Year of the Mearns is over

[IHunt2live]

Went out with my dad for our last mearns trip. Lets hope next year will be as good, with fewer hunters .

 

First off I have to mention the trip we had last weekend with my buddy, and his dad and brothers, from Utah. They come down almost every year and this year we spent 2 days hunting mearns and one day out east looking for gambles and scallies. We had a great time, no one was shot this year, so the trip was a success:). We got into plenty of mearns despite finding some of our best spots all shot up by other hunters. We did however find 4 large, hay bail size, packs of pot. We marked it on a GPS quickly and got the heck out of there. While meeting back at the trucks we had an illegal walk right up to us with nothing but the clothes on his back and seemed a little out of it. My buddy spoke Spanish and told him to take off which he did and we suspect that he had just dropped off some of the stash of drugs and was looking for a free ride. Found a BP truck later that day and told them were to find it.

 

Today my dad and I went to an area close to were we have hunted before and found quit a few birds right off the bat. Trick is to find those areas that hunters have yet hit this year. This area was THICK with deer sign and I would love to hunt in there for coues but the brush was pretty thick to which would make glassing nearly impossible. Found a couple of sheds in there to. I added the best one bellow. Scored it at about 43 inches with the broken points and all.

 

Over all it was a GREAT year for mearns. Got a little more difficult towards the end of the season but still lots of birds out there. I learned a ton about hunting these quail and found a lot of great hunting spots that I will be back to in the future. I still can’t get over how much my shorthair has come along this season. He still makes mistakes but overall he has turned into a GREAT huntin dog, except for the fact that he will pick a fight with any other male dog he sees.

 

My new rig that helped me get to all the mearns.

 

My two best huntin buddies doing what they do best, hard taking picks of them on point in the tall grass and rushing the pic to put the camera down and the gun up

 

Me and one of my huntin buddies haul for the day. I know I should have one with my dad but I forgot.

 

 

O, and the shed I found today. G2 was about 9.5 inches long and it looks like it might have had a kicker

 

 

 

[AZMEATHUNTER]

great story and pics!

wish i would have got down more ! man that dope thing is scary!! nice shed. i found my annual skull down there 2 weeks ago.(pic below)i find one every year down there and they don't look like lion kills? i.e. the noses are still in perfect shape.

 

was going to get out for gambles to end the year but its is snowing like crazy here so for now good thing i raise bobwhites..lol

azmeat...jim

 

[Matt Tanner]

Nice job, looks like you had a great hunt.

 

I think what the Game and fish meant by this is the best year for mearns ever. is the amount of money they generated off of 3 day small game hunting licenses . It was a great year there was a TON of people out there but all in all if you worked hard you got paid off by a covey of mearns jumping out of your toes. I saw almost two hundred covey rises this year each was just as thrilling as the first, Cant wait till November to start it all again.

 

 

[tjhunt2]

Thanks for sharing them great pictures and story. Wished I lived closer to get in on some of that mearns hunting. Sounds like a blast but hard work to find them little guys as well.

 

TJ

[CouesWhitetail]

Great pics, thanks for posting!

 

Hey, maybe you need to find some mearns spots that aren't down south with the dope dealers and many hunters. The San Carlos Reservation comes to mind as well as unit 27.

 

Amanda

 

[tjhunt2]

Amanda, I have heard there is some mearns on the San Carlos as well as the Whiteriver Indian Res as well. Jackshoe and I are going to look into that. Jackshoe has a friend who hunts both for bear and lion on both. We just need to get off our butts and follow up on it. Do you see many on the San Carlos?

 

TJ

[Billinsd]

Great story thanks for sharing. Did you guys notice much bigger crowds on the last couple weekends of the season? I'm wondering if lots of non residents come in late January and early Feb, because the hunting is closed in their home states?

 

Bill

[Red Rabbit]

Bill,

I would say that 80% of the plates that I saw over New Years and again in Feb were out-of-state. It was just as crowded in Feb as it was over New Years.

 

Doug~RR

[IHunt2live]

Great story thanks for sharing. Did you guys notice much bigger crowds on the last couple weekends of the season? I'm wondering if lots of non residents come in late January and early Feb, because the hunting is closed in their home states?

 

Bill

 

I agree with what RR said. They were hit hard all season and I say TONS of out of state plates, I personaly helped out some guys from Arkansas. I also had a budy come down from Utah who is a hard core bird hunter and he said he has hardly done much bird hunting up in utah because it was so poor. Not sure what the other western states were like but I think pheasants in the midwest was the only option for GREAT upland this past year.

[AZMEATHUNTER]

when we went down 1st week of febuary only saw 2 trucks out of state but man did we find the shells! i thought mearns hunters where a little different when it came to picking up spent hulls but i must have picked up 20 in 2 days!!! 20 gauge shooters argh!!! lol.

azmeat

[Billinsd]

Thanks, I only saw a few hunters on the second weekend of January. Where I hunted I did not really see more people than last year at the same time.

 

In California, the "bird" seasons ended on the 3rd week of Jan, so i figured a lot of guys would come over to AZ to extend their season?

 

Thanks

Bill