First bird of the year

[cornhusker]

Got my first rooster this morning

Walked my windbreak and quite a few jumped up on the other side of the trees.

Only one I got a clear shot at.

I'll go back out later and see if I can get some more 

[fordy]

............When I was growing up in west Tx , uncle was a pumper on a large ranch south of Midland,Tx . We'd hunt both doves and Blue Quail in season , My preferred shooter was a 12ga auto , full choke and #71\2 shot . Those quail would huddle under a mesquite bush and then just explode , flying in all directions sometimes I'd get two but mostly one bird per covey .

.............Currently , it'll cost a person $1,000 to $2,000 just to hunt on a ranch , per gun per season . , fordy

[poppy]

Dad used a .22 rifle to hunt rabbits and squirrels because he didn't like digging shot out of the meat. He was good at it and rarely missed a rabbit. He took me and my 410 shotgun with him when I was little. Many times I saw him knock a quail down with that .22. I grew to love hunting rabbits with a rifle as I got older but I never got as good as he was. I also shot at a lot of quail with a rifle and never did hit one.

[Ozarks Tom]

Years ago I used to goose hunt in SE Texas rice fields. One morning I winged one, and it glided down into a field on the other side of the road. Well, the bar ditch on my side of the road had a plank across it, but I had to wade the one on the other side. I'd sort of seen where it came down, but when I got there it wasn't there, geese can run even when they can't fly. I noticed a guy up at a corner of the field on the road motioning to me where the bird was, so I headed in that direction. Before I'd gotten far, a covey of quail jumped up right in front of me. I leveled my gun on one, released the safety, and just before I pulled the trigger thought "quail season is over", so I didn't shoot. I found the bird where the guy had directed me, and since I was fairly close I walked over to thank him. You guessed it, he was a game warden. He said "you showed mighty good restraint there, and I couldn't blame you for shooting, but I sure would have written you up if you had".

[joebill]

When I was a boy our game warden had a wooden leg, couldn't get around so good in the field any more, so he didn't really spend any time there. He was a Methodist and would just pause on the church steps after services when everybody was lighting up their smokes and ask all of them to look at their hunting or fishing license, depending on the season, then write down the numbers. He would put those names and numbers on his monthly report as to who all he had checked.

He caught the other denominations elsewhere in town or at the legion hall, where they had the 25 cent beer vending machine. VERY economical on his state vehicle not to be driving all over the place to do his job.... …...Joe