Well, I've been looking at hunting quail (with my air rifle) since I got my license this year and the season started. I've looked and looked and can never seem to find any (at least any that are out when I've got my gun). That is until the last day of 2011! As it happens, I was actually out hunting cottontails that day with my .22 Cal Benjiman Marauder. it was right around 3:30pm and the weather was warm and the wind was fairly calm. I was about 30 yards from a cottontail that I had spotted from a ways off and stalked to within shooting range. I lined up my shot and scored with an instant kill head shot (sorry, no photos of the rabbits, I forgot to snap those). I went down to retrieve it and was hearing some quail calling about 100 yards away or so. So I picked up my rabbit, put it in my the jumbo sized ziploc I keep in my back pack and worked my way back up to a spot a little further away than I had just shot from since it gave me a better vantage point and concealed my presence much better. I sat and waited for about 20 to 25 minutes. What seemed like it was a really, really long wait was not even half an hour's time, but finally I see some movement at the edge of a small clearing. I brought out the binoculars and sure enough, a covey of about 20 to 25 California Quail were emerging from the brush. My heart was going a thousand miles a minute since this was my first actual opportunity to possibly get some quail. I sat and watched them for about 5 minutes while I slowly got into a good, steady shooting position. When I figured most in the covey were visible, I picked out the largest bird, which happened to be a female, ranged it at 41 yards and got it in my crosshairs. It took me a minute to settle my breathing and I exhaled, stopped and eased back on the trigger. THWAP! Instantly down! At that point, many of the birds flew off or ran back into the brush, but a few stuck around and started eating again. So I lined up the largest male I saw and fired. THWAP! Another one instantly down! The birds startled, flew about another 10 yards away and proceeded to start eating again. I was thrilled that I had just shot my second quail!
I then ranged the nearest visible male, which was at around 56 yards, lined up and fired. However, in the excitement of the moment I didn't take the needed time to line up the shot steady enough and I just missed
. I saw a few feathers fly, but didn't hear an impact. So I must have just grazed the feathers. After that shot, I didn't get another chance at them. Here's the clearest photo I was able to take with my iphone:
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11 downloads After another 30 minutes, I did get another cottontail with a clean head shot (again, no photo of the rabbit) but didn't see any more quail. So the total for the day was (2) California Quail and (2) Cottontails. I was happy though that I had gotten my first (2) quail on the last day of the year and I look forward to preparing them up as a small, but tasty dinner for my Wife and Daughter.
