Cold weather

I once heard someone say, "Don't knock the weather. Without weather, most folks would have nothing to talk about at all". In our part of the world, we would add football, pickup trucks, quail hunting, and dogs to that list. The weatherman said yesterday that parts of all 50 states were registering temperatures below freezing, and that included Hawaii. Then this morning the weather lady was standing in Buffalo, NY where they had already received SEVEN FEET of snow. Just as an aside, have any of you ever seen an ugly weather lady? I sure as heck have not.
 Down here in the sunny south, Riverview has been no exception to the cold weather. Yesterday we set a record low for this date at 21 degrees. Now I must admit that I am normally jealous when I see a bunch of excited hunters climbing on the jeeps in the morning to enjoy a glorious day in one of God's most beautiful creations--the big piney woods of south Georgia. We had 16 jeeps pull out from the main lodge yesterday morning, and each of them had two guests going to their very own, private 250-300 acre hunting course. I did not experience the first pang of envy toward a single one of them. And the strangest thing of all to me was that they all seemed eager to get out there.
 It made me think of the line from "The Great Gatsby" that said,"the rich are not like you and me". I have come to the conclusion that Yankees are not like southerners either. I think that folks who live north of the "Smith&Wesson Line" have thicker blood and skin than we folks down here have. However, it was a great day for hunting yesterday, and today is a carbon copy, although just a shade warmer.
 One other good thing about this cold weather is that we have now experienced back to back hard, killing frosts. That will make the scenting conditions a lot better for the bird dogs. One of my guides said that one of his dogs was so good that he was going to have to tape one of his nostrils closed next week. He figures that's the only way that he can stop him from pointing two different coveys at the same time after this frost.
 I hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving. The Cox family is looking forward to having everyone home for that occasion!

Oh, the stories I coulld tell

People often say to me,"Cader, why don't you write a book of your experiences at Riverview  over the past 43 years". My simple answer is that the statute of limitations has not quite run on many of them. To put it another way,I am counting on many of the folks who will be in my stories going to that great plantation in the sky before I do. Although, I do not know why I worry so much about that because,based on my experience with them, they could not hit me if they shot at me as long as I was standing still.
 However, there is one group that I can feel free to write about as I am convinced that they are never going to die. As many of you know, we offer a discount on our base rate during the holidays to encourage families to hunt with us, and families make up 99% of our business during this time. It is the other 1% that I am writing about here.These men all hunted with me when they were still active in their businesses. Now that they are retired, they still come as a group of friends over the holidays. I termed them cheapskates years ago. Not to be outdone, they were slightly miffed with my terminology, and have named themselves"The Frugal Hunters" club. Most of these guys live north of the "Smith&Wesson" line,and can be deemed Yankees. Surprisingly for a bunch of Northerners, they can shoot pretty good.
 I have to give them this much--they do pay and on time after the leader threatens to go to a couple of their homes with a baseball bat. One of these men in the past would bring me a country ham as long as I paid for it as soon as it arrived here. Evidently, I was a day late paying him one year because the next year he claimed that the country ham store burned down. I will say that they gave me a break this year because the crustiest curmudgeon in the group failed to make the trip this year.I can guarantee you that pro shop sales will not fall off one bit due to his absence.
 I love my job, and really do enjoy my guests who become more than guests over the years. They become friends. I am proud to place the "Frugal Hunters" AKA "Cheapskates" in that group as they have been coming at this time of the year for almost 20 years now. I sure hope that they do not read this as they would be inclined to ask for the "20 year discount"!

Our first freeze of the hunting season

This has been a spectacular fall in south Georgia. We opened our quail hunting season on Oct. 17th, and have not had the first unseasonably warm day yet. As a matter of fact, we hunted many days in January of last season that were warmer than any days we have hunted in this October and November of this season. The weather man who predicts the weather like I do the stock market is now saying that we will have our first freeze of the fall on Wednesday morning,Nov.13th. Bring it on as we are ready for it ! The dogs and guides will love it as will my wife who can quit complaining about when she is going to be able to use the clothes that she has moved to her closet in preparation of colder weather.
 As we start our fourth week of hunting season, I am still trying to play myself into shape for the longer hours we spend here. I can honestly say that I totally take back all of the times that I didn't want to take a nap when I was younger. I am struggling to remember the last time that I wasn't at least kind of tired.
 Business is good this fall as we are seeing more hunters than last fall, and the hunting is great ! With apologies to the fine folks who have already visited this fall, the hunting is great,but the shooting could use some improvement. If I were giving odds, I would say that the quail are winning over the hunters in the first three weeks. Every now and then, I am fairly certain that I can hear quail giggling in the woods as I ride around the Plantation.
 Oh well, I need to get back to the old salt mines now.

First dove hunt of the fall

We have a tradition here at Riverview of having a dove hunt for all of our guides during Georgia's first of three doves seasons. The first season always is a short one,opening on Labor Day weekend and only lasting a couple of weeks. As you might imagine, it is generally hot in south Georgia at that time.Well, I participated in that hunt yesterday, and I fear that I am becoming my father.
 I can remember being amazed to hear my Dad tell me that he wasn't sure that he wanted to hunt badly enough to suffer a heat stroke, and he would often pass on the first season. This is another one of those cases where I should have listened to my father. I had enough sense to leave my sweet,old Lab in her pen because I figured the heat would be too much for her. I conveniently forgot that I am almost 64, and had to run around in the 92 degree heat and high humidity picking up my own birds.Phew, I'm glad that I did not take but two boxes of shells with me,or I might have been stupid enough to stay out there !
 Speaking of shotgun shells, I have never seen shotgun shells as difficult to purchase as they have been this summer and fall. I have heard a lot of rumors as to why, but the fact of the matter is we can't get a definite commitment from any of the major ammunition companies as to when they are going to cease making bullets and start producing shotgun shells. We are scurrying around buying 40- 50 cases here and there at retail just to make certain that we have a decent supply on hand for the start of the quail hunting season. We placed our wholesale order in late March, but the delivery date keeps getting postponed for one unbelievable tale or another.
 I have about decided to retire and live off of my life savings. What I will do on the second day, I haven't got a clue yet!

quail habitat

I read an interesting quote the other day by one of our greatest American presidents, Thomas Jefferson who said,"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everyone stands around reloading". I liked that a lot, and it kind of reminds me of our state of affairs at the moment.Thanks to our near record setting rainfall this summer, we are breaking out our brush mowers for the first time in several years. Each driver will be issued a compass and machete before heading in to the river bottom courses in case his tractor breaks down. We have waited this late to begin our woods mowing because we have such an abundant hatch of native quail, and did not want to destroy any nests if possible. However, if we do not start now, we are going to make the chicks much more susceptible to predators. It's a bit of a trade off, but we think the time is right to begin.
 We had our first harbinger of fall at the first of this week. The temperature dropped into the mid 60's, and there was almost no humidity in the air. Cader IV and I almost always ride out to the shop together to meet all of the men at 7:00 am each morning. Our dog kennels are only a couple of hundred yards from the gathering area. When we pulled up to the shop about 185 dogs were just barking to beat the band. I turned to one of the men to ask him if he knew what had them so stirred up. He said," Boss, they feel the same thing in the air that you do. They're just getting excited".
 We are all beginning to feel the anticipation, and have picked up the pace a bit here. It really hit me when our first shipment of Beretta Silver Pigeons arrived today. We made the decision to switch from the Ruger as our house guns to the Berettas this year, and will have all new rental shotguns. We figured that we could pay for one new gun this year with gas savings from having to run out to the hunting courses to replace malfunctioning shotguns. Don't get me wrong here. The Ruger is a good shotgun, but ours had gotten old, and Ruger could not replace them with new shotguns in time for the start of the 2013-2014 hunting season.
 I started this blog with a quote, and would like to end it with a quote that every
 According to the Farmer's Almanac, we are going to have a colder than normal fall and winter in the southeast. We are ready for it ! quail hunter can appreciate.One of the great outdoor writers of my lifetime,Robert Ruark, once stated,"You will rarely find a dedicated quail shot who is not a pretty good guy. He has to be a nice guy because he is performing for the benefit of the dogs,himself,and his companions,and all are experts in the detection of fraudulent behavior in the field".

We are the proud guardians of the most baby quail chicks that I have seen on Riverview in many years.. Evidently, our full court press with our mamallian trapping program this spring is really paying dividends.Of course,almost perfect timing on our rainfall and great nesting cover has been a plus also. Every time Cader IV and I leave the office to go to the sweet corn fields, I buckle my seatbelt because he slams on breaks so hard when he sees the baby quail crossing the road that my rather prominent proboscis almost goes into the windshield..
 Those of you who visit here from mid-October until Thanksgiving may well be shooting AT as many native quail as early release quail this season. For some reason, native quail are not able to read our boundary signs indicating that Riverview is a commercial hunting plantation. They are no better at sign reading than our deer are at reading the "no wildlife allowed" signs posted around our sweet corn fields courtesy of our idiotic federal government.

After abundant early spring rainfall,the clouds dried up in south Georgia for a while. We have finally received enough rainfall to begin planting food plots for the quail. We are also beginning to see some amorous couples of quail beginning to pair off, and know that nesting season is upon us. Since we had one of our best spring,controlled woods burning program in years, we just need to make certain that there is plenty of food available for the next cycle of quail on Riverview.
 We are also in the process of ordering shotgun shells for the fall. I do believe that the ammuntion makers are working overtime making bullets for pistols and assault rifles. I wish that they would get more concerned about starting up production of shotgun shells for the wing shooting public. While I am certain that we will have plenty of shells in stock, I feel much better when they are in my storage room rather than a promise that I will have them.
 I wonder how many of you know how the origin of our "gauges" in shotguns and shells began. Everyone knows that the larger the number of the gauge, the smaller the shell while the smaller the gauge,the larger the shell. This methodology began when shotshell lead equalled the the diameter of the shotgun barrel's bore size.The number of lead balls of a particular size that totaled a pound in weight determined the gauge of the shotgun. A twenty gauge shotgun would have 20 lead balls equalling one pound while a 12 gauge shotgun would have 12 balls per pound.
 After the gauge of the shotgun is selected, then the shot size needs to be chosen. In the south if we say that we are going "bird hunting", you can always assume that we are talking about quail. My personal preference on quail has always been number 8 shot. I do not shoot a 410 gauge anymore because I am not as good of a shot as I once was. Come to think of it, I'm not as good at a lot of things as I once was, but I sure am grateful to still be able to enjoy the sport of hunting. But, I digress. If I were to shoot a 410, I would go with a 6-7.5 shot size.
 Stay tuned for more thoughts later on as the summer progresses. We will  talk about bird dogs,shotguns,and funny hunting stories in the future.