How do you decide where to hunt quail

So I was curious how other quail hunters determine where they hunt. When I hunt quail I look for feed (i.e. ragweed and plum thickets and hackberry and other such food sources) and loafing areas and roosting areas. I run 4 pointers at the same time and feel very good that between the dogs and the hunters we scoured the land good. But there are times I can't find birds and yet some hunters say they jumped 3 coveys or they jumped 6 coveys. I know this is a tough year but WOW!! So I thought maybe I'm not doing something exactly right. Not trying to find all the birds but just a few coveys a day would be nice.


Just looking for different opinions.

Try running a single dog instead of all four. I think sometimes competitive dogs will be overly concerned about the other dogs and that distraction might lead to missed birds. Many of my best days quail hunting were when I was solo hunting and only had one of my dogs down at a time.

Your list of habitat requirements checks all the boxes. I'd sure hunt there.

4 dogs down at once? That sounds too much like work. You must be hunting some big, open country.

For me it's pretty much if/when/where I get invited to hunt.

1 or at the most 2 dogs down would seem better to me. Most of mine were rather rangy mutts back in the day.... on the edge of lost and looking like an aspirin on a hillside.

X2

How do I decide where to hunt? I just walk a lot.

(just kidding, hope you get better info than that)

I usually stick close to home which is the RGV, south Texas and hunt the public WMA's. But for quail you have to really know the area that you're hunting and understand the needs and requirements that quail (or any other game) require. Once you understand how they live then you look for an area, in my case a wma that can support quail, then you'll find them. I find it amazing that many hunters say that there's no quail at the public WMA's. They're there if you know how they live, what they need. I have no dog. I walk....and a good pair of upland boots really come in handy!

A pair of quail can make a living for their clutch up and down a cow trail., picking off insects and ducking into the brush at the first sight of danger.

I tend to hunt around food and water.

How do you identify loafing areas vs roosting areas? and how do you define each?

In the Dakotas and Montana we sometimes run six dogs. Kind of wild but they find birds and honor those birds stay there a LONG time.

Before all of us got to old to walk, a group of guys from my Vietnam Unit would get together at various locations, usually Oklahoma, Kansas or Nebraska once a year for all kinds of bird hunting. But I also had a place in Stonewall county, that was always a gathering for quail hunts.

I like open bird country where i can watch my dogs work. I will put down 2 at a time if they are seasoned dogs.

I hunt public land, so I hunt where I don't see people for a mile or so.

I also hate crowds.

Get off the beaten path and put in some boot leather. Most hunters dont want to work hard they want to road hunt

Come do it the easy way at my place. Close to Dallas, home for dinner, dogs have a blast and you will not shoot all you shoot at on first shot even on pen raised birds. IMOHO Totally private like you own the place.

I like to hunt where I know there are bird or at least where I’ve found them in the past. If it’s new country I just start at the best looking spots. I don’t mind running a lot of dogs as long as I’m only handling two or three of them. Only three if they’re the right threesome. Nothing prettier than a dog on point with three or four more backing.