AZ Quail Today Podcast

Episode #56 Bird Dog Boot Camp: Conversation with Nate Istrate

• Ryan Rice

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We catch up with Nate Istrate and get real about what changes when you send a bird dog to a serious trainer. We trade stories from the field and lay out a simple rule that makes every new hunter and dog handler better: only give commands you can enforce.
• Nate’s English pointer Sam and what a refresher tune-up looks like
• Dropping off a dog at boot camp with Guy Molicone Sr. in Sierra Vista
• Building a reliable whoa and why timing matters
• How steadiness to release changes quail hunting
• Why pros get fast results and the horse training connection
• Living with an older dog and balancing family life
• Thinking through a future dog, breeds, and household compromises
• Using planted birds for offseason reps and where to start in Arizona
• First Mearns quail hunt recap and what tough days teach
• Arizona Game and Fish Commission meetings and uncertainty around rule changes

To help further our work, please consider making a tax-deductible gift. Visit us online at azquailtoday.com and be sure to follow us on social media for the latest information and updates.


Connect with us: Email us at ryan@azquailtoday.com —we'd love to hear from you! 
Follow us on Instagram at @azquailtoday

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Arizona Quail Today, your go-to podcast for all things quail hunting in Arizona. We're dedicated to educating and inspiring the next generation of quail hunters. A big thanks to our supporters and proud partners. Arizona Outdoor Adventures, Fathers in the Field, and Marsupial Gear. Thanks for tuning in, and now let's dive in today's program.

SPEAKER_01

Alright, guys, welcome back to another episode. This is a special one. Okay. Cause in the studio we have Nate Estratte. A few moments later. It's time to level up.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you for the introduction.

SPEAKER_01

Are you operating with main character energy today?

SPEAKER_00

Always. Always.

SPEAKER_01

There you go. Dude, this is fun. So yeah, Nate, I don't know. Nate's been a while. Nate, why don't you catch the listeners up? I mean, you were the big co-host founder. Um I think you were you on episode one?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, we started it.

SPEAKER_01

I listened to um It's our best episode, by the way. Really?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Was it? And then I say says the guy who helped start it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And then the other one was a one with Kirby talking about all the Myrns stuff.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we've been dropping some gold. I mean, I've actually no. All the numbers have tanked, bro. Have they really? No. I I honestly I don't even keep track. You should you should look and see. You should tell our listeners. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

When when we were doing it, and even after, there was about a about a hundred, eighty to a hundred weekly listeners, which is really good. Or downloads. Yeah. Which yeah, I think that's about you know well, and that was just I think on one platform.

Dropping A Dog At Boot Camp

SPEAKER_01

That was or is that all platforms? I think it was all of them. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. I don't know. There's like five or six different platforms, and so anyway, I got happy right here. So um Nate's back in the studio. This is a special impromptu, did not plan on podcast. And I think a big part of that, I mean, because you were helping me troubleshoot. I have a I have an episode scheduled, a series, a little series maybe with the Molicone guys. So I've been doing that. And uh Guy Jr. just said you bring your dog down. So uh uh I'm bringing the my dog down to I'm sorry, not Guy Junior, Guy Senior down in down in like Southeastern, yeah. When I'm taking Happy to Dog Camp.

SPEAKER_00

He told me to bring mine too, or no. Uh oh, sorry. No, that's what I thought you were saying. I already did it. You're taking Happy to dog boot camp.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'm taking him to dog boot camp, but it's for six weeks.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. That's like what Sam did. Is that what Sam did? Yeah, he did like a refresher.

SPEAKER_01

Sam did really good. Oh, yeah. That really did tune him up. Because I think we I think I hunted with him after that tune-up. We did the quail camp. And I was like, dude, he's he's good.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Like it did. It was a good tune-up. Yeah. And he gave him something to do for the summer.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so I'm excited about that. I'm doing that in this episode.

SPEAKER_00

So wait, when are you doing that though?

SPEAKER_01

You know, I I gotta look at the calendar. So I'm talking to Guy real soon, and we're gonna figure out some time to do that. But those of you that are listening in, like, Nate, why don't you tell them a little bit about what you experienced since you're you're the I I went down there, I think I've hung out with him a couple times and did like like half day clinics and day clinics with them. But I never did the whole drop off your dog and go home. Was it was it kind of sad?

SPEAKER_00

Like it was kind of sad.

SPEAKER_01

Was it like take care of my boy?

SPEAKER_00

Uh yeah, but I got I knew Guy, he was in good hands. Yeah. Guy cares a lot about every dog that's there.

SPEAKER_01

Which guy are you talking about? Guy Sr. Okay. I went down in a lot of guys. I know.

SPEAKER_00

You know, a lot of guys. Guy Sr. in Sierra Vista.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, Sierra Vista, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

South South Arizona.

SPEAKER_01

Basically borderland country. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's never I've never been there before. But yeah, he you he takes good care of the dogs. So I was a little sad, but I knew Sam was gonna do real well. He had a lot of other dogs there that he was working on. And he had he has guys that come and help him. You know that video he sent me. What's his name was in that uh Robert Poor. Yeah, Robert Poor. So he he's got other gentlemen who help him with the training.

SPEAKER_01

So do you want me to tell you what it was like or just yeah, why don't you tell us what it was like and then like you know I mean I can speak to the result because I saw before and after, you know, your dog still. But yeah, tell us what it was like. And I don't even know, like, what all did you guys work on?

SPEAKER_00

Uh yeah, when I went there, I told him Sam just needs a refresher on and Sam is tell our listeners Sam is an English pointer. Yeah, how old is he? Ten years.

SPEAKER_01

He's 10. Dude looks good for 10.

SPEAKER_00

He does, and he moves good for 10 too. Yeah, he's just got a low, low gas tank. So who what I've seen with these older dogs is they move like younger dogs, but they just once they're tired, they're done for the day. Yeah. So those just be slow down pretty quick, and and they're not as fast, but he still gets the job done. So 10-year-old pointer, and I told Guy that he knows how to point and he retrieves sometimes. Yeah. And then I wanted to work on him with uh his woe call. You know, just teaching him how to stop getting them to stop. Yeah, because he, you know, they get a little excited. And he did all of that, and and he sent me some videos, and it I was a little jealous because I was like, guy looks like a better, like he knows how to use my dog better than I do.

SPEAKER_01

Well, he he should, because that's what he does. Yeah, but I'm really glad. I don't know if you have any of those videos that you could share them with me. Do you want me to send it because I could I could upload them to you know Azqua's Instagram? I think that'd be really cool.

SPEAKER_00

I can send I'll send you. He he sent me a few videos of Sam, and it was I'd never seen Sam so well trained. And this was right away within the first few days of him having him. He he had him, he had him on point, sat on point, bird flushed, didn't break until after the shot. Oh my god, bird goes down, picks up the bird and retrieves it without he didn't even give him a command. He did it like he was all instinct. So he did real good and he trained him, uh like walked him a little bit, or what do they call it? Road road roading roaded him. Um not too much. Just a little because he could tell he was old, so he had a he he didn't take him too hard. Yeah, he saw Sam was getting like he would he would give him a couple day breaks because he's like, Okay, that that old man's pootered out, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You know, it's interesting because uh people don't like this, but it's true. So like I always I grew up around horses um from the time I was about well, I mean, from from the time I was probably about it, eight, nine, ten years old around horses, and you learn to ride them and you learn to get comfortable around horses. So a horse, as soon as you get on it, they're sizing you up. And if you are in a beginner rider, the horse knows. If you're an intermediate rider, the horse knows. If you're advanced, the horse will know. Now, obviously, you might need a little bit of time on the horse, but you don't need like a day. Like, literally in five minutes, that horse has got you figured out. So, what happens, I think, in the even I think there's translation of what you just said into the dog world because Sam knows Guy Sr. is not playing around.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Probably. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I have to figure this out. Oh, yeah. And I need to be on my A game because he ex he ain't gonna let me cheat nothing.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. You know what I mean? Yeah, and I think Guy Sr. can pick up on on you know the dog and the mistakes and and what he's doing right and what he's doing wrong way faster than I am.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Well, and I think that's what like what horses will do is they'll they'll figure out ways to if they're stubborn, you know, like if they're stubborn or or just kind of a little bit of catankerous, they're gonna basically figure out what what how far can I take you?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you know, I I think dogs do the same thing.

SPEAKER_01

And and then so it's like if you rein them just to the left and they don't want to go, well, an experienced rider will like go a little harder and be like, get come on. I said go left.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But the inexperienced rider's like, Oh, you don't want to go left? Okay, we'll just go where you want to go. And the horse is like, Okay, yeah, I know who's riding me. Yep, you know, and I think you know, and I'm talking about this. I was telling Guy just the other day, I was like, Man, I really feel like there's a lot of connection between the dog training world and the horse training world. And he said, You don't need to think, it's fact. There is like all of the dog training world came out of the horse world, so that's when you say, Whoa, that's a horse command. Yeah, yeah. Broke, yeah, uh we we broke in that horse. Well, is the dog broke or not? Yeah, that's the same language. So, I mean, obviously, you're not saying your dog giddy up, you know, but there is a lot of connections there, so yeah, I don't know, just interesting. So you you got did you get did you see Sam perform at a level that you didn't even know was there? Yes, for sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Well, Sam's stubborn dog, and I think as a new hunter, I'm trying to learn how to work him properly. I don't want to give him too many commands, don't want to not give him enough commands, and so I probably let him get away with more than he should. Yeah. And I think guy, like you said, he wasn't playing around, he wasn't messing around. Yeah, and Sam probably realized that pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I mean, guy's gonna do the same thing with my dog. I know he will. He's gonna take it and be like, like, and that's gonna be the that I got I got I imagine that's gotta be the frustrating thing for owners, though.

SPEAKER_00

It's like, well, he doesn't do that for me, you know, like oh yeah, and but Sam did good, and I I was talking to Guy about it and just asking him how to do that. And so he told me, you know, if you and you told me this too, like if you give a command, like finish that command and then it enforce that command too.

Older Dogs And Family Life

SPEAKER_01

Don't give a command, you cannot enforce. Yeah, that's one of my things I've always said, but I remember I've said it around Guy, and guy's like, You're you're right, like you don't want to give commands you can't enforce, because they will take it as I can do what I want. Yep, you know, yes, but I think I think it's good parenting too. It's exactly the thing, you know. Like if you put too much rules on kids, you know, they'll just uh rebel. Yeah, uh that's exactly right. But I think they need rules, but you need to be able to enforce those rules, or you just look like a hypocrite, you know. So anyway, okay. So what is up with Sam? Like he's 10. How old is your baby girl now? Seven months. Seven months is like Sam's status like fading away. He was like from cool dog of the house to like you're nothing but a old stinky fart dog.

SPEAKER_00

He's like third place in the house, right? So so does your wife still like Sam? She likes Sam, but not as much anymore. And Sam is now in her eyes, like, yeah, a stinky dog. And and is he good with the kiddo? Oh, yeah. He's so friendly, he's so gentle. And gentle, and he's he keeps to himself. And so he's not shown any kind of like aggression or possessive. No, and I don't even think he's shown jealousy. I've heard dogs they can get pretty jealous. Yeah, Zona would be deathly jealous, she would be dangerous, and and yeah, like visible, and they that the dog is visibly seeing less attention towards them, they they change their behavior. Sam is I think what helps is his age. He's kind of he's chilled out. He's like, Yeah, whatever. So what makes it probably harder for Carolyn and Sam is it's not the hunting season, so I can't do as much. I I still walk him and train him, but you know, we're not going hunting for a night or a day or a weekend or whatever. So he's not getting as much attention now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But uh, we should do we should do a dog clinic together with Guy Molicone Jr. if we can real soon. That would be awesome. And then um, I mean, you can come down there with me if you want when I drop off happy. I'm gonna drop him off for six weeks, and so um, I mean, I and I might go down there and visit them in the middle of the training, you know, to see how things go and just to pick up and learn. But yeah, so if you wanted to, we could do that. That'd be cool.

SPEAKER_00

Bring Sam. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

What's your summer skip?

SPEAKER_00

No, I'm kidding. No, I'm joking. He's like, I'm back. I'm going back to booth camp. Go back. He did good, but guy said he did real good.

SPEAKER_01

Did he drop weight and all that? Just a few pounds. Yeah, and he probably could have he needed it, probably.

SPEAKER_00

Just a few pounds, yeah, three or four pounds. And he was just getting into shape. He got into shape, and guy he said he ate a lot too. Guy was feeding him a lot. It's because of his uh, he was on the that steroid all these dogs are on when they have valley fever, predatizone. Yeah, yeah, and that makes them really hungry and really thirsty. Oh wow.

Building A Steady Dog To Release

SPEAKER_01

And so they eat more because it's their body's kind of operating on a higher pace, but uh yeah, you know, so I you know, I think the the cool thing is is that we have developed a neat relationship with the Molicones, you know, like Guy Jr. I don't know if you saw any of the pictures videos or any of the pictures. Did you see some of those? It was really cool. The do you see all the balloons that were out there? It was like it was like sunrise, like we show up in a dark field and they're like like lighting like balloons, you know, big yeah. It was it was kind of an epic experience, it was pretty cool, but there was a lot of dogs out there. We had I think we had like 10 dogs or something like that, and Guy Jr. did such a great job, but yeah, so yeah, I'm excited. I'm gonna be uh taking Happy over to Sierra Vista, which will be really cool sometime in the near future, and then what's what's the goal with that?

SPEAKER_00

You think he needs it just to you know tune up?

SPEAKER_01

Just just to go to the I want him steady, steady to release, like not steady to shot, not steady to flush, you know, like to release to go on point until I say go fetch your or go hunt it up, yeah, or whatever. So um, I really want to get there with him because and zona, I I I it was really interesting. I talked to Guy about it. He's like, just bring me one dog at a time. I just want to focus on wanting one dog, not two. So I was like, okay. So um, yeah, I'm gonna do that with Happy. And the other way, the other way I thought about it is like Happy's the youngest, so he's got like the most life. Of course, Zona's not that old, but still, I was just like, uh, start young. Yeah. So, and I and I feel like I can probably control Zona a little better, but I think Happy's gonna just I think he's gonna accelerate way past Zona. I think so too. Yeah, I think he's just another kind of level that's starting to come up where I'm like, oh my gosh. I hate to say this, Zona, but I think you're gonna get passed up.

SPEAKER_00

She's a great dog, too.

SPEAKER_01

She's a great dog, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Just happy. I think what impresses me the most is where he's at already. Experience with his how young he is.

SPEAKER_01

Three years old, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So it's gonna be kind of fun to see, and I think he'll be an easy dog. Not an easy dog, but you know, and I don't know. I'm not I'm not I think he'll be an easy dog. I think he'll he shouldn't, he shouldn't be, he's not like a major problem dog. You know, I think he's Happy's very um he's very receptive. Like once you like course correct him, you know, but he breaks out of here in the office. I've seen that lately.

SPEAKER_00

He whole book it.

SPEAKER_01

Book it. I'm talking like if I don't have an e-collar on him, he'll break my command and just like he's gone for like five minutes, seven minutes, ten minutes, just blowing around the campus full throttle. He's busting cubbies, he's going crazy.

SPEAKER_00

He knows what's happening.

Next Dog Decisions And Breed Talk

SPEAKER_01

I told, yeah, he does, and I told Guy Jr. He's like, you know, it's like you get what you get, you know, like if you have a uh a real high-energy, hardworking hunting dog, that's the price you're gonna pay. He's like, you know, I'd rather him do that than not even ever want to run. Yeah, like he wants to run, he wants to go see birds and find birds. Yeah, that's true. You know, I thought that's cool, that's a good way. So um back to you and Sam. So is there a dog in the horizons after Sam, or is it kind of like just don't even talk about it?

SPEAKER_00

Uh, I mean, we I would want to. I told Carolyn realistically, too. We just invested all this money in dog gear.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Collars. There you go. Now you're shotgun, kennels. I I got all the equipment. You can't just give up. I got all the equipment. Yeah, I told her I'm not giving. I have all this gear and knowledge and experience that I could put towards another dog. She said, and I'm trying to, you know, I it's a compromise. Everything's a compromise in marriage. You're like, you're trying to see what what you could push. She's like, if we get another dog, she'd want a female dog. Okay, that's fair. That's great. Because Sam's well, it I don't know. I maybe this isn't clear, but Sam's not neutered, so that was a challenge with Carolyn. So he likes to mark stuff. A lot of these dogs that aren't neutered like to mark.

SPEAKER_01

We tried to we tried to hook up Zona and and and Sam a couple of times.

SPEAKER_00

I wish it would have worked too. It would have been really good hunting dogs.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I mean, first of all, Zona was difficult, and Sam was he I thought he did it, he did his best.

SPEAKER_00

He did his best. He did his best. And I don't know how that works in the dog breeding world.

SPEAKER_01

If there's dogs that like if Zona just didn't prefer Sam whatsoever, and that's that, or if you have to help them or whatever, but well, like Annie said, um, my daughter-in-law soon to be, she said, like, there's a real small window, like of when they're one to when everything really works. I I know that too. And you gotta sometimes assist them, you know. So it's like it's a real small window. So I think Zona missed that window, you know, or Sam missed the window with her, you know. Probably. And so I think Sam was ready. I just think we missed the window with Zona. It's like a few days, you know, but anyway.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, female dog spade too, so that it's just easier that's fine uh to manage, and I said that's fine. And I'm open to other dog breeds too. I like pointers. I I've been, you know, heard a lot of good stuff about Britney's people love Britney's and they're smaller.

SPEAKER_01

So this could be a dog literally while you still have Sam?

SPEAKER_00

No, no, no, I don't think so. I d that would be ideal, but I think we would take a maybe a couple month break. Once Sam passed, find a okay, yeah, a little reset and then get another dog.

Where To Get Planted Quail

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Okay. So and you think, well, we need to get Sam out. We need to get Sam out, like on some pigeons or quail, planted quail, that would be good. We'll do that for sure. Um I'll I think we'll work it out with the quail camp. I'm not sure what we're gonna do with that. I I'd hope so. Yeah, I know you need he needs it.

SPEAKER_00

I need it too.

SPEAKER_01

I know I've I've got a bunch of birds on reserve, I'm pretty sure, with Riley Cross. So if you're listening in and wondering about where to get quail, Riley Cross is the man. Where where does he live, Nate? New River. New River. Yeah, just right off the freeway. Yeah. Yeah, real easy to get to. Real easy, cool guy. So, Riley Cross. That's the guy. Fact. He's got a ton of birds. He's got a ton of birds.

SPEAKER_00

Can I get an Apex Predator, by the way?

SPEAKER_01

Go get one right now. That would be good. Sponsored. Yeah, will you grab me one actually? Yeah, heck yeah. We're sponsored by A. And while we're doing that, I'm gonna pull up Riley Cross's cell phone. Do you have a flavor you want? I like the wild berry or the original. Um Riley Cross is CF GameBirds. And you know what? I probably better not give you his cell phone number because I haven't asked him. So um GameBirds. Um CF. Here it is. So here he is on Instagram.

SPEAKER_00

Whoa. Sorry, sorry.

SPEAKER_01

That was uh look at the spike on that thing.

SPEAKER_00

We're gonna have to we we can edit that. We can make that way quieter. I'll I'll work on that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no worries, no worries. Uh you can just leave it at this point. Um, okay, so Riley Cross is CF underscore game birds. Gosh, uh pointers L L C underscore.

SPEAKER_00

So just type in CF underscore game birds underscore and underscore pointers underscore LLC underscore.

First Mearns Hunt And Hard Lessons

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so it's like CF game birds and pointers. L C pretty much. But everything's underscored, you know, the spaces are so anyway. That's where you can find him. I'll put some stuff off of him up on uh Instagram. He's a cool dude. Yeah. He's got some Murns right there in that picture. That's cool. So we went on our Murns hunt.

SPEAKER_00

Why don't you tell him about that? Yeah, we did. We never talked about it either.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we only got you know, I don't know how many minutes we've been going. Twenty so we'll we'll we'll wrap up in here five five minutes or so.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, that was close us out with a story. That was amazing uh country, beautiful. Are we allowed to say general area or no? Not in okay. Well, it was beautiful.

SPEAKER_01

We were in Myrn's country.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Never been before, so first time it was uh Well, we were at, you know, it was an amazing location. It was like we were up in the and it was beautiful.

SPEAKER_00

Yep, that's it, and that's all to say, too. That's perfect. Okay, uh yeah, never hunted Myrns before. I didn't know what to expect. Obviously, not as many birds as gambles. Oh, yeah, no, and and I knew that, but we hunted hard, saw one covey at the end of the day. Oh gosh, we did, and that covey kind of split scattered on us pretty good. It did. We uh saw one, and they one went one direction, the rest kind of went the other, and Ryan chased after that one, and he got that one, and then we were just we kept looking for 30 minutes, just figure eights through that, and never saw it again. Yeah, that was tough.

SPEAKER_01

Did we get any gambles or anything?

SPEAKER_00

No, just or did we saw some later, but did get those either. Or did we? I don't know. I don't remember. No, we didn't.

SPEAKER_01

Or did you? I think I did, maybe. I think we got a gambles and a Murns. I can't remember. I've got photos of it, but then we bumped into somebody else who got a scaly, yeah, didn't we?

SPEAKER_00

That's what it was cool. But it was it was a lot of fun. I twisted my ankle twice. Yeah, and I saw I was just moving slow. It is hard country to hunt up a lot of just up and down, and it was pretty rocky too. So, you know, it was a lot of hiking, yeah. It was and it was great. Uh stepped on a rock, and the rock fell from underneath my foot, and so it happens, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Did your gun mess up that day or two, or no? No, gun was perfect. Yeah, just collar, your dog collar.

SPEAKER_00

I left it in my truck.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I left it in my truck. Ryan thankfully let me borrow his. Well, it didn't go great, but it worked.

SPEAKER_01

It did work, and so yeah, I I had one Alpha 100, I had the hand remote, and then his dog was on one of my e-collars. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because I don't know if it would have changed anything that day, to be honest.

SPEAKER_01

But no, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

We saw one. I was wishing to see more merrants just to see how to hunt them and what it was like.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah, we didn't even really get any good dog work off of that, I don't think.

SPEAKER_00

We hiked so much we did, and saw one covey on the way back to the truck where you're already like, yeah, this is probably it for the day. And we we got surprised. So I guess the lesson to be uh, and this happens more often than you'd think when you're least expecting it, you can bump into a covey just on the way back when you're calling it when you're calling it.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I know. Yeah, I mean, that was it. It was cool to see, at least for me, in that unique area, the trifecta. Because we did see gambles. Um, I don't we didn't harvest all three, but we did see. Yeah. And we did it by the end of the day, we bumped into another hunter in that same area and pulled three different species of quail. Um scaled quail, which are also called blue, blue, blue, blue, blue quail, I think they are gambles. Um, I don't know if they got another name for them. I I nicknamed them copper tops. Did you hear that? No, yeah, we should start that just start saying that.

SPEAKER_00

See any copper tops around? And people are like, what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_01

Somebody's gonna say, dude, you need to not make that up. Shut up, boy. That's been around for a hundred years. Have you heard that before? I'd never heard it before. So I said it the other day to Sam, my son. I said, Man, that I said, Yeah, I was like, look at the copper tops. And he was like, Dad, that's a good name, that'll stick. And I was like, Yeah, I think it will, but they kind of have it's like a rusty-ish. Only the males do those only the males. So I don't know if it would be a fair name for, but I like the copper top. Yeah, it's kind of cool. It makes sense for the male, yeah. Not the female as much, no. But then the um scaled quail, yeah. I I I just I was happy to see all those birds. Me too. Yeah, I think we did get some photos of like yeah, we did. Yeah, I think you probably got some on your camera roll.

SPEAKER_00

It was cool. Yep, I got them.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that was a tough way to go out for that.

SPEAKER_00

It was that was right at the end of the season. Did you end up going again? I don't think so. No, I don't think I it was a tough way to go out. I I prayed, I said, Lord, let us see one shootable bird. And we did, and it was yours, and I was a little jealous, but then I honestly wanted you to have that. I did, and I know you did, and and we tried, and we don't I think that covey was four or five.

SPEAKER_01

And it flew my direction, or I it came by me, and I and it and that's how it goes.

SPEAKER_00

It's not like you got ten birds and I got none. No, we you we had one shot. Yeah, we had one shot, one shot, and that was it. That was it, and that's how it goes. Yeah, hopefully Murns is better this year.

Arizona Game And Fish Changes

SPEAKER_01

Uh yeah, if the monsoons work, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I and then I know actually Game and Fish. Oh, yeah, you saw that everything their commission. No, well, they're having their commission soon. Really? If not, it already happened to vote on the they wanted they keep wanting to change the proposed regulations and rules for Murns and Oh yeah. And the bag limit and the season. Yeah, they're doing it again.

SPEAKER_01

Are they really? Yeah, I just got an email. I mean, I'm of course they are. I'm just like, is is is the meet when is the meeting?

SPEAKER_00

I need to look, let me look at my email, but yeah, they they always bring it's always a topic they bring up the bag limit and the Mern season.

SPEAKER_01

AZ Game and Fish Commission Quail Is it proposal?

SPEAKER_00

It was not just quail, it was all the hunting.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Uh well that this is uh I'm not sure. Uh January 8th, 2026. Here it is.

SPEAKER_00

April 10. Game and Fish Commission to meet April 10 in Phoenix. Oh public meeting will be already. That was four days ago. Four days ago. Wow. The public okay, what did they discuss? The agendas and more information on the website. Okay. I'll pull it up. Yeah, we looked at the agenda. Let me see. Do they do these commissions a lot, like throughout the year?

SPEAKER_01

I'm not sure, but I missed it again. I mean, last time somebody contacted me and was like, you gotta get there. And I was like, Oh yeah, sure, yeah, I'll get there. But yeah, what's it say? I'm sure they propose I'm sure they I bet they propose to cut off a month in the beginning of the season so it opens in November versus October. And hopefully, I mean I think that would be good. It could be good. It's a better option than cutting it off at the tail end of the season, in my opinion. They they were talking about, but man, they were pretty aggressive that first time. And I did write a big letter, and the commissioners did read it, and they were trying to actually implement laws uh that they wouldn't have been able to regulate because they already had their printed regulations.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, so what they have here, they cut they covered a couple different things, but uh they talked about consideration of proposed commission orders for hunting seasons. Okay big game management program, supervisor Aaron Butler. So the commission will consider and may approve commission orders deer, Havelena, Bighorn Sheep, Black Bear, Mount Lion, Predator, Furbearer, Trapping, Population Management. So it doesn't say specific, but they they went over Did they hit small game? It says it says seasons and dates, bag and possession limits, permit numbers.

SPEAKER_01

So we don't know if it was first.

SPEAKER_00

Didn't see any small game listed there. So maybe it wasn't uh I just saw the commission, so that's what I was uh that's all I was getting at.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so so the the verdict is still out, so we're the verdict is still out. So we don't know for sure if they voted on the small game thing. If you know and you want to send us information, that'd be great. I mean, I could try to call the Game and Fish Commission and talk to them, but they do have one section, it's called population management.

SPEAKER_00

So that could be certain small game species in there.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know. Yeah, that's interesting. Well, all right. Well, thanks for the heads up. I mean, as a reminder, you know, we don't know again what what has occurred just yet, but we do know something's gonna change.

SPEAKER_00

It does every year, yeah. Well, I don't know, does it? They have change? They have I was looking on the website, they have commissions every year and yeah, they have commission meetings, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But they hadn't changed quail season in quite some time.

SPEAKER_00

No, I meant they changed they usually change one rule or regulation or something. Yeah, somewhere in the hunting industry of sorts, or there's so many rules and things you gotta keep up with that they're always changing.

SPEAKER_01

They're like, no drones, no drones with shotguns. Oh man, that's what I was trying to do. That's crazy, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

No, yeah.

Advice For Overwhelmed New Hunters

SPEAKER_01

Um, all right. Well, Nate, any parting words? Thanks for first of all, you guys don't know, like, but like Nate did a major troubleshoot on the soundboard over here at the AZ Quail Today studio. And little did I know, this complex machine actually was as simple as just moving the mixer, just a tad. Yeah, and that would have fixed my problem. Yeah, I had no idea. I'm glad I could help. Yeah, you totally helped. Well, I'm glad you joined us on the podcast. Nate, any encouraging words for the new hunter out there or dog guy that's just like, dude, I'm so overwhelmed with this. I don't know. Like, think back to where you were when you first started. What would you say to that guy? Or girl, or girl.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's a good word. Uh it's okay if you don't have it figured out. I'll say this it's okay if you go out hunting and it seems like you have a bad day, no birds, or dog didn't listen well, or just a hard hunt and it didn't go like you expected. Yeah. I would say that's part of the learning process. I bet how many days did you have when you first started hunting or dog hunting, and it you just bad day didn't go well, or dogs didn't do well.

SPEAKER_01

And I remember going out getting attacked by African bees. Where I was running around the desert. Yeah, I got it was all over the newspaper, like, look out for killer bees. And I'm like out there in the desert, and I'm like getting hammered by bees. It's weird. She got stung a lot. Yeah, I got stung or get got got attacked. Wow. Ran. I was running through the desert, like smacking my head and smacking my look like a crazy guy.

unknown

I did.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, I would say just it's okay to have days that don't go well because I try to take and learn something from each hunt. Like, hey, what could I have done different? Totally. What could I have done better? Yeah, even bad hunts, there's something to take away. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's good. Well, get out there, guys, and Nate's living proof of it. So um, that's a ton of fun. Well, I'm glad Sam still got a home, and I'm glad that you're it's really cool. Your wife's open for the future. That's great. That's a good idea. Um, keep your eye out for different breeds. I I've got a there's a rumor uh that s one of some of the guys we love are gonna open up a line of GSPs. I'll have to tell you about that offline. Yeah. So and for those of you as well, you're curious about that Apex Predator, these guys are pretty cool. Um you can check them out. You can just Google Apex Predator Energy Drink. They're right out of uh the Phoenix Valley, and there's a it's a really pretty good deal. It's 150 milligrams of caffeine, caffeine, no sugar. It's pretty good. I I've been a surprise. There's been a lot of good feedback on these drinks. So um, do you like them?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I do actually. Is yours an original? Yeah, that's that's all that was in there.

SPEAKER_01

Well, the wild berry is my favorite. It's the best one. Is that your favorite?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I like the cherry lime.

SPEAKER_01

You do? Okay, I'll make sure to get some of those.

SPEAKER_00

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