Teej's 2019 Fall Extravaganza

[Pucky Freak]

Sounds like a great waterfowl hunt

 

[teej89]

Can’t explain why we do the things we do to hunt. If the wife isn’t coming along when I leave I always say, “I’m doing this for us babe, I have to provide”. This morning when I said it she goes you can’t see my face but I’m rolling my eyes, I think she’s caught onto my games

 

[Hunting Wife]

A couple of my favorite duck hunting memories were bluebird days in October, hiking a 4 mile stretch of creek in t-shirts and bird vests, jump shooting blue-wings. Sitting in a marsh is pretty pointless on days like those.

I’d say you’re doing just fine

 

[teej89]

WHelp it’s not a hidden gem, got there before light and created the hill to drop into the bottom and heard calls. Sat there for a minute and those calls also had voices and laughter associated....

I sat up top waiting for light, saw some ducks but nowhere near what it was earlier. I headed back and walked out a field flushing two single roosters but they were 50+ yards when they flushed, I think I gotta be a little more quiet with working boomer

Off for quail now

 

[teej89]

On e again, the quail are much faster than my trigger finger. So far this fall I’ve only flushed two coveys and they were in the exact same location in this overgrown creek bottom.

Headed out, defeated


Seems like quail habitat?


More open and schrubby habitat id expect to hold quail


The honey hole, both coveys two weeks apart came outta this bottom

 

[Irrelevant]

The best quail habitat looks like this:


But where you're at is certainly good looking as well. I tend to find them around blackberry patches and big thickets of elderberry/chokecherry/service berry out in the desert.

 

[teej89]

The best quail habitat looks like this:
View attachment 119274

But where you're at is certainly good looking as well. I tend to find them around blackberry patches and big thickets of elderberry/chokecherry/service berry out in the desert.

Hahahaha that’s great!

I’m gonna have to google those and see if I was seeing em. The bushes in the bottom had a bunch of red berries on em.

Can not believe how fast those buggers are and they strategically flush causing all sorts of confusion on my end

 

[teej89]

Back at it again, the quail are winning but I’m not defeated yet!

His pregame prep, don’t worry he woke up to get a cookie from the coffee shop lady

 

[dirtclod Az.]

The best quail habitat looks like this:
View attachment 119274

But where you're at is certainly good looking as well. I tend to find them around blackberry patches and big thickets of elderberry/chokecherry/service berry out in the desert.

Similar to my Quail area,but mine is 2 acres of desert and my pellet gun does well and is real Quiet.
What type of Quail in your area?Mine are Gambels ,and I have 4 down so far.

 

[Irrelevant]

Similar to my Quail area,but mine is 2 acres of desert and my pellet gun does well and is real Quiet.
What type of Quail in your area?Mine are Gambels ,and I have 4 down so far.

California/Valley.

But that was just a generic pic of "suburban backyard" on the ole Google. Mine doesn't look nearly that nice!

 

[teej89]

Heard my first quail call! That was neat! “Chi-ca-go” Ended up getting in on em, brush over my head and boomer flushed em but I didn’t have a chance to even shoulder the gun.

Still trying to determine their habitat and if I’m even in the right area but at least I heard one and found em.

 

[teej89]

Decided to check out the waterfowl honey hole, first olive tree produces three mallards but they flush on the opposite side of the tree from me.

Next olive tree 2 more mallards and one wasn’t lucky. Boomer saw it all and made a great retrieve.

Not sure what I’m doing wasting my time trying to find a tiny little upland bird when I should just be buying decoys and calls haha 5 ducks in about 30min, woulda kept going but gotta house hunt.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Looks like Boomers having a good time!Love the first pic. looks like he's smiling.

 

[Irrelevant]

In all sincerity, I only have one quail spot that's actually a public land huntable spot. The rest is truly backyard plinking. Looks like you still had a good day though, and that waterfowl honey hole hasn't been hit too hard by anyone else.

 

[teej89]

In all sincerity, I only have one quail spot that's actually a public land huntable spot. The rest is truly backyard plinking. Looks like you still had a good day though, and that waterfowl honey hole hasn't been hit too hard by anyone else.

Yeah I was assuming they'd be a little more prevalent than what I'm finding out. Also I was hoping to not have to bush whack for them. Preferably I'd like to hunt high sage, more open country than brush that the dog can barely get through.

 

[Irrelevant]

Yeah I was assuming they'd be a little more prevalent than what I'm finding out. Also I was hoping to not have to bush whack for them. Preferably I'd like to hunt high sage, more open country than brush that the dog can barely get through.

Then you should probably be looking for huns/chukar and not quail.

 

[teej89]

Then you should probably be looking for huns/chukar and not quail.

Interesting, well this is good to know. Initially I didn't know much about quail habitat but as I'm learning more and more about them I think I'm getting less interested. Bush waking with a hard charging lab makes it difficult for getting shots off. I don't mind the open country with patches of bushes (like in my pics above) but it seems the only place I'm finding them is deep deep in the thick stuff.

I never debated about hunting those, I felt like chukar was the extreme version of quail hunting as far as knowledge and experience goes so I thought quail may have been the best stepping stone.

If you had to rank the three in most favorite to hunt to least what would you chose and why?

Also I'd like to hear @JLS 's thoughts on that too.

What about taste?

 

[Irrelevant]

Chukars are the easiest to find but physically hardest to hunt. Huns are pretty hard to find, but generally pretty easy to hunt. Quail are almost impossible to find (again in places you can actually hunt with a dog).

In terms of favorite, it's chukars, but huns are quickly rising and might surpass them soon (they hold better).

Taste, huns, then quail, then chukar. But they're all good.

 

[teej89]

Chukars are the easiest to find but physically hardest to hunt. Huns are pretty hard to find, but generally pretty easy to hunt. Quail are almost impossible to find (again in places you can actually hunt with a dog).

In terms of favorite, it's chukars, but huns are quickly rising and might surpass them soon (they hold better).

Taste, huns, then quail, then chukar. But they're all good.

Interesting... the physical aspect is no issue for the dog or myself. I like to cover ground doesn't matter if I'm gaining elevation or side hilling which I hear is a lot of chukar hunting. The issue with quail is you're gaining ground at a snails pace due to bush waking and pulling briar branches off ya.

I always had this assumption chukar were the most difficult to find due to the fact of me being an east coaster and all this dessert foliage looks the same to me. Maybe this weekend I need to give chukar or hun territory a shot, seems like it'd be more my type.

 

[Irrelevant]

If you see an area with cheat grass and rocks/cliff bands, there will be chukar.