Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game Quail numbers in Az. and N Mex.

My wife and I may head to these states for a bit of a break for winter.. Can anyone tell me about quail numbers this year??

Hi Hazen,
If you were to go by my hunting the numbers are terrible. I haven't replaced my Golden so no dog! Plus I am moving around this winter. Here I sit just a few miles from Mearns country with no dog!
Here is what Quail forever says https://quailforever.org/Hunt/State-Forecast.aspx

Boatloads of birds in West NM. Cleaned 45 birds opening day between 3 guys. No telling how many got away or we couldn't find. No dog.

I live in Tucson.

Gambel's hunting around here is poor. Scaled quail are not found close to Tucson. You would have to go to the SE corner of Az to find them. Have no idea on their numbers.

While the G and F predicted fantastic mearns hunting this year, it isn't so. There are birds but coveys are small with many family groups encountered having only 4 or so in the group.

I keep notes on past years hunting mearns. Went to same places as last year and number of coveys encountered are down. Used to find family groups of up to 20 birds. Not so this year.

Out of State hunter numbers are the highest I ever seen in over 20 yrs of hunting mearns. AND this is before the out of state hunters really show up after Christmas!

Az, thanks for the up date.. I appreciate it!!!