Love the pictures and story. Wished I had taken some of the many family and friends hunts we had. I can smell the morning dew, bird dogs, bird feathers, and the gunpowder. I can hear the gathering calls, coyotes pups yep, distant trains and highway traffic, call of the geese on the wheat field, a bawling calf or neighbor feeding cattle or busting covey. Then the magic of their drumming flight on the flush. Something magic that our Grand Kids will probably never realize occured on every hunting trip.
Thanks I know your G uncle enjoyed the memories.

What an awesome thread. I've never quail hunted but I deer hunt at my buddies place in Paint Rock. There are a bunch of quail running his place. In fact, we were leaving his place a couple weeks ago and when I walked outside, a covey ran out from under his double wide trailer. They stayed close as I watched them and they finally flew off when I started moving around too much. I love Paint Rock, what beautiful country. I would love to quail hunt out there but neither one of us has a dog and neither one of us have quail hunted. We see them all the time though while we're out riding around and walking. Fantastic pictures, those are to be cherished along with the memories that were made.

I know this may be heresy, but I never cared how a dog looked while working in the field. I only cared about the results of the dogs efforts. Great thread!!

My grandfather's last surviving sibling (his youngest brother)celebrated his 90ith birthday yesterday. As we sat on his back porch, looking out over the pasture behind his house, all he wanted to talk about was bird hunts of old. A solid hour of old hunts, old dogs, and hunting partners long gone from this earth sent me back home to dig up these pics.


These pics aren't of the best quality, but they include the first bird dog that was considered "mine" and the two best hunting buddies I ever had. They were taken in the mid 70's.... just west of paint rock on a late season 3 day hunt. I was still in my teens and had gotten a small camera for christmas. First pics that were ever taken with this camera. I took alot of ribbing for "playing with that new camera", but I'm sure glad I did.












My grandfather.....he had to be in his late 60's on this hunt.....he had a slow but steady gait and could walk all day long ....get up tomorrow and do it again.












My dad....clean crazy about bird hunting......If he was following a bird dog there was no pasture to big or mountain to high. I was a snotty nosed kid full of energy, but at the end of the day, I was completely worn out. I often wondered how they hunted so hard for so long.....These were the toughest hombre's I've ever known.






another one for the bag



This is Toby....picked him out of a litter of pups that my uncle had and he became "my" first bird dog. I'd like to tell you he was a classy dog, but the fact is he just wasn't. I tried my best to class him up, but I could never get a high tail out of him. He was sloppy looking and I took my share of ribbing because of it. There were alot of things he didn't have, but he will always be special to me because of what he did have....good nose, perfect disposition,and more bird sense than any dog I've had since...retrieve to the hand (including from pond, river, or stream) and hunt all day long and ask for more at the end of the day.....on this hunt he was our only dog....3 straight days...all day......no boots...no e collars...no garmin...no need... if he didn't come...he was pointed...






his favorite thing to do was bring you 2 birds at a time....here he is pointed with a bird in his mouth..... hoping for that 2nd bird.