We moved 10 coveys this morning including the one we drove up. I would have run out of film if it had been back in the old days. I met with ET and Chris E at ET's pasture in Wharton county. Here are only a few pictures from our hunt.

This was our first covey with ET in a hurry to get to the birds.




Chris brought Clifford. This was Clifford's first covey, but not his last. This was a big covey. The shooting sucked on this covey rise. Chris explained the covey rise as, "Just like popcorn popping."




ET brought Zorro. He did a wonderful job on retrieving hard to find birds. Here's Zorro:



It's difficult for me to pass up posting birds in flight, that I got with my Cannon point and shoot. Here's one:




I included this picture to show you the size of the fire ant beds. You will high center them with your vehicle. Look in the lower right hand corner.



Clifford backing, I think:



Clifford backing Cookie:




I threw this picture in as an epilog. Cris brought his 6 month old female pup named Sandy. You can't see her, but you can see the CC. This was one of the first birds shot over her. Clifford found the last covey while I was loading Cookie. They put Sandy on that covey also.



We were never out of birds. We didn't hunt singles but got numerous single points on the way to other coveys. The birds crops were full of weed seed the size of milo. I think birds came into the pasture from surrounding plowed field.

I would have given up the Super Bowl for this hunt.

Nice pics and nice stories. Keep 'em coming!

BTW, how many acres are you on in Wharton?

Great story and thanks for sharing!

There are 1,300 acres in the total pasture. We probably hunted a little more than a section. This was my fourth invite. We found 8, 2, 5, and the 10 Sunday, on each hunt. They coveys contained from 8 to what looked like 15 birds yesterday. I don't care to shoot anymore, if we have at least two shooters. I did not carry a gun. ET likes to eat quail. They got a pretty good mess.

ET had walked the pasture with Zorro Saturday while hunting snipe. I think he killed 13 snipe. He never flushed a covey of quail.

ET puts his pictures on The Snipe Hunters Forum. Here's one of his threads from one of the previous hunts. They post their pictures full size on there.


http://thesnipehuntersforum.yuku.com/topic/2983/t/Bill-Oxner-s-Pointer-Cracker.html

13 snipe? Hmmm. I love to hunt those little buggers.

Nice pics Bill looks like some good dog work.

A little side note; We found 10 coveys in 3 hours. It could have been 9, or it could have been 11.

I've heard reports of 30 to 40 coveys in a day. (I almost wrote, "I hear reports of 30 to 40 coveys in a day.) I don't doubt that they found that many coveys, but I wonder how they kept count. I call a day 5 hours. We were going mostly to the front. We pointed birds between obvious covey rises. I remember pointing several singles, where we had not produced a covey. Cookie pointed what I called our seventh covey. Cookie does not point doves. Doves got up. Cookie roaded into several singles in that area.

Would you call that a covey? How do you keep count when you point a tight covey when you're headed in the direction of a scattered covey flush? It's not that important to me. All three dogs did fine, and we bumped Cookie around to the front, when it seemed as if she was working a covey behind us.

This was two years ago. The birds are about the same this year. There is a lot less cover.

very nice

bill is ETs pastures one of many mangaged strictly for quail in the area?

it would be intersting to know what kind of work he has done to the habitat and how long ago he started it

how is jim willis doing this year on his pasture

Thanks for some fine pics showing good cover (must be no grazing) in that pasture. Zorro is a good looking lab; is he english? Sure brings up some memories of times past.

This was the first time I met Jim. I have no idea about how the second picture got into that thread. It must have been a Photobucket mix up. It's not Jim and Dixi.

http://www.texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1357593/Is_three_a_pair#Post1357593

I looked this up for the Super Bowl thread on OT.

Awesome!

Bill - man that sounds like a total blast. Looks like the dogs had plenty of humidity to play with.

On the 30+ covey days, I have been splitting the difference when I am not sure if a bigger group of birds landed together but then relocated 30 to 60 yards from when they went down or if it was a fresh covey. You have to stop and have a couple of guys get a count at lunch or you probably wont even be close at the end of day. Mixed in Blues make it a lot harder when coveys are jumping up 75 yards out in waves and are flying 130 yards+ on the first flush. Working on some pics, drone and go pro video from a great weekend hunt; had 58 points/rises videoed so that helps with recall as well.

Another great day. What a sport we have..

Congratulations.

I just found this picture in a different folder. I think it was taken on the same day.

Bill, great pics. I find all the fireant mounds very interesting. Pretty much disproves common theory that fire ants are responsible for the quail leaving east Texas.

Times have changed over the last several years. Found 5 coveys on the last outing.

5 coveys these days is a productive hunt.

Our record on that pasture was 16 coveys pointed in under 3 hours. We never hunted singles.

That is awesome! For those of us who are afflicted, watching good dogs work wild birds is an itch that nothing else scratches...

Awesome, wish I could find 5 coveys of birds. IT aint what it used to be that's for sure. Forrest

Cool pics man - I don't like to admit jealousy but I'm jealous. Hunted all day near Dumas on Monday and didn't see a bird.

Yes they have.
There use to be what I called the magic bush in one pasture. I was great for young dogs, and always held a covey. Just turn them loose in the general direction, and you knew they were going to be on birds. It hasn't been magic for the last 3 years. Your lucky if you even see one small covey in that field now.