I read a report that wild fur demand is going to be a big increase next year. I have caught/disposed 10 raccoons at my house since March 1st using dog proof traps, and a 22 pistol.
South Dakota has a super predator bounty system. $10 for each fox, racoon, possum, skunk tail turned in. The first month is for youth only, then open to all. Payout limit is $590 to keep it under the 600 limit where taxes must be claimed. Wish other states would enact this, would help out ground nesting birds.

I like the idea of a managed bounty. I think with today’s deck stacked so much against quail (and quail habitat) that some sort of variable control is in order. The Feds are coming around in their NRCS policies regarding CRP and native grasses and forbs, but ultimately, it’s the farmers who need to buy in and also have a clear sense that programs like field buffers, etc. are in their best interests.

What kind of bag limits were there in the good old days when birds were abundant?

In my "good old days" the limit was 12. I had heard of limits of 15 before my time. Prior to federal regulations being implemented, no limit hunting.

Aaron, an example: the bag limit in Kansas in the early 20th C. was 20 per day. Some states had season limits to go with their day bags (I remember those). In the South limits were high, too, back in the day.

The setting of bag limits was found to not be the best way to manage quail by itself. When I first started hunting quail in 1960s Virginia, I recall the limit being 15. It’s been 8 birds in Missouri for the last 44 years.

Read about the psychology of setting limits. It’s fascinating.

I think too that hunting pressure is a lot of the problem. I lived in a very rural area area of Kentucky in a town of 1200 people. The closest town was po. 100 and 17 miles away, after that it was more than 20 miles in any direction to a town, and all the intervening land was farmed or vacant. It teemed with game but there were few hunters when I was a kid in the 50's and 60's. We lived on the edge of town and I literally walked out my back door and had the choice of three or four farms to hunt (close enough for my parents to watch me).

My family was a family of hunters but I realized later that we were a rarity. Outside of a few people who would shoot a few squirrels, hunting was not a big deal. My dad told me that during his childhood in the 20's he hardly ever heard of an adult hunting. If a farm kid had access to a 22, he might shoot a few squirrels and rabbits, but by and large it was not an adult thing. During the depression no one had the money to buy shotgun shells and certainly didn't wast them by shooting at flying birds. If a hunting dog was to be seen, it was a small cur that would tree squirrels.

I was raised on the stories of Daniel Boone and the pioneers and the myth of the American hunting legacy, but I really believe it was not as widespread as we imagine. Historians have written extensively about the expansion out of the colonies and across the plains, and the truth is that most people feared the outdoors and looked on it as a sinister and dangerous place. Hunting, camping and outdoor recreation only became popular as we entered the 20th century, and was the domain of people who could afford to do it. Fishing seems to havel always been popular, much more so than hunting.

The advent of recreational hunting around the mid century co-incides with the start of the deline of game.

When asked how hawks "eat" (meaning how do they taste, in Southern vernacular} an old guy I knew replied "Most like an owl".

Thats from a Justin Wilson joke routine, I think. Cajun based.

I hope it works but I'm skeptical. Unchecked predation and habitat loss have had an adverse effect on quail and other upland species.

Habitat loss and farming changes are the culprits, I suggest. Certainly was in Michigan. Larger and larger fields meant less hedgerows, 3rd cutting of new, faster growing hay resulted in destruction of pheasant nests. Predators are only a significant problem when there are a lot of them (Which means there is lots of game). Minimal game, minimal predators