Delbert and Reba's first Quail hunt together

[jackshoe]

Got to get out with three of my best friends today for a day of quail hunting-Delbert, my Vizsla-Reba my GSP pup-and TJhunt2-not exactlly sure what bred he is. TJ and I have spent a lot of time in camp together over the years in pursuit of all kinds of feathered and furred critters. Today was the first hunt for Delbert and Reba together. Delbert is my five year old Vizsla whom I've had since he was a puppy-he was my first pointing bird dog-and Reba is my 17 month old GSP-this is her first hunting season, and today was the first time I have got to hunt them together. We all got an early start this morning and arrived at the area we wanted to hunt before it was light enough to see. TJ and I sat in the jeep drinking coffee and listening to the dogs whine in protest of why they had to wait to go hunting. It's fun to watch the dogs at home when you're getting the bird hunting stuff out the night before a hunt-like little kids on Christmas eve. TJ's lab puppy Lexie was really excited when I got to TJ's house to pick him up this morning and she was sure it was a mistake when we didn't take her with us-Tom's wife Peg said she had to get out of bed and let Lexie outside so she could see that we had actually left her before she would quit whining and go back to sleep. Great thing about dogs-they don't hold a grudge-Lexie was glad to see us when we got home from our days hunt.

We parked the jeep by a cattle water trough and started hiking up a canyon when daylight came. Delbert and Reba did their usual 30 minute run as fast as you can in all directions warm up. TJ and I walked up the canyon a half mile or so and we hadn't seen or heard any birds so decided we should turn our search uphill and climbed out of the canyon and took off up a promising looking ridge. When we were about halfway up to the top of the ridge, we saw a couple of quail fly near the top of the ridge. It looked like they landed on the top of the ridge. We hiked on up and the dogs started acting pretty birdy as we neared the top. One bird wild flushed out in front of TJ and was out of range before he could get a shot off. A little farther on I saw reba acting birdy and got a point that lasted about a half second before a Gambels quail came whirring out of a bush in front of me- a lucky shot and a nice retrieve by Delbert and we had our first quail of the day in the bag. We hunted back down hill for aways and I shot another bird that Delbert put up out in front of me-we followed the ridge line down aways and I saw the covey fly from the ridge we were on across a canyon and land on the other side. We were nearly to the bottom of the canyon fixing to cross over when a stragler flew up in front of TJ- I didn't know you could knock that many feathers off a quail with one shot-seemed like they floated in the air for ten minutes. I marked where the bird fell on the other side of the canyon-he sure as heck was dead-full choke 20 guage at about 10 yards will do the trick. TJ went across the canyon and I directed him to where the bird fell. He found it and called Reba over to let her find it-she did and picked it up-problem was she figured it was her's and she didn't want to give it to TJ. After some sweet talking TJ had the bird in his bag. We followed the covey back to the top of the ridge and back to the bottom. Got a couple more points from the dogs but no more shooting-the birds would get up and fly so close to the ground that we were afraid to shoot because they were to close to our dogs. We hunted back to the jeep and took a break. Rested a little watered the dogs and made another pretty good round but didn't find anymore birds-Delbert did find a black cow and made a really pretty point on her-he always points cows-go figure. By the time we hunted back to the jeep again I was tired, Delbert and Reba were tired and so was TJ. We all figured it was time to call it a day. Not many birds today but got to see some pretty good dog work from my two mutts, see some new country and spend some time with friends-all and all a really good day.

[tjhunt2]

Good looking picture there Ted. That was a good day and we sure got our exercise for the day. Your dogs worked really good that day, for not hunting together, for the first time. If anyone hasn't hunted behind a good dog you need to take it upon yourself to do so. It is a thing of beauty. Thanks for asking me to tag along on this day and you're right about nothing better than hunting with friends. Lexie stood by my side the whole time I cleaned them birds when l got home and completely forgot we left her home.

 

TJ

[Chef]

Great pic.

Glad you all had a good time out there chasin' birds.

[mbiewer]

Where did you go for quail? we took my friends son out for his first hunt two weeks ago and came into the same "low flying" quail. We seen them once then once they took flight they were only a foot or so off the ground.

 

thanks for sharing the picture and the story. Cant wait to get my own bird dog