Self Guided Bobwhite Quail Hunts
The do it yourself quail hunter or self guided quail hunts that are most successful have the elements of land access, guidance where to hunt and of course both in the right region of the country that supports repeatable and sustainable reproduction of wild quail. Otherwise, why travel to hunt as anyone can create his own shooting preserve with pen raised birds.
Hunting land access is always the toughest part to find. The choices are to knock on doors, public land and paid hunts.
Knocking on doors either before season or during typically requires more time than the time that will be spent hunting that land. Costs are further inflated by giving gifts or outright cash to the landowner for the permission to hunt. The real issue is that during a limited quail hunt the time should be spend quail hunting rather than hunting for a place to hunt.
Public land, even that with groomed habitat, is at the cost of many boot prints and pressured game if any at all. Even states with a great amount of public access of private land through a walk-in hunting access programs converts that private to public land with all of the associated pitfalls, namely pressure.
Habitat quality also becomes an issue on these private to public places. All the acreage listed in any public lands atlas is not all for wild quail hunting. The hunter incurs the obligation of time and travel to physically drive to all of these locations and scout/hunt to find what he wants. And, remember those same spots are for every one else as well.
Quail Hunts Are High Risk
Bobwhite Quail hunting is our highest risk discipline. The risk is within dog power. Many do it yourself Bobwhite Quail hunters feel they have the best bird dogs on the ground. The honest ones will tell of good and not so good quail dogs. We see it every year and it is demonstrated by different hunters hunting the same upland bird unit on different days regardless of weather. One hunter will have a great hunt the other a bad hunt. When we discuss the hunt with each the dog power distinction is frequently evident.
High power quail dogs like Allen's run downwind edge diving into target habitat from near to the extreme of direct line of sight range that may be 200 yards most of the time or more. Good quail dogs have line of sight check back and steady to point for as long as it takes for the hunter to close in on the beeper sound. Anything less and the quail hunting is less. Close working hunt where the hunter is dogs will not have the edge running advantage and many coveys will be passed by.
As always the value is not the number of coveys it is the dog work.
Paid hunts are not always the answer for self guided quail hunts either. Small acreage operators even with the best habitat cannot pressure their coveys any more than any other covey and after a several days of hunting that covey will simply move elsewhere. This forces the release of propagated quail to fulfill the hunter’s demands and of course at a cost. That real cost is that of being on pen raised birds that further negates the purpose of traveling to hunt.
That cost can be even higher to hunt one of the truly wild quail plantation operations where hunter pressure is limited through a high cost that simply screens away the average hunter. These are exceptional quail hunts as the acreage is plenty, the birds healthy through provided feeder and waters and the habitat easy walking. At this point, however these quail hunts are rarely self guided quail hunts and typically come as a package deal with loading, meals, guides and dogs.
Challenging Hunt
It is a benefit the times during the winter we have snow long enough to record wildlife movement and a frustration. On this day we found plenty of varying aged covey tracks and hardly a covey even when the dogs showed interest at times.
What is left? There are two more options. Both do cost money. One with outrages cost and the other for the average hunter that has his own dogs and simply wants a place to hunt.
The high dollar approach is to buy sufficient acreage, develop the habitat and then hunt to hearts content. Yes, we agree with most readers at this point that would be living the dream and not likely to happen for the vast majority of the quail hunters in this world.
The next option is us, MAHA. We are organized strictly for self guided quail hunts. We lease land for nesting and cover habitat. Food is readily supplied through our heavy agriculture of the Great Plains. The cost is reasonable, we provide recommendations where to hunt, we offer a lodging listing where the hunter can select to stay. The advantages continue as all may hunt on their schedule any time during the season and as often as desired, licenses are available for online purchase. However, the real advantage is we provide self guided quail hunts, at reasonable cost, on wild birds and more acreage than anyone can hunt.
Our service is private hunting land access, recommendations where to hunt and a lodging listing local to our private hunting land. Our product is habitat and in this case self guided quail hunts.
Standing at one of the branches to this farm's waterways looking across to the main branch. The far tree line over the ridge at 1/2 mile distance is the property line. The tree line runs along the fence line. A grain crop farmer only, no cattle foraging. The right mixture of a variety of grass, brush and trees for quail nesting and winter over cover.
These non-hunting season pictures while on land runs with growing season foliage show better the habitat variety suited for quail hunts than do during the season pictures (that we do show elsewhere).
Many of these waterway branches are typical of the crop fields in our three state region of Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. This one tract of one lease featured here is a 160 acres or a 1/4 section at 1/2 by 1/2 mile square. Just walking up one side then the other of the main drainage would be more than a one mile walk as it meanders through the farm. Hunting each of these fingers out and back will easily double that distance.
Same landowner with another part of the lease, a 320 acre, or 1/2 section, 1 x 1/2 mile rectangle. Same type of drainage as on the earlier two pictures except this farm is enrolled into the filter strip program of native grass mixture between the grain crop field and the creek. This is a soil conservation program that does not permit haying or livestock forage. Prime nesting and winter cover habitat.
The same farm as pictured immediately before and just before the upland bird opening weekend. From the road the filter strip is completely hidden from view. The standing corn gives much escape cover and the temperature is into the 70's. The sign on the power line pole is one of ours.
This one unit that includes these two land parcels plus others of similar habitat adds up to 1,460 acres with a 2.4 gun limit for any give hunting day. It is within one of our better quail regions and receives that added hunter pressure management that the same hunter or group of hunters may not repeatedly hunt it and pressure the coveys to extinction.
It is not hunted every day and should it become necessary we will close it for blocks of days to allow for recovery (a legacy practice when quail hunters were numerous rather than the declining hunter they have been). That is the same practice for all acreage within our better quail regions.
The management practice is good hunting to all throughout the season. There are plenty of units of land over a large area that all can hunt a different piece of land each time stepping from the truck, every day of every hunt and not have to cross their boot tracks. The added adventure of new land each day is preferable to hunting the same coveys each day.
That is how we manage our self guided quail hunts.