Pro Staff Blog

The Quail Hunt with the MacCarty’s by Taylor Rather

I had hunted and harvested many animals such as squirrel, bear, turkey, and deer. But I had never hunted Quail before.

One day after some unsuccessful turkey hunting, Dr.MacCarty asked if I would like to join Him and Paul on some Quail hunting. I delightfully said yes and we decided when to meet.

A couple of days later, we were getting ready to Quail hunt. I met Dr. MacCarty and Paul at their house and then we loaded up the truck. Then we headed to Laurel Grove Shooting Preserve for an Upland Quail hunt in Sutherlin, Va.

As soon as we arrived I knew we were going to have a great hunt! We met the owner of the preserve, Harriett Clark, and the guides and also their pointer dogs.

We drove over to a field across the road and gathered our equipment. I watched as Dr.MacCarty and Paul got ready and assembled the guns. I was using an old Winchester 1400 semi automatic that used to belong to my Grandpa Rather.

We walked over to the guides as they let the dogs out of the box and then we followed them to start the hunt.

We walked up the middle of the field then we spread out to the left. The dogs looked in the section of grass ahead and soon pointed out the first bird. I walked beside the guide and he quickly pointed to where the bird would be. We walked slowly beside the dog and then he kicked the bird in the air. I immediately followed the bird and shot. The bird fell and the dog quickly retrieved it then brought it back. When the guide showed me the quail he explained that the female quails will have brown heads while the males will have white stripes on their heads. I looked at my first quail and I had shot a female quail.

We walked and pointed out many birds and succeeded in all of the shots. We had one bird that flew up right at my feet. I reacted so quickly that I ended up shooting the bird 3ft. from the tip of my barrel.

We had shot many birds and had some great laughs the whole time. We took a break and let the dogs rest.

While letting the dogs and the hunters take a break, Harriett decided to bring her English Spaniel for the next round. She told me that quail hunting with her dog will be much different and a little bit quicker. The English Spaniel is trained to run in a figure ‘8’ in the field and then they scare the bird, so you have to be ready at all times and have great reflexes to shoot quickly.

I told her I love challenges when it comes to hunting and I was ready to learn. So after a few minutes and grabbing another box of shells, we headed back into the field. I watched as the dog made its figure 8 and then finally flushed the bird. I quickly followed but missed. The bird flew to the right more and was soon from my range and into Paul’s. Paul quickly shot the bird and the dog retrieved it. I congratulated Paul on his awesome shot and then we went back to hunting. The dog did a perfect job of finding and flushing the birds for us. Paul and Dr.MacCarty shot some birds and I shot a few also. We had a great time and some great laughs along the way.
The guides loaded their dogs and Harriett loaded her Spaniel. We drove to Harriett’s house and we talked to her for a few minutes.

After talking and thanking Harriett for letting me join Dr.MacCarty and Paul on the quail hunt and telling her how nice the Preserve and the guides are, then we left. We arrived at the MacCarty’s house and we immediately went and cleaned the birds. We cleaned the 27 quail in a matter of no time.  We evenly divided the birds and I thanked Dr. MacCarty and Paul for letting me join them on the very fun hunt.

I would like to thank the MacCarty’s for taking me on the hunt; I had a great time and learned a lot about Quail hunting and also Harriett Clark for letting me hunt on the Preserve.[wpg_thumb height=”200″ width=”180″]

Kevin Paulson

Kevin Paulson is the Founder and CEO of HuntingLife.com. His passion for Hunting began at the age of 5 hunting alongside of his father. Kevin has followed his dreams through outfitting, conservation work, videography and hunting trips around the world.

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