Quail Hunting, page 3

wild upland bird hunts season by state crop

Choices

Kansas Pheasant

Kansas Quail

Kansas Upland

Missouri Pheasant

Missouri Quail

Missouri Upland

Iowa Pheasant

Iowa Quail

Iowa Upland

Topics

Cost

Lease Land

Do It Yourself

Testimonials

Dog Power

Many times we will receive upland bird hunter feedback that they were able to see plenty of both pheasant and quail well in excess of several day's limits only to have few in the bag. Typically, quail being the lesser of the two in the bag.

Digging deeper into these conversations frequently reveals the bird dog in question is better at either pheasant or quail hunting while few are superior at both.

We do not broach shooting skill levels during these conversations. However, suffice it to say a certain MAHA staffer took a friend that joined the year before on a short quail hunting trip and on the first field there was 17 points and not one bobwhite in the bag. This staffer's friend was the one who always out shot the staffer on the skeet range. This kind of quail hunting story we have found to be more common than most would want to believe, until their first quail hunting trip.

When examining wild Bobwhite Quail hunting options many providers prefer to show piles of dead birds with the lodge road sign in the picture frame flanked by smiling hunters and a dog or two. While we too have pictures of hunters, birds and dogs (no lodge or guide sign though) we also emphasize we offer only wild or what many describe as fair chase Bobwhite Quail hunting. The greatest contributor to our wild quail hunting is habitat and getting the traveling quail hunter oriented as quickly as possible to that quail habitat that will give the better quail hunt. This pictures series has that intent.

These pictures are of of the same lease and of a different branch of the dry drain running through a 160 acre of 1/4 section piece of that one lease composed of over 2,000 acres available for that day's hunt.

All edge habitat composed of thin and thick areas. In this case this 1/4 section is pasture with crops on the neighbors side of two fence lines. The other two boarders were dirt roads.

A two hour walk, one covey found and the key point is this was the last hunt in January for the season.

The covey point that gave 6 more singles points and 1 quail in the bag. Our average had been 1 in the bag for every 4 points the previous year.

Review additional quail habitat that includes variety of what is available to hunt.

Iowa

Iowa quail hunting seems to have inherited baggage as to include Iowa residents believe that Iowa does not have any quail hunting. For most of the state that is true. However, for the south central and southwest counties that boarder northern Missouri's very good quail hunting region there are plenty of birds to be hunted.

A second aspect specific to MAHA Iowa quail hunting is the limited lease land acreage. This seems to be disliked by many that opt for the larger lease land acreage states of Kansas and Missouri. The reality is that most bird hunters chose to hunt Kansas with its higher pheasant population density of Missouri for the same on bobwhite quail.

Another avoidance motivator to the dedicated quail hunter that further separates him from Iowa quail hunting is once crossing north from Missouri into Iowa, pheasant numbers begin to rapidly increase.

Many of our quail hunters will turn away from a rooster not even firing a shot to prevent their highly tuned quail hunting bird dogs from being distracted by running pheasants. These are the same hunters that when quail hunting do so alone to further ensure their dogs remain free of pheasants.

MAHA Choice

Not only may all MAHA quail hunters chose where to quail hunt they also may select their habitat type of as well.

Iowa's shallow open ditches with expansive large grain crop fields allow for plenty of long running quail edge. Missouri's more rolling terrain and smaller fields may mean more stops to more farms, however the circular edge makes for a nicer walk by avoiding having to cover the same ground on a linear fence line. And, Kansas with its mixture of brushy draw, crop edge and tall grass prevents boredom with any one type of habitat. All together a great quail hunting variety.