My favorite recipes are field recipes. We could cook easily out there in the field, for the hunters, and quail is a cherished bird. People who hunt quail a lot.

They never give their birds away. I mean, everybody wants their quail. In other words, like hunters, you know, they get too much deer, or they get too many ducks. They’re always looking for friends. It might want some, you know, so they don’t have too many stored in their freezer, because they don’t eat it fast enough. Quail is never that way.  Quail is the only one of the wild game birds out here that’s a white meat bird. It’s really good to eat. Everybody really wants their quail.

I like to cook quail on the third day of the hunt. So those each day when we stop and eat lunch out there one day. We might have Crane, one day we might have case ideas and soup. We do little fun meals, easy meals out there, but the third day I like to cook quail, and I like to make buffalo hot wings with it, with the breast and legs, and they’re really good, and it’s really easy. All the customers love the most buffalo-style hot wings, you know I do the whole quail that way, and people hunt quail too, to harvest quail, to take them home so they can feed them to their families.

All the time they ask us, will you book? Will you bag? My wife and I both like the 2, so will you please bag them in little court bags of 4 each. So they take those home and freeze them. So the next couple of months they have fresh quail.

That’s what people really want there, you know, and we’re really into the harvest thing with all the game we hunt. I always like to prepare or give them menus or give them ideas on how to use the chili, or how to use the birds, or the elk, or the deer. We like to cook it in the field also to make sure they’re really digging it.

People want quail for the table. They want to watch their dog. They want to watch their dog find it. They want to shoot it, and then they want us to clean it real good for them, and then they want to take it home to feed their family.

How much on average for a guided hunt,  What’s the terrain like, and how much are you walking?

You know, a mile to a couple of miles a day, if not more, if you’re into it. But a mile, you know, is not very far, and we’ll walk a mile in a loop around looking for quail.

It’s not just a leisurely 100-yard stroll into this field. No, the fields, you know, could be quite large. The mountain valleys are quite large and at any given time. When we walk away from the truck we’re likely to do a mile circle.

It could be 5 miles if the guys are in shape because we’re limited to listening. In the country, you know, it’s where we’re not fenced in, and it’s really up to what people are into what they feel like doing. But they need to be able to do a mile or mile or 2 a day out there hunting that they can get it done doing that.

In other words, they can get it done like they could be successful doing that.

So they need to be prepared to walk a mile a day out there, you know, a mile a walk. Can we get back to the truck and rest up a little bit? Maybe go walk 2 miles on this walk.

A mile across the country it’s a long way. It actually makes people feel like they just did a pretty damn good circle.

It’s up to us professional guides to read our clients, and it the old story goes when they call, and they book something with me when I send them with the client, or what with one of my guides, or like, when I go, pick them up at the door the hotel, or meet them for the first day out here in the field.

The whole plan can change instantly. Everybody has the right as a professional guide, to adjust the plan. We may have a plan. We, you know that morning. We’re like, Yeah, we’re gonna hike in here. Go, do this. Go do that.

You know that everything is tailored for every individual and everybody. They’re here to have a recreational fund. We don’t want to be slave drivers, you know. They got to have fun doing it. We don’t want to wear out if we’re hunting 3 days in a row, they need to be ready to go hunting tomorrow and the next day and looking forward to it. So they’re not getting their butts kicked.

Yeah, it’s instead of the right of the guide to go just on the fly as needed to keep it fun. I mean, they’re here for vacation. They got to keep it fun.

Call or Email Bob King

bob@SantaFeGuidingCo.com

(505) 690-2847