Chasing Quail

[Mike Franzen]

Day - 3: We started out much like yesterday. In the field by 8:45 with a slight wind and 42 degrees. We’re in an area that has held birds on previous hunts. We walk for an hour seeing nothing, not even tracks. Undaunted we keep walking and Bruce sees fresh quail tracks in the dust. Some birds fly out and Doc takes a shot but doesn’t connect. We keep moving forward, Doc, Bruce and me. Another gets up and flies straight over my head. I turn and shoot, miss and miss again. Doc shoots and brings it down. We meet up with Russ and Tom, load up the trucks and head to a new spot we haven’t hunted before. We walk along abandoned railroad tracks with good cover on both sides. At the end the dogs find a covey in a plum thicket and as they rocket up I take one. Going down in heavy cover, Bruces dog Fielder, finds it for me. We walked on a little farther without finding anything. By 1:30 it’s 80 degrees. We decided to give the dogs a break and call it a day. So you might think only 2 birds, that’s not very productive. But I don’t look at it like that. We aren’t sustenance hunting so whether we takes birds or don’t we will still get to eat too much. For me, this is real hunting. The way I did it growing up. The birds are wild, the hunters know each other and the dogs are trained by their owners. When we go out we aren’t guaranteed anything. I hope you have opportunities like this if that is what you are inclined to. Who knows, tomorrow we might get our limit.

Pic 1- 5 Parkers
Pic 2 - Hero shot
Pic 3 - Doc laughing because he just sprayed me with the hose.