What are you doing here??

Quailnerd

Quailnerd

Well-known member
I took a day trip to nm this weekend to chase some blue quail. As I set up into the wind working through a pasture of cactus and plum thickets the dogs caught up with two coveys a blues that that flew in ever direction but up. We picked up some singles along the way having a great day.. after taking a water break I got ready to pick a new direction and noticed my older dog had wondered off to start his hunt. Walked around a plum Mott and saw him on point, moved in and to my surprise two roosters fly out . Mind you I was over 10 miles from any agriculture or cultivation of any kind in a bone dry dessert. What they were doing there I will never know!
 
I was going to ask you if you were in deep southwestern Kansas but that looks further south… good times needless to say
 
Little further south, this is New Mexico, which oddly does have a 4 day pheasant season in December according to google.
 
NM used to have a very short season in a very limited area. I believe it was limited to residents only by drawing. I can find no reference to pheasants in the 2021-22 hunting regs though, so maybe huntable populations no longer exist. As far as finding pheasants in the area you were hunting, we are in the mountains of Colorado and occasionally someone will acquire pen-raised birds to "hunt". There are rules on how many, how long you have to "hunt" them, where they can be released, etc. but the outcome often is a few pheasants (or chukar or quail) running loose in an area the normally don't inhabit. That most often ends with their demise by predators. The word of caution though, is that once released and out of the owner's control, they become the property of the State, subject to the applicable hunting laws and regulations. Your pheasants may have been introduced by a "hunter" wanting to train dogs or just to "hunt" pheasants. I have no idea what the NM regulations are on that.
 
I’m not sure what all the rules are for hunting pen raised birds, tried it once on a reserve and left the property after seeing a few birds fly. As for these two roosters they were as wild as they come. You just have to take my word on how far these guys were to any homestead or farm, much less game bird farm. It was purely a moment of enjoying nature, shouldering my gun never crossed my mind.
 
what a nice bag, good looking dog, and effective hunting
 
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