I wasn't surprised when my Garmin warbled the "point" alarm because Rose was looking birdy before she disappeared around the side of the hill. 60 yards, 50 yards, 40 yards....as the distance closed my anticipation grew knowing my white dog on point would be coming into view any second now but instead of my dog, the first thing I saw was a single quail flushing. "She must be pointing quail", I thought but with the report of the gun the hillside in front of me exploded with a massive wave of chukar! Darn! I didn't get to shoot at the birds my pup had pointed and the tiny quail didn't seem like just compensation. Before I could lament too much, another little bird got up and then another and another! One here, two there, all over the hill and flying in every direction, some to the left, some to the right some away and some right at you. The birds just kept flushing and just when you think they are all gone, there is one more. Those few minutes were a blur of random birds flushing and hunters shooting and sometimes connecting but usually not. I can see now how easy it would be to "Dick Cheney" someone in the melee of a covey of quail flushing. It's enough to undo the most steady of dogs or hunters. When the smoke cleared there were a few birds down and memories that will last a lifetime.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Chaos!
I wasn't surprised when my Garmin warbled the "point" alarm because Rose was looking birdy before she disappeared around the side of the hill. 60 yards, 50 yards, 40 yards....as the distance closed my anticipation grew knowing my white dog on point would be coming into view any second now but instead of my dog, the first thing I saw was a single quail flushing. "She must be pointing quail", I thought but with the report of the gun the hillside in front of me exploded with a massive wave of chukar! Darn! I didn't get to shoot at the birds my pup had pointed and the tiny quail didn't seem like just compensation. Before I could lament too much, another little bird got up and then another and another! One here, two there, all over the hill and flying in every direction, some to the left, some to the right some away and some right at you. The birds just kept flushing and just when you think they are all gone, there is one more. Those few minutes were a blur of random birds flushing and hunters shooting and sometimes connecting but usually not. I can see now how easy it would be to "Dick Cheney" someone in the melee of a covey of quail flushing. It's enough to undo the most steady of dogs or hunters. When the smoke cleared there were a few birds down and memories that will last a lifetime.
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5 comments:
Organized Chaos...but a pure slice of heaven!
What did I tell you, Ryan? Valley quail hunting makes you a nervous wreck . . . but we all love it!
Wow! Now that sounds like a blast! Nice.
I can see now how that can get addicting.
About 2 weeks ago I watched some California Quail sneaking across the two track in front of me while my dogs were hunting on the other side of a field. As I stepped closer about 50 flushed in front of me while about 50 flushed behind me. About 100 total I've never seen such a large covey.
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