The best parts of bird hunting are the friends and the memories. Sometime in the mid-seventies, Sharon and I were invited to fill a spot in a joint lease held by a group of husband/wife hunters that included a number of management level people with Shell Oil. The lease was just west of Yoakum, Texas and the area still held enough covies of quail to make the trips interesting. I was way over my class with the experience and expertise of this group of hunters ....Dick and Phylis Nelson, Dan and Helen Roe, Ken and Peggy Cloninger and we were frequently joined by Earl and Hazle Pearson (retired from Arthur Anderson) and an assortment of Pointers, Brittany Spaniels (as they were called back then) and an occasional Settter. Dick, and his wife Phylis, are both outstanding wing shots. Phyllis holds the record, to my knowledge, of the number of birds downed on a single covey rise ... five!

I can still recall moments of most of those hunts. I was new to this level of hunting, coming from early trips in East Texas when one covey a day was a bonanza! Dan seemed to be the ‘guide’ on most of these outings and he was a quail hunting machine. I almost felt like each find initiated a “forced march”! A good day was measured by the kill count at the end of the day. Some of us however got more thrill out of the dog work than how many and how quick the limits came. In fact, a couple of bang-up finds by one of my dogs was enough to fill the next month with memories, and still do so today.

Sharing that feeling with Dick, we started meeting on weekends just west of Rosenberg on property owned by Earl. These became the best of those times and solidified a lifelong friendship and learning experience for me. Dick and I, and frequently Earl, spent many a Sunday afternoon with a surprising number of quail in the rolling grassland and dense Trinity river bottom ...then we were back home by 8 PM for the Sunday night movie on TV ... that is, when we didn’t get my Suburban stuck in the gumbo clay that once ‘swallowed’ the truck. It was a long walk to the highway that night and a tough call to the girls to pick us up!

Eventually, our friend Joe Coleman invited us to hunt at his ranch south of Ramirez, between Hebronville and Falfurrias. Joe’s customized VW hunting vehicle sputtered out before our group, five of us in all, left the camp that morning and we spent the first four hours getting a spare part installed. Finally, at about 11:30 AM, we took off and were back by 3:00 PM with five limits ... and it took that long only because we limited one shooter to each covie rise! I tried to keep a covey tab but they were coming so fast I lost count. On the trip home, Dick and I decided we wanted our own place in that country! Dos Jefes became the fulfillment of that dream.

Dick had a number of hunting friends, all quality gentlemen, who shared his passion for quail and bird dogs. George Helland of Cameron Iron Works was, and is still, one of those who join Dick each year. That annual trip will take place next week and I have no doubt that it will be another memorable trip. He shared his pre-hunt note to George with me and gave me permission to share it ....

Dear George- as engineers, we both suffer a love for the classics, and whoa- the fact that advances can happen. My favorite gun in my cabinet is a Winchester Model 21 20 ga. Skeet gun, acquired in 53, always will be. Traded a wonderful Browning A5 for it and it never let me down. Many a quail.

Then came my (yours) introduction to So TX and the perceived need for more pellets. Came the deadliest gun I ever shot, my Browning Superlight O/U 12 ga bored skeet & IC, straight stock. If I might say so- a miss was a rarity! At least that is how I remember it. But it kicked!

So finally I joined Sam Walton as a Remington 1100 fan, soft on the body and deadly enough. Hope to get at least a dozen birds this year and it will be the weapon of choice.

But remember my classic leanings, and I will repeat this old story. RCA building in 1958 and weekly noon window shopping at the then fabulous Abercrombie Fitch, 10 stories on Madison Ave, the 10th devoted to guns with a large section devoted to estate liquidations. Twas a perfect matched pair of Purdeys @ $3200 that I visited for weeks on end. A tough hill to climb at $760/month, 3 kids. So I had to pass- wish I could forget, but I drooled over those doubles, and wish they were mine. Time marches on.

Have a great trip friends!

Early Freeze!

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I do not recall seeing a forecast freeze this early in South Texas though I suspect someone will challenge that successfully! Tonight's (12.4.09) forecast:

Freeze Warning
Special Weather Statement
Hazardous Weather Outlook

Tonight: Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming clear, with a low around 26.
North wind between 6 and 8 mph.

This will most likely insure that any possible nesting activity will be over for quail this year! Just hope there is enough feed and cover to get them through! Time will tell!