Nobody picked Tuesday morning to hunt, too many folks make decisions based on long range weather forecasts. So, I took advantage of the open time to try out the West Cabin field. Last season that field was barely hunted due to a monocrop of Partridge Pea. Partridge Pea is a nice plant in small spots or narrow strips, but gets too thick and woody to walk through or even allow birds to take flight if it is in solid blocks.
This season I worked to control the partridge pea and have a better mix of little blue, foxtail, mixed in with the pea. I set out a big covey of 13 quail toward the center and Hildy and I went to flush them out. We had a nice rise, with every bird taking flight at once, I missed the three that took off toward the east with both shots. I had no idea where the remaining ten had flown.
We worked around for the singles I hadn’t marked down and found three of which I harvested one, good flyers darting away. My marked birds started calling the others and I was able to locate a few on the way to flush them out of the middle timber stand. Picked up a two of those and chased and missed and chased and hit the ones in the woods. Had two fly to the back prairie field, which is in the best shape that it ever has been.
After a couple of hours and 25 shots, Hildy and I came back with 8 of the 13. The west cabin field is prime for a challenging quail hunt.
