# Mountain Quail Cred



## Airborne (May 29, 2009)

In my quest to take all of the US Upland Game Bird species, it was time to try Mountain Quail. 

Mountain Quail are the largest of the 6 US quail species (Bobwhite, California/Valley, Gambel's, Mountain, Scaled, and Mearns). They are primarily found in the mountains of northern California and southern Oregon. There is not much info out there on where to find these illusive birds and I had to put in a lot of research to find areas. I cold called LOT'S of folks trying to gather information; small town hardware/sporting goods stores, biologists, foresters, land conservancies, forest service offices, and even some birders (I don't lie to them about being a hunter but I don't broadcast it either). I thought I had a good area nailed down as multiple folks pointed me to one area. 

My buddy and I hit the road with 6 dogs in tow heading to California. No lead ammo here, all steel, and as a nonresident you can't even buy ammo in the state so we brought plenty. We searched and searched in our 'hot tip' area and could not find anything--nothing at all. It was a frustrating search and we figured this trip may not be a success. We ended up going with plan B and relocated an hour away to another area that didn't have as solid of info but we did have a couple of tips. Throughout our searching we did a mix of driving the roads and running dogs throughout the day in likely habitat (mix manzanita brush, pines, oaks, semi open). We lucked into a road covey in this new area and the chase was on. These birds live in some steep stuff and the shots can be difficult. They also run like crazy, but we had good dogs that did well. My friend and I were both able to kill our quail and accomplish the mission.

My take away from hunting these birds is that your best bet is to find a likely area through intensive research and drive around logging roads trying to locate a road covey--especially early in the morning when the quail are moving around. Plan on several days of hunting to harvest this species. They are a very localized bird that lives in 'micro habitat'. We talked to some locals and the common hunting method is to cover country in ATVs or dirt bikes to find road coveys. When quail are spotted, run and gun the covey and hunt the broken up birds. Once a covey is found; cover the immediate area with dogs to find other coveys. We did this and found other coveys to hunt once the road covey had escaped. It's not a purist way but it seemed to work.

I don't think that I will be back to Californistan anytime soon to do this hunt again but it was an adventure and there really is nothing like driving hundreds and hundreds of miles just to kill a small bird :grin:


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## Wire (Nov 2, 2017)

Congrats on the birds. Sounds like a great hunt/road trip.


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## Airborne (May 29, 2009)

I can't for the life of me get this pictures straight--I have tried uploading at all angles and it doesn't work--sorry folks -O,-


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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

Awesome job - great write up!


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## blackdog (Sep 11, 2007)

Nice work! I don't frequent this forum very much so I don't know if you asked for advise here or not but I could have pointed you to some places where I have shot them. It's in SoCal though and it's been awhile because I used lead last time I was there. You could have gotten into Californias too, very close to the Mtn quail spots.


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## blackdog (Sep 11, 2007)

Oh btw, you could have maybe gotten into some Bandtailed Pigeons too and knocked those off your list.


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## Steve G (Nov 29, 2016)

Glad you found them and congratulations. Had I known you were after them I could have helped.


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## Airborne (May 29, 2009)

Dang guys! I honestly didn't think to ask on this forum as I figured nobody would know anything about them--guess I should have reached out.

Oh well--we got it done but it was pretty stressful there for a bit.

I need to save those pigeon species to give me something to hunt when I am old and retired and can't hike any more!

The Himalayan Snow**** is still top of the list--I've seen them, Iv'e shot at them, still have not bagged one--They are my White Whale!


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## gdog (Sep 13, 2007)

Airborne said:


> The Himalayan Snow**** is still top of the list--I've seen them, Iv'e shot at them, still have not bagged one--They are my White Whale!


...next year they are in trouble


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

Nice job. Sorry you had to stoop to California :smile:


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## AF CYN (Mar 19, 2009)

Spending that much time and money to check a little bird off a list is ridiculous.... and totally awesome. Congrats!


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## richard rouleau (Apr 12, 2008)

Congrats airborne on mountain quail . they are tough bird to hunt i know when I live southern California we ran to few when hunting valley quail


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

First time I ever saw a bobwhite quail I could not believe how big they were... huge compared to our california quail. 

How do the mountain quail compare to bobwhites?


-DallanC


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## Airborne (May 29, 2009)

DallanC said:


> First time I ever saw a bobwhite quail I could not believe how big they were... huge compared to our california quail.
> 
> How do the mountain quail compare to bobwhites?
> 
> -DallanC


They are the largest of the North American quail species--bigger than a bobwhite. I would say that an adult Mountain Quail is about the size of an average Hungarian Partridge


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

Great read. Glad to see you had success. 

I never knew that non residents were unable to buy ammo in California. That’s really odd... but hey, that’s California!


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## tigerpincer (Dec 5, 2009)

Nice work Man! I did a bunch of research the last few years as well. Think I have a few places to try but haven't been able to make the trip yet.


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