This has been a winter to sit by the fire. Not that, that is what we want to do. Hunting seasons are never long enough and with some of the nights getting down to 12 below zero, it’s too cold in Missouri. The first couple of nights I put the dogs in their boxes in the truck and parked in the garage. When I woke up each morning about 6 am or earlier I would let the dogs out for a few minutes. As soon as they did their business they loaded right back up. Even Boss who hates to ride or hates the box would sometimes be the first to load up.
Epitaph enough for anyone.
Mann pointing a covey in Oklahoma.
Boss honoring.
I’m not sure that bringing the dogs in is necessary. They have good houses with lots of hay. On the real cold days I change their water buckets twice a day. I only feed once a day but I mix water with their kibble to make sure they get plenty of water. Bringing them in makes me feel better about them, so it’s worth it.
But after just a couple of days I knew it wasn’t good for me either so I loaded up and headed to Arizona. I, probably, should have been an over the road trucker. From my home in Missouri, the first day, I drove to Las Cruces New Mexico. A little over 900 miles. By noon the second day I had my license and was looking for a place to hunt.
I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. I didn’t have BLM maps and my Onx didn’t work right either. From being here 3 or 4 years ago I remembered a place where I had found 3 coveys of Gambles quail. There was a stock tank that kept the quail close and was a good place to get the dogs cooled off. When I got there 3 people were already hunting it. Well at least they were on it, eating lunch. A couple from Wisconsin, with a guy from Tombstone about 10 miles away. When I asked, they said, they had seen a few.
I drove down the road about a mile and back into another place where I had found a covey a few years ago. I turned the dogs out but the water hole here was dry and there were no tracks in the sand. We made a big circle down a dry wash and along a hillside and in about an hour we were back to the truck. It was good to get the dogs out but we needed to find a new area.
I drove into the mountains where there was a chance of working some Mearns quail. This area is a really neat area with scattered oak and cedar trees. Some type of tall grass covers the area. While I was close I did drive right along the barrier between Old Mexico and Arizona. It’s not much of a barrier. Just a barb wire fence and some iron bars running inside the fence.
From the mountains. The line is between Arizona and Mexico.
I turned the dogs out and we hunted into a strong south wind. There are deep draws every hundred yards or so if you are going east to west. Less draws if you go south but the dogs don’t mind the draws. Boss pointed and I had to cross one draw and then go a long way to the south. When I got close, the way the draw ran, he was back on the other side. When I got close he and the other dogs started trailing around. Evidently, the birds had run off. We never came up with anything.
We turned to the west then back to the north. At the head of one of the draws Mann pointed about 150 yards from me. I could see him on point, high on both ends, at about 75 yards. I got to about 50 yards of him, with him still looking good, and I heard a quail flush and saw another fly a short distance. It went down in a clump of brush. I got all of the dogs in to hunt the small clump. None of them even got birdy. I don’t know what happened to that bird.
I carried water with me for the dogs and it’s a good thing. There was no water to be had. We worked our way back around to the truck. I found a spot where I could tie the dogs and feed them before leaving. I loaded the dogs and went looking for a motel.
Sally honoring.
I was back out early the next morning. I had seen a lot of trucks with bird hunters the day before but this morning I never saw a one. I thought maybe, since yesterday was a Monday, a lot of guys had 3 day weekends. I turned the dogs loose in the mountains, again.
We hunted for a couple of hours with nothing happening. My altimeter showed that we were over a mile high and I knew I couldn’t hunt all day there. I decided to load dogs and see if we could find any birds back where I had seen the 3 people the day before. On the way out, on about 5 miles of main road, I saw 7 trucks with dog boxes. Most of the people park well off the main road, as I did both days. So this area is getting hit really hard.
I got back to the place near Tombstone and no one was hunting it. I checked to make sure there was water in the tank before we started, and there was. We started into a pretty good wind to the west. I came to a small dry, sandy creek bed and saw a lot of quail tracks in the sand. I got the dogs in but they must have been old tracks. The dogs didn’t act interested. We went on to the west and then I crossed a tough 6 strand barb wire fence. Just as I got to the other side my GPS showed Boss on point on the side I had just left. So back I went.
Abby honoring.
When I got close to him, Sally and Abby were honoring. Boss was looking straight down, almost, like the bird was right under his nose. When I got close he started moving. I think he was pointing a pack rat. I called him away and recrossed the fence. We circled back and I hit the dry wash in a different place and there were more quail tracks. In the sand a track will stay a long time and it’s hard to know how old they were.
I had given the dogs most of the water I was carrying and when we got close to the stock tank I called the dogs in to drink and I refilled my water bottles. Sally, Abby and Boss just got a drink from the tank but Mann jumped in and drank as he swam around. He is smarter than the others.
Every where I had hunted in Arizona showed signs of a lot of hunters. Everywhere I went there were either lots of trucks or lots of tracks as I walked through the fields. I know there are a lot of quail in Arizona but they have had a lot of pressure. Of the people I had talked to, no one was doing very well. I decided to go back to Oklahoma and give it a try.
When I left home it was 8 below zero and I was heading into a strong head wind. My gas mileage really suffered for a while then came back up some but on the way to Oklahoma I had a really strong tail wind that really had the gas mileage soaring. I drove from Sierra Vista Arizona to Elk City Oklahoma.
Boss pointing a single.
I was raised in Oklahoma but I didn’t start hunting western Oklahoma until 2005. The bird numbers have been down so I haven’t hunted Oklahoma in a few years but I remember some of the places. Oklahoma wasn’t in my plans when I left home so I didn’t have my normal array of maps.
I had bought my license before I went to the motel the night before. I drove around the first place I hunted without seeing any hunters or even any trucks with dog boxes. I turned the dogs out and started to the north into a strong wind. We hadn’t gone far when all of the dogs got really excited. I think a covey of quail flushed but I neither saw nor heard any.
About a half mile farther in, I saw Boss and Sally, 75 yards from me acting really birdy. I started to them, then saw a small covey of quail running from Sally and Boss toward me. About the time I saw them, they flushed. Only 6 birds so I didn’t shoot. I don’t know if this was all that was left of this covey or only part of it ran toward me. They flew over a rise where I couldn’t see where they went down.
We went on to the north edge of this property, turned east for about a quarter mile and started back south. I had parked near a frozen stock tank and when we got close, again the dogs acted as though a covey of quail flushed. Boss went 500 yards to the east and all of the dogs were checking everything out.
Mann on point.
I had used most of the water I carried with me so I found a 3 pound hammer in my truck and broke the ice in the stock tank. I refilled my water bottles and filled a pan for the dogs. We walked down the fence line about a mile south then moved over and hunted back toward the truck. We got into some big areas of prickly pear. I think the last few dry years have really allowed the prickly pear to flourish.
We got to the truck and I watered the dogs again. All except Mann. I checked the GPS and he was on point about 150 yards away. As I started to him the other dogs came along. By the time I got close Abby and Sally were honoring. I took some pictures then walked in front of Mann. A small covey flushed. Only 5 birds. Again, I didn’t shoot. This could have been part of some of the other quail that we had moved but this late in the year I don’t want to be the one that kills too many out of a covey. I would rather have birds to work our dogs on than a bird in my hand.
The dogs were hot and with all of the prickly pear maybe sore footed. I decided to drive to where I wanted to hunt the next day, about 30 miles, and look it over and rest the dogs for a while.
Bodie pointing a chukar.
As I turned the corner near where I was going to park the truck in the morning I saw 2 quail in the road. They were crossing off the property I wanted to hunt to a harvested corn field, on private ground. I tried to flush them to see how many birds were in the covey. I only saw 3 and a little while later another. But it would make a good starting place for the next day.
As I drove around I saw places where I had found quail in the past. I decided a short hunt in one of the places wouldn’t be a bad thing. A lot of years ago I had hunted this spot and only needed 2 birds for a limit. One of my dogs pointed and when the covey got up I killed one with the first shot and at my second shot 2 birds went to the ground. I thought, “now I’m over my limit”. I got the first bird and went to where the two had dropped and a quail flew off. I found my last bird and was relieved that I didn’t kill too many. I think the second quail thought the one I shot had just lit there so he did too.
I found a good way into this property and turned the dogs loose. About 50 yards in I looked and 3 of the dogs were about 5 yards behind me and one about that much in front. I thought the prickly pear had really worked on them. We went to the truck. Abby jumped onto the truck and when I petted her before letting her into the box my hand almost stuck to her. She was covered in sand burrs. I got my needle nose pliars and went to work on all four dogs. That was the reason they weren’t hunting. We went back to the motel.
Boss pointing a single.
The next morning when I got up it was 16 degrees and the wind was from the north at 25 miles an hour gusting to 40. Not going to hunt and not going to hang around a motel. I headed home. With the 25 mph wind and gusts of 40 head wind, my gas mileage, that I had built up with the strong tail wind, plummeted. Oh, well. I had missed a lot of the super cold weather that had settled on Missouri and most of the United States and I got to spend 6 days with my dogs.
I had to recycle some pictures. My server was busy. Whatever that means.