cockrocker
New member
we have had an excellent hatch this year on quail and hopefully pheasant fared well also. I have been seeing large coveys on just about every training session for buddy, my almost 2yr old springer. so today was our quail/chukar opening day. went to work this morning thinking I might have to try a hunt on sunday morning and see whats up. I pulled into the jobsite up near cooke canyon and a covey of over 60 quail are feeding all around the recently backfilled foundation I was to start framing on
. I watched them for awhile and then got out of the truck and walked toward them until they all eventually flushed and flew about 30 yrds to some cover and just resumed their normal activity.....my guess is they have never seen a hunter or been shot at. Well that pretty much screwed up my motivation to work so I dicked around a bit...found a couple lame excuses not to work and headed home to get the dog, vest, gun and head to quail utopia. Well quail utopia is an area I found last year that provided very consistent action from week one to closing day. It was sunny and pretty warm so I didn't plan on much hard hunting as we didn't really start until about 2pm. Well I got parked, geared up, dog good and watered and off we go. Buddy starts off working very well and doing just as we have been working on all offseason...quartering, heeling and such and about 10 minutes into the walk he got some scent...did his silver dollar sized eye look of where is that coming from....ran into the Russian olive grove and out flew about 20 buzz bombs right at me.........hell ya......deep fried quail flashed through my mind as I raised the 20, led the first of 3 flying straight at me thinking I can get them all with the first shot, hit the safety, pulled the trigger and nuttin honey!!! WTF checked and no shell in the chamber, so I pump to get one of the other two shells in for a shot and realize I never even put a shell into my gun. Now I have closed an empty chamber before but always had loaded the other 2 shells so a further shot was usually an option if presented, but not today...first time just going empty, I usually am constantly checking my safety and checking to see if I have a shell chambered also but not today. pretty much laughed it off, worked the dog another 10 minutes or so until it was obvious that the heat wouldn't be worth any early season damage, and the threat of a snake made me even question if we should be out until we get some cooler weather. All in all well worth it, saw a nice covey right where I left them last year and look forward to meeting some of them again very soon. dog is working great, birds are out there and I am looking forward for the season. I will post some pics of the first kills when we get out next. be safe
. I watched them for awhile and then got out of the truck and walked toward them until they all eventually flushed and flew about 30 yrds to some cover and just resumed their normal activity.....my guess is they have never seen a hunter or been shot at. Well that pretty much screwed up my motivation to work so I dicked around a bit...found a couple lame excuses not to work and headed home to get the dog, vest, gun and head to quail utopia. Well quail utopia is an area I found last year that provided very consistent action from week one to closing day. It was sunny and pretty warm so I didn't plan on much hard hunting as we didn't really start until about 2pm. Well I got parked, geared up, dog good and watered and off we go. Buddy starts off working very well and doing just as we have been working on all offseason...quartering, heeling and such and about 10 minutes into the walk he got some scent...did his silver dollar sized eye look of where is that coming from....ran into the Russian olive grove and out flew about 20 buzz bombs right at me.........hell ya......deep fried quail flashed through my mind as I raised the 20, led the first of 3 flying straight at me thinking I can get them all with the first shot, hit the safety, pulled the trigger and nuttin honey!!! WTF checked and no shell in the chamber, so I pump to get one of the other two shells in for a shot and realize I never even put a shell into my gun. Now I have closed an empty chamber before but always had loaded the other 2 shells so a further shot was usually an option if presented, but not today...first time just going empty, I usually am constantly checking my safety and checking to see if I have a shell chambered also but not today. pretty much laughed it off, worked the dog another 10 minutes or so until it was obvious that the heat wouldn't be worth any early season damage, and the threat of a snake made me even question if we should be out until we get some cooler weather. All in all well worth it, saw a nice covey right where I left them last year and look forward to meeting some of them again very soon. dog is working great, birds are out there and I am looking forward for the season. I will post some pics of the first kills when we get out next. be safe