Wild Quail Hunts page 2

State

Foot Hunt

Our wild quail hunting is by foot only on natural terrain consisting of many miles of edge habitat cutting through row crop farm fields. The conditions vary with each step and farm. Quail inhabit the field waterways, brushed in draws, overgrown fence lines and the wooded creek bottom. In some regions in Kansas we also have a unique wild quail habitat specific to the sand country.

Within this region the thin grass, small plumb thicket and abruptly steep short sand hills give an experience that at first appears to be an easy hunt. Once hunted the hunter frequently sees many quail with much eyes on dog action and many opportunities to chuckle at his shooting ability. A good hunting habitat all should experience.

In every case of all our wild quail country, the one combination exists and that is farm field grain crops and cover. After that, it is a matter of degrees what is better. A crop example is that milo is the best, corn second and beans third. Wheat and forage crops poor. In terms of habitat it is the degree of edge thickness or softness as is frequently written about. That is until your dog goes on point over what appears to be the barest of cover and a 20 bird covey flushes. Within the better regions, it seems like almost any cover is good cover.

Our Difference

Do it yourself wild Bobwhite Quail hunts for those that enjoy their dogs.

Shooting conditions vary from through the trees to blue sky. In every case, the wild quail are survivors flushing to the far side of any cover, fast flying with erratic get back into the brush flight patterns. In one case of a buddy hunt with a member who can out shoot this author on the skeet range, 17 quail were pointed and not one went into the bag on one farm on one large covey. We still had a great day.

Willingness to walk is surly to be tested. Within MAHA the miles of edge do run farther than anyone has day light to walk and that same condition may be repeated every day of any hunting trip all on different farms.

Dog power is always a topic for anyone wild quail hunting and frequently sorely contested. At this point, we do not claim superior dog power or training ability. We only offer one small comparison to illustrate why some have great hunts and why others simply have bad hunts. This is the nature of wild quail hunting.

The land is large, the dog is small. A dog that has run will be able to cover ground fast. Hard running is not enough. The coveys will be in specific target habitat or cover the hunter will soon be able to discern. The dog that runs the upwind edge or passes by any target habitat rather than diving in will simply run by many coveys. We believe this to be the most frequent cause of the first year member being recommended to our best wild quail hunting units only to report a bad hunt.

We are bird dog trainers and hunters ourselves. We have the advantage of training our dogs on wild quail. Our dogs learn from their first month of their first season where to hunt and that difference is telling. Our dogs will run the downwind edge and better than that, they will dive into that cover at a frequency greater than any big woods grouse dog.

The difference is not the pointing quality of the dog, the difference is in experience with any one type of habitat. Our dogs seem to amble around the grouse woods having only a week of it a year. On edge habitat, they are wild quail hunting machines. The converse seems to be true.

Comparisons to Alabama, Georgia, Texas where 15 to 25 coveys a day are reported amaze us. Four to 7 coveys a day are good days up here and with a daily bag limit of eight, we wonder why those other state hunters need 15 coveys to bag 8 birds?

"After reading your articles I'll offer this latest hunt where John [last name deleted] and I teamed up for a day of the truest form of wild quail hunting.

A singles point immediately after a covey flush just short of a 100 yards and around five minutes from the covey point location to this single.

My pup (Brittany) is now a well tested first year pointing dog on both wild pheasant and quail. I concentrated on taking pictures of him on point on this trip for the album and while he is not as stylish on point as John's old dog was in his prime he does point steady to good standoff of 6-8 feet, steady to wing, shot and drop breaking on command and an excellent backer -- that is after we worked out some early season issues. He is weak on retrieving and more so as the season progressed as he had to deal with wounded pheasants. Something to work on this spring.

We picked up where we left off after our last trip in [location deleted] getting there about noon and hunted north.

This day was special as it was my pup that found the first covey beating John's setter to them and they were within 200 yards of us getting out of the truck.

The first covey gave us six points along a creek bottom that would serve their survival instincts well. Two shots were fired.

A little over a 1/2 mile later we found a second covey that gave us three more points and one shot. The bulk of the singles made it across the road onto another property and we broke off the hunt.

The next field we walked the 3/4 mile length down and found nothing, that is until just about half way back on the return leg John's setter for the birds. It was a true wild covey that hardly waited for us to get into position before flushing and making their way off the property.

By this time it was 4 PM on an overcast day and we quit rather than try to hunt one more field and bust a covey that close to dark.

John's old setter on a singles point. He is as nonchalant of a bird dog as I have ever seen. And, one of the best wild bird finding dogs I've seen on quail both coveys and singles. He always seems to find the most roosters as well. We have had only one day where my pup out performed his dog and his dog is 13 years old.

While I was taking pictures (immediately above and below) this turned out to be a three bird point after the covey flush. My pup stayed steady in spite of the first flushing wild, the second taking a run before wing and the third being flushed and shot at by John. He also ignored John's setter that came into back. He did shift his head, never a foot, to follow in sequence the flushed quail.

The setter beats the Brittany again to another single. John's setter will back my Brittany by sight or beeper collar, my Brittany will only back by sight.

About as stylish as he gets and a covey point of around 15 birds that held tight until about the third kick.

Let us add up the results. A four hour hunt with two dogs finding three coveys allowing for three shots fired and zero birds in the bag. The cause of the no birds in the bag is the creek bottom we were hunting (blow).

The picture does not give justice to the difficulty of the terrain. The water depth gave my boots trouble in many spots, its width frequently wider than I could jump. The banks were everything from 8 feet on the short side to 10+ on the high side with the levee. The brush was always above my head and the trees too thick to shoot through at many spots. More interesting is that these quail were ground lovers flying only high enough to clear the brush and then getting down as fast as they could. Not once did we get lucky with any bird flying out of the creek area into the crop field.

We would also add to your discussion specific to wild quail hunting that the rules should include only one person firing at a time during any hunt with others both for safety and to maintain the condition of only one bird down on the ground at a time. The next bird is not harvested until any on the ground are recovered.

A second idea is that all should exercise is not to attempt doubles on the covey rise. To do so makes the second shot more hurried than what wild quail hunting already is and increases the chances for a poor shot and wounded rather than clean kill second bird.

Overall, MAHA has given us the chance to be on wild quail every chance we can get out. While this hunting story is not overly exciting it is realistic and represents the difficulty often faced during wild quail hunts. Far more difficult than on the farm where I release quail for dog training.

Thanks for all, Jason"

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Wild Quail Hunts page 2

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