Suddenly an explosion of wings and feathers erupted from a briar thicket and quail buzzed by me in all directions. Allen Shortridge quickly shouldered his 12-gauge Retay shotgun, swung on one bird until he caught up to him and quickly dispatched him and another for a dandy double, and our day started with a bang.

Shortridge picked up where he left off last year even with a prolonged absence from the quail fields. After undergoing his second knee surgery last fall, the veteran hunter has been rehabbing with a goal of making one quail hunt and then scoring on a few turkeys.

Check off the quail hunt as Shortridge made easy work of his first time back in the south Mississippi woods of Thornhill’s shooting preserve last week. Shooting is like riding a bicycle, once you learn you never forget. You may be rusty when you climb back on but before long you’re purring once again. Shortridge didn’t take long to heat up. He might have missed a couple, but I can’t remember any more after he warmed up that gun barrel.

Meanwhile, I missed three or four right off the bat and wondered if it was my gun or shells. No worries though as I had to shake off a bit of wing shooting rust from lack of bird hunting. Didn’t take me long to shoot a pine tree or two as I followed the buzzing quail as they darted through the pine thicket with ease.

On the very next covey rise I picked out a bird and dispatched him and swung on another that whirred by me going ninety to nothing and he disappeared in a puff of feathers as I squeezed the trigger of my old Remington 870. Got me a dandy double too!

After a midmorning break from the action Shortridge was back at it knocking down quail left and right. He may have been building up his stamina, but there was nothing wrong with his hand-eye coordination, and he was busting the birds no matter where they got up or which direction they flew.

Thornhill Shooting Preserve was started by the late Conn Thornhill in 1980. He had a passion for quail hunting and for training great bird dogs. When the wild quail population began to decline, he started raising a few birds to release and hunt over his dogs. He would invite a buddy or two along, and as a result more and more people were asking to “tag along.” Soon enough, the requests to hunt with Conn became such that he founded and began operating Thornhill Shooting Preserve.

The preserve is located on the Thornhill family home place in Walthall County, Mississippi, and it’s some of the finest wild bird habitat in all of the South. The love for hunting and entertaining clients was in Conn’s blood and passed down to his son, Gary Wayne Thornhill, who now owns and operates the preserve.

If you are looking for fast-paced quail hunting action then you will certainly experience that as you watch Thornhill’s bird dogs work to find singles and doubles after the covey rises. The birds fly like wild birds and it’s as close to the old days as you will ever see these days. There’s nothing like hunting the rolling hills near Jayess and you just have to be there to fully appreciate the experience.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Dr. Sonny Rush and his son Dr. Lane Rush, as they both played a large part in our ability to get back into the field. Dr. Sonny operated on both of my knees, and they are better now than they have been in years. Dr. Lane operated on Allen Shortridge last fall, and his knee replacement surgery was a great success as well. I can remember the last time I saw Dr. Rush and he talked about how proud he was to have his son Lane coming to work beside him in the Rush Sports Medicine Clinic. I appreciate Dr. Sonny Rush and think of him each time I climb the steep hills near Port Gibson or traverse the rolling hills of South Mississippi chasing those quail.

Call Mike Giles at 601-917-3898 or email mikegiles18@comcast.net.