First Arizona Quail Hunt

Made first trip to Arizona, hunted lots of different parts of the state, from central to right against the Mexican border. Got a good mix of Mearns, Gambels and scalies. It is a really strong desert bird crop this year and the Mearns were down, so we booked an outfitter for the day we hunted Mearns and focused on desert quail the other days. The first day when we hunted further north, really cool to be chasing gambels in seven varieties of cactus in 3 to 5 inches of snow (it didn't keep the desert birds from running at all). All birds taken on public land (ONX is awesome by the way). We had a bunch of young dogs, some that didn't hold well and some that don't honor so great, but had some light bulbs go off as well so its all good.
Mearns were very jumpy and if you pushed them out in the open, they acted more like scalies than bobwhites, leaving before you got there or jumping up 45 to 50 yards out. On the other hand, if you could find blues in the clump grass they have in southern AZ, they held really well. Scenery in far southern AZ made for a pretty incredible setting. Son drove down to hunt with us from Denver, so made trip that much more special. Took my old arse about four days to recover, some tough up and down and at 5,500ft to boot. Pics below with a short video to follow.

Here is the video. If you have a nice, newer monitor, click the HD gear at the bottom and switch it to 1440 resolution to be able to see the birds better etc.

https://youtu.be/XBzzvAsdlDI&vq=hd1080

Looks like it was worth the drive.

Looks like you were near Patagonia

Beautiful

That's awesome. Glad you got to share it with your son.

Thanks for posting! Looks like a great time.

Nice trip!

That's awesome. I have hunted down there many times but haven't been in the last five years. Love the blue on the mearns beak and their talons are insane for such a little bird.

Great pics!

I'll just leave this right here.

I am getting a mature male mounted. It is crazy how deep the mearns dig for tubers. I had read about them, but when the dogs point a fresh dig area and you see it in person, it is crazy a quail can do that. Pic below doesn't do the talons justice

Nice! I had a male and female mounted on a piece of oak tree I brought back one trip specifically for that purpose.

Is that the Lunarita guys? We hunt with them in NM every year. Good guys and great dogs.