Since I had to put my dog down a couple years ago I haven't done any upland hunting. This year Gambles Quail are super abundant. So I thought I'd throw the old 16ga sxs in the truck while coyote hunting. Twice coming back from a coyote stand I flushed large flocks of quail so I got the shotgun out and went after them. Well the little buggers wouldn't fly, just scurry around in the greasewood and mesquite, I could have ground sluiced a limit but I just can't get myself to do it.
I bet I followed one batch around a half mile and they wouldn't fly. How do you get them to flush without a dog. I'm new to the SW and quail with out a dog..

Whistle like a hawk and they will crouch, some hunters even twirl a kite looking thing.

Then you can get closer.

Mike

p.s. When I was much younger I hunted 9 Mile Hill just west of Albuq and also north on Indian Land. Those buggers sure can run!!!!

Here is a Calif article, hmmm?
https://www.gameandfishmag.com/editorial/a-dogless-pursuit-9-tips-to-bag-quail-without-a-dog/386211

Oscar, when it comes to blue quail and gambles all of the old rules go out the window. Anything is fair and square, even dynamite! If they don’t play fair you don’t either. Growing up on our ranch in the 50’s blues were super abundant and as kids we’d just run the old pickup through the brush until we forced the covey to fly and then go after singles, which often would hold well. But we didn’t have dogs so it was fairly common to ground sluice the birds. Amazing how hard it is to kill them on the ground! We tore up more ranch equipment doing this than most junk yards had. An alternative for you is to learn to run faster.....a lot faster....

Now I guess the statute of limitations has run out so I can tell this one on we kids. Mother liked quail that did t have shot in them so we two boys (in the 50’s) would often set out quail traps and wouldn’t take long to have enough blues to feed an army. Ever so often we’d go to a trap with a shotgun. Reach in, grab a bird, and the shooter would call “pull”. As I said earlier, with blue quail there ain’t no rules.

Thanks Joe. That put a smile on my face.

Black ducks can be just as frustrating until you get a hard freeze up. Then they get rather stupid.Most times they will circle your spread six or seven times before finding some fault so trivial you will never figure it out.

One year our creek, river and the Chesapeake Bay froze solid, but there were still a few pockets of water ducks could get into. Being young, dumb and much lighter than I am now I wanted to hunt ducks on our frozen creek, just off the Bay. I used black Tintex dye to create the illusion of a open water hole. Mixed two packs in a five gallon bucket and spread it to create a "open" area about the size of two pickups. Placed five decoys in and around it and waited. Ducks came from everywhere. Had black ducks dive bombing it the second they saw it. No calling needed at all. They would even try to get into it as the dog was retrieving the dead ducks we shot.

We had a swan try to land in it and he hit it so hard and so fast he slid right into the front of our blind. Knocked himself out. I thought he was dead until he staggered up a few minutes later. Pity he was OK. I wanted to see if he tasted as good as my uncles claimed they did. Several ducks landed on the ice and just about did the same.

When finished hunting I went into the marsh and cut a big pile of reeds and spread them over the "open" hole. The ice lasted three days before the warming weather made it unsafe to use. By then the season was just about over. I made one last trip out to the marsh and put about 250 pounds of corn out on the ice for ducks. It was gone the next morning. I wished them well in their northern migration and hope to see them next season.

If I tried, I could have killed several hundred ducks over that hole over those three days. That is until I got home. The game warden would have been the least of my problems then.

I know of people that have spread tarps in cornfields or hard water ponds to give the illusion of a pond and done well. Then again, last week something between 100s and 1000s of ducks and geese died landing in parking lots and interstate in a storm and being killed by vehicles. Ducks are so bright. But not one of them was dumb enough to even visit the pond where I was waiting for them this morning. Not one. Bummer.

I don't know what your situation is oskar, but why not get another gun dog? Hard to regret a new puppy.

I don't want to outlive another dog, losing the last one was hardest thing I've ever had to do.

Life is sometimes unfair. Those of us who've owned dogs for a long time understand it's really unfair that a human's lifespan is so much longer than a dog's. And spending a dozen or more years with them, then sending them on their final journey when it's time . . . it never gets easier.

But for me, life isn't life without bird hunting. I've now reached an age where I'm thinking that maybe my youngest dog, now 2 years old, will be my last one. That's because I wonder how much hunting I'll be able to do in my 80's, which aren't that far away. But I intend to do everything I can to make sure that I can keep on enjoying dogs and bird hunting for as long as I can.

Find a friendly shooter/hunter with a dog or two that would let you share expenses on some day hunting. I enjoy a couple of gunners working coveys together.

Went to our duck & goose hunting blind some years ago. I saw a big piece of Styrofoam floating out in it. Dang, I will have to get that out of there. About that time, the "Styrofoam" raised it
's head. It was a swan. No, I didn't shoot it.
Sam Ogle (At the time; Lewellen, NE)

I hear ya. Losing a dog sucks.

“I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time?"
Sir Walter Scott