Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bobwhite quail

I have hunted bobs my whole life, took Dr. And Lawyers hunting as a kid, walked the snott out of them and there high dollar pointers, the old guy’s that have hunted bobs are dying off, you sure don’t see young guys out there longer than a day , maybe two, we used to hunt them for weeks. I believe nothing more fun than watching dogs, and busting coveys of bob’s with a 1100.🤠

Nesting cover is our limiting factor in SW GA. We have all the food they can eat. Son and I have worked extremely hard trapping out nest predators for a few years and it has made a difference. Got plenty of pics of turkey hens with 10-12 poults each! No yotes, foxes, coons or possums ruining their day. Piggies shot on sight too of course.

Haven’t had any quail in a long long time .
Last I had was a disaster .
25-30 years ago
Not sure I got the name of the restaurant right , but I believe it was Jerry Clowers off I-40 in Tennessee. Dropped in there figuring it would be my kind of food .
Ah hah ! Quail on the menu .
Picturing a plump little tasty bird .
Setting there and waitress brings out this pancake looking critter , something a 18 wheeler ran over on the interstate .
I explained I had ordered quail .
Waitress smiled and says that’s your quail .
I told her didn’t look like no damned quail I had ever seen .
She knew she had herself a true hick and smiled and asked expecting a plump bird ?
Yeah , I ain’t seen no quail like this .
She explained it was shrink wrapped for shipping .
Ok , commenced to trying to eat this shoe soul , and that was how tough it was .
Veggies sucked too .
Beer was cold 😀

Ww have a few small coveys on our lease. You don’t see then very often but e still hear them off and on.

Used to be a lot of them noeth of 60 back in the 70's and 80's. Not so much anymore..

You're in a great place! Enjoy them.

#1 getting hunters loaded up for a evening Quail hunt.

#2 back up buggy with spare dogs

#3 out riders

#4 Pointer at work

We run 3 gun trucks each with 10 dogs, 2 out riders with each truck, driver and dog handler, we average 10 coveys per hunt, each truck goes out morning and evening, we hunt Quail from Oct1 to Feb 28, Quail hunting is a big part of what we do. Rio7

We used to have three coveys in our yard. I haven’t seen or heard a quail in more than 20 years on our place . Habitat is better now than it was then. Don’t know what it is but they are gone. Might be fire ants, hogs, and other predators. But there would be some. There are just none. We have clearcuts galore. We have a little bit more than 1000 acres we don’t even bush hog anymore. It’s all pine trees, thickets, and hardwoods. Much of it is stereotypical southeastern Bob White habitat. And not one damned bird on it anywhere.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been running the woods at night and bumped into a covey of quail. Being startled is an understatement.

There was a time when I could hear quail whistling in every direction here on my farm. There were always several coveys using here, but I have not seen or heard a quail in the past 5-6 years. They are still around in parts of the area, and I know a couple of guys who have dogs and hunt them with a decent degree of success. I have no idea why they disappeared from my place, as I didn't hunt them. I'm guessing it was the predators.

I would rather quail hunt than deer hunt. Ever year is different on population. And most die out even if you don’t hunt them.
Feral cats, road runners, hogs all are hard on ground nesting birds. But habitat destruction is their worst enemy.
Hasbeen

There were plenty of quail here in southern Indiana when I was a kid.
The blizzard of 78 hit them hard but they rebounded pretty well in my area in the 80’s.
They started disappearing in the 90’s and for years I never saw any even when rabbit hunting. No fire ants or hogs here.
As of the last five years I’ve seen coveys where I haven’t seen any in 15 years or better.
I now know where five coveys are so things are looking better.
If the winter gets bad me and the boys will put cracked corn out where a couple of the coveys hang out.
There’s a lot of factors contributing to their decline. Destruction of cover is a big one and predators also but man is their biggest enemy around here.

An uncle in south central KY has worked for years trying to get coveys going on several farms with very little success. He has some land close to my home town in CREP and it still won’t hold birds. I’m thinking predators are his problem on that farm. He has tried call back boxes planting birds. Nothing seems to work for him.

From 2007-2019 we owned about 57 acres in some game and ag rich country. About 35 acres were timber. I kept most of the open area on the front side of the property brushy. I’d cut it back to keep the saplings down. There were a couple of covey in the area and every year I’d see them with their young around August. We didn’t hunt them and I’d kill cats that is saw loitering.

In 17 we timbered the timbered the 35 acres and tue property began to hold more game. I did my best to maintain habitat. It seems like you need native birds to spread to be really successful. That and predator management.

Live traps are your friend. Check em about 4 in the morning and if ol puss is in there a pellet gun to the brain then puss in a trash bag.

Help put up missing signs and look a little for the lost kitty.

Where in S, TX are you Rio?

No Mule pulled wagon? Got to experience that a couple times in Georgia....I would have been happy just to have sat up there and watched.

Some guy on You tube videos some impressive hunts in Oklahoma...

Supposed soil conservation programs involving deep ditch drainage ditches + modern "clean harvest" farming + commercial pine planting has caused a tremendous loss of habitat - in addition natural open long-leaf pinelands have been replaced with over-crowded, improved-seedling loblolly pine stands which not only has hurt quail, but also the gopher tortoise and eastern diamondback rattlesnakes. I realize that most don't care about the turtles and snakes but we've screwed around with the natural order of things so much, that much of these things will never come back.

I knew where all the coveys hung out. Now, none to be found. The coyote and feral cats are our biggest nemesis. Union county iowa. I hear there are a few there.
kwg

Rio,

What’s it cost to go on a hunt like that? I probably can’t afford it but I’d like to try it.