First Mearns Hunt

[brademan76]

Thanks to azbirdhunter88 and his girlfriend Annie for taking me down south for my first experience in that beautiful country. It was awesome to see snow on the mountains and all that grass! We ended up seeing coyotes, a fox, coues and mulies, speed goats, and a javi during the trip.

 

Saturday we met up with a couple other forum members (Will and his dog Colt, Bruce and his son Liam) who were also 1st timers with the Montezuma quail. We put in a full day of hiking but only scratched out two birds pretty early in the morning. The crusty snow early in the morning opened up some healing wounds on my shorthairs feet at it really slowed him down during the weekend.

 

 

We ditched the original the idea of camping and grabbed rooms in Patagonia, which helped us recharge. I was also able to get ahold of a friend who guides for quail down there. He GENEROUSLY pointed us to one of his honey holes so the game plan for Sunday was set.

 

We got to the steep draw on Sunday and on the way down toward the bottom the dogs put up the first covey of birds. We ended up covering only a couple miles-mind you it was some brutal terrain, and by 10:30am we were on our way out with enough birds to be very happy. We could've easily scratched a limit, but that's not what its about. We had some unbelievable points on the hard-holding birds that ended with explosive in-your-face covey rises. Kenny's shorthair Maggie did a outstanding job, whereas even though my shorthair JJ got a couple points and retrieves, it didn't seem like he could smell the birds very well for some reason.

 

Hopefully will get to chase them once more before the season ends, and after my ankles stop screaming.

 

Simmered the breasts and thighs+legs in butter, garlic, lemon and seasonings with some morel mushrooms I had in the freezer, then made that into an alfredo sauce. Simmered for another half hour and served over al dente fettuccine. The older birds' legs were tendony like a pheasant, but the younger birds' were very tender!

 

[jonesface]

Good job on those Mearns! They are my favorite to go after because how well the hold.

[Tres]

Nice job!! Hope I can get into some this weekend.

[jonesface]

Nice job!! Hope I can get into some this weekend.

We will

[CouesPursuit]

Awesome birds brademan!

[trphyhntr]

Right on, I've never even seen one before

[WampusCat]

Very cool! Way to make it look easy.

[brademan76]

Very cool! Way to make it look easy.

 

Ya I think the old saying is "location, location, location". I think that's a good motto for hunting these birds.

[sherman]

 

Nice job!! Hope I can get into some this weekend.

We will

I wanna go haha

[azbirdhunter88]

Good times

[roninflag]

what shotgun and load do you use?

[Big Browns]

Very cool, congrats guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[brademan76]

what shotgun and load do you use?

We were both shooting 12ga. I was shooting hotter 7.5 loads moving at 1300fps. Seemed to work fine on these birds. We didn't have any cripples, but keep in mind most of our shots are pretty close because we are flushing the birds from a point.

 

I found some 12 ga, 1oz of #6 @1350 fps loads that are probably going to be my go-to quail loads from now on, however. Will be most beneficial on gambels.

[sc85540]

I know this is a old post but great topics and pic. We are taking my new Brittany pup out this year for Mearns  will be our first time hunting them will post pics hopefully this winter

[sc85540]

My Brittany is my first bird dog so any help or info would be greatly appreciated and if anyone would like to get together sometime I'm from greenlee county area and would love to get out with fellow bird dog guys n watch the dog work and I can learn as well as my pup what we can