In the fall of 76 I was introduced to quail hunting in East Central Indiana by a friend whose father had several pointers. We would load of his fathers dogs in the back of my Camero, throw vests and guns in the trunk and head off, getting home just in time to clean guns and clean the few birds we were able to scratch out, then clean out my car before I picked up my girlfriend. Everyone reminisces about the winter of 77-78 but the winter of 76-77 was pretty brutal as well. I still remember driving on country roads "punching through" drifts that winter trying to get to coverts.
I was a senior in high school the following year. Record snowfall and unheard of low temps kept me out of the fields from mid-January through the end of February. When we finally did get out the only coveys we found had frozen together under the snow and ice. Two brutal winters brought the end of quail hunting in Indiana - there weren't huntable numbers after then and, to my knowledge, there really aren't huntable numbers today. Not saying it was just because of the weather (farming practices and predators have changed the ecosystem forever) but back to back hard winters spelled the beginning of the end. ...AND THE WEATHER TAKETH AWAY is right.
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