooler still strapped to the top of the car, leaving a small ding in the house. I guess the quest couldn’t be perfect…but that mark will serve as a reminder of this “epic” quail hunt each time I see it.
