For me it’s all about the dog work so using a double is perfect for most of my wild quail hunting.
We generally hunt 6 or 7 hours each day.
With a Mearns quail the limit is 8 birds per day. ( I wish they would set the limit at 4 or 5). With an Automatic early in the season, your hunt could be over pretty quick and the dogs you have trained and feed for 10 months only get a couple of points.
This is especially true if you are hunting several of your dogs that day.
Not only that but a fair number of birds have been lost when multiple Mearns are shot.
It’s baffling at times how hard it can be for even seasoned dogs to locate a dead bird after they have been knocked down.
Even more so when they have a little life left in them.
Like a fine whiskey you need to savor it, not knock it out on a couple of swallows.
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