Any of you miss the old days of quail hunting?

[westkybanded]

Any of you guys remember the good ol' days? I used to fill my head with stories from Ruark about hunting with the "Old Man" and dream about times like these:

Hunting | Realtree ®

I guess as much as anything, I also miss the ability to hunt vast expanses of ground on a handshake. When I was a boy, I could go out my back door, and had well over 10,000 acres of uninterrupted access. Now, you'd need a dozen leases, and a notebook full of written permission slips.

Those days spent at a half jog trying to keep up with my dad and Doc Phillips in the fields were what really sparked my interest in hunting. Sad to think that it's a kind of hunt that my son will likely never get to experience.

Those of you that are private land owners, how would you handle a couple of guys knocking on the door asking to shoot quail? I've got two pretty well established coveys on my farm, and I just flat-out refuse to shoot them for some reason. I guess in the back of my head, I'm trying to save them for my boy.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

You mean with the wagon, two mules, driver and dog man???
Ahhhh yes.......genteel times indeed

 

[joeintexas]

I know exactly how you feel. As a young boy my dad, granddad, brother and uncles would all load up and head for Tucumcari New Mexico and some of the best quail hunting you could ask for. Some great times trying to run with blue quail, years later my hunting buddies would head for Carlsbad New Mexico and White City and chase the blues again. Wide open state land and you could hunt for hours and never see another person. Nothing like the excitement when a big covey comes uncorked right under your feet!

 

[Maximumbob54]

I miss hunting Chukar partridge with my grandfather. I couldn't hit the broad side of a bard but he could have hit them with a rubber band gun. That man was a surgeon with an Auto-5.

 

[sar4937]

Provided you have your permissions, you still can in Nebraska. When I was a teenager we came across a group that claimed to be having a great quail day, their trunk was full of meadowlarks. Not sure how they tasted.

 

[DeadAye]

For us it was pheasants and rabbits in mid Illinois. Opening day was always my birthday present in the 50's & early 60s
A couple of uncles a few older cousins, my dad & me. My cousin Bobby and I were about the same age and we got to be *the dogs*.

What wonderful memories... MAN - Pop's 12 gauge sure had a kick to it!
I guess they've tamed 12 gauge shells down since then

 

[ThirtyAcres]

...................Those of you that are private land owners, how would you handle a couple of guys knocking on the door asking to shoot quail? I've got two pretty well established coveys on my farm, and I just flat-out refuse to shoot them for some reason. I guess in the back of my head, I'm trying to save them for my boy.

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When I bought my farm, it was so poorly managed and overgrazed that the quail were all but gone.

15 years later, with the aid of food plots, controlled burns, and edge feathering on my wooded areas, the quail have returned.

I spent the fall building nest areas in brushpiles for the rabbits. The coyotes are so numerous that the rabbits are getting scarce.

As far as hunting. The only thing I shoot on my land is deer and groundhogs. I can not bring myself to shoot my turkeys or quail.

I do let some of my neighbors hunt during deer season. Don't get me started on the slob hunters that climb/cut my fences.

 

[bishopm14]

Forget the so called traditional quail hunting, I would have liked to have done any quail hunting. Grew up with my dad and his friends and relatives being quail hunters and tagging along some, then right about the time I got big enough to hunt (8-10 y.o.) the birds disappear. Dang the luck. 25ish years later I still don't know of much, if any quail hunting going on 'round here.
Oh well, least the deer are getting bigger in these parts.

 

[Airpark]

Quail hunting in MS is just about gone. The fire ants, coyotes, and soybean crops have done them in.

Used to really enjoy going with my dad and eating Vienna Sausage and "Soda Cracker" for lunch with a very hot and spewing R C Cola.

Use to love to listen to "Dizzy" Dean and Peewee Rees on the Falstaff Game of the Week talk about quail hunting just up the road a bit in Bond and Wiggins, MS.

Funny thing Dizzy said one day is still in my memories.

He said the temperature on the playing field was 102 and them boys are really sweating.

Lady called in and said, "Mr Dean, people prespire, animals sweat."

Dizzy replied, "M'am you ain't never picked no cotton down in Arkansas, YOU SWEAT."

 

[G.T. Smith]

I am 60 years old and I still live right where I started. There used to be so many quail it wasn't even funny. I think I may have seen 2 or 3 coveys in the last few years. My grandfather raised a lot of different kinds of hunting dogs and us grand kids always had the best of the best. My cousin Gary and i would fill the back of our hunting jackets in no time flat. Perfect dogs, perfect abundance of quail, if I can't have that then I don't even want to go.
Peace,
gordon

 

[VAdoublegunner]

Man, I sure do. I grew up in central North Carolina. Classic low piedmont quail territory. It was a tradition in my family. My grandfather and his hunting partner kept maintained our hunt. We also had several places in the eastern part of the state among the tall pines, as well as nearby neighbors who would let us hunt. We didn't do the mules and wagon, but we did have a flatbed trailer hooked up to the old Ford tractor to move from field to field, the big english setter and little Lewellyn riding with ears flapping, ancient L.C. Smith featherweight 16s and 20s in beat up canvas cases (although my dad had an early 1100, and my uncle a Sweet 16; no one shot those 'fancy' over-unders then, and very few pumps were seen and if they were it was usually a 20ga Model 12), the smell of Sir Walter Raleigh smoked in cheap Kaywoodies. The area was mostly small tobacco farms, some soybeans and assorted other crops, none of the fields much larger than 8-10 acres, some less than an acre, with lots of woodland or pines inbetween. Had leases with most neighbors as well as our land. By our lease agreement, each year we would plant a couple of rows of mixed grains, buckwheat, millet, sunflowers, corn, etc, around the perimeter of the fields between the field and woodland edges. It was a rare hunt that we didn't put up at least 6 or 8 coveys in a short day. Thanksgiving morning and Christmas afternoon were always a traditional hunts, like the opener and closer. Since quail hunting is inherently dangerous because you are shooting at head level in close quarters, the group was kept under 4 at most, and only 3 shooting at a time. I couldn't wait until I was old enough to go. I still have the shotgun, even a few of the paper shells, but the rest are only memories. I'm still pretty good at walking up wild coveys, even a woodcock now and then, but it just doesn't warrant maintaining a dog for where I hunt these days.

A lot of folks at the time blamed the wild flushing 'mexican' quail for ruining the sport. I think it is the loss of small farms and fields, and land clearing agricultural practices that is more to blame.

 

[MSgt G]

When I grew up in SC, large coveys of quail could be found all over. My dad had a beautiful English Setter when I was little that was named Lou.

I joined the Air Force 30 years ago and was last stationed in Wichita, KS. I bought a Pointer pup and trained her myself. She was one of the best things I've ever bought. There is a lot of public land on which to hunt in Kansas and rarely did I ever see anyone else while I was hunting. I hunted pheasants mainly because I only ran into quail three different times.

I retired from the Air Force in 2003 and moved to Northwest Georgia. My poor Pointer longed to hunt, but we could never find any birds around here. I finally gave her to a hunting preserve so she'd be happy. I still miss that girl!

 

[jkc]

Boy, I sure miss hunting Gambels quail here in AZ. They were once , during unusually wet years in the early Eighties, abundant, but now are scarce, spooky, and hardly worth hunting --- flushing at great distance, in tiny coveys, always heading for the most forbidding terrain. This once was among the most rewarding and satisfying hunting experience you could have here, and it's virtually vanished...

 

[welldoya]

I used to hunt wild quail with my grandfather when I was a boy. Not many wild ones left but I still get in a couple of hunts a year. I hooked up with a couple of guys who buy 6,000 chicks in the summer and raise them. These guys know how to do it because their birds fly like wild ones. My son and I get invited for a couple of hunts a year. I feel very fortunate that my son can enjoy it like I did.

 

[Nevadadvx]

We had about 20 of them in my backyard today. They play chicken with cars on the backroads. They are everywhere around here and over 90% of the land is BLM in Nevada. No shortage of bird hunting here.

 

[charlie sherrill]

When I was younger there were no coyotes in Mississippi and quail were plentiful. There also were a lot more rabbits and other small game. I now hear the howl of coyotes several nights a month. I have shot them on numerous occasions and will run over them every time I get a chance. It hasn't done much good.

 

[peyton]

In Texas the fire ants have almost destroyed all ground nesting birds. I remember in the 60's hunting them, I was just a young pup and I was the "fetcher" Somehow I could do the math, watched where they were shot and found them on the ground pretty quick!! Later I used a single shot 20 gauge and got pretty good.

 

[Herknav]

Yes, I do. I grew up IVO the Grand National Quail Hunt, but I will always remember hunting them with my dad (and no dogs).

 

[curtmini14]

we still hunt quail here in az and have plenty of them.and they taste dam good.we hunt them with 410s,