Headed to AZ (Mearns & Scalies)

[SoCalhunt88]

Headed out Saturday for my annual trip, anyone been out yet? Looks a little warm but we’ll make the best of it.
Photos from past hunts

 

[Jnasa]

I’m jealous I’ll have to make that trip sometime. Good luck and have fun.

 

[Flynarrow]

Mearns population in AZ is in the toilet. There are few coveys and many too small to ethically take any. Focus on scalies this year.

 

[Bigjay73]

Go for scalies and gambles, throw in an evening shooting dove at a stock tank.

 

[SoCalhunt88]

Sorry to hear that on the Mearns, two years ago was great. Last year I saw a noticeable drop in covey size.

 

[SoCalhunt88]

Go for scalies and gambles, throw in an evening shooting dove at a stock tank.

Never thought of that southeastern area for gambles, I have an Airbnb so I can’t roam around as much but is it fair to assume they’re in the flats like they would be in other parts of the state?

 

[jejack26]

Good luck, I'm headed out after Christmas. Plan to focus on desert birds, but will hunt mearnes just not do much killing.

 

[homestead]

Looking forward to hearing about your trip. I've been trying to convince my dad that this is a trip worth taking. But, he's a grouse hunter at heart.

 

[SoCalhunt88]

Good luck, I'm headed out after Christmas. Plan to focus on desert birds, but will hunt mearnes just not do much killing.

Changing my plan now to do the same, will probably go further east than I have in the past. I haven’t made it a focus before, but those scalies have eluded me for at least a couple days and 10miles of effort.

 

[brymoore]

@SoCalhunt88 What’s your shotgun set up for quail? I’m always playing in my head of buying a dedicated quail gun.

 

[SoCalhunt88]

@SoCalhunt88 What’s your shotgun set up for quail? I’m always playing in my head of buying a dedicated quail gun.taking two in

I’m taking two 20 gauges. Nothing too special, a semi (Franchi affinity) and SxS (CZ Sharptail) both with wood furnishings. I have an affinity 12 gauge plastic I take for chukar and waterfowl.

 

[SoCalhunt88]

Had a fun trip, weather was great, a hair warm and I finally found my target species (scalies). That being said I never feel like I figured it out, drove 100s of miles and hiked a good portion, and finally found one covey on the last day. That being said, on the birds we did find the dog work was great. Also didn’t spend too much time chasing them but the Mearns seemed to be doing solid in the areas I was in, at or above last year in covey size and count.