Good for you Harold! I love the photos, especially the one of your two pups. Wild quail run, too, but you’ll rarely see them, only knowing by watching your dogs. It’s good you have those opportunities and kudos to WV for releasing birds. If your cover is that good, I’m curious why they don’t trap and release wild birds as with grouse or turkeys. Too much focus on deer will ultimately ruin bird hunting in many areas, and if we don’t figure out CWD, it may be the death of hunting as we have known it. Sometimes I’m glad I’m not any younger (sometimes!).

In the meantime, keep your reports coming. They are enjoyed.

Yea, a lab would work great Keavin.
Back at the truck today, moved 2 nice covies and took my 3 bird limit. Will post more pictures later

Great looking dogs and terrain!

Beautiful dogs!

Our last wild quail disappeared during the blizzard in the 1970s
It was always enjoy to jump the 2 coveys on our wildlife area.

I have a close friend who has early released (late August) pen raised bobwhite on his land for the last 12-15 years. I hear them whistling every spring and we've always seen broods of bitties. They (the released birds) definitely do mate and raise young down here in GA.

It seems that after doing so, and the young grow up, they're nearly as wild as true wild bobs. They certainly won't always hold while the dogs point, but will often flush wild before the guns can get there.

You’re right, Stan, and if they can pull off several generations, they will be wild.

I have observed that if there is contiguous cover, and there is good brooding weather, quail will move into good cover. Likewise, they disappear under the reverse conditions…and they can be “shot out.”

I recall in my youth, hunting with beagles in river bottoms, we would hear a volley of shots and someone in our group would say "bird hunters". They would come into a field, three or four of them, with A5s and 1100s and kill no telling how many birds out of a covey with no concern whatsoever about conservation or future hunting. Back then I didn't think much about it, but looking back it is surprising that the quail populations didn't go away sooner than they did.