Bobwhite coveys

Roy B

Roy B

Member
I'm just curious about how many birds can be safely shot from a covey before there are risk to totally eliminating that covey.
So if you had a covey of say 15 to 20 birds how many could be taken before you risk totally eliminating that particular covey?
I am fairly new to bobwhite hunting and have found a few coveys and don't want to ever risk elimination of a covey.
 
This is a tricky one. I believe 5 is as low as you can go and still have some make it through the winter. Having said that, I think it all depends on how many other coveys are in the area. I have accidently wiped coveys out a few times and found a covey the next year in the same place. It's all about habitat. I think if the habitat is there a pair from a different covey will find that habitat in the spring and start again. Thousands more coveys are wiped out in an afternoon with a dozer or track hoe than generations of shotgunners. The time is coming quickly when there will be no quail in farm country.
 
Coveys in one particular place aren't necessarily birds from the previous year. They can move quite a distance during the fall shuffle. On top of that the mortality is usually in the 70 percent range or so. Having said that, it would be dependent on the weather. Probably 5 or so as said above would be a good rule of thumb to survive cold nights. Coveys will combine as well. Several years back I had a covey I had been into several times and then found them the last weekend and the covey was huge. Anyway, several factors at play.
 
Roy B said:
I'm just curious about how many birds can be safely shot from a covey before there are risk to totally eliminating that covey.
So if you had a covey of say 15 to 20 birds how many could be taken before you risk totally eliminating that particular covey?
I am fairly new to bobwhite hunting and have found a few coveys and don't want to ever risk elimination of a covey.
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Depends on how good the cover is and how many other covies are around -- if you start to shoot one down - within short order I believe they should naturally mix with another neighboring covey - either some of their birds move over or they combine -- I believe there's plenty of data to back up the birds are always moving around from group to group.

If you have an "island" of cover - yes you can shoot them out.

There's lots of moving parts to your question. Best rule to live by is don't overhunt one particular covey and take one or two -- then move on - if it's the end of the season and covey is huge then shoot accordingly and take more if season is at the end.
 
birddude said:
This is a tricky one. I believe 5 is as low as you can go and still have some make it through the winter. Having said that, I think it all depends on how many other coveys are in the area. I have accidently wiped coveys out a few times and found a covey the next year in the same place. It's all about habitat. I think if the habitat is there a pair from a different covey will find that habitat in the spring and start again. Thousands more coveys are wiped out in an afternoon with a dozer or track hoe than generations of shotgunners. The time is coming quickly when there will be no quail in farm country.
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It's really sad to see the habitat being destroyed. Hopefully hunters can help save these awesome birds. It going to take a lot of conservation dollars and willpower.
 
As others have said, a lot of moving parts… generally speaking the further north you are and the lower the near term temperatures are the more birds you need wadded up at roost to keep from freezing. In the rolling plains in N. Texas in “bad years” (coveys far apart) I use 8 birds as a rule… in S.Texas it’s less about warmth and more eyes for predator avoidance but 3-4 ought to do it in similar dispersion as above.
When you have 15-20 bird coveys every 100 yards, wear em out, they will find another covey.
Quail are land shrimp, everything eats them, if they don’t get enough rain at the right time they won’t breed no matter how good the habitat, when they are over abundant disease spreads through em like wildfire and once they are gone they are hard to re-establish. Once the stars align they are prolific breeders and can fill good habitat within a few years.
 
Hate to say it but in the future it might end up a pay to play situation. Federal spending is up in the air at this point.
 
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