Last Day of the Season

My pointer - "Canyon"
Taking a picture of my dog on point is the hardest thing I've ever done during hunting season! It's hard, because I was risking not being ready when the birds flushed, but he's so good I shouldn't worry.

I'm sure I would've had more birds, but I needed to preserve some of Canyon's points before I sell him. This dog finds more coveys than any dog I've ever had. He could be better at finding singles after the covey busts, but he's still really young.

Here's a Mearns quail retrieved perfectly to hand (every dog should be force fetched!)

Another Awesome point (shot a double and took the picture!) Look how amazing the grass was this year.



Taking this picture was nerve racking, because Canyon had been on point for a long time! It took me over five minutes to get to him from the time I realized he was on point. Note the beeper collar, which lets me know when Canyon points.

Mearns Quail 2009

Mearns quail hunting with a good dog is almost too easy. More often than not when my Pointers find birds you can walk up on the point and see the birds on the ground. I've come to the conclusion size nine shot and a combination of cylinder & skeet chokes is the only way to keep from blowing the birds apart, because the pointed birds flush so close.
Yeah, I'm cocky, but in the imortal words of Kid Rock, "it's not bragging if you can back it up."

This day started without us even knowing what we wanted to hunt. We usually go after all three Arizona quail in one day, but my friend, who will remain unnamed, had never shot a limit of mearns. We made that our goal for the day. We really enjoy hunting together and it's a pleasure to let him shoot limits over my dogs. A few years back we shot his first limit of Gambels together. I'm still trying to convince him to go get his first limit of Scalies : )

Scalies and Mearns have been great this year, but Gambels have been more challenging than ever.

Saturdays Mearns quail hunt was amazing. We shot five birds over one point and found all of them! Talk about feathers everywhere. We were giggling like school girls.

Another funny incident was when I was walking along and saw a Mearns on the ground. My friend walked over and saw another one I couldn't see. We laughed about how good they're camouflaged.
We stopped for a snack and Cookie, my younger pointer, went on point not far away. What a great way to hunt. : )