RUGGED AREAS STILL RIPE FOR QUAIL AND CHUKAR HUNTING.

Byline: Jim Niemiec Staff Writer

HESPERIA - Upland game bird hunters heading to foothill and desert regions of Southern California in hopes of busting a covey of quail or flushing a hard holding chukar have until January 25.

The recent heavy rains won't make finding a covey of birds much easier but there is a pretty large population to hunt.

The high desert regions of the Mojave Desert are holding good numbers of valley quail, a fair population of Gambel's quail and, even though most of the chukar have split off into smaller coveys, there are still birds to be shot for those willing to walk along some of the rugged higher mountains between Victorville and Barstow.

Harold Horner, outfitter for High Desert Guide Service based out of Victorville, reports that pretty good quail hunting is available for hunters working the rugged terrain southwest of Kramer Junction.

``We are seeing some good numbers of valley quail at higher elevations, along with a few smaller coveys of Gambel's quail,'' Horner said. ``Just before the rains we busted into one covey of top knotchers that numbered close to 75 birds and that's a lot of quail for anywhere in the desert.''

According to Horner, quail hunters should plan to spend the entire day in the field moving from spot to spot while calling and looking for birds. He also suggests that if there is a live spring in the area to walk wide circles around it to possibly bump a covey holding nearby.

Those terrible wild fires burned thousands of acres of prime quail habitat and even though some of the adult birds might have survived, hunting prospects in the burned areas are dismal. Even if there were areas that didn't burn to the ground, access to huntable land has been made difficult because of washed out roads and mudslides. Steeper, unburned brush-covered hills on the back side of the San Bernardino Mountains, off Hwy. 18, are holding some birds in the more densely covered canyons. A pointing dog is required to locate these hard holding quail and it would be a good idea to bring a dog that will be able to find and retrieve a downed bird to hand because of the thickness of ground cover.

Even though San Diego County was hit hard by wild fires, there are a number of public shooting spots that were not affected. Access is by foot to most good spots in the southern portion of the Cleveland National Forest and expect to hike in at least a couple miles to find huntable coveys of quail.

On a recent hunt, my son, Brook, and I and our two labs hunted the lower portions of the Cleveland National Forest just inside the Riverside County line. We jumped one covey of about 35 valley quail in some thick willows along a dry creek bed. The covey doubled back over our heads as one quail fell and the rest of the covey headed for a patch of sumac across the gully. My yellow lab Timber pushed through the thick brush and flushed a half-dozen singles while Brook worked as stopper for birds heading back into the canyon.

We only managed a few birds out of the covey, but it made for an enjoyable traditional Christmas hunt.

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Photo:

Harold Horner, outfitter for High Desert Guide Service, holds up a game strap of valley quail bagged during a late fall hunt southwest of Kramer Junction. Quail hunters will have to work hard to find big coveys of quail, but there should be some good gunning though the end of the season.

Jim Niemiec/Special to the Daily News