Southeast quail hunt might be easier than you think
A short outing on unfamiliar countryside yields all we wished for, darn it
Be cautious in what you wish for, that’s the lesson for today boys and girls.
My friend Randy Billington called early this month to say he thought we might find some quail on one of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation’s Wildlife Management Areas in Southeast Oklahoma.
He was willing to throw me in the pickup along with his two capable Brittany spaniels, Gunner and Belle, and that sounded like good company to me.
Take a look at maps of the Three Rivers, Pushmataha, and Honobia WMAs all you’ve got to sort through is tens of thousands of acres of mountains and tall pines and hundreds of miles of gravel roads. There’s not much to do but head on down there, find some birdy-looking ground, drop some capable bird dogs on the ground, and go get ya some birds: Simple, right?
We drove from Tulsa early in the morning, hunted just a few hours, and put in just enough effort to log 10,000 steps on my Fitbit. Gunner found two coveys while the younger Belle checked his work and agreed. The first covey numbered about a dozen, the second an easy 15, probably more. We dropped in for a late lunch at Boom Pa’s Smokehouse BBQ and Convenience Store in Clayton and were home by 5 p.m.
Not a bad day’s work!
Goldilocks and the three WMAs
“Only 10,000 steps and two coveys? That’s almost something to brag about,” said Wildlife Department Upland Game Biologist Tell Judkins.
I don’t like to brag, but I guess I have to admit it was a good thing that Randy and Gunner had Belle and me along for good looks and rusty shooting skills, respectively.
Southeast Oklahoma’s WMAs are not known for quail hunting like the west or southwest. Three Rivers, Pushmataha, and Honobia are not generally included in sentences with Packsaddle, Beaver River, or Sandy Sanders, but you’re reading one now.
Southeast definitely has a different look to it, but any quail hunt that finds nearly 30 birds in 10,000 steps or less anywhere in Oklahoma is not bad; not bad at all.
“You can pretty easily end up put on 6 or 7 miles and find some birds in the western units in a day,” Judkins said. “Putting on 6 or 7 miles in the mountains in Southeast is a lot harder.”
Without a whole bunch of knowledge about the mountain forests, we settled for the time-proven hunting method of pulling off a public hunting area road at a place where the group can agree, “it looks birdy.”
Judkins said we really weren’t far off the mark with that basic approach. The mosaic style management of the WMA’s, with rotating clear-cuts and burns that leave some areas freshly cleared or burned and others that have rested for two or three or four years or more, provides a sort of grid of habitats from which to select.
“It allows you to find birds and figure out sort of your Goldilocks habitat for the day, too heavy, too thin, or just right,” he said.
Three stops, two wishes
Our first stop was a bust. We pulled off the road near a mowed pasture surrounded by a mix of primarily oak with pines interspersed. My wild guess says it was burned two or more years earlier. It looked good, but the grassy cover and briars were a bit heavy on this early January 60-degree day.
We set off for a second drop with something a bit thinner in mind.
“I hope we just find some birds so the dogs can remember why they’re out here,” Billington said as we started the second run.
Sure enough, not 100 yards from the truck, Randy and I were still in chit-chat mode when I looked up and saw Gunner in a frozen position, his head turned to his right and nose parallel to the ground.
With all the speed and impact of a Nerf dart, I said, “Oh. Is Gunner on point?”
The Brittany was outside Randy’s line of sight so it took him a second to confirm ol’ Gunner wasn’t just pausing to survey the landscape.
I could have been a little quicker on the uptake, but then again Belle hadn’t noticed he was on point either—or perhaps the younger gundog hadn’t quite remembered why we were out there yet.
We slowly approached as Randy called out, “Belle, whoa, Belle whoa.” And woe we were as the quail and/or Gunner ran out of patience and we watched the covey bust out of range.
Still, it was exciting to see birds and Randy’s wish was answered. The dogs did find some real, live, wild Oklahoma quail and they remembered what the trip was all about.
I’m afraid I have to accept responsibility for the serious error in judgment on our third stop. I told Randy, “last stop you wanted the dogs to at least see birds so they could remember why they were here, this time let’s say we need to see something to remind us why we brought our guns.”
Well, sure enough, not more than 100 yards from the truck Gunner swung on point to his left and Belle sidled right on up next to him and backed his point, only just a few inches in front of him.
I flanked the area, Randy approached from behind his pups and, sure enough, the covey exploded into the air so he had perfect going-away shots and I swung my over-under 20 right to left. Perfect.
We remembered why we brought our guns. We pulled the triggers and everything.
Next time we go to Southeast Oklahoma I’ll be a little more careful and wish I could remember what it’s like to actually shoot a quail or two.