Fox gets the Bobs

[AmarilloMike]

Took my Fox XE 16 out to chase Bobwhite Wednesday with my shooting student Joe Wood. Wonderful day, the scenting condions were good in the afternoon. We moved eight covies and several singles. Here is the Fox with the hens (and Bob), the first game I have taken with it. Joe took the picture.



Here is a picture Joe took of a covey rise. I am shooting the Fox.



Best,

Mike

[birdawg]

Looks like a fun shot mike.
You know I love that 16 gauge XE. I do need to find one.
Jess

[ASavageFox]

looks like a great day and looks like you had some success!! Jealous here... hard to find quail these days and pheasants are long gone in my parts....

[AmarilloMike]

Thanks Jess, I am watching for one for you. If you come across a sixteen please let me know.

Thanks Drew. I have first hand accounts of huge pheasant numbers in North Western Kansas. I went to Southwest Kansas a couple of weeks ago and saw many pheasant. They have huge swaths of CRP the public can hunt on.

Best,

Mike

[ASavageFox]

Mike,

Yea I have thinking about making a weekend trip out to KS or NE to pheasant hunt... abut 10 years ago you could still find them in reasonable numbers around St. Louis but not any more... further north in MO and hit and miss throughout where ppl have managed them. CRP has been a REAL boon to MO bird hunting... I have recently jumped a few small covies of quail on my family's farm. One of the few good decisions our government has made in many years.

[mc15426378]

Anyone with wild quail to hunt is a lucky fella in my opinion. Here in Missippi wild birds are extremely scarce and if there are any their location is kept quiet. Other than loss of habitat I believe the main culprits are fire ants and coyotes. Anyone else have any thoughts about the decline of the Bobs?

Mike

[AmarilloMike]

Mike my shooting student Joe Wood read an article about just that. It said the number one nest raiders were racoons, then skunks, then possums, and coyotes were a distant fourth. Joe quoted it as saying that we had more of those varmints than ever before. The author believed that those varmints were the root cause of the decline. But there are more theories out there about the cause of the bobwhite decline than how to balance the national budget.

We had about 7 or 8 years here where the quail had just about disappeared. When they came back you couldn't find a bird dog puppy for two hundred miles, much less a green broke dog. They came back about 1988. I don't know where they went and I don't know what brought them back. I am just grateful.

Jess I meant to say "If you see a twenty XE please let me know."

[Stan Hillis]

Mike,

Given the part of Texas you are in, could the decline have been caused/abetted by a sustained drought? I've always heard and read that water, or the lack of it, is the no. 1 contributing factor to quail populations there.

Stan

[AmarilloMike]

Stan that is what Rollo and Guthrie say. Carryover population and rainfall in the Spring and early Summer. But it often doesn't follow that pattern. I don't remember if we had a drought then or not. If it lasted as long as the Bobwhite drought it lasted a long time.

Best,

Mike

[birdawg]

Mike If I run across a 20 gauge XE You will know about it. It could happen I ran across what seems to be an original 26" straight stocked early A grade 12 bore with good case color for the sum of $600
BTW I am in North Central Kansas right now and the roosters are far and few between. Even the locals are wondering what happened to the birds. I am heading west so I will let you know if it gets more production. A far cry from South Dakota last week.
Best
Jess

[AmarilloMike]

Thanks for the report Jess and I hope you get into the birds to the West. Congrats on the A Grade 12. If you get too stocked up on them I will take the next one you find at that price.
Best,

Mike

[Fin2Feather]

Just got back from four days' hunting in my home coverts in what we call northwest Kansas; actually it's probably between north central and northwest. I can just tell you that we saw HUGE numbers of pheasants and a great many quail, that the shooting was excellent, and that we all will be eating game far into the winter. It's the best I've seen it in MANY years.

[birdawg]

f2f Thant sounds about right. The area we were in had some poorly timed hail I am told. We will get back after the deer hunt calms down.
I just hope you have saved some

[ASavageFox]

Just got back from four days' hunting in my home coverts in what we call northwest Kansas; actually it's probably between north central and northwest. I can just tell you that we saw HUGE numbers of pheasants and a great many quail, that the shooting was excellent, and that we all will be eating game far into the winter. It's the best I've seen it in MANY years.

Got pics?? Congrats on a great hunt!

[Fin2Feather]

Got pics?? Congrats on a great hunt!

Thanks. Even though my camera was in the bag the whole time I'm sorry to say I never shot a single picture !