These practical quail hunting tips are excerpted from the article “Dan,” by Bud Temple that originally appeared in the June 2019 issue of Sporting Classics magazine.
I had frequently stopped at the little crossroads restaurant 16 miles north of my home in Wabash, Indiana. The coffee was not all that good, but the waitress was. I had talked to her on many occasions, but this was the first time she’d seen me in hunting clothes.
“Bud,” she gasped as she brought the coffee, “do you really wear a necktie when you go hunting?”
“Yes,” I answered, “it keeps you a little warmer.”
This was true as far as it went, but it was just part of the story.
My mind raced backward 25 years to a small town in southern Indiana and to a man who, until he took that final one drink of whiskey too many, was the finest dog handler, the best quail hunter and always one of the nicest persons I ever met.
I’ll call him Dan because that was not his name and because his final years were a real tragedy.
Dans Tips:
- “Well, birds like to rest up this time of day [early afternoon]. Now there’s a thicket down the road about a quarter of a mile; got lespedeza on one side. There’s water in that ditch, and I know there’s been a covey usin’ around there. Let’s go down and see if we can collect the rent.”
- “Feed and cover, that’s what you want to watch for.”
- “Late evening’s the best time of all to hunt. Later the better, right up to dark. The birds are usually feeding before going to roost; scent’s better and the dogs seem to handle better.”
In an effort to avoid detection, quail will many times try to slip past the dogs and hunters and into the area their pursuers have just vacated.
In an effort to avoid detection, quail will many times try to slip past the dogs and hunters and into the area their pursuers have just vacated.- “Birds don’t act right [in the snow]. They know you can spot ’em easy, don’t hold good, land in trees. It ain’t fair anyway. They’s only one thing worse than snow, and that’s rain. You ain’t never gonna catch me chasin’ after birds in the rain.”
- [H]awks [are] great bird-finders. Many times [Dan] would say, “Let’s stop here. I see a bird dog asettin’ up in that tree.” We would turn the dogs loose and innumerable times the birds would be near.
- “[O]ne of us is gonna be boss and it ain’t gonna be that pointer… What good is a dog that won’t mind?”
- On his land and on the land he sharecropped, Dan always left some standing grain. “Don’t cost enough to worry about,” he would observe.
- Dan would not intentionally reduce the size of a covey to less than eight or 10 birds. Many times he would say, “I’ve seen some birds around here, but I think it’s a small bunch. If the dogs point, don’t shoot unless I do.” Many times he would not fire.
- It [makes] “staunch dogs stauncher” the longer you left them pointing. Sometimes, Dan would leave the dogs standing while he rolled a cigarette.
- “[D]ogs is smarter than a lot of people…”
- “[W]henever you hunt those little quails, wear a necktie.”
This fascinating anthology showcases 38 wonderful stories from those halcyon days when sporting gentlemen pursued the noble bobwhite quail with their favorite shotguns and their elegant canine companions.
The 368-page book opens with compelling tales by the literary giants from quail hunting’s golden era, including Nash Buckingham, Robert Ruark, Havilah Babcock, Archibald Rutledge, and Horatio Bigelow. Shop Now
