First Quail Hunt of the Season

[twodog max]

Waaay back in the early 70's before the quail decline I had a college roommate that lived in western Arkansas. He was a big bird hunter and I frequently went home with him on weekends to bird hunt with him. We would walk from his house with his 2 dogs. Always limited out on wild birds and more often than not would get limits of ducks jump shooting them on farm ponds during the bird hunt. Those days for quail and ducks are long gone.
We weren't to sporting in our younger days shot 12 gauges but when you are 19-20 years old and expected to pay our own way you only had one all purpose gun. LOL

 

[AzShooter]

One of the things I truly miss is hunting with dogs and quail hunting. In Jersey dogs were very important. My dad always had English Pointers and they were the best for us.

In Arizona it's quite different, you can see the quail when walking and then you go after coveys of over 100 birds. 16 was the limit for the day and they made for great dinners with friends.

I can no longer get out and hunt. My legs would be killing me too much. I remember those days and hope my son will as he gets older.

 

[Old Arkansawyer]

I have never shot pen raised birds, sort of like shooting deer standing at
the feed trough. When I lived in Oklahoma a friend who grew up in
Arlington, Va. wanted me to go shoot pen raised birds with him. My reply
was I would just go down to the local Safeway store and pay the sack boy
to throw frozen chickens off the roof and I would shoot them on the way
down. He didn't much appreciate my attempt at humor.
That is just my thinking, others may have different thoughts, which is fine.

 

[Badger Matt]

I have never shot pen raised birds, sort of like shooting deer standing at
the feed trough. When I lived in Oklahoma a friend who grew up in
Arlington, Va. wanted me to go shoot pen raised birds with him. My reply
was I would just go down to the local Safeway store and pay the sack boy
to throw frozen chickens off the roof and I would shoot them on the way
down. He didn't much appreciate my attempt at humor.
That is just my thinking, others may have different thoughts, which is fine.

Ain't about the birds, my friend. All about the dogs...and they don't care about the differences...

 

[Pistolero1911]

Best way to cook quail IMO is to remove the breasts [this is what you'll eat] place a pickled jalapeño pepper along the convex side, wrap the breast/pepper with a slice of hickory smoked bacon, keeping it in place with a toothpick, and grill over charcoal coals for 8 - 10 minutes or until the bacon is fully cooked.

A better dish is hard to find.

 

[Retired W4]

Back to Hunting Quail

Don't throw out those tiny legs and wings. A whole bunch of them in a mushroom cream sauce over rice. Yum!

 

[AzShooter]

Cook the hole bird in white wine. Don't just break off the breast.

When I was young and poor we didn't waste food.

 

[Chubbo]

Quail hunting

I would like to share this story of my quail hunting. This took place circa 1950 when the bob White quail was on Ohio's songbird list.

We lived on Dad's 32-acre retirement farm. My dad was normally a stickler for obeying rules of any kind. But felt that he deserved an occasional quail. He would say; I feed 'em all year, and deserve one now and then.

I was an avid rabbit, and pheasant hunter at that time, and when I would start out to hunt, on that little farm, my dad would say; get me a couple of Quail. Being an obedient son, I would comply with his orders, and would also get a couple for myself.

The experts of the time, in hunting magazines, proclaimed Quail, the richest meat of any fowl. They also stated that no-one could eat a quail a day for a week.

I no longer hunt wild game.

We still live on a 1acre, suburb lot, about 2mi., as the crow flies, from my dad's old farm, but hereabouts, Wildlife of any kind, has become sadly scarce.

Chubbo

 

[Golphin]

That is a lot of fun and I love hunting with dogs like that.