gettinbirdie
Active member
Yesterday was the last day of our quail season. I had a busy day Saturday , I could only go Sunday/the last day of the season. It's a 5 hour ride to the ranch. I couldn't get anyone to tag along for just a day....what we'll do to get on birds. 
I have a kid at work in his early 20's that bought my little 28 ga . He checked in with me all through season to see my pictures and of course I always ask if he went out. He went out pretty much every week , sometimes driving a fair distance and never really amounted to much. I was impressed with his desire to bird hunt, he was very persistent to get out every week just never killed anything. He doesn't have dogs and has never hunted quail with dogs soooo I ask him if he wants to go-of course he is all over it!!
We got to the ranch Saturday at midnight. I got up early and made breakfast and coffee and we are off ! In the field at 8 am as planned, wind was still not moving but we go ahead and let Lilly out. She pins down the first covey after flash pointing it as they ran for about 50 yards. I give the kid/Jacob the honors of shooting by himself while I coach him into position for the rise(he has never done this) . He connects with one bird that I could see a leg hanging as it flys away-I l shoutl "lets go!" and Lilly takes off after it , it flys about 150 yrds and falls. She finds it and brings it back. The whole time I'm reflecting on when I was Jacobs age and I just got my own first bird dog. Lilly went on to put us on 6 coveys by 1030. We fill a feeder for hog hunting-hopefully we can get one as the kid is really wanting one/some meat.
Jacob with his morning kill:
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We eat lunch and take a nap. I let him know to be ready at 4pm to head back out. At last I'm going to get to finally shoot!! I let Jacob have honors this morning...We get out it s 74 degrees! ugh. We get on new ground, Lilly gets on the first covey in about 3 minutes! I managed a double and Jacob kills one. It might have been warm out but Lilly was on fire!! She puts us on 4 coveys in 10-15 minutes!!:cheers: I'm sweating butt off trying to keep up, we got singles everywhere-I let Jacob shoot at those on his own. We managed to get on 6 coveys that evening. We were walking back to the truck, the sun is starting to set and I'm giving Jacob my speech about what a great day we were blessed to share-connecting with a great hunt and good dog work.. ... we were 50 yards from the truck and Lilly slams into a point while on a fast run. As we walk into the setting sun with the dog froze up, A single cock gets up and swings onto my side. After he passes the truck I send a single load his way and manage to connect out at 45 yards. As the Lilly brings the bird to me I drop to one knee and thank the man upstairs for giving me this day.
I managed to finish out with 9 birds on my evening shoot(me and my brother have self imposed limits of 5 or 10 per trip) .
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I did manage to go check on the feeder on our way out, there was still light as we walked into a black 100 pound sow oblivious to Jacob with 40 cal pointed at her at 30 yards. I was impressed with his pistol skills. He ended up taking her home too!! What a way to end Lilly's first full season! I don't think the kid is going to forget this hunt!
I have a kid at work in his early 20's that bought my little 28 ga . He checked in with me all through season to see my pictures and of course I always ask if he went out. He went out pretty much every week , sometimes driving a fair distance and never really amounted to much. I was impressed with his desire to bird hunt, he was very persistent to get out every week just never killed anything. He doesn't have dogs and has never hunted quail with dogs soooo I ask him if he wants to go-of course he is all over it!!
We got to the ranch Saturday at midnight. I got up early and made breakfast and coffee and we are off ! In the field at 8 am as planned, wind was still not moving but we go ahead and let Lilly out. She pins down the first covey after flash pointing it as they ran for about 50 yards. I give the kid/Jacob the honors of shooting by himself while I coach him into position for the rise(he has never done this) . He connects with one bird that I could see a leg hanging as it flys away-I l shoutl "lets go!" and Lilly takes off after it , it flys about 150 yrds and falls. She finds it and brings it back. The whole time I'm reflecting on when I was Jacobs age and I just got my own first bird dog. Lilly went on to put us on 6 coveys by 1030. We fill a feeder for hog hunting-hopefully we can get one as the kid is really wanting one/some meat.
Jacob with his morning kill:
We eat lunch and take a nap. I let him know to be ready at 4pm to head back out. At last I'm going to get to finally shoot!! I let Jacob have honors this morning...We get out it s 74 degrees! ugh. We get on new ground, Lilly gets on the first covey in about 3 minutes! I managed a double and Jacob kills one. It might have been warm out but Lilly was on fire!! She puts us on 4 coveys in 10-15 minutes!!:cheers: I'm sweating butt off trying to keep up, we got singles everywhere-I let Jacob shoot at those on his own. We managed to get on 6 coveys that evening. We were walking back to the truck, the sun is starting to set and I'm giving Jacob my speech about what a great day we were blessed to share-connecting with a great hunt and good dog work.. ... we were 50 yards from the truck and Lilly slams into a point while on a fast run. As we walk into the setting sun with the dog froze up, A single cock gets up and swings onto my side. After he passes the truck I send a single load his way and manage to connect out at 45 yards. As the Lilly brings the bird to me I drop to one knee and thank the man upstairs for giving me this day.
I managed to finish out with 9 birds on my evening shoot(me and my brother have self imposed limits of 5 or 10 per trip) .
I did manage to go check on the feeder on our way out, there was still light as we walked into a black 100 pound sow oblivious to Jacob with 40 cal pointed at her at 30 yards. I was impressed with his pistol skills.
He ended up taking her home too!! What a way to end Lilly's first full season! I don't think the kid is going to forget this hunt!
