Hunting Gambel's Quail
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- Опубліковано 4 лют 2012
- 14 Dec 2013 update: Jenny has four 4 week-old pups! See "Brittany Puppies" by wildmandl. Lots of action on this late season Feb 2012 hunt in Arizona. Rick Hays and Steve Lavdas shoot over Dave's Brittany and Steve's German Shorthaired Pointer. Dave shot there days earlier and found the birds were holding, so this time he went "camera only" to record the dog work.
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Thanks. It was north of Tucson. One of the best ways to hunt quail is with the internet. Find the monthly AZ weather station reports online and add up the precipitation for the six months from Oct to Mar. Three inches total will mean average hunting, five inches will be good hunting, and as a friend in the game department told me, if you find ten inches, "Don't tell anybody." A lot of the stations no longer report, so this is getting more difficult, but it works.
Great video. I just hunted gambel's quail for the first time up near Peoria. I'm from CA. I'm a bit disappointed to see the hulls being ejected to the ground as the hunters continue walking. As hunters, we are also stewards of the land we hunt and leaving our spent casings is not the way to portray that image to others...it doesn't take much more time to catch the shells and put em in another pocket. JMHO.
Thanks for the comment, Brian. I agree on catching shells--I catch mine with my right hand, as Rick did in the video. I didn't make a big deal of it with Steve since I hunt there a lot and pick up shells I see on the ground. I pick up far more than he left there. If you watch any of my other videos, you'll see I always catch shells and most of my friends do, too. Sorry this is so late a response. I just found it in the spam folder. It was good timing as I was in the act of replying to another comment on the ejected shells. I appreciate the tone of your comment.
Brian McDonald This is a good reason to use a side by side or over and under.A pump also an autoloader especially on gambles its real hard to retrieve or sometimes find your emptys.one is always running 100mph after theses birds and do not return to retrieve your emptys.Now with a side by side or over under one clicks the spent casing into your hand.Problem solved.Pumps and autos are for still hunting,dove,duck,turkey ect.TIM
T BIC We cross a lot of fences in the AZ desert and a "break-open" shotgun is very handy in this regard, too, as well as when standing around in a group watering dogs or doing other tasks--simply open the gun and not only is it safe, is easily recognized as safe by everyone. I hunt with some experienced folks who handle their pumps and autos properly and make it obvious, but it's a simpler task with a break-open shotgun.
Hear hear re break action guns. The safest.
Thanks, JP. Glad to be useful. Dave
Wow, what a great video! Thank you for sharing. Beautiful dogs, I love your Brittany
Nice video! There was a "trust the dog" lesson there too. Good response to spent shell litter issue.
@Moelballe18,
Thanks. I'm glad you liked it. I've been out a lot this season in several states, but I carried the gun too much, I guess. I was actually walking away from the truck on this hunt with my gun and changed my mind. I went back and put the gun away and got the camera. It takes the right conditions to shoot a good bird hunting video and I thought this situation would be good for it. I'm glad I left the gun behind!
A solid, helpful video. Excellent.
Shane, Jenny, my Brittany, has a Garmin GPS collar only. It is the first battery-operated device I ever used. I've been battery free forever but finely went with GPS because Jenny really ranges on Mearns' hunts. You can see in my Mearns' video my old dogs did not have any devices on. I think Steve's dog has just a beeper collar. Just personal preference. I don't use shock collars and I like it quiet. I don't even use bells. All these things work and my friends use them effectively.
Dave thanks for sharing this video. I am also in AZ and have a young GSP that I will be training to hunt Gambels soon. I was curious about the collars on the dogs here. Are they locators or for corrective measures? Shane
I really liked your video, great job. Beautiful dog work!
Thanks you, Tyler. I'm lucky to have Jenny.
Thank you.
Thanks. Dave
Hi,
Again a fine video of US bird hunting from wildmandl. Was starting to wonder if you had been out this season.
I removed an anonymous vitriolic comment by "Cache Site" as well as my replies. Cache Site was right--we should have picked up Steve's ejected shells. Brian McDonald posts the same valid comment below, but as a gentleman, and his post serves the issue without the vitriol. I will brief hunters in my videos to pick up their shells. Dave
Nice!! Thanks for sharing!
Kyle,
No website anymore. A long time ago, I had Wildman's Gundogs which ended up being a pretty popular website magazine for birdhunters. I even wrote the annual Western Quail article for Rocky Mountain Game and Fish after they found photos they wanted on my website. But time got the best of me. Dave
Merci pour ce dépaysement et cette belle partie de chasse !!!
+Gino et la Chasse - Springer Forever ! Je vous en prie!
Wow! what a great video. Thanks,
+Norman Christensen Glad you liked it. With El Nino on the way, 2016/2017 might be good like this!
+wildmandl Good news, I can't wait to move out there and start hunting again.
Nice video!
The answer: Lewis Dog Boots. They are rubber and do a good job of keeping cholla (jumping cactus) out of their feet. Learn how to use boots and you can hunt in cholla. It might penetrate the boot now and then, but I pull it out with pliers & rarely have to take the boot off. Some people tell me they don't work, rub their dog's feet raw, etc., but in every case, they were put on improperly. After dogs hunt in cholla enough, they learn to stand and wait for you to come pull it out!
Awesome video great dog work and shooting! Everyone should check out all Dave's other quail hunting video's. He has raised some great dogs but Pete is my favorite!
Thanks, Sam, glad you liked it. Pete was a great dog and I have a lot of funny stories about him. I took him on Gambel's hunt on the San Carlos with a Southwest pilot friend of mine and his whole family. Charlie shot at a bird over Pete's point and it showed no sign at all of being hit. Looked like a clean miss. We watched it sail over the edge of a deep canyon and fly out of sight about 1/4 mile up the canyon. Pete took off over the edge and disappeared. Charlie asked what he was doing and I told him Pete thought he hit it, so he was going to get it. I sat down and told Charlie he'd be back in ten minutes, so I grabbed a sandwich. Charlie thought I was joking. "No way." Ten minutes later, Pete popped up over the edge with his quail! The rest of the day, when the guys would miss, they would yell, "Hey, bring that dog over here!" It got to be a joke. We never figured out how Pete knew a bird was hit when we saw no sign, but if he thought it was hit and went after it, he brought it back no matter how long it took. I've watched pheasants fly out of sight over the horizon and Pete go over a mile and come back with them. He is the only dog I've ever seen who was infallible at this and I'd love to know how he knew they were hit. I was lucky to have Pete.
Wow Pete sounds amazing! I can't wait to see video of Jenny's son Moose hunting... Charlie is a great looking dog good size and great nose. I live in Washington and own 2 German shorthairs that I hunt, we have California Quail that look like these Gamble's Quail do you know what the difference is?
I hunted in Washington in the mid 80s when I was stationed at McChord AFB. I got to be friends with Bill Powell, who raised all the pheasants (32.000 in flight cages! ) for the release sites. I hunted California quail (valley quail) often. They and Gambel's look similar because of the top knot, but their coloring is way different, their ranges are very different with little overlap, and their behavior is very different. Gambel's are birds of the low desert, although I have seen them above 4500 MSL. They are known for running like crazy in front of hunters through sparse desert cover. They do hold in desert thickets of anything and everything with a thorn or spine on it. California quail are usually along streams with dense thickets, living closer to the coast. I've seen staunch pointers unable to get them out of the thickets and airborne--no problem with my dogs! They'll go in and push them out. Their voices are similar in pitch and I use the same Lohman call to locate both species.
Cool Thanks for the info! I live 1 hour from Joint Base Lewis McChord , I also help release pheasant at hunting sites in Western Washington but its nothing like hunting wild birds. I would love the chance to hunt Mearn's down in Arizona someday.
Bill raised birds on the department's farm in Centralia. He captured birds around Walla Walla every other year and kept his birds smaller in size than the commercial birds. 8 acre flight pens with no human contact. You're right, nothing beats wild birds, but on the first flush on a dry day, Bill's birds were as close to wild as it gets. Pete started as a pup at the McChord release sight. Young airmen would wait in line to hunt with Pete, so he got a lot of work as a young pup and sent a lot of airman back to the barracks with a meal or two. Mearns' are fun. The weather is good for camping there are plenty of motels. Go to traditional places like Gardner, Hog, Ruby Road and get a feel for the habitat then go look for places that look like that. Dogs typically take 2-3 days to get up to speed on Mearns', but they all finally get it.
hi i have a question if you dont mind. thinking of doing some quail hunting this season but never done it so im not sure whats the limit and if can kill only males? also do i need a tag or permit? not sure since is small game. thanks and great video.
I have quail hunted several places that had cacti like this area and my dogs could keep out of the big clumps of cacti but the "jumping cactus" was all over the ground and my poor dogs could not help from getting it on their legs and trying to bite it off and getting it in their mouth, lips, toungue, chest, etc. It was terrible. I carried a comb, pliers, gloves etc. Finally quit bringing them - too painfull to watch. Wasn't their fault, cactus just too previlent everywhere.
It's nice to see a video of guys and dogs that actually know what they are doing vs. some guy with a couple of birds in launchers trying to make a video. Nice shooting also.
Thank you. Glad you liked it! Sorry it took me a few days to put your comment up. I started checking comments rather than just letting them be posted because the anti-hunting folks use some bad language now and then.
No cholla cactus! I hunt with a dog and I have trouble finding spots that don't have cholla cactus around Tucson... I notice you said north of Tucson. Is this closer to Casa Grande?
No--not that far. There are plenty of close areas north of Tucson where you can stay away from cholla. There's always some everywhere and there's always a lot nearby and in sight, but I find large areas like this all around Tucson.
Thanks for the reply! I guess I have to search a little harder. :P
I just hunted east of the San Pedro down south and it was full of cholla. We had Lewis Dog Boots on the dogs and it was not a problem. The dogs bit at the first couple on their legs, but soon they just stopped and waited for us to pull them off. A few of them get through the boots, but they are a lot easier to deal with and the boots keep the dogs running well. Unfortunately the boots have gotten expensive and you have to put them on right to keep them on. I seldom go deep into cholla and stay there, but some of my favorite spots have quite a bit from time to time.
Nice job! I notice the Brit breaks on the flush and doesn't retrieve. Is it because you are ok with that and it fits your hunting style? Again, good job!
***** Thanks! Yes, it's because I'm OK with that. Jenny finds more birds than any other three dogs combined, so I just let her go. She will hold trough the flush when there are no other dogs along and some birds remain on the ground. That happens more often on Mearns'. But with Gambel's, when they fly she flies! She's quick to get on the cripples, so it works out. Plus, I hunt with guys who know her and watch where they shoot. Charlie and Moose, not in this video, retrieve for me and I usually hunt all three together. Charlie (2 yrs-old) mated with Jenny and I kept Moose from the litter. Charlie and Moose back and retrieve naturally and also stand on multiple Mearns' flushes. We do no real training and I'm just not that picky. I'm not much of a trainer--we just hunt and hunt and hunt. They all hold until I get there and that's good enough for me. One of them will usually bring it to me.
Yep, I hear you! Nice going and great dogs! Have a good summer!
I have used nice boots for my dogs, both for cacti and because the ground can get very hot in the desert and the dogs feet may be tough but not burn proof. The problem is not their feet but their legs, chest, etc. I have used vests and still the cacti get on their legs up around their knees and they try and bite them off.
Love it, Love it
Hey do you have a website?
The thing I was worried about the cacti cause I don't want to see Jenny run into them
John Morris Thanks for the concern, John. I have never had a dog seriously injured by cactus and we've been at it since 1976! When they are in cholla cactus country, rubber Lewis dog boots really help. The number one threat to my dogs has been--and still is--barbed wire. Jenny alone has had $2500 or more in vet bills from barbed wire in six years. The last episode in Nov cost $1000 and an emergency surgery. Public land is covered with barbed wire the lower strand is set at a height to really hurt a dog. I wish they would go with a plain bottom strand, like antelope-friendly fences. But, they won't.
very good news.
what kind of dog is jenny !!??? she is beautiful !!! ;}
Brittany, Katlyne. Sorry I took so long to respond. Dave
Its ok:)
So what ki d of dog is she
katlyne kohout
Brittany. Many years ago, they were Brittany Spaniels, but since they are pointing dogs and other spaniels are flushers in general, AKC dropped the term "spaniel." Now they are just Brittanys.
katlyne kohout Brittany spaniel,just cant stop calling them that.Just like german shorthair not shorthaired.
The daily limit in Arizona has been 15 Gambel's or scaled quail daily, 30 in possession. Mearns' quail limit has been 8 daily, 30 in possession. Check the regs when you get your license--you need a license. Mearns' quail limits have been all over the place. Check all limits every year. Since the Mearns' quail limit is different than the others, you must leave a head. leg, or wing on each bird in the field for identification. It's crap, but it's the law. You can shoot males or females.