So-Quail season opened last Saturday.
I went out a couple times-got one here and one there and was hoping to bag enough for a good dinner. Quail can be super challenging as you only get a few moments after the first shot before the covey scatters and dives into cover.
Along came a foggy morning. While out with my CZ S200 I ran into a covey in scattered not too dense cover. I took one down and missed the next one, the covey started to scatter. I picked up my first bird and got ahead of the covey which had gone over the top of a berm next to a dry creek. I could hear them calling their assembly call and stealthily came over the top of the berm, quickly knocked one down that was in the open perched on a log. I could see some birds taking cover in an Oak across the creek bed but couldn't take any shots because there was a crew working in the vegetable field beyond the Oak. There were some birds on the ground in the brush with a good backstop and I got one more at around 25 yards. I picked up the two and was feeling pretty good about the way things were going. I could hear more birds near where I first saw the covey. I crossed the creek bed, came back over the berm and took another one which was peeking behind a log-four down! Can't quite remember how I got the fifth but ended up with five in less than an hour. I scouted around a bit more but didn't find any more that would stand still so I got to work and cleaned up my haul. Of course while cleaning birds I heard more calling in the brush! Probably no big deal for some, but this is the best I've done in one outing so far.
The wind flag on my gun is a leftover from Field Target, kind of helps while hunting too.
Gave them 5 minutes per side in the skillet, steamed 'em in beer for a few more minutes-mmmm good!
I went out a couple times-got one here and one there and was hoping to bag enough for a good dinner. Quail can be super challenging as you only get a few moments after the first shot before the covey scatters and dives into cover.
Along came a foggy morning. While out with my CZ S200 I ran into a covey in scattered not too dense cover. I took one down and missed the next one, the covey started to scatter. I picked up my first bird and got ahead of the covey which had gone over the top of a berm next to a dry creek. I could hear them calling their assembly call and stealthily came over the top of the berm, quickly knocked one down that was in the open perched on a log. I could see some birds taking cover in an Oak across the creek bed but couldn't take any shots because there was a crew working in the vegetable field beyond the Oak. There were some birds on the ground in the brush with a good backstop and I got one more at around 25 yards. I picked up the two and was feeling pretty good about the way things were going. I could hear more birds near where I first saw the covey. I crossed the creek bed, came back over the berm and took another one which was peeking behind a log-four down! Can't quite remember how I got the fifth but ended up with five in less than an hour. I scouted around a bit more but didn't find any more that would stand still so I got to work and cleaned up my haul. Of course while cleaning birds I heard more calling in the brush! Probably no big deal for some, but this is the best I've done in one outing so far.
The wind flag on my gun is a leftover from Field Target, kind of helps while hunting too.
Gave them 5 minutes per side in the skillet, steamed 'em in beer for a few more minutes-mmmm good!
