Texas quail hunting in the Midland/Odessa area

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oldandnew

Active member
I am really yearning for some good predictable quail hunting. Haven't been to Texas in 30 years, but have an opportunity to join a lease group near the Midland/Odessa area. Anybody do any hunting down that way? As I remember, the Texas quail population is heavily depended upon moisture, and varies year to year dramatically. I have researched the Texas Department of Wildlife site, really didn't get any feel at all. Guys who have the lease seem to be happy, but they also would like some help financially to pay for it! like a few unbiased opinions. Thanks.
 
living down here and paying to hunt is not for me...quail pop. has been way down for past 3 years, most quail leases don't kick in until after deer season (Dec.) and the bird season ends in early February....probably the best quail pop. is in the panhandle around Amarillo, mostly bobs too.....when you get south of there a hundred miles or so it is mostly blue quail, runners, tough hunting......my guess is these guys are looking to recover some lease money, seldom does anyone down here share anything that is top notch, that just doesn't happen in Texas....i can drive 6 1/2 hours from DFW area and be in southern Kansas and likely move as many quail and shoot some roosters too and the drive is basically the same, but you never know, these guys may have some decent hunting....

how many acres of access do they have? any grain on the property(that area usually has little)? any tanks (water, ponds)? how many guys are on the lease now actively hunting birds?........PM if you need to......good luck
 
They have two different parcels, one about 12 sections, and one about 9600@. All native range with oil production roads, there are a considerable number of tanks, on both, no crop, claim to have bobs and some blues, but mostly bobs, have not seen it, the larger parcel is not grazed, smaller summer grazed yearlings only. Not cheap, looks like a total of 10 hunters, some spouses, kids, maybe 5 serious enough to hunt quail, more than half a dozen times. Seem to shoot a lot of doves, and one guy hunts ducks on the tank. Ground available from opener on, they don't allow deer hunting, and cut off the doves before the quail opener, they put out feeders on the smaller tract, but don't hunt within a certain distance around them. Hunted the area years ago, it was really good, like 30 coveys a day good! but always expensive! Now maybe expensive and not so great, but 10 coveys would be great now! Back then we were moving 10-12 coveys a day in NC Kansas, so not nearly the incentive to drive 800 miles each way to Texas, now more like 2 - 4 coveys, and you hate to cut into those much for fear of loosing those. Hoping in vain for a place where the population is at least somewhat stable.
 
well, lots of ground to cover, if someone can tell you where the birds are hanging (usually not far from tanks) you may be able to move 5-7 coveys a day with your own dog(s), but more than that would probably be exceptional now.....most guys run a brace of pointers (with 8 -10 dogs in tow) to cover that kind of ground, hard on dogs, (cactus, mesquite, rocks, snakes in season) again unless you can zero in on them it takes a lot of dog power.

if you get the whole quail season, it might be worthwhile....as you know, a lot depends on spring weather for the birds to pull off a decent hatch. right now it is drier than hell down here, we got our first rain (2 days ago) since early September, if that pattern holds into the spring and i am guessing it sure could, even the doves will be hard pressed to pull off a nest! i would wait until the latest date you can to make a decision for 2011 lease. as you know the downside is the gawd awful drive all the way down here..

i am a value guy, i ask myself, how many trips am i likely to make in a season to use the lease....after a couple drives down here, unless you can share the driving, you will likely grow tired of the trip.....i go to Kansas usually 3-4 times a season and hunt 4-5 days each trip.....by January i am tired of cruising I-35......as i said there may be value in this deal for you, it is different for everyone.......i hate driving...good luck and keep an eye on the spring/summer weather patterns down here to make an informed decision for next season......or i will be on the forum all off season and i can give you a pretty good feel for weather and conditions down here as well.......
 
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I sympathize with the driving, in my twenties, I'd take off for a week and drive 2500 miles to hunt. Now I'd rather hunt the back 40, but it's hard to get motivated to do either, if there are no birds. I could probably get down there at least 4 times, may consider it, if there are birds next year.
 
oldandnew said:
I sympathize with the driving, in my twenties, I'd take off for a week and drive 2500 miles to hunt. Now I'd rather hunt the back 40, but it's hard to get motivated to do either, if there are no birds. I could probably get down there at least 4 times, may consider it, if there are birds next year.
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i don't mind walking CRP all day long for 1 or 2 roosters, but wheel time gets old fast......i will keep a good eye on the weather for the next 6 months and provide you with an educated guess on what to expect.....for me quail just get in the way when i am pheasant hunting, late season if the coveys have over 10-12 birds i might take a couple, but usually the coveys are getting pretty thinned out by this time of year.....agree, when i was much younger a long drive was no big deal....now, i would much rather hunt, but 6 1/2 hours from here puts my dogs on the ground in SC Kansas...pheasants are my game.
 
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hunter94 said:
....probably the best quail pop. is in the panhandle around Amarillo, mostly bobs too.....
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Really haven't seen too many birds in the panhandle this year. I've only seen two coveys (bobs) while walking the fields all hunting season. They're probably in very isolated pockets. Earlier in the season, I hunted an area that had a very good population last year. The dog and I walked the area for hours and we never saw a single sign that the birds had been there.

Talked to others that have had the same experience this year.

hunter94 said:
seldom does anyone down here share anything that is top notch, that just doesn't happen in Texas
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LMAO...that is so true.
 
Rhodi said:
Really haven't seen too many birds in the panhandle this year. I've only seen two coveys (bobs) while walking the fields all hunting season. They're probably in very isolated pockets. Earlier in the season, I hunted an area that had a very good population last year. The dog and I walked the area for hours and we never saw a single sign that the birds had been there.

Talked to others that have had the same experience this year.



LMAO...that is so true.
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i heard an interesting take on why the quail pop. in Texas has dropped steadily over the past few years, i am sure weather is a bigger player, but i thought this theory was interesting and worth sharing....

as most of us down here know, deer feeders are very common and they have caught on even more recently, automated feeders that mostly dispense corn on a daily basis....evidently some folks noticed that when the feeders were started up in the early fall, that consequently the quail pop. in the immediate vicinity began to decrease....makes no sense to most because you would think the feed would supplement the quail as it attracts the deer, so you end up feeding both....but , allegedly, it was discovered that a lot of "deer corn" sold in stores was contaminated with a germ of some sort that was killing the quail when they ingested it....crazy, but if you think about it, it could make sense......i will see if i can find a link to the theory and post it up........
 
I wish we still had birds in this area . I would give up duck hunting for it. When I was a kid they were every wheres on the farm . All we hunt now is dove [which is good now] and duck.
 
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SALLYSUE said:
I wish we still had birds in this area . I would give up duck hunting for it. When I was a kid they were every wheres on the farm . All we hunt now is dove [which is good now] and duck.
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When I gauge today's quail population against what I remember as a kid, it looks pretty dismal. Growing up in E TX, I remember seeing bobs all around our house. Haven't hunted there in almost 30 years, but I understand there are very few now. It was always a treat to make our holiday run up to the Wichita Falls area for some quail hunting. It seemed like there was a bob behind every fence post.
 
contamination in corn probably some kind of Afflatoxin, (sic), it's also a problem in livestock feed, usually caused by insufficient drying or wet feed. Good only for ethanol manufacture , BUT DO NO FEED THE DISTILLED GRAINS, because they contain the toxin as well. Wet distillers grain is often the culprit all on it'sown, due to the casual care it recieves, and percentage of moisture. It's a danger to you, the beef you eat, your dog, and quail.
 
well "old and new", sorry if we got you scared off now, but things can change with a good hatch...we'll see.
 
SALLYSUE said:
Pheasant hunted around Plainview and saw several coveys
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SALLYSUE, those were the same ones I saw. :rolleyes: (J/K)

Went pheasant hunting down in that area yesterday from noon on. Didn't see any quail or roosters and we covered a lot of ground. Of course, the wind was howling with gusts up in the 40's and supposed to be worse today.

One of the coveys that I saw this year was down in that area.
 
Why do Texans have to feed everything they want to hunt with their feeders? Doesn't seem very sporting to me, or an honest way to hunt game.
 
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