Thanks a bunch for posting. I found THF through a similar thread.

I would still log onto this particular forum even I I could not reply.

I don’t get too excited about this. It burns me up that someone’s private ranch benefits from the work and studies put into this. In return only a select few quail hunters leasing the ranch also benefit.

I work for a major oil company with thousends of employees. Lots and lots of these employees hunt hog, ducks doves, deer, fish slatwater, freshwater.
Not one have I ever met hunt quail because of the lack of opportunity to find huntable quail populations

The Texas rich quail hunting has been gone along time

Yes Texas is a pay to play state. That’s just the way it is. If Quail can be managed, habit brought and quail relocated I see that as a great thing. I do a lot of driving to hunt upland birds. I do more quail hunting in Kansas than Texas. I hope some day that will change.

I hope we can get very excited about this but for the reasons you state. I agree that public money tends to benefit private ranches. However, I hope Texas can one day be a leader in public quail hunting. We actually have ton's of land for this and are adding more public land. This is a trend towards the future and through struggles are getting just a little closer to improving the situation.

Like you have said, when I guide hunts for mentor programs like TYHP, I meet parents all the time who can find was to continue the hunting and fishing heritage they grew up with those species you list in some way. But what soooo many of them lament is the lack of being able to take their kids, or themselves, quail hunting like they did with their grandfathers. I hope and want us to change this, to any degree. Even walking my birds dogs here in the suburbs, people stop me all the time and ask about them and talk about how they quail hunted growing up, or wish they could have because they heard the stories. My kids even coined a phrase, "bird dogs save the world!" They, and many, hope that birds dogs and birds move us towards change, change back to something we had, that we didn't understand how to perpetuate, but maybe can have better than ever because we lost it for a while.

And this whole trap and transfer thing, is has already been proven over and over. I learned recently, they even did "Mexican quail" transfer successful in the deep south a hundred years ago. It didn't sustain because land use couldn't support it, but now that we understand land use management better hopefully we can get back to it. Lots needs to change there, in land use, but if it could gain some momentum with large private land holders it could spill over to smaller landowners, and, by our demand, on to public lands.

In any case, you bring up great points that have to be considered and thank you for bring them to mind.

Same, here, I even moved quail hunting outfitting to northern Mexico for a while and then eventually just quit all together, keeping dogs for it all just too hard. And I am from Shackelford County, used to be some of the best quail hunting there was. We just don't have them, even in 2016 when they all the sudden came back in the Panhandle, we didn't.

But my kids have gotten me back in to it, with a vengeance, I want it back for them and everyone. So I'm driving too, plans for Arizona for desert quail, maybe Kansas, Oklahoma, or New Mexico. Colorado for blue grouse too. But that isn't sustainable, at least for me, enough, so I am very hopeful some things can change, soon. Whether it's transfer, land use changes, eye worms, whatever, and there seems to be a renewed energy to actually figuring it out, instead of just beating the old "habitat loss drum."

Of course, all the farmers from my area used to say exactly why the quail disappeared, the proliferation of chemicals, specifically the boll weevil eradication program, but after it worked, they stopped talking about that because, and who can blame them, then increased profits mattered more than continuing a culture of quail. But the researchers don't seem to walk to talk, or explore those routes, so......

Anyway, here's to hoping!

My family participated in a turkey relocation project in the mid to late 1970's. They had to sign a contract stating that there would be no turkey hunting on their property for 10 years after the initial releases. I don't know if those 10 years were necessary, but the program definitely worked and that area has a great population of wild turkey today.

On another note, can anyone tell me why there is still a quail season in counties with no huntable population of wild quail? That has always bugged me.

My folks have done the same. There's a ton of turkeys on their ranchland and pecan orchards but I'm not sure how successful it is. A lot of the young turkeys act like pets.

We used to sit on my folks back porch and watch quail running along a well worn trail along the fence line. It's been 20 or so years since.

It bugs me too - more specifically pheasant. I hunt in the Texas Panhandle. When I was younger, the limit on roosters used to be 2 birds a person - 4 in possession and the season used to be 2 weeks and 3 weekends. I can't remember when it changed, but when the drought in 2011 (and call it 2012 too) the limit was at 3 and the season was a month long. Writing numerous letters to Texas Parks and Wildlife (seriously probably 15 letters) begging them to close the season or at least do something to help, I was told that reducing the season or bag limit or cancelling for that matter would have no effect on the population of birds. This makes absolutely no sense to me, I'm sure it does to some. Sadly, and this is my opinion and am sure some would disagree, it is all about the $$ and selling licenses, and not what's good for the birds.

But, as fate would have it, there are areas that the numbers have come back, it has just taken a while.

Sorry for the rant, but it bugs me too. I know there are a lot of contributing factors, not just the season and what not, but maybe by doing that they would come back.

Has anyone tried to treat their wild bird populations with Fenbendazole using water stations or in supplemental feeders? The place I hunt has quail in April through July, but by November they will all be gone. If it is parasites maybe I can get them coming into a feeder with treated water stations for them?

I laid down my gun years ago and only went for my dogs.