Most avid quail hunters will never see a Mearns, and even if you do find them there probably won't be many to hunt. Hunter success in Arizona averages around two birds per day, which is not very many when you consider that most who go to the trouble of pursuing them are extremely serious about hunting quail.

I greatly enjoy hunting Mearns for a number of reasons, not the least of which is being in the country where they live. But I have no desire whatsoever to fill my bag with those beautiful little birds. One or two per day is enough for me.

Mountain
The mountain quail is to the wingshooter what the mountain sheep is to the big game hunter. He is big and beautiful; he can be tough to intercept with a swarm of shot, but once down, is easy on the palette. And you'll have to climb--5,000 feet in many cases--in order to bring him to bag.

Weighing close to three-quarters of a pound and measuring a foot from beak to tail, the mountain quail is larger than his five cousins. He may also be the toughest to hunt, both physically and logistically.

California and Oregon are the Meccas for this beautiful bird, but Nevada and Washington claim a few as well. Like its California and Gambel cousins, the mountain quail has a plume of feathers growing from the top of its head, but it is straight rather than shaped like a teardrop as on the other two.

On a recent trip, I managed to pull off a feat of rare proportion just to say I had done something few others have accomplished: I bagged my first 10 birds with shotshells of different sizes. After bagging four birds with the .410 barrels of my Weatherby Athena, I switched over to the 28-gauge barrels. With a couple more birds in the bag I switched to the 20-gauge barrels.

GUNS AND AMMO

The Weatherby Athena over/under I used had barrels in .410, 28-gauge and 20-gauge, but with the exception of once in the series of hunts, the 20-gauge barrels never got used. I started each hunt with the .410 and after taking my limit of birds with it on the first day, I sometimes switched to the 28-gauge for the next day's hunt. In the .410, I mostly used Federal and Remington 3-inch ammo loaded with 11/16 ounces of No. 7 1/2 and 8 shot. Of the few quail I took with the 28-gauge, most fell victim to either the Remington Premier STS target load with 3/4-ounce of No. 8 shot or the Federal Premium field load with the same amount of 7 1/2 shot.

With one bird left to take, I borrowed a 12-gauge Weatherby SAS and finished out my limit. (And to you letter-writing readers out there, yes, I was extremely careful about not mixing the wrong shells with the wrong barrel.)

Scaled
When hunting the scaled quail, a good pair of running shoes may not be quite as important as a good dog and a good gun, but the latter two are not likely to be of much benefit unless you can move fast enough to bust up the covey. Once you accomplish that, the singles might hold long enough for you to catch your breath and get within range. And then again, they might not.

I hate to admit this in print, but the scaled quail has my number. I recall a hunt with Murph Murray and his German shorthairs Fritz and Hans. While hunting Gambel quail during our first outing, I enjoyed one of those rare days when it was impossible for me to miss. But the first day of scalie hunting brought me back to earth with a thud. I might as well have been shooting blanks.

The easy shots suddenly became extremely difficult and the difficult shots proved impossible. I eventually won some battles and ended up with a few birds in the pocket of my hunting vest, but the scalies won the war.