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Feb 12th, 2024
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 Re: Guest
[Re: bill oxner]
#1165756
01/12/10 01:17 AM
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Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 482
budreau
Bird Dog
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Bird Dog
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 482 |
as far as the gentlemans sport - when did driving the roads on a atv following dogs become the way to hunt. i turn down more people every yr wanting to drive around and hunt. quail numbers are getting lower but so are the real quail hunters. Most of our bird dog's pedigrees go back to horseback field trial dogs. That was how the term gentleman's sport originated. People hunting from vehicles with unloaded guns will kill less quail than one person walking with a loaded gun. Try it with four people on the ground walking with a loaded gun. The 4 people on the vehicle will stay together, but the four people on the ground will eventually get seperated at times, thus increasing the probability of disturbing more coveys. This reminds me of a little story. Chuck Duran and I hunted our lease at Millersview from my Gator. Another member got didn't like it and complained to the ranch foreman. He asked to stay on the roads with the Gator. We were at a NSTRA weekend trail, where I counted out 36 quai, and put them in a WM gracery bag. I stuck the bag in the freezer till the next weekend, when we went to the lease and walked. I threw all those dead birds in a basket on my Gator. I never kept any quail, but the guy who complained traded his quail for Dallas Cowboy's tickets. I offered him all my dead quail, and he took them. A walker is a meat hunter, and a rider is a bird dog man, to me. I don't remember the last time I shot an un-pointed quail. i disagree that a walker is a meat hunter. i walk and talk and watch the dogs with a o/u and only shoot at pointed birds and never doubles. most atv hunters i've witnessed will grain a road then come back the next day to hunt and to me that's just not hunting. sorry
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Re: Guest
[Re: budreau]
#1166441
01/12/10 05:33 AM
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Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 57
quailguy
Outdoorsman
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Outdoorsman
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 57 |
The REAL problem with quail numbers is not the number of dogs a hunter runs, or shooting doubles on the rise, or killing a few singles, or what rules one has on a ranch.
There are 2 REAL problems: 1, lack of sufficient rain at the right time, and 2, habitat degradation.
Sure, you've got to leave plenty of birds for seed, but the ground has to have rain and bugs for the chicks and not be so hot it cooks the eggs. There needs to be enough cover and forbs for seed but not an impenetrable jungle for the birds. Bare dirt and a helluva a bunch of pear and mesquite is not gonna produce many quail even if it does rain. On the other hand, good habitat isn't going to produce piles of birds if there is no damn rain.
Both habitat and rain have got to be good and I just haven't seen much of that the last 5 years.
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Re: Guest
[Re: quailguy]
#1168128
01/13/10 12:24 AM
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Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,868
Chet
Veteran Tracker
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Veteran Tracker
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,868 |
You're right, if you look back at the TPWD charts you can see lots of years below the average. 2005 was one of the top 8 or 10 years. Rains at the right time. If we get those rains at the right time again, winter for the forbes and spring and early summer for the bugs and cover, we'll have another 2005. But only where the ground is right. The loss of cover, over grazing and growing gaps between the good ground are killing the hunting. The place I hunting this year should have enough seed birds to create a great year next year if we get the rain.
Weather paterns are killing us. Draught in south texas, rain at the wrong times or not enough rain has been the pattern since 2005. Prolonged 100 degree days during the hatch. In Kansas they say it's a 5 year cycle. Texas, who knows. But I've seen great habitat from Childress to Abilene. Rain makes grain and it makes quail too........
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Re: Guest
[Re: Double 6]
#1168626
01/13/10 03:44 AM
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Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 9,881
Cool_Hand
THF Trophy Hunter
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THF Trophy Hunter
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 9,881 |
Isn'the normal life of a bobwhite quail about 10-11 months? I doubt that what was killed 2-3 years ago impacted your hunting in year 3.
When the season closed in year 87-88 @ Dilly texas they were as many birds on closing day as the first day. Could not tell much difference in #'s but the next 2 seasons they had declined to where one couldn't find but 4-5 coveys per day. Hunting pressure sure did not cause this decline. True enough Tom but hunting and other factors has and is contributing to the decline of the bobwhite. I will add that if you don't think hunting can cause a decline in quail population you are fooling yourself. Theres a way to hunt and manage quail populations just like you manage deer herds. If you find that your bird population in a given season on a particular lease is three or four coveys in a days hunt then the best thing to do is let them rest. There are a few people on the forum that know what size place we run our hunts on and ever since the "wet" year, 2005 I believe, we have had sudden drop in quail population. Mainly because after the deluge of rain then the weather did a 180 and we dried up like you wouldn't believe. Prior to 2005 quail hunting was our bread and butter. Now we can scarcely find five or six coveys, and those aren't of any size, on the whole place. Granted there are probably more but we haven't been able to find them yet. We've had to sell more deer hunts and the turkeys, which used to outnumber the population of Coleman, are also in short numbers.
 Benny Promise Ranch
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