New Mexico Quail

[brademan76]

Made a quick, long trek to hunt quail over the weekend with a couple friends who live in Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences.

 

Saturday we hunted around TorC and tried to buck the rain and wind for an hour in the morning until we decided warm breakfast and drying out until the precip passed would be a better idea. Got back out around noon and hunted until 3:30. We took 27 birds home, probably lost 6 or so,

 

Sunday, we hunted around Cruces and stayed dry all day, but the wind was nasty and made for some tough shooting. We finally settled in and shot our three limits, but couldn't recover 14 of them. We all agreed we are going to start shooting straight #7 or even #6 shot on these scalies, because they are tough as crap and don't like to give up once wounded either flying off with a dropped leg or disappearing on the ground. I shot a bunch of my birds a second time as they were going down if I thought they were going to hit the ground running.

 

My dog definitely helped in finding a few downed birds, and even had a couple of points for us. But, I was an idiot and didn't put his boots on in Cruces thinking he could maneuver around the prickly pear... but it eventually got so thick that it was impossible to avoid and it'll take me many nights of plucking to get all the spines out... his paws are so swollen today.

 

Didn't take a lot of pics, chasing these birds is just too chaotic!

[yotebuster]

Awesome! I was on mcgregor range this weekend and we saw tons of scalies! Try going the other direction with your shot and you'll wound fewer. The only way to kill them dead is a nerve shot, either head spine or neck. The more pellets you get in the air the more chances you have. A 7.5 or 8 will penetrate their head to 50 yds. Stepping up in shot will only make for fewer chances for a clean kill. I shoot 7's at rooster oheasants here in ND all year. I use 9's for doves and partridge unless it's really windy.

[brademan76]

Awesome! I was on mcgregor range this weekend and we saw tons of scalies! Try going the other direction with your shot and you'll wound fewer. The only way to kill them dead is a nerve shot, either head spine or neck. The more pellets you get in the air the more chances you have. A 7.5 or 8 will penetrate their head to 50 yds. Stepping up in shot will only make for fewer chances for a clean kill. I shoot 7's at rooster oheasants here in ND all year. I use 9's for doves and partridge unless it's really windy.

 

I grew up in NE, hunting pheasants and bobwhites my whole life. These scalies are 10x tougher than bobs.

I was shooting 12ga 1&1/8oz #8s at them with a mod choke, hitting them with plenty of the pattern, the tiny pellets don't carry enough energy. I'll try #6s the next time.

What were you doing on McGregor? Did you have an oryx hunt?

[jonesface]

Nice job on the Scalies! Thanks for sharing.

[223VARMINTER]

That's awesome. Congrats.

[PRDATR]

I haven't hunted scaled quail in almost 30 years but really enjoyed it because it seems like they flew in a straight consistent pattern. I always use #6 though for quail.

[yotebuster]

 

 

Awesome! I was on mcgregor range this weekend and we saw tons of scalies! Try going the other direction with your shot and you'll wound fewer. The only way to kill them dead is a nerve shot, either head spine or neck. The more pellets you get in the air the more chances you have. A 7.5 or 8 will penetrate their head to 50 yds. Stepping up in shot will only make for fewer chances for a clean kill. I shoot 7's at rooster oheasants here in ND all year. I use 9's for doves and partridge unless it's really windy.

I grew up in NE, hunting pheasants and bobwhites my whole life. These scalies are 10x tougher than bobs.

I was shooting 12ga 1&1/8oz #8s at them with a mod choke, hitting them with plenty of the pattern, the tiny pellets don't carry enough energy. I'll try #6s the next time.

What were you doing on McGregor? Did you have an oryx hunt?

 

My mom had an oryx tag. Killed a nice cow! Congrats again on all the quail, looks like you piled em up!

[brademan76]

My mom had an oryx tag. Killed a nice cow! Congrats again on all the quail, looks like you piled em up!

 

 

Good for her! That is not an easy place to hunt. Any word on how many were harvested vs. how many hunters? It's usually 50 at a time, right?

[Arizona Griz]

Nice job one the blues. Saw a lot of them this past September in the hills west of Artesia. Banner year for sure.

[Tres]

Nice job! I love hunting NM for scalies

Was planning on chasing them in Cruces while I'm there for Christmas but decided to leave the dog home instead. May try and hunt with no dog. We will see

[Red Rabbit]

Looks like a nice hunt and warm breakfast was had.

[Edge]

Good bird country, great job.