some people try to carry the tradition on as best as they can but its a hard thing to keep alive . One thing I will say that I appreciate about the experience is it taught me my love for horses . There was about 9 of them I worked with and I seen them more as coworkers and partners than animals .

Hurricane Michael devastated our quail habit last year and im not sure if it can recover .

I use to raise quail
 

Just seems that quail can't catch a break. The game little guys have to contend not only with weather and disease but everything that wants to eat them; foxes, owls, cats, coyotes, hawks, raccoons, possums, fire ants, snakes, and on and on. On the positive side, there are several research organizations that seem to be serious about coming up with answers regarding how to increase our little friends numbers. We can only hope a solution is found, and quick.

i for one hope they come up with something to restore the quail...charlie

In my part of GA we had good wild quail hunting up into 1990, in selected locations. Pretty much gone, now. We stumble into a covey occasionally while woodcock hunting.

A close friend who owns about 1100 acres near me has managed it for quail for the last 8-10 years. He has a few coveys of wild birds, but releases 2300 each year, in coveys, in late August. By Thanksgiving those birds are so wild they often won't hold for a point. I hunt with him two or three times a season, and am always impressed by how wild they have gotten. Some even survive, nest and raise. I've seen the little ones in the late spring/early summer, ofttimes.

That pair of 16s would be right at home down he'ah. Nice job, Brian.

SRH

We lost so many pine trees from the hurricane which destroyed their habitat and now they are having to cut even more pines because of beetles .

My neighbor lost 50 acres of 15 yr old pines and he didnt replant them he got a offer to grow trees for the Fender guitar company . I cant remember what the tree is called but its suppose to grow 10 ft or so a year .

In my experience hawks were the number 1 killer of our quail .
I think another problem quail hunting faces is its not easy to get new hunters involved with it because of the cost .

I think folks need to rethink the relation between predator and prey.. If there are too many predators, and they overeat the prey, and the number of prey declines, naturally the predators will also be diminished. Back and forth. Look a changes/reductions in habitat