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My son and I went on our first ever quail hunt this past Saturday. Neither of us had ever been bird hunting so to be honest, we weren’t sure what to expect.
When we arrived at the South Fork Hunting Preserve, we headed straight for the 5 stand to shoot some clays and get our guns warmed up. We met my brother-in-law and nephew at the 5 stand and we all took a round of 10 clays. Between the 4 of us, we only hit a total of 6 out of 40. Not great, but no need to lie about it right? When you don’t shoot or hunt birds very often, you can’t expect to be any good without some practice.
After warming up our guns, we headed down to the hunting fields and met our guide and his dog Ruger. He had already set the field with 20 quail for us and he also told us that there were a couple of pheasants from a hunt the day before that were out there somewhere and were fair game.
As we approached the first section of the field, Ruger almost immediately was on point and ready to get a bird in the air for us. My nephew and brother-in-law were in front for this bird and me and my son were in back. The bird was shewed up in the air and it was one of the pheasants from the day before. Funny thing is, as quick as it got in the air, Ruger jumped up and grabbed it by it’s right leg. Our guide scolded Ruger, took the bird from him and then reset it and let us get a real shot at it. My nephew took the bird down from about 20 yards with his 16 gauge single shot.
We moved on a little bit and Ruger again pointed out a couple of quail that had been set. One was shewed up and flew out just to my right. I aimed and made the perfect shot to nab the first quail of the day for our hunt.
Toward the end of the day, our guide took us to a thicket that had been undisturbed for about a week. He told us there would probably be a good covey of quail in it. When our guides other dog, Watson, got on point, we all got set and then all of a sudden there were birds coming out of there like clowns getting out of the car at the circus. We all fired and each got at least one bird. My son and I got 2 each.
Watson and Ruger we able to retrieve most of the birds from that covey but we know there were at least one of two that they couldn’t find.
All total for the day, we brought in 16 quail and 1 pheasant. Not bad for 4 guys who had never been bird hunting.
My nephew and son got processing duty when we got back to camp. I ended up smoking our share of the quail on my smoker yesterday. I did a marinade made up of Italian Dressing, Soy Sauce and Honey. They marinated for about 18 hours and then I wrapped them in bacon before putting them on the smoker. We ate them for dinner last night and they were very good.
I included a couple of photos. One is from our first hunting break showing some of the quail and the pheasant. The other is of the birds after about an hour on the smoker.
I’m always thankful that the LORD provides for our needs and especially for providing these particular birds for our wonderful family meal. I’m also very thankful for the time that I got to spend with my son, nephew and brother-in-law.
Sounds like a GREAT day in the Field! Sure brings back some good memories. I like spending time behind a GREAT Bird Dog. There’s a good place down below Macon called Barksdale, we spent many a Saturday in January chasing Quail and eating Good food at the lodge. Gods County for sure!
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