Maybe time to consider Quail Preserve hunting. A way to keep sport alive and taught to younger hunters.

Location, location, location, for me.

Bill I enjoyed reading your log. Thanks for posting that.

Thanks a bunch for your kind words. The year was saddened by what happened after this hunt.

Ginger and Cathy.

I grew up chasing bird dogs in South Texas with my dad, uncle and cousins. "Bad" years when you did not get a limit every time you went out, good years so good that you did not feel bad about taking the morning limit back to the house and starting over after lunch.

I got a dog after college and kept hunting, but by that time, birds were way down. When it came time to put down my Brit at 9 years old, I gave up and went without a bird dog for over 10 years. I did not realize how much I missed it until a few years ago, when a buddy talked me into a public lands hunt. It was a tough hunt and not very productive, but I made me realize a part of my life had been missing.

I'm back into the game again, with another Brit. As long as we can walk up at least one or two coveys a day, we'll keep at it.

Last year, after several tough hunts in a row without bumping a single bird, I felt sorry for him and took him to a preserve ....guess what, that goofy guy doesn't know the difference.

Lots of good thoughts here. I have a bunch of outdoor oriented hobbies, but my main, non-wavering passion has always been upland. I start quail hunting when I was 7, tagging along with my dad and uncle behind my uncle's Chandler Kennels-bred pointers...trying to get off three rounds with my red ryder BB gun on a covey rise. Trained my first brittany when I was 12 using Wolters book, and luckily that dog that was given to my dad was a great one. In my teens, the next two gifted or hand me down dogs didn't turn out so well, but for the last 30 years I have been really fortunate to always have two or three really strong dogs. I did the normal progression of being all about getting limits in my 20s to now being more of a guide and setting others up for the shot. My older son experienced some really great years and he got hooked and still goes on pheasant or grouse hunts with me, my younger son had his teen years during a bad stretch in the 2009 - 2014 period, and he thinks quail hunting is a lot of dang walking and not much action and became more of a fisherman. Our quail lease group used to be 6/7 guys and everyone had two or three good dogs and would reload with pups as one of their mature dogs would get long in the tooth etc., now only one of those guys has a pup now. I put down two 12 year old dogs over the past two years and I just have one four year old pointer. Two seasons ago, I didn't wild quail hunt in Texas for the first time in 42 years, and I only went once to S Texas once last year. I really went back and forth on getting a pup to go along with my 4 year old but after only doing one pheasant hunt that whole season, I decided I would just roll with my Belle dog and buddy up with a few new friends that still had solid dog power. Belle tore her ACL and had surgery in May, so I have thought the least about an upcoming bird season ever this summer. On a more happy note, I took her out for her first set of runs in pastureland at my place in Graham, and all good with no soreness, has lifted me partially out of my funk. I did a trip to Wyoming last year and am doing an AZ mearns quail hunt this year, both so I would have something to look forward to...I chronicle all of this for two reasons, one is I think my pathway is a very common one for guys and gals in their early 50s that live in bobwhite quail country. Second reason is you will have some later in life deer hunters that have quail on their lease one year and get an itch to get a dog (I am helping two friends of that ilk train their dogs right now), but the way that I got pulled into the pageantry of a bird dog on point and the anticipation of walking past them (poetry in motion is what I call it) is really not happening for the most part in the old strongholds of the rolling plains or western Oklahoma. I think upland tradition is holding on stronger in Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas, but in areas where the name of the game is our fragile bobwhite, its withering away fairly quickly because the opportunities to get this sport into the blood of the next generation just are not there. Just my two cents. On the pic below, I will say although Belle never even slowed down to take a whiff at places where I used to find birds on my place, it sure did lift my spirits to see her blowing and going. It always has been and always will be all about the dogs in this game

there are quails around me, south of me and a place I used to hunt in SAn Angelo and Haskell
and I don't hunt quails

it's a rich man's sport with a lot of poor folks wanting to get in

it takes nothing to buy 5000 quails and release for re-population
just be generous with them green bills when approaching landowner managing
it for your quail passions

I”will say although Belle never even slowed down to take a whiff at places where I used to find birds on my place, it sure did lift my spirits to see her blowing and going. It always has been and always will be all about the dogs in this game smile“

That’s what I’m talking about. Pretty well sums it up.

Bill, wonderful story.
I have a few of those in my memory as well.

I got video of a lone hen walking in my front yard last spring. We used to be covered up here in southeast Erath. They gone.

In '79 my family bought land and built a home in what was "Renner", Texas. Now a part of north Dallas, Preston rd at 190. Sunflowers, milo, and cotton fields as far as you could see. My brother and I would walk out our door to the best quail and dove hunting I've ever experienced. The area around us started getting highly developedin the mid to late 80's. That was the end of that. Urban expansion is only one key to the puzzle. Varmints can be a problem for sure, but loss of habitat is the biggest issue as I see it.

parts of S.W. Ks, is seeing remarkable quail numbers, better than the ringnecks

Despite there being fewer birds, bird hunting in general is expensive. Most quail or waterfowl leases command a premium due to limited availability. It is much cheaper and easier to find places to hunt deer. By the time you factor in dogs, training, travel etc, it's simply unaffordable for many. I believe most of the interested younger guys/gals are simply priced out or can't find a place to go.

In the early 90s we had a deer lease in Childress that bordered the Red River. That place was covered in bobs. You couldn't hardly walk 100 feet without bumping a covey. In those days I was more interested in deer than quail and looked at them as a nuisance because they were always giving your position away while sneaking to and from the deer stand. We would occasionally hunt them but did so without the use or need of dogs.

Fast forward 30 years and I was having a conversation with a gentleman that owns some property the in same general area as our old lease. When I mentioned all the quail on that place he grimaced and said that they haven't had any quail in about 15 years. Most of the hot spots in the area had dried up and he was having to travel to find birds. It was sad to hear and I can't hardly imagine that country without good quail numbers.


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I only hunt with a friend on his ranch in Wharton county anymore. Quail numbers are better there on dryer years. More weeds a n less grass. Quail are not good scratchers and they can get to seeds better. Here's a covey find in the pasture.

Good years still happen.
Enjoy what you can.

29 and chase them all day every day with my two.

I got this text this morning from a buddy in Liberal KS that guides pen raised hunts:


Just checked with my farmer. He said the combines this year didn't spook up any birds out of the corn and milo. He said it looks like there aren't much of any pheasant or quail population in the area.

I just got back from a Pheasant trip to SD. I really enjoy the upland hunting. It appears it is very pricey to hunt down here for quail. I have never tried it but it looks tough to do without a dog.

See any Huns?

No, just sharp tailed grouse