Anyone shoot wild quail? I have been jumping several coveys over the last few weekends while walking around to deer hunt. Today I took my shotgun just in case it happens again. Fortunately it did, and after I got over the initial heart attack when they flushed I managed to knock one of them down. There were around a dozen in that covey, but I was excited to get my first wild quail.

I wish I had somewhere with enough of them to hunt them. I cant believe AL still has an open season on them, and on top of that a limit of 8 birds. Chuckie and his buddies are too busy trying to worry about taking away turkey hunting days and bag limits to worry about the ol bobwhite

Haven't even seen 8 wild birds in Alabama In a long while.

We have quite a bit. Between jumping that covey and the 9 longbeards that walked through, it was hard to care about deer anymore.

Better mount that sucker.

Been a year since I saw the covey round our land. I did manage to kill 13 pen birds yesterday

Stepped in a covey last wknd in Barbour county. First covey I’ve seen in years. Was pretty cool to see that again. Use to hunt them years ago with my dad.

It would be a lot of fun with a trained dog. For me it was blind luck, but I enjoyed the he knout of it. Now I’ll probably carry a shotgun every time!

I don't think limiting the wild quail season or lowering the limit would help wild numbers. Is anyone actually killing 8 wild birds per day? And if they are, wouldn't that mean they have a good huntable population?

I forgot to upload a pic!

We use to always have a covey or 2 on our place but haven’t seen any in prolly 10 yrs. this year we leased the neighboring property which is pines and cutover. We have seen 4-5 big coveys and the woodcock are everywhere. Friday afternoon I had 20-25 quail n my food plot. Love to find someone with a dog.

Jumped 2 coveys on opposite ends of our place this weekend. First I've seen in a long long time. One had 7-8 birds in it and the other had at least a dozen prob closer to 15. I love seeing them in the wild. I guess two coveys are a start but we dont have anything close to a huntable population IMO. Maybe the population is on an upswing cycle.

Framer!

Very nice. it's been a long time since I've jumped wild quail. The change in agriculture and fire-ants have put a hurt on them. A wildlife biologist told me that turkeys can be hard on them.

I've heard the same, but to differing degrees. Obviously agriculture change/habitat loss is #1 and nothing else comes close. Next are nest predators like skunks and raccoons and foxes can catch the adults pretty well. Very little impact from coyotes, ants, etc relative to the above.

I've seen a few more coveys over the years. The 400 acre place I had in Bullock co for 2 years had 3 different coveys.

Dr. B

When I was in college about 5-6 years ago we spent 6 weeks at the Dixon center (basically in conecuh national forest). We did bird point counts every morning for weeks. Lots and lots of quail down that way. Heard them all over the place. Some guys went and played golf one weekend and mentioned there being a few around at the golf course. The wehle tract was chalked full of quail. We did some stuff in barbour wan and quail were there as well. Mainly long leaf ecosystem with intensive burning though! It makes your run of the mill paper co leased land just pitiful.

Pine tree monoculture has played a large part I would reckon.

We have 3-4 wild coveys on our property in bullock county, though we manage for quail. It's been 12-15 years since I recall us having more than 1 wild covey. I actually ran across two different broods in September while dove hunting, something i don't ever recall doing. I'm also seeing more coveys on deer land that my inlaws own in Clarke county. I don't know what has changed, but it's given me hope that maybe i can quit duck hunting and go back to quail hunting sometime in the future.

For the time being we run our dogs and ride our horses but rarely shoot. We splurged two weeks ago and shot one bird out of a covey. First time we've pulled the trigger all season.

Very interesting. I wonder if those areas are still that way? I need friends with bird dogs apparently.