We finally got around to hunting the blues up top at my buddy's place. We don't usually hunt up there but some people were deer hunting the creek on his place this weekend so we figured we would give it a shot. It turned out to be pretty successful and a whole lot of fun!

Wow. Any dog work?

We had some great dog work. There were still a few patches of snow on the ground and not a whole lot of wind, so the scenting conditions were great. They would point the covey about 50 yards before we ever saw the birds (unless we saw them running down the road or on a gas well pad) and then really do well after the initial flush. These birds hadn't been hunted in probably 15 years and didn't fly very far before sitting back down and sticking tight.

Awesome!!!!!!

How many coveys?

Love hunting Blues. Looks like a great hunt.

8 coveys. 7 blues and 1 bobs. There were about 20 or 25 in the covey of bobs and 40+ with all of the blues. One Covey of blues had over 100 birds in it.

The dog pics are the most important

You ever try to get a picture of a dog on point while hunting blues?

Yep many many times every time I take hunters Can't hunt blues with a pointing dog is just a myth. Unless your hunting poor overgrazed country

This in west Texas ?

Really? I've never seen you post any.

This is my first year to find blue quail and I must say I have been pleasantly surprised. Once they get scattered we have enjoyed some pretty good dog work. The blue's are a welcomed addition to the scenery for us.

Love hunting Blues. Of course I prefer to hunt them in the snow when they don;t tend to run as much!

I might take more pictures of them when I get older, but right now I'm more focused on taking in the moment than holding an electronic device and watching through a lens.

They're calling for quite a bit of snow this weekend...may have to go get on them again!

The closest town to the part of the ranch we were on is Dumas.

Have to be very careful hunting quail in snow and ice. If you break up a covey, and then go after the singles, sometimes they can't get back together, which makes it very easy for them to freeze to death or be picked off by a predator. Especially later in the day as the sun goes down, I don't think the morning would be too bad unless it's icy or just extremely cold and you're chasing down every single you can find.

Seen that happen in New Mexico, hunters hunting during a snow storm with lots of birds, then 1 week after and hardly any. They did not kill them all I believe they froze.

The heavy snowfall is what kills them. They cannot eat for days on end and it's freezing cold. I'd rather have them in my freezer than die from hypothermia!

It has to be extremely cold, with A LOT of ice and snow before they die of hypothermia if they're coveyed up. You know how they die of hypothermia quicker? If they've been broken up and don't have the body heat of the covey and the security of the covey to protect them against predators. They'll live longer in 6"+ of snow if they're coveyed up than they will in 2"+ if they've been broken up, especially if they've been broken up and hunted.

Exactly. If you hunt them in snow and especially hunt the singles, the mortality rate raises like crazy.

cinch man in case you have not figured it out he is only interested in the size of the gut pile.

About 15 years ago had an amazing hunt in about 4 inches of snow. came back a week latter and that part of the ranch we had hunted in snow had very few birds. pasture that we had not hunted had lots of birds. Maybe just an accident but I saw it.

I realized it a long time ago, I was just trying to help him and the bird population out

His pics look more like a dove shoot than quail hunt, at least put the dogs in the tailgate pic....I mean they did most of the work....

In all honesty, this forum is the only upland forum that I get on where guys seem to care more about shooting as many birds as possible, rather than enjoying walking a field behind a good bird dog and witnessing one of the coolest animals do what they're bred and trained to do. You go look at some of these other forums and there are awesome write ups, stories, and pictures taken of some really cool hunts, some may end in a limit of pheasant or sharptail (3 birds apiece by the way), then you get on here and it's all about how many birds you can fit in your vest. And all these claims of "oh there was a minimum of 20 birds in every covey and at least 30+ birds in every covey of blues so shooting 3-4 birds and chasing singles won't hurt them at all!"

....um, first off

I hunted South Dakota for the first week of November, since then I've hunted quail in Texas every single weekend except for Thanksgiving weekend (bad weather), I've seen 88 coveys, around 52 of them pointed, there MIGHT have been 20-25 of those coveys have somewhere around 20 birds, and I've seen 4 coveys of blues, none of which had more than 20-25 birds. So it's incredible that almost every covey guys find on here are at least 20 or 30 bird coveys. This is the first year in forever we've had a great population of birds and guys are just wearing them out, 1 guy on here had a 5 man limit in 1 day, another 75 birds in a day, piles of birds in tailgates etc. These aren't migratory birds where we get more come down, and next year even more birds migrate down. What we got is what we got. We have to hope we get good weather and the right conditions for birds to even be huntable period! Much less burning up barrels every hunt. And I get I'm more conservative than most, and I know the state has set the limit to 15 birds per day, which is absolutely stupid and needs to be dropped to 10.


Not singling you out by any means TxPanhandler, looks like you've had some fantastic hunts and have some awesome bird numbers in your area, I'm jealous of the blue quail you have, I haven't shot one yet myself. Let's see some of those dogs locked up on point though, that's the good stuff.

I'll hop down off my soap box now.

By the way, if any of you think I'm some old timer who is bitching at the younger guys, you're wrong, I'm 27.

Well since none of yall know me on a personal level or what my overall goals or objectives are on the places I hunt, I'll just act like none of that was said and go quail hunting!