PHOENIX PHIL
AH ambassador
Some of you may recall a story I've told about a quail hunt that included nearly getting shot by a moron friend of a friend. Between that, a drop in the bird population, raising kids and whatever else, I put my beloved Benelli down a few years ago and hadn't picked it up to go hunting with since. That changed today.
A friend I've known for about a year and I went hunting together for the first time today. He has dogs, two Vizslas, a seasoned male who works close and a year old female who is learning the ropes. The female just takes off and will be a hundred yards or more from us at any given moment. That's okay, we push her onto the steeper slopes and let her bump the birds onto somewhat more stable terrain.
It's getting late in the season and these birds are not far out of Phoenix and I'm sure are used to hunting pressure, so they were flushing pretty wild. Furthermore, Gambel's have a habit after a covey has been busted up, of calling shortly after to reassemble. But not today, those birds were not going to give their location away.
But we got to enjoy a few nice points and take a few birds. This included a point where Riggly the male locked up hard just 15 feet away from us and the bird held tight. Mike sent me downhill of the dog and then worked into the spot where the bird was holding tight. Picture perfect work and the bird finally flushed away from the pressure and initially flying right at me. Once it spotted me, it veered and as it moved away from Mike and the dog, it gave me a shoot zone. I swung and nailed the rooster. The bird had already gained so much speed that combined with going downhill it fell all the way to the bottom of the small but steep canyon. The female as always was off away from us on the other side of the canyon, she marked the birds fall and went right to it. About that time Riggly was there to show her how to make a proper retrieve. My love for bird hunting instantly rekindled! The hunt shortly after this, got to be just a bit too exciting however. More on this in a moment.
I was a bit nervous hunting for the first time with Mike, but as it turned out, it was for no reason. I told my story about the moron who nearly shot me and his lack of safety on the way out. Mike was in awe of the guy's stupidity and was pointing out all of the wrong practices, which put me at ease that he was a safe hunter. And as I was to find out, he like me, just enjoys being out there watching the dogs work. The only thing to make it better, was being with someone with like mind.
Now back to the exciting part. We continued to move uphill and cross a ridge that would have us drop down into more sidehill hunting. Eventually we came to another small canyon. Gracie the female with an endless supply of energy went up and around the head of the canyon to do what she so likes to do and bump birds of the steeper slopes. As these small canyons commonly do, the main canyon splits into two smaller gullies near the top, with a small ridge running in between. Gracie had moved down this ridge and disappeared into the further away of the two smaller gullies. She was gone awhile when she came back into view and locked onto a point. She was pointing towards the bottom and I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye and alerting Mike to it.
About the moment, he yelled out something which sounded like "lion" because in fact that's what he said. But this is not what you expect to hear in this situation. About that moment, I saw more movement up the hill closer to the dog. It was in fact a mountain lion cub. Gracie had locked onto the scent of mountain lion cubs and was not breaking off of it. They were definitely cubs, from nose to the start of their tails perhaps 2 to 2 1/2 feet long. I'm not sure who thought it first, but about the same time Mike and I wondered aloud, "Where is momma lion?!" Fortunately we never found out and firing off a couple of shots broke Gracie off the lions and back over to us. These cubs were way too young to be on there own and our guess is momma was off hunting somewhere.
For those not experience with our Gambel's quail, I'd have to say they're in my opinion the prettiest of the various of species we have in this country.
A friend I've known for about a year and I went hunting together for the first time today. He has dogs, two Vizslas, a seasoned male who works close and a year old female who is learning the ropes. The female just takes off and will be a hundred yards or more from us at any given moment. That's okay, we push her onto the steeper slopes and let her bump the birds onto somewhat more stable terrain.
It's getting late in the season and these birds are not far out of Phoenix and I'm sure are used to hunting pressure, so they were flushing pretty wild. Furthermore, Gambel's have a habit after a covey has been busted up, of calling shortly after to reassemble. But not today, those birds were not going to give their location away.
But we got to enjoy a few nice points and take a few birds. This included a point where Riggly the male locked up hard just 15 feet away from us and the bird held tight. Mike sent me downhill of the dog and then worked into the spot where the bird was holding tight. Picture perfect work and the bird finally flushed away from the pressure and initially flying right at me. Once it spotted me, it veered and as it moved away from Mike and the dog, it gave me a shoot zone. I swung and nailed the rooster. The bird had already gained so much speed that combined with going downhill it fell all the way to the bottom of the small but steep canyon. The female as always was off away from us on the other side of the canyon, she marked the birds fall and went right to it. About that time Riggly was there to show her how to make a proper retrieve. My love for bird hunting instantly rekindled! The hunt shortly after this, got to be just a bit too exciting however. More on this in a moment.
I was a bit nervous hunting for the first time with Mike, but as it turned out, it was for no reason. I told my story about the moron who nearly shot me and his lack of safety on the way out. Mike was in awe of the guy's stupidity and was pointing out all of the wrong practices, which put me at ease that he was a safe hunter. And as I was to find out, he like me, just enjoys being out there watching the dogs work. The only thing to make it better, was being with someone with like mind.
Now back to the exciting part. We continued to move uphill and cross a ridge that would have us drop down into more sidehill hunting. Eventually we came to another small canyon. Gracie the female with an endless supply of energy went up and around the head of the canyon to do what she so likes to do and bump birds of the steeper slopes. As these small canyons commonly do, the main canyon splits into two smaller gullies near the top, with a small ridge running in between. Gracie had moved down this ridge and disappeared into the further away of the two smaller gullies. She was gone awhile when she came back into view and locked onto a point. She was pointing towards the bottom and I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye and alerting Mike to it.
About the moment, he yelled out something which sounded like "lion" because in fact that's what he said. But this is not what you expect to hear in this situation. About that moment, I saw more movement up the hill closer to the dog. It was in fact a mountain lion cub. Gracie had locked onto the scent of mountain lion cubs and was not breaking off of it. They were definitely cubs, from nose to the start of their tails perhaps 2 to 2 1/2 feet long. I'm not sure who thought it first, but about the same time Mike and I wondered aloud, "Where is momma lion?!" Fortunately we never found out and firing off a couple of shots broke Gracie off the lions and back over to us. These cubs were way too young to be on there own and our guess is momma was off hunting somewhere.
For those not experience with our Gambel's quail, I'd have to say they're in my opinion the prettiest of the various of species we have in this country.
