Season's coming to an end

[Kilimanjaro]

Well, tomorrow is the last day of getting to chase those beloved little birds around for another season. It has been a pretty good upland season for me and the pups. We started out the season with a Blue Grouse hunt up on the Utah/AZ line with Casey and Doug. Then hunted in Whitewing heaven on the Rio Grande back home in TX. Then had a blast out here all season in AZ chasing Gambels, Blues and Mearns. Then had our trip out to California to try and get the last 2 species of quail I needed for all six and also wild Chukar hunting for the first time. All in all, a great season in the uplands.

( the big game was pretty good this season too ... a Booner speed goat and my first coues buck!!!)

 

Doug, hope you and Rica tore them Gambels up in Sedona. We'll have to make plans for more days next season..

 

Cristian, sorry we couldn't make any dates work. I hope you and your Dad had as good a season as we did. We'll definately make plans to chase birds together this fall..

 

Casey, glad you finally made it out here to chase a few coveys of Mearns with me. We'd been talking about it for the last couple of years. hope you had as much fun as we did.

 

Well, we are going to head out in the morn and give it one last go... I'll let ya know how we do. I'll have the camera ready!!!

[Red Rabbit]

Go get um today for a last hoorah.

Rica and I got 9 Gambels Saturday in a 3 hour morning hunt. She did the best job sniffing, pointing and retrieving she's done all season . Went back Sunday morning and only one quail flew into the shot pattern. Some days ya just put holes in the air .

 

RR

[azcouesandelk]

Well my season was good until my last day. All together was able to bag 120 gambells this year along with only 2 mearns which I will hopefully up next year.

 

The reason my last day was no good. I got out and got onto a covey right away and decided it was a good idea to start chasing the quail and trip in a gopher and roll down the rest of the hill. Ended up spraining my ankle and had to hike back up the hill to the truck.

 

But I still managed to get that 1 bird

[Kilimanjaro]

And here is the final result of the last day... It was warm, DRY, and windy.

 

The birds were there but from the looks of it, they had been hunted hard over the weekend and they had been scattered. We found 4 coveys that had good numbers of birds in them, but also found quite a few singles that were all alone. Considering the circumstances, the dogs did pretty good. When they got enough scent, they would find them and pin them down. And the birds cooperated great today. They held like they had glue on their feet! Which worked good for the picture taking. All in all, not a bad way to end the season.

 

Here is Virgil with the lead point on the first bird of the day. It was a pair that was not with the rest of a covey. Penny and Willow backed him up nicely..

 

Another point on a single from a scattered covey...

 

Me and the mutts with a trio of males that fell to the trusty 'ol .410...

 

Just a pic that I liked of a little rooster and the Elsie...

 

And here's the final thought of the season from Virgil.. " Here's what I think of no rain since Sept. with no end in sight!!"

 

Thanks guys for putting up with all my bird ramblings throughout the season!!

[azcouesandelk]

dude scottyboy I loved the rambling. By the way beautiful gun

[Red Rabbit]

Younghunter, sounds like you had a good season judging from your bird count. I also ended up with only 2 mearns this season on in 3 days of hiking behind a dog. Like you said, next season.

 

Scott, your young dogs are working out great. I agree with Virgil's's sentiment on the rain. Flag has a whopping season snowfall of 1.6" so far. Saw in the paper that the Coconino forest had 12 wildfires in January.

 

RR

[Kilimanjaro]

I agree. Sounds like you had a pretty good season! How did your dogs do on them desert birds? I only hunted Gambels about 4 times this season.Scalies as well. My pups do alright on them, but I hate running them thru all that damned cholla and prickly pear. But, when we did hunt them, there were plenty of them in there.