Shooting etiquette

BirdNut

Senior Member
I got to thinking about shooting etiquette. I used to do the majority of my hunting alone, or on preserves with some work friends. With them, we always observed the rules of shooting etiquette, and often would only have 2 at the time walk in on a point, both men observing their shooting lanes etc. and never crossing into the other man's territory.

Then I started doing a good bit of hunting in Mexico and Texas with some Texans who in every other respect were gentlemen, but they don't seem to care about shooting etiquette. On the first day hunting with them down in Mexico, I refrained from quite a few shots since I thought they were the other fellow's shot. About mid day they commented on this, and how odd it was for me not to shoot at times. We had a discussion about shooting etiquette and they basically said they don't observe it, except obviously on unsafe shots, or low birds.

I am curious what the other folks on the board do most of the time. I also wondered if it was just these Texans (3 of them are related to one another and one is a life-long friend of the family), or if everyone out there hunts like that.
 

namrettes

Senior Member
What do you do if the bird you are tracking turns and goes into the other shooters "lane" ? What if the whole covey goes into the other persons "lane" ? I am safe 1st, but if birds get up we shoot at them, no matter whose "lane"
 

redneck_billcollector

Purveyor Of Fine Spirits
BirdNut, I am with you, that is how I do it. No more than two shooters at a time and you shoot only your part of the clock. As for the question about the birds not flying in your area....well, you just don't shoot. You can normally tell where the birds will go....the wind and the cover, I can call where the birds are going to go alot of times and we approach the point with that in mind. I might not get it right all the time, but I do most the time, especially with wild birds, look for the escape cover.
 

coveyrise

Senior Member
I found the same thing out about some Texas quail hunters but you have to remember that they don't have trees like we do in Ga. The shooting is more open and a lot of the hunting is Blue Quail hunting.Almost like driven pheasant hunting. Most people cuss blues in Texas. I love them and find them to be a great challenge.
I am with you on only 2 shooters at one time.Never should there be more than that. Some of the videos I have seen on this forum scare me with all the guns slinging in all directions. The best way to get scratched from the invite list is to shoot over someone or across in front of someone. You can replace just about everything in your hunting string but human lives. No quail anywhere or anyplace is worth that.
 

Jim P

Senior Member
I agree with Jay and coveyrise, a bird is not worth shooting a person or a dog, it's the breaks of the hunt, but usually everyone get's some shooting.
 

Setter Jax

Senior Member
I agree with Jay and coveyrise, a bird is not worth shooting a person or a dog, it's the breaks of the hunt, but usually everyone get's some shooting.

x 2 , agree with what Jim said about safety for the pups and hunters. I went out Monday with my two sons and I left the gun in the truck. Just worked the dogs and let the boys shoot. It was a fun morning just working the dogs and spending time with my busy college aged sons. We don't get to many of those moments anymore.
 

TailCrackin

Senior Member
whether quail, rabbit or duck hunting...you shouldnt be shooting across someone.
 

BirdNut

Senior Member
Let me be clear-these fellows aren't shooting 90 degrees down the firing line. But they do shoot birds out in front of someone else. More by habit than anything else, I pull off or don't mount if the birds get up and go more than 45 degrees from my front.

They routinely hunt with 3-4 shooters on a point.

On the hunts I have been on in Texas and Mexico, there is a fair amount of mesquite and often if you are on the flank you either get zero shooting or all the shooting on a covey rise, depending on which way the birds go. Down in Mexico, there were 30+ covey days, so I did not even notice a lack of shooting if you followed the etiquette rules. I felt better doing it. In fact, I even enjoyed a little spectating from time to time.

On the last hunt I went on (December, 2012) we were in South Texas and it was a "tough" year on the birds. We still saw some really big coveys, but the guide limited us to 3 shooters at a time, and only three birds a covey. In years past it was 4 birds a covey and 4 shooters. I thought this "moderation" was interesting. We were seeing 12-15 coveys a morning and a few in the late, late afternoon. It was too hot much past 11 am for the dogs, and dry as a bone.

I like hunting the blue quail. They tend to treat them differently out there as coveyrise mentions. Bobwhites are given a certain respect and there is protocol. With Blues, anything goes. They usually don't even use dogs, but drive around till you see them feeding, everyone dismounts and its more like a drive to get the birds up in shooting range. If you ever go, there are some tactics to get more shooting to one side or the other. We will often wheel on them, with the outside men doing all the hustling and the pivot man doesn't have to work up a sweat and gets a lot of the shooting. Its often snap shooting in rough rocky brush, and its a lot of fun-if you ever get the chance to do it, don't turn your nose up.

I have seen blue quail down in Mexico just run pointers to death-they would scuttle down the cattle trails through the rocky ground with low brush, and the dogs would point, move up point, move up, lose the birds because they double back. I imagine it could ruin many an inexperienced quail dog. We would usually find them in broken country while pursuing bobwhites. After a while, you would get to see the places where your mix of blue to bob coveys might approach 50% based on the terrain. They seem to like the rougher, less agricultural country.
 

TailCrackin

Senior Member
Let me be clear-these fellows aren't shooting 90 degrees down the firing line. But they do shoot birds out in front of someone else. More by habit than anything else, I pull off or don't mount if the birds get up and go more than 45 degrees from my front.

They routinely hunt with 3-4 shooters on a point.

On the hunts I have been on in Texas and Mexico, there is a fair amount of mesquite and often if you are on the flank you either get zero shooting or all the shooting on a covey rise, depending on which way the birds go. Down in Mexico, there were 30+ covey days, so I did not even notice a lack of shooting if you followed the etiquette rules. I felt better doing it. In fact, I even enjoyed a little spectating from time to time.

On the last hunt I went on (December, 2012) we were in South Texas and it was a "tough" year on the birds. We still saw some really big coveys, but the guide limited us to 3 shooters at a time, and only three birds a covey. In years past it was 4 birds a covey and 4 shooters. I thought this "moderation" was interesting. We were seeing 12-15 coveys a morning and a few in the late, late afternoon. It was too hot much past 11 am for the dogs, and dry as a bone.

I like hunting the blue quail. They tend to treat them differently out there as coveyrise mentions. Bobwhites are given a certain respect and there is protocol. With Blues, anything goes. They usually don't even use dogs, but drive around till you see them feeding, everyone dismounts and its more like a drive to get the birds up in shooting range. If you ever go, there are some tactics to get more shooting to one side or the other. We will often wheel on them, with the outside men doing all the hustling and the pivot man doesn't have to work up a sweat and gets a lot of the shooting. Its often snap shooting in rough rocky brush, and its a lot of fun-if you ever get the chance to do it, don't turn your nose up.

I have seen blue quail down in Mexico just run pointers to death-they would scuttle down the cattle trails through the rocky ground with low brush, and the dogs would point, move up point, move up, lose the birds because they double back. I imagine it could ruin many an inexperienced quail dog. We would usually find them in broken country while pursuing bobwhites. After a while, you would get to see the places where your mix of blue to bob coveys might approach 50% based on the terrain. They seem to like the rougher, less agricultural country.

by "across" i mean greater than 45 degrees just as you said.
 

coveyrise

Senior Member
I ran hunts for a ranch around Midland area for a few weeks every year and my dogs got real good at wranglin the blues. The more dogs on the ground the more confused you could get them and they would hold. People always looked at me funny when I showed up with my Nikes on in the morning. They quickly realized why I was wearing them.
 
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