Quail Only? Please read on!!!

N

nc bird man

New member
Now before you get all cranked up and think I am too snooty to shoot a pheasant let me explain myself. I have been traveling to North central Kansas for about 4 years to spend money and hunt the beautiful Ringneck. I can not get away until late December or early January. 2 out of the last 4 years after making a 20 hour drive our hunting has been cut short by major snow events so last year we came on December 5th and what happened about a foot of snow so back home we headed after hunting two days. So I was thinking that maybe I would do Quail only in a more southerly area of the state hoping I might be able to bypass the huge snows that have plagued my hunts in the past.

So the question is: If I was to do a quail only maybe a rooster thrown in for good measure all on public ground where would you suggest I go based on this years bird numbers?

Thanks in advance for your replies and good hunting is safe hunting be careful and respectful.

Nc bird man
 
Anywhere S of I-70 and W of Abilene. SEK quail hunting isn't as good as it "should" be, but it is still probably better than the majority of the state.
 
KB-

I grew up in SEK, currently live a couple miles from Pittsburg, but now in Missouri. Dad still lives on the same farm property where him and his brother grew up shooting several hundred quail a year between them. We don't even bother hunting around there anymore. By far we've seen more quail out west than back home. Not saying they aren't here at all as I've seen some on the MO conservation areas, but we see a ton more while pheasant hunting than we'd think about getting into around our familiar farms down here.
 
I am headed back up to Jeff city, MO for the thanksgiving holiday and will be stopping for a short hunt in SEK for quail. NC Birdman I will let ya know what I find. I spend all of my in KS time around wakeeney and have seen a fair amount of quail so I hope SEK has a few coveys for the dogs to bust up!
 
cheesy said:
KB-

I grew up in SEK, currently live a couple miles from Pittsburg, but now in Missouri. Dad still lives on the same farm property where him and his brother grew up shooting several hundred quail a year between them. We don't even bother hunting around there anymore. By far we've seen more quail out west than back home. Not saying they aren't here at all as I've seen some on the MO conservation areas, but we see a ton more while pheasant hunting than we'd think about getting into around our familiar farms down here.
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That's too bad. I certainly didn't expect to hear that. The best quail hunt I had last season was in SEK, but not extreme SE. I saw 4 coveys down there, which I understand I probably would've seen 8 or 10 there several years back. Hope they rebound soon!
 
It might just be where we hunt too, southern Wilson and Northern Montgomery counties. A lot of those pastures are getting pretty grown up with mature brush, rather than edge cover. Get up into the northern tier of counties and things seem to open up more with better managed pasture grounds.
 
I live in SEK and would have to agree with Cheesy, we see alot more quail out west than we do around home. We quail hunt around home quite a bit, and while they are slowly (and I do mean slowly) coming back we will walk the majority of the day and be happy to see maybe 3 coveys, while we are seeing @ 3 coveys per place we hunt out west.
 
Greensburg/Pratt

We had good luck this year.
Sandhills paid off. I heard that the big public place west of Pratt was also doing well this year.

We killed limits every day were hunted last week.

(according to my GPS we walked 4.97 miles opening morning and then 4.7 that afternoon).
 
Has anyone hunted the grasslands this year - thinking about a trip to the Cimarron national grasslands.
 
rsm said:
Has anyone hunted the grasslands this year - thinking about a trip to the Cimarron national grasslands.
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Yes for 2 days opening weekend, only saw one covey of blue quail. Either my buddy, myself and our 5 dogs dont know how to hunt, had completely bad luck or we looked in the wrong areas, or the birds arent that plentiful this year. Its a big place. Didnt see a pheasant or a prairie chicken either. One covey of blue quail, many jackrabbits, a coyote and some mulies are all we saw.


We wanna go back because we dont want to admit defeat, but its a long drive from Wichita and wed like to go back with someone whos hunted it before to absorb some of their wisdom.
 
I agree with most of the posts here. I live in eastern Kansas. Used to shoot a lot of quail within an hour of home (mainly Linn and Miami counties). Not hardly worth the effort now unless you just want to take the dog out for a nice walk in the country. We have seen many more quail out west while pheasant hunting over the last few years than we have seen around home.
 
Nick said:
I agree with most of the posts here. I live in eastern Kansas. Used to shoot a lot of quail within an hour of home (mainly Linn and Miami counties). Not hardly worth the effort now unless you just want to take the dog out for a nice walk in the country. We have seen many more quail out west while pheasant hunting over the last few years than we have seen around home.
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Are the farmers still tearing out hedgerows and bull dozing them into a pile along with the old farmsteads letting cedar trees go rampant?


I think the new deal in the farm bill - cant remember what its called - but paying the farmer to put in buffer strips on his property might be too little too late. Id love to see the quail come back to SE ks the way they were. I was just a young pup and got to enjoy the downward slide in the early 90's but it was still fun the few hunts I made it out.
 
Cimmarron Grasslands

I have not hunted the Cimmarron for a long time, but in the old days the answer was all related to water. Get the forest service maps, find gallinaeceous guzzler locations and wells, hunt from one to the next, about 200 yrds in a circle, if the cover is good. Walking off into the grasslands hoping to find birds will get you a lot of excercise.
 
oldandnew said:
I have not hunted the Cimmarron for a long time, but in the old days the answer was all related to water. Get the forest service maps, find gallinaeceous guzzler locations and wells, hunt from one to the next, about 200 yrds in a circle, if the cover is good. Walking off into the grasslands hoping to find birds will get you a lot of excercise.
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Well we hunted a couple spots with water.

However maybe we were overthinking it....theres a lot of cactus out there, a lot of cactus leaves were growing horizontal to the ground, one morning had a heavy dew (which i know is not typical for the area) and on a lot of cactus Id see pools of water collected on the horizontal leaves as they acted as a bowl of sorts....if that makes sense.

Maybe the water is the key for concentrating the birds???? But I wouldnt think its an absolute necessity. And Id think on a lot of mornings, a lot of plants would collect the water the birds need. Scalies only need mere drops a day to survive from what I have read. Im sure the bobs in the area have developed similar characteristics.
 
I hunted public land yesterday in NE Kansas, walked a ton. My two Brittany's found a small covey late in the hunt with 6 birds in it, I ended up bagging 2 birds and I'll tell you that's as satisfied as I have been in along time with a hunt. The quail bird is not easy to find anymore in eastern Kansas!
 
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