Hunting Around Tarkio

B

BamaBirdBuster

New member
Heading to Missouri for a college friends wedding the weekend of November 6th, and bringing my dogs with me!

Any tips on location, strategy etc. for pheasant hunting around the Tarkio area would be much appreciated. Have done a lot of quail hunting in the Southeast and grouse hunting in East TN, but this will be my first pheasant trip.

Thanks!
 
Missouri just posted their bird count and of course it is worse than last year. and last year was a all time low. we are gettin' worse every year. sorry to vent but all the mo conv people talk about is how they are doing all they can for upland birds and their survey count are lower every year. they already have their excuses, a bad snowy winter, heavy spring rains , a dought etc, don't they realize they had thses back in the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, i am not talking about private ground i am only talking about conv areas and their so called quail emphis areas they cain't even get a excellant cout on these, yet back in the 80's they held a lot of birds. sorry to vent on your question but i just read the report.

you will be near some good conv areas
http://mdc4.mdc.mo.gov/applications/moatlas/AreaList.aspx?txtUserID=guest&txtAreaNm=s
you will probaby drive right past me, i live in warrenton I70, 193mm, when you
get past Wentzville, 207mm, DO NOT SPEED(70) there is a speed trap in the little town of forrestel, do not go over 70 until you get to Wright city, 198mm
I hunt in the middle of the state and ncentral and ne part, to far of a day drive to where you will be
I never been to Biby ranch, from what i hear it will get a lot of pressure from kc area
but Tarkio ca and seat are rated good for quail, click on the areas and you will get the info and also maps, you are going to a good area.
also if you have time bet 8-5 stop at cranes general store 161 mm, it is worth the visit
hopefully some others in this area will reply, as you can see from the post not much goes on in missouri

good luck
 
It used to be we harvested 4 million quail a year, 40 years ago! Now you hunt hard to find a few scattered coveys. Pheasant population been on a precipitous decline for 20 years. The area you are going to has a lot of public ground available. Look up the Missouri Department of Conservation Atlas on line. Pick your counties, Atchison, Nodaway, etc. it will give you the description and map coordinates. There are pockets of birds here and there. but previous poster is correct, Mo Conservation depart. fell in love with deer and turkey 20 years ago, just now in the last few years woke up a little and began to make an effort, after the resource fell to almost endangered species. Still a whole lot fescue in the conservation areas! I'd say Mo. ought to look a lot like quail hunting in Alabama. If you really want to get some birds, stay a few extra days and go west a couple of hundred miles and hunt Nebraska, Holdredge on west. More quail and a lot more pheasant. If you hunt Mo. let us know how you do. Good Luck.
 
Nw mo

The only conservation area that I didn't see any birds was on one of the so called "Quail Emphasis" areas. We made several trips to Bilby and we never had a probablem with getting too close to other hunters but it is lots of hills and open space so once a bird got up and over the crest of a hill it was gone forever. Also last year the corn didn't come out until almost December.

This will be my second year and I know some mistakes I made with dog handling and working cover so I feel more confident heading in this year instead of wandering aimlessly.
 
Thanks everybody - I expect to have access to some private land, so going to try that first. If that doesn't work out, this Bilby area looks pretty good - but a big place. Any advice on areas to hunt within Bilby?
 
Talked to someone from Tarkio and they said they always remembered seeing pheasant but they are deer hunters so never paid too much attention. Hopefully the private land has some good cover to attract the birds. I'm getting impatient waiting for season. Thought about getting a few quail to practice some honoring and steadiness.
 
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