Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bobwhite quail

Feel lucky to still get a few a year. Don’t even bother hunting them locally though.



My driveway a few years back. Haven’t even heard them whistle around the house the last few years though.

I haven’t hunted any in years either, eye worms, and throat worms is what has caused big kill off here in western Ok. I have heard a lot of Bobs calling this spring and summer. The coveys had twenty birds at the end of winter, usually about 6, Turkeys are trying to come back too, 5 years ago you couldn’t hardly Deer hunt because of hundreds of turkeys rushing to feeders when they went off, don’t know if it’s hogs or worms that has almost wiped out both , hogs have moved back to the Canadian river, and numbers are up.

My grandfather was an avid Bob White hunter. He lived in the Oklahoma panhandle, Beaver and Boise City. Always had at least one bird dog and hunted with a Browning Sweet Sixteen. I still have his shotgun. The gold is wore off thevtrigger and there is a dent in the rib. I have no idea if there are still Bob Whites in that area.

Part of that may be blamed on Hollywood going so hard against the wearing of fur. Raccoon, opossum, mink, coyotes, fox, and all manner of varmints run wild, procreate, and eat up everything they find.

Still have some down here but not near like back in the 70s early 80s, fire ants, and hogs.

We hunt Quail a lot here. and we are covered up with Turkey's Rio7

Miss hearing them. Heard them almost every evening when I was a child.

GreggH

Quail are like Hamburgers everything eats them. Rio7

Truth, really good with biscuits and gravy.

Don't get me started on birds of prey. They need controlled the same as 4 legged predators.

Used to have a bounty on them for a reason.


And people with their fugging cats.

Barn cats too. No use for a cat on the place.

Even hard to even see a rabbit around here. I have several on my place but the brush is thick as schitt. Neighbors cats do best when they stay on their side of the road.

For many years my uncle’s family had some land in Tillman County Oklahoma that was northwest of Grandfield. He ran cows on that land, but otherwise he pretty much left it alone. Back in the late 60’s to about 1978 I hunted quail with him a bunch out there. That place had really good numbers of bobwhites back in those days. He had some good dogs and I always had a blast hunting with them.

But over the years, the quail went the way of the hornytoads (which also used to be in abundance out there).

When the boy was little we’d buy bobwhite chicks and raise them. They’d last a year or two then the predators got them. Neat call, though.

We have a few coveys on our lease south of San Antonio. We don’t hunt ‘em since not too many, and they have enough enemies without me shooting em!

Don’t get me wrong, I love to quail hunt but don’t want to not have ‘em around to hear and see.

Saturday. He hung around for probably 20 minutes.

I miss the strong population of quail that we had in the 80s. I miss the good ol bits that hunted them too. Many were WWII veterans. They would argue about dogs, guns, etc. I loved listening to the bird hunting stories.

Wild or stray house cats are quail killers.

We used to have 2 to 3 coveys and now we are down to 2 quail. Cannot convince the home owners that the stray house cat they have are killing the quail.

I used to have coyotes out back and the home owners do not want them around and shoot them (in city limits). The coyotes were helping keep the cat, jack rabbit and cottontail population down. With out the coyotes the 3 are running amuck.

My Dad was a beagle man when I was a kid. I can remember rabbit hunting and jumping coveys of quail and trying kill them. I knew I’d have bird dog when I got older.

As soon as I could I started buying good blooded English Pointers(I know they dropped using the English but they will always be English pointers to me).

Sometimes we’d go days and never bump a covey. Then I quit buying replacement puppies when my dogs got older. Then my last two bird dogs died about six weeks apart. I told my wife I was done hunting something that was like hunting Bigfoot.

That lasted five or six years. I said I was tired of not having anything to do in the winter. So I done it. I bought another English pointer puppy. That puppy is now about a year old and I have a five week old puppy on the way in a couple more weeks.

The few quail that remain I’ll chase with my 28 gauges. I just can’t give it up though I know I should.

Had 3 English Pointers and truly loved to quail hunt. It was my passion. Over the years you had to travel further and further to find birds. Eventually the numbers scaled down so drastically that it wasn't worth the effort. I even bought a "Johnny House" to capture quail, but rattlers would find their way inside of it. Even tried stocking areas with pen raised quail. Pen raised birds don't do well in the wild, and they're slowwww fliers. (Hardly fun to shoot).
I understand, Argentina still has quality coveys and many years ago many of my friends traveled to the Baja Peninsula with excellent success. Sad to lose them. They were great sport and outstanding table fare.

The last time I hunted quail locally a friend saved me from stepping on a rattler. I heard a "LOOK OUT" and he shoved me sideways. Naturally I had on boots and even though he was smaller in size doesn't mean he wouldn't or couldn't have struck higher. I would have definitely stepped on him. (The good old days) I'll never forget the start one receives when a covey bust in front of you.

House cat is dead meat here, shoot on sight, we have a lot of Quail, some years more some years less, depends on how much rain we get, we manage about 20,000 acres just for Quail hunting, food, water, cover, predator control, are very important to wild Quail. Rio7

Shoot the cats when no one is looking, then assist the owners in the search. That’s one of my favorite things to do.