Self Guided Quail Hunts

State

Upland Bird

Pheasant

Administrative

Success

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.

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 above 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.

Land

Hunting land access is always the toughest part to find. The choices are to knock on doors, public land and paid hunts.

Knocking

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.

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.

Public

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.

Paid

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.

It is difficult to accurately represent our quail habitat well in pictures. These two panoramic photos although looking small on the web page cover a lot of ground. This one contiguous farm is 1,280 acres in size of the 2,400 acres available for quail hunting within this one unit. These two pictures look 180 degrees in opposite directions down an open area of a slight ridge line that is lightly wooded with plenty of ground cover in mixed grass and brush, in short ideal quail cover. The surrounding crop fields were beans, wheat and corn.

This sloped area is not tillable and left fallow from year to year. The tree cover thin in this spot allows for a better picture showing just how big this lease is. The far tree line in the upper left of the picture above is a 1/4 mile distant and runs for another 1/2 mile east and 1/2 mile west.

Standing is the same spot as when taking the first panoramic picture and looking the opposite direction a quail covey cooperates with the dog on point at the edge of a pond. The timbered ridge runs another 3/4 miles north.

Continue this article

Have a look at lease land maps where self guided quail hunts are available in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa