You'll find Gambel's and scaled quail mixed together in many areas of the Grand Canyon State in places like Unit 30A near the San Bernardino Valley, Pat Hills, Elfrida, Kansas Settlement, McNeal and areas south of Bowie. Photo by Bob Robb.

The conversation occurred nearly 25 years ago, but I remember it as if it were yesterday.

"Bobby, you need to come over here as soon as you can. The quail hatch was really good, and we're smashing them!" said DuWane Adams of San Manuel.

I had met DuWane the previous fall when he guided me to my first-ever Coues deer. As he is today, DuWane was then one of the state's preeminent hunting guides for elk, mule deer, Coues deer and quail. On our deer hunt we shared our love for upland bird hunting, so when he called I couldn't get the truck loaded fast enough.

There were Gambel's quail everywhere we went, and we torched them up. Since that time -- including the 15 years I lived and guided in Alaska -- I came back to Arizona on a regular basis to hunt both deer and quail with DuWane. Now that I live here, we hunt quail together every year in southern Arizona. Despite the state's rapid growth, there are still millions of public-land acres to explore.

3 PREREQUISITES FOR SUCCESS
The caveat today is that hunting success depends on several factors.

•  First, quail numbers are very dependent on rainfall.

  "In years of good rains, quail numbers are high," said Adams. "Drought years see skimpy numbers. Still, even in drought years the dedicated quail hunter can find good hunting if he works at it."



•  Second, you have to be willing to work at it.

  "There are more quail hunters today than ever before, though it is rare to find a ton of people out and about, especially on weekdays," said the guide. "The hunter who is willing to cover a lot of ground both scouting and when hunting, and get away from the more popular roads and parking areas, is the one most likely to find big numbers of birds."



•  Third, you have to be able to shoot your shotgun.

  "All the Arizona quail species flush fast and fly hard, making difficult targets," said Adams. "A couple of trips to the skeet and trap range before season to get your shooting skills back up to snuff makes all the sense in the world."

3 PRIMARY SPECIES
Quail hunters in Arizona spend the majority of their time pursuing three species of quail -- Gambel's, scaled, also called blue quail, and Mearns'. A fourth, the California, also called valley quail, gets little hunting pressure because it's primarily found only along the Little Colorado River drainage near Springerville. The masked bobwhite, a fifth species, is federally listed as an endangered species, found only on the Buenas Aires Refuge southwest of Tucson.

The Gambel's quail enjoys the widest distribution in Arizona by far. Found throughout in nearly two-thirds of the state, it's hunted in open desert country where they are more apt to run or flush than hold for a dog.

Scaled quail are found in the open country of southeastern Arizona, and are more likely to run than hold.

Mearns' quail are the largest and most striking of the state's quail, and the most secretive. They mostly live in southern Arizona, have long scythe-shaped claws for digging and hold well for pointing dogs.

Habitat Preferences
Each species of quail has its own habitat preferences. For example, Gambel's quail are found throughout the Sonoran and Mojave deserts upward in elevation through semi-desert grassland and chaparral to the edges of piñon-juniper woodland and pine forest areas.

The scaled quail like semi-desert grasslands and the Chihuahuan desert, preferring open plains and foothills. Mearns' quail live mostly in oak woodlands and oak savannas in the southeastern portions of the state where grass cover is abundant enough to conceal its presence.