New Years hunt

Got to apologize up front as I don't get many pics in the field. Just get caught up in the dog work, and flat forget to take them. The one below is only because my buddy reminded me that I had taken no pictures. (I'm determined to get more even if I have to beg Danceswithquail to come along)

Had a great three days as far as birds go. Had a nine year old with us that decided walking wasn't his thing so many detours in each days hunt and had a fine young dog tear a leg up on I guess a fence but took an hour or so to get the bleeding stopped on the first morning and couldn't use her the next two days. Dropped a Garmin GPS reciever and spent an hour hunting it and was the one time 9 year old eyes came in handy.

Moved nice covys each day, I guess we averaged getting 8 pointed a day but had several others bumped and hunted less than 4-5 hours a day. Got a 1 1/2 year old pup pretty well broke in three days so that was really worth the trip.

This the only picture I took and it's my Ace pup on a covy with my 9 year old Dixie backing.



Great hunt can't wait to get back Thur or Friday.

Looks like fun congrats!

This is one of the best reports I've heard this year. I have a pretty good camera, and don't care to shoot anymore.

Thanks for the report, glad to hear. I have done a little calling around this weekend and it seems like the quail survived ok from Spur to Childress.

Its tough to get a lot of good pics of dogs on wild birds in a spotty year. Didn't take a whole lot of pictures in the '07 or '08 season, that's for sure.

My problem is remembering to take them, carried the digital around for three daysw and took 1 picture. Maybe I need to make a resolution to get the camera out.

chet
what kind of numbers were you finding on the same lease earlier this year.

That won't tell us much. Last year was not all that great. It's been a bad 4 years except for south Texas. They're not finding any birds down there this year.

Blanked

Deer lease, first trip was the first of Jan. If you mean last season I hunted it once and found 4 covies.

I just got this email from a friend;



Thanks for the response Bill. The China Grove lease I am on has been exceptionally poor this year, 35,000 acres, 8 dogs on the ground, 8 hours per day yielded 1 covey per day three days straight. The Kansas hunt was very good. Hope your holidays were enjoyable look forward to seeing you in a couple weeks at the trial. Jason

yes i meant earlier this season during deer season. i am hoping my lease in jayton was poor in mid november due to the warm weather and scenting conditions. not from lack of birds

Where were you hunting?

About 10-12 miles SW of Spur.

I have had this lease for 3 years, it looks like good bird country and in my opinion it is a lot more walker friendly and less vehicle friendly than most leases. Chet, has some really nice dogs. My opinion is that it is not near what it should be but a lot better than most of the country. I hunted it for 10 hours the 2 days after chet was there and averaged .8 coveys per hour.

Wow. 8 coveys over a 10-hr period. Nice. Wish those numbers would come back here in West Texas. How big were the coveys on average??

Love to watch dogs work. Have not had the chance in years. My Dad and I worked both beagles for rabbits and points for quail and phesant back in Indiana

Had covies from 10 birds to 16 birds. Best part was they were healthy and hard flying...................

I overstated. I found 7 coveys in 10 hours.