Ten years ago I went to Arizona to hunt the desert quail. I had called an Arizona biologist and he was really helpful. He not only told me where to hunt he even told me where to park my truck. After about 3 hours of pulling cholla cactus from my dogs and seeing the blood run from the places, I loaded dogs and headed to Kansas. But after reading a lot more about Arizona I knew there had to be better places. So I decided to try again.
This is the fence between Mexico and Arizona now where I was.
The line is the border fence.
Another picture from the mountains.
I drove from home to Deming New Mexico the first day. This put me within a few hours of Douglas Arizona where I got my license. You can buy a license for $20 a day for however many days you want to hunt or the yearly license is $160, I think. I got 3 days worth thinking if I wanted to stay longer I could always come back and buy more days.
Over the years I have saved information on states that have good quail hunting. Several years ago I met a man in South Dakota that was retired Air Force and lived in Arizona. He gave me some areas to try and I had marked them on an Arizona DeLorme Atlas And Gazetteer. When I read of other places I would mark them.
Then before I went I called the BLM office to get some more maps. The lady I talked to sent me an app called Avenza Maps. It is the best thing I did for this trip. Not only did it tell me the boundaries of the state and BLM land it showed, with a dot, exactly where I was on my cell phone. Some of the areas, the private land, is not marked very well and most of the private land owners don’t want you on their land.
I was in the mountains looking for a certain canyon, that was marked by name on the Atlas, but not on the Avenza maps. The road I was on was a narrow switch back mountain lane. I met a Border Patrol truck coming down the mountain as I went up. I stopped and rolled my window down and he stopped. I asked if I had passed the canyon I was looking for and we got to talking.
He was a quail hunter and he told me where to hunt the desert quail and that I still had a ways to go, to find the canyon I was looking for. He said the Mearns quail were way down and he wasn’t hunting them this year. I told him I wouldn’t shoot any but would run my dogs, only carrying a camera.
I missed the road to the canyon I was looking for but went to the fence with Mexico in another. Most of these areas are perfect for Mearns quail. He had told me to drive to the west along the fence and I did for several miles. Mexico across the fence looks exactly like Arizona on this side.
The area where I hunted Mearns quail. If you click on this picture you can see Sally on point with Mann backing.
I drove until I saw an area that looked like what I thought a Mearns quail area should look like. There was tall grass, straw colored, growing with scattered trees along the draws. The dogs had been in the box for many hours with just short stops to air out. I turned all 5 out. I have 5 GPS collars but only 3 e-collars. Most of the time I only use the e-collars for the tone signal anyway. Abby has been lost from me a couple of times so she checks in often. I didn’t put an e-collar on her or Luke. Luke goes where Luke wants, regardless.
By the time I found an area to hunt the temperature was in the low sixties with a south wind. I knew the dogs wouldn’t last long but they needed to be out. I had parked on the north end of a draw that was running toward the border.
Everything was really dry which you expect in the desert. The dogs were spread out and happily running into the wind. We only went about 3/4 of a mile before turning back toward the truck. It was too warm for the dogs. I had a couple of points but they were unproductive but just a few yards from where Sally had pointed, a single quail flushed behind me putting a tree between me and it, quickly. I couldn’t see what kind of quail it was.
A picture of the desert area.
When we got close to the truck the dogs were all ready for the water bucket to be brought out. I had a couple of bottles of water with me but they had used it, quickly. I loaded the dogs and we drove the mountain trails until time to feed dogs and quit for the day.
I wish I would have gotten the name of the Border Patrol Officer that gave me the information. The area he sent me to was a lot friendlier to the dogs than the area I had tried ten years ago. The ground was really rocky but there was very little cactus and the cholla cactus, I saw, was small.
I pulled into a place on state owned land. There was a cattle lot, empty, with some water tanks. I got out of the truck and walked toward the tanks to see if they held water. A large covey of scaled quail flushed. They flew to the west along a dry wash.
I think this is cholla cactus.
It takes a while to put e-collars and GPS collars on 4 dogs and even longer when your hands are shaking with anticipation. I wasn’t the first to chase these little speedsters down this wash. There were human foot prints almost every where I went. I saw a couple of quail flush out ahead of the dogs but not many for the size of the covey. We went about a half mile to the west then we crossed the dry wash to the north and back to the truck. We sat around the water tank for a few minutes to cool the dogs then went toward the east.
We had gone quite away to the east and I decided to go back to the truck and try another place. I called the dogs then checked the GPS. It showed Mann on point 196 yards farther to the east. The other 3 dogs had come in when I called so we started to Mann.
Abby and Boss backed Mann before I could see him. He was down in the dry wash pointing into some trees and brush. Sally was off to my left and as we got close a single quail flew right over her back. She wheeled to watch it. Another bird flushed right in front of me trying to get over some brush. I could tell when I shot that it was pretty well centered. Sally retrieved it to me.
Sally on point.
I had heard other birds flushing but didn’t even know which direction. I thought they were on the south side of the dry wash so we went that away. I had one dog off to my right as we went down the creek and two quail flew right over the top of me. I didn’t see them until they were out of range. They flew the way we were going.
We continued on down the dry wash to the west of the truck with out finding any others. We went back to the truck and I watered the dogs before loading them. We went to the ranch to the east of this place. It was 62 degrees according to the thermometer on the truck so I was just going to try to find another water hole for the next day.
On the next ranch I drove down a two track for a long way. On the Avenza map it looked like I could drive out another gate onto a road on the south east. When I drove 3 or 4 miles the two track came to a water hole but it was surrounded by a bunch of cows. There was no gate to the road so I had to drive all the way back where I had started.
Just before I got to the gate I saw a scaled quail run across the road. I slammed on the brakes. Then the rest of the covey followed. About 15 or more birds. This area was grazed down to where there was no grass or weeds. I watched them until they had run to some trees and brush along the dry creek.
I didn’t even take time to put the e-collars on Boss and Abby, I just turned them loose. I had my gun but I really just wanted these two to get a nose full of scent. Abby saw one and started toward it. Then 3 or 4 flushed in front of her, flying back across the road. Then Boss got some scent and both pups were really busy. It was hot but they weren’t having any trouble with that.
My one male Gambles quail.
Most of these quail flew across a busy road so I didn’t even try to follow. I took both pups down the dry creek and we didn’t move any quail but they were both really hunting. When we circled back to the truck I loaded them after watering them. It was too hot for my dogs so I just drove looking for a place for the next day.
I wish I had of found this area ten years ago when I was out here. It’s rocky but my dogs feet are tough so that didn’t bother them. This area isn’t any tougher on dogs than some areas of Kansas and Oklahoma. The days start really cool and after seeing two coveys of scaled and a covey of Gambles I can hardly wait for the morning.