New Mexico Blue-Scaled Quail hunt

Tammy and I had a great time out in Alamogordo NM with our long time friends, Michael & Laura Precure. In addition to revisiting times of past we had some great hunting!

Jager standing tall, looking for the Blue Quail

Checking out the Blue Quail. As far as I can remember, this was my first one ever. 

Kapitan checking out the Blue Quail

This was a great sequence to follow, would have been great in video. Jager was over to my left with Michael, Kapitan was just in front of me. Kapitan flushed 2 Blue Quail, and they flew to my right, I shot one, Kapitan sprinted over to it, picked it up, and looked as if he was going to bring it to me. Everybody was cheering for him along with me trying to call him to me. He held it for a second, then dropped it and waited for me to come over. I gave Jager the "dead bird" command and he went and got it and brought it to me. Kapitan is going to be great! Definitely not gun shy and aggressively pursued the birds. Just gotta get him to understand retrieve to hand (he already does it in practice, but the real thing is different the first time).

Kapitan picking up the Blue Quail, I'm trying to call him over, Jager walking over to see what lil bro is doing. 

Kapitan picked up the bird and looked at me for a moment, but he didn't bring it to me. This was the only photo and unfortunately, out of focus, but worth saving. I was proud all the same.

After Kapitan didn't bring me the bird, Jager trotted over and took care of it.

Jager retrieving, me praising him, Kapitan observing and learning

Tired puppies, Blue Quail & Browning Shotguns. 

Tammy did a great job with the photos. Note the great telephoto focus on the tiny bird on the cactus.

Gambles Quail seasons end

Last weekend for Gambles Quail in Nevada and Arizona. Jager, Kapitan and I set out to Wikieup AZ for an overnight trip and all day hunt. We jeeped down into a deep canyon close to where I had camped previously but closer to the area I suspected to have a lot of birds. The downside of these areas with lots of birds is exactly the reason there are a lot of birds. VERY rough cover, coyotes, hawks and others can't get to them, which of course is why there are so many birds! Next year I plan to significantly upgrade my cactus protective gear, but for this trip, I decided to bring Kapitan with me, and primarily hunt the river beds. This made the walking much easier, but the birds were primarily up and outside the banks of the stream hiding in the scrub oak and other cactus like plants.

Jager and I headed back to AZ, had a nice overnight in the back of the jeep, up early and had a nice 6 hour hunt before heading back. I pieced together some of the highlights into this YouTube video: Hunt with Jager in AZ

AZ Javelina and Gambles quail hunt

Kapitan FeldJager had to stay home on this trip, big boys only. Jager is well behaved enough and follows commands well enough that I trusted him to potentially be close to Javelinas. He's been around Coyotes, Mustangs, Donkeys, Deer, Elk and Pronghorn up close and behaved very well. Of course, I just like having him along.

Scott was the resident expert, so Garth and I followed him out into a fairly remote part of AZ about 80 miles south of Kingman. Very cold, with some sleet, snow and freezing rain - good times! Scott and Garth headed out with their bows and Jager and I made some circles and immediately got into some fantastic Gambles Quail. Great time by all!

Rough stuff out here in AZ. Note the cactus has been nibbled on by the Javelina. Was in the 30's but  very nice with sunshine the 2nd day. Garth was certainly geared up and ready, sporting Sitka layers up top, upland thorn proof on the legs. No Javelina taken, not from a lack of trying and hitting every canyon in the area. 

Jager on point of Gambles Quail. There were about 40 in the covey and Gambles Quail do not sit still. I use the whoa command to keep Jager still as the quail scurry around in the bush immediately in front of him. I had a few shots on the ground, but waited until one flew above the bush. Very rough terrain, at least for me. No problem for Jager of course. 

Posing for a photo with Jager

Garth and Jager posing for a photo. Cold and wet the first day! Makes you appreciate your gear when you get it right!

Jager checking out his Gambles Quail take for the afternoon, Garth enjoying an Ice Cold Coors!

Jager doing some "forced fetch" practice after a hunt session. Gotta reinforce what you learn! Doubles as a great time to take photos! 

Scott prepared some nice prawns, Pronghorn chops and tenderloin. He took the Pronghorn at 650 yards up north of Ely. 

Jager, doing what Jager does, be spoiled. Tucked in the warm sleeping bag next to the heater. He deserved it, he hunted very hard all day for 2 days. I know traditional bird dog guys that think I "ruin" my dogs by never using a kennel but Jager has turned out great so far. Ya just have to dedicate 2 hours a day to working them so they won't burn the house down! A tired bird dog is a good bird dog. 

New Years hunt with Tammy and the boys

We celebrated New Years the best way possible - by getting out of Las Vegas! Tammy and I took the boys up to Pahranagat for a couple of nights and hunted Key Pitman, the surrounding BLM land and Middle Marsh of Pahranagat Wildlife Refuge. Very cold and windy as the broken ice blowing up on shore depicts in these photos! Owning up to it ahead of time, YES I did take a dive in the ice cold water to pull Kapitan back in after he fell in. Nothing can prepare you for 32 degree water pouring down your bibs!

Kapitan, Jager and a coot taken from Middle Marsh.

Tammy, Kapitan & Jager at Key Pitman

Key Pitman

Key Pitman frozen over

Kapitan and Duck (Black and White Mallard size, I still need to identify it)

Getting my exercise at Key Pitman

Kapitan testing the 2" thick broken ice, blown up by the wind at Key Pitman

Kapitan tasting the snow up on Mt Irish, which over looks Groom Lake and Area 51

Hunting for Gambles Quail East of Pahranagat

Kapitan gettin busy! 

Dry lake bed North of Kane Springs Road and East of Pahranagat. Water froze and it sounds like thing glass breaking. 

Jager on point, Kapitan learning!

Jager on point

 This is where I shot the coot, Jager paused, didn't jump in after it, Kapitan of course barreled right through on the ice, fell through at the edge before he got to the Coot. He turned to swim back, but couldn't quite lift himself up on the ice (look through the reeds in the photos). Of course when I tried to crawl out on the ice, I fell face first into the water, breaking out plenty of ice for him to swim right back up on shore. Got the coot out though, cooked it in the pressure cooker, removed the bones and fed to the dogs. (Coots don't taste very good)

Jager and Kapitan drinking some of the ice cold water in Middle Marsh after a long couple of hunting days

November-December hunts

Lots of super fun hunts this season. Not all of them yielded birds, but definitely had a great time every time. 

Guided hunt up in Enterprise Utah was fantastic, took home 20 birds. This was the day after Thankgiving and unfortunately, it was very windy and cold - just like pheasant hunting back in West Texas! 

Jager retrieving a chukar. Nice job!  

First bird of the morning, Jager immediately held a nice point, flushed the Pheasant, got it in the bag right away.

Jager on point

Jager and his new hunting buddies all on point, "honoring" each other the way they should. It was impressive to watch! 

At the end of the day, we had 20 birds in the bag. Jager, Austin, Kevin and I had a great time! (Dad did a great job with the photo's and Tyler took a great nap in the back of the truck)

Day trip up close to Virgin Peak in mid November. Couple of Gambles quail.

Day trip in late November with Garth and Eric. We were hot on the trail of the Gambles quail and Eric, as he crossed back across one of the ravines, walked up on part of the covey. One shot, 3 birds! Great job Eric. Last year he got a deer at 12 years old, this year at 13, his first quail is 3 birds in one shot.

Kapitan saw snow for the first time on this trip up Virgin Peak with Booser and Steve.

 First hunt for Booser and Steve - good times!

Jager and I took quick trip up to Pahranagat. we actually drove up the evening before, slept in the back of the jeep, the rolled out and hunted at first light. Great idea, but will prepare for the cold a bit better next time! It was 9 degrees as the sun was rising. Lake in this photo is frozen over. Was about 30 degrees at noon when we headed back to Las Vegas. Had a couple of opportunities to shoot a duck or two in the water, but decided Jager didn't need to go swim through the ice and reeds on that day.

 After a long hunt on the back side of Mt Potosi, Kapitan decided he was going to drive with Jager calling shotgun. Luckily, I had the keys in my pocket.

Santa brought Kapitan a new Garmin Alpha Dog collar like big brothers, complete with coon hound upgrade so it will glow blue at night.