Yes it's kind of sad. I wish the limit was 8. It's not like doves where they migrate in. It shouldn't be so high. 3quail is a decent meat so even a limit of 6 would be a great time/hunt

I agree 100%. Especially since it's public land and anybody and everybody can just show up and start shooting. I wish statewide the limit was 8-10 per day. Texas has the most liberal bag limit of upland birds of any state and any bird in the entire country to my knowledge. 8-10 and the season needs to run from 2nd week of November through the last weekend of January.

I've read studies that show how little impact hunters have on the population.

Why the last weekend of January?

Final count for this weekend....45!! Two hunters and no quail.

Might want to recheck the arithmetic, that is just over 0.1 birds per acre.

Are we sure it's not 8.14 acres per bird?

You are correct, sir...

You are correct. That's what I get for copy and pasting someone else's response from another forum

On the overall population, it may not have a huge effect. But that many birds being shot off of 28,500 acres will. There's no way it wouldn't, and there's still another 2 months for that place to get shot up. My thought would be to lower the limit and have more carry over birds for nesting season. I agree that quail don't live that long and mortality rate on them is very high but having a higher number for carry over seems like a good idea.

And last weekend of January because I've read in some places they're pairing up in February at times. Oklahoma Parks and Wildlife is doing a study on it and is supposed to put some info out on it soon. And a 4 month season is just flat out long. But as you can tell I lean more towards the conservative side of hunting. And it wasn't something I just picked up naturally or learned myself. Tailgate pics full of birds used to excite me, trying to get my limit, caring more about birds shot than coveys found. Then I started hunting with more experienced, conservative hunters who taught me how to really quail hunt more ethically. I'm in it for the dogs and dog work first and foremost. I'd rather see dogs on point than birds stacked on a tailgate. But to each his own!

CinchMan,
I appreciate the way you think. I feel the same way and have been down the same road.

I have read to shorten it a week due them to start pairing up at that time in February.

I'm in. I no longer shoot.

I think if you don't want to kill a limit and just like to watch your dogs work, then don't kill a limit and have fun watching your dogs. I like to kill and eat quail. I like good dog work but my dogs are a tool to kill more quail.
My philosophy on quail is, kill all you want to when there's plenty of them and worry about conserving them in drought years. No matter what you do or how few quail you kill, some years we just aren't going to have many bird.

I was there with Dash today and hunted about 4 hours. Had no problem finding birds. Very crowded for a mid weekday. Hunters I encountered were experienced hunters, courteous, helpful finding birds, and worked with others to not work the same areas. Grass burs and cactus were bad where I was. The figure I got was at least 5000 birds killed this season and the wing bucket was full. I can't imagine it lasting considering the pressure. Reminded me of DFW public duck hunting. Hard to find an area not being hunted.

How many more days are left for quail hunting there?

For what it's worth, direct from the Matador WMA staff on their own FB page, "For comparison we harvested over 4,700 quail last year. In 2005, another boom year, harvest was over 7,500."

This was their own reply in regard to similar questions/concerns about the breeding population, which were made after they posted a nice tailgate pic on their own page.

Per the public hunting map...

Quail: Oct. 29-Nov. 6, Nov. 19-Dec. 6, Dec. 22-Jan. 31.

I'm going to need them to kick everybody off until the first week of January..

If you need meat go deer hunting. we should respect what we hunt. If you jump a covey of 4 or less birds it's obviously been shot up so the right thing to do is leave them alone. It's no different then passing up young bucks or not shooting jakes or not keeping bass on the spawn. It all comes down to ethics. It's just a respectable way to be. I know there are guys out there who don't have respect..actually we all know who you are by what you post and how you respond on here. You guys are why we spend a fortune to hunt private.

Wow...

We know who the ''elites'' are around here too. I never understood why some people criticize other outdoorsmen for legally taking game. I shot 12 wild quail last year and I only got to go once. I may not even go this year because work keeps getting in the way. What's the difference between me going twice and killing 30 birds and some retired guy going 10 times and killing 30 birds because he only shot 3 each time? Since we're being critical here, maybe the state should outlaw using dogs to hunt quail? Seems kind of like cheating to have a dog show you where the bird is hiding. Just sayin'.

Been going once a week as long as they are open. 2yr old Brittany female and an 11 month old Brittany male. have yet to find less than 12 coveys in a day. Have also yet to walk less than 7 miles a day! If you want to find the birds, you have to put in the miles. There is a lot of pressure close to roads. Hunted the last day they were open, 7 Dec, and jumped birds that had never been hunted. Flew up in the trees and only went about 20 yds when they did fly. Then again, we had never been in this area either