Mearns and gambels hunting in the southwest

Last January, Betsy and I spent time in the country south of Tucson and I fell in love with it. The vast rolling oak savannas, beautiful desert and one million acres of public land with its three species of native quail are a bird hunter’s dream.
 
A friend, Rolly Reidhead, and I recently returned from a trip to the area both to hunt and to get out of the Minnesota winter. In years past, Rolly hunted there with his father and was excited to go again.

Jeff Hintz is a good friend and Minnesota neighbor and he and his wife, Carol, migrate to Tucson every year. He is a serious dog guy and avid bird hunter and works his experienced pointers on quail several days a week during, before and after the quail season. He provided invaluable help to Rolly and me.

My favorite Arizona quail is the mearns—over gambels and scaled. Compared to last year’s mearns population, the numbers are dramatically lower and we truly hunted for them more than we found them. We had better success with gambels quail when, for several days, we hunted their cover. 
 
Rolly and I brought seven dogs and all performed quite well, considering the conditions. Traveling 1,600 miles from their snowy kennels and freezing temperatures to sunny, warm, dry Arizona was a big change. But it was fun to see young dogs in new country and witness their first contacts with the various quail.

We didn’t find as many birds as we hoped but had a great trip nonetheless.  As Arnold Swartzenneger said in The Terminator:  “I’ll be back!”