Well I finally got back 60° right now in the dark is way better than where I was

I have been finishing up rabbits for the last three hours. I was lucky enough to get and invite from my buddy which I normally do every year to hunt in the panhandle. It's a relatively small place and we don't use dogs so first bird that drops quit shooting and walk straight to them. Flushed a ton of birds relatively speaking to our recent numbers in the last 2 1/2 days. To add interest in between covies cottontails are running everywhere. Even with walking directly at a hit bird we still managed to not find five in the 2 1/2 days even though we were probably 2 feet from them. Finished the trip with 13 recovered birds and 23 cottontail. If I had trust in doing a follow up shot and finding both birds could have doubled that number. Just a blast to be on birds again though. We are looking at heading to West Texas in two weeks after blues even though I flushed one covey this morning and was the first I have seen their numbers are starting to rebound for blues as well. Camping in a tent with lows in the low teens was a bit interesting but with the fly closed and I butane heater going was actually hot at times with the gear I have. Was a heck of a memorable trip for sure!

I realized from walking the sandhills till my back and legs were about to give out I did not take many pictures but it least here's a few

The first picture was from the first hour and a half I forget how much I love shooting my Ithaca 16 gauge bottom load bottom eject it's a quail killer. Only had ten rounds with me though an switched to the 12. I will probably only take that 16 gauge for quail from now on.

to bad about not finding the birds

Yea 5 lost was between the tree of us at least for lost birds. Really frustrating when you know you're within a yard or two of them and they blended in so well you still cannot find them. I still don't think bobs disappear on the ground as bad as blues though. One really made me upset looked for twenty min took my eye off just a sec as a second small group flushed right behind me after the shot. I must have walked right past them.