Upland Bird Hunter Recommendations - self guided bird hunts

The map image below is a sanitized sample and a segment of one of our upland bird hunting units representing land available to hunt in black. The purpose of this illustration is how we take care of the first year member/hunter to ensure he gets as good of a start as possible.

Upland bird hunter

This map segment is from a region that has high pheasant and low quail population densities. Lease 29 (1,600 acres) may appeal to the self guided hunter as it is large and would certainly provide a lot of hunting. Farms 3 and 4 may be less appealing as they are each a 1/4 section or a 160 acres. And the point of this discussion is that larger acreage is not always a better hunt.

How we would address this one unit for the new member is that he has all of it available to hunt, however we would not recommend spending time on property 29. Property 29 is large, it holds a couple of coveys and rarely a pheasant. Most of the other properties highlighted on this map sheet such as 5, 4, 2, 21, 27 and 28 are excellent tall grass pheasant spots along side row crop fields.

The point we are getting to is if traveling to this unit do so for the best resource it provides and that is tall grass pheasant hunts. Quail will be encountered in this unit, however if wanting to go after quail we have better regions and upland bird units with more quail habitat in smaller concentrated areas than this one.

To hunt lease 29 would be a four hour walk traveling as straight of a line as possible along the main north-south running drainage on this one tract. To hunt all the side braches would take more than a day. The dog power required to cover all that ground would probably produce two coveys while more would be passed for lack of coverage.

Quail Ground

Picture of a better quail region well away from the acreage on the map sheet shown above.

Lucky hunt where the covey flushed from the far right tree line scattered across a fallow pasture. Big country bird hunting where one hunter and a brace will find plenty of edge and field for day long upland bird hunts for pheasant and quail.

Tall Grass Pheasant Ground

High grass, large fields and simply a lot of walking. In general terms a two hour hunt per 1/4 section (160 acres) for one hunter and one dog is a short walk.

What we do is get the bird hunter to the right habitat within the right region of the state for his bird of preference. For this unit hunters would be spending more time pheasant than quail hunting. The quail coveys would be a bonus and two in a day incidentally to a pheasant hunt is possible in this upland bird unit.

Have a look at some tall grass pheasant hunting habitat within this upland bird unit.

Or, some Bobwhite Quail habitat