Had a chance last week to finally go quail hunting. It was the first time in several years.
Until about 20162017, I didn’t miss hunting quail at least some time during the season. We had to put our little pointer Sassy to sleep in January of 2016 and we haven’t had a bird dog since.
I hunted quail regularly for nearly 60 years. But the population has been dwindling since the last time I hunted them.
I mentioned a while back that I and a good friend, Steve Buoy, were going to try some quail hunting this season.
I still don’t have a bird dog, nor does Steve yet.
Joining us for the hunt were longtime Prague resident Louis Devereaux and Brad Phillips. Steve had already hunted a couple of other times this season with them.
Brad lives in far southeastern Oklahoma in Garvin, a town between Broken Bow and Idabel.
Steve told me they had enjoyed successful hunts on private land in western Oklahoma and kept telling me there were a lot of birds.
Between Louis and Brad they brought nine bird dogs. Louis has a Brittany named Raz.
Brad brought six of his dogs with him, Ellie, Bess, Rock, Roo, Lindy and Clyde. They included pointers and a German Shorthair.
They also brought a couple of dogs owned by a man named Jerry Smith who is a partner with Louis in a dog boot enterprise. They were pointers named Slim and Brady.
So we had plenty of dogs.
The first day we hunted, we found several coveys. These are good dogs and they covered a lot of territory.
With that many dogs, Louis and Brad are able to rotate them pretty regularly so they don’t get worn out as quickly. But the afternoon of the first day, the temperature rose to about 75 degrees and they got tired.
They carry plenty of water for their dogs and they needed it. And they took advantage of water in tanks from windmills.
I actually hit some birds the first day and we all got in some shooting, but the dogs had trouble finding the downed birds, especially that first afternoon. Still, we harvested some bobwhites.
These quail were runners. I mean they wouldn’t sit still for the dogs, even while the birds were in a covey sometimes.
The second day was a little cooler. Yet, we had more trouble finding the birds that day.
The hunt got cut a little short in mid-afternoon that second day because it started raining and lightning and that was an excellent reason to call it quits and not endanger ourselves or the dogs.
The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation said its August roadside quail survey showed the statewide index is up 45.8 percent from 2022. That’s encouraging, and another reason I wanted to get in the woods and give it a try.
I was really looking forward to being in the woods once again. And while the bird hunting itself wasn’t quite as good as maybe I was hoping for, the camaraderie was even better.
It was enjoyable just to be with Steve, to get re-acquainted with Louis whom I’ve known for a number of years and meet Brad Phillips and enjoy a couple of days of quail hunting.
There’s nothing like being in the woods with people you enjoy being around.