Mass F&W Permit to hunt quail Jan, Feb and March
 

Gents, today I received in the mail my permit to buy, release and hunt up quail at the Crane Reservation in Falmouth, Mass. on specified dates during the months of January, February and March 2019.

This permit is issued by Mass Fisheries and Wildlife and permits me and my hunting party to release quail and hunt them up. On the days that are specified in my permit, only my hunting party/group is permitted in the field.

So, here's an open invite. Should you wish to partake of this, let me know. Sophie, my English setter enjoys the company of others as do I.

The dates on this permit are as follows:

Jan 7, 14, 28
Feb 5, 12, 20, 27
Mar 5, 12, 19, 26

I should add that if your dog needs birdwork, bring him or her by all means. Quail will be purchased locally at the West Wareham Quail Farm nearby.

Allen, I thought CT had you guys beat for concocting new forms of taxing us, but I see Taxachusetts is still creating new ways to skin ya.

You are correct Edgar. Unfortunately our Republican gov seems abliged to sign every bill the Liberal controlled legislature sends him. However, there is a small glimmer of hope. Gas prices at the pump are starting to decline. I paid $2.55/gal today.

$1,95 in Cleveland

194 in miss....charlie

Charlie, that works out to about $28 a tank less than it cost me to fill up my Excursion up here. I may just have to come down there and drive around a bit.

What an incredibly nice offer! Too far for someone west of the Mississippi, even with gas at $1.95, but gosh I hope you get good flying birds and have a grand time.

Gary, thank you. I haven't been over to talk with the guy who raises the quail but the folks at fisheries and wildlife told me his birds are strong hardy fliers. It will be fun and the more birds that i can get my english setter into the better. We have already shot 60 or more birds over her. Funny, regardless which of my hunting friends shoots a bird over Sophie, she will only retrieve the bird and bring it in to me. I forgot to add that sophie, my setter is 2 1/2 yrs old

Grace is the same way.





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Birds of a feather.......

Dean, we have booked a hunt at Addieville for the 21 st. There's 1 opening. Would you like to join in?

The hunt will include a mix of pheasants and chukars

Thanks Allen but I’ll have to take a pass again - but don’t stop asking please.





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That's ok Dean. Anyone else interested in joining this hunt on the 21st at Addieville?

Just as it should be! She's your dog, and she knows she works with her man. Enjoy your "quail days!"

Strong flying quail raised right are great for bird dog training and tuning them up for wild bird hunting. We got a preserve license for the old Governor Dewey estate in Pawling years ago for that purpose. I don't put pheasants or chucker out, just quail to work a young dog with. I don't train my own dogs but the birds help me tune them up and correct small mistakes. Now that I'm back in town permanently, we are going to plant milo plots in the spring for the wild pheasants and to hold over some quail. I'll work my new setter on quail after the grouse season and then send her out for a couple of months to finish her. She needs work on her retrieving and holding steady to wing and shot and backing. I like my bird dogs to be totally finished.

Gas is $3.20 here in Fairbanks.... and our gas is refined in Alaska. We really get ripped up here.

But... I don't remember Michigan sending its residents a check each year.

That's to be expected, Your her Alfa. She would retrieve to you, her pack leader.

I’ll PM about the 21st

This is quite the gig. Hunt out of season, shoot over the limit on a bird that is not normally a game bird, and no one there to check to see if you really released any birds. Tom Flanigan knows the game. We hunted quail in Maryland under a similar system. A $5.00 training license and you can shoot out of season, over the limit, and on Sunday, all on the assumption that you brought your own birds, with no one to check on you. We did not abuse the system, but I'm sure others did.

A kicker to what Bill just mentioned is you could also be from out of state to benefit. Just need your own state license and buy the $5 Maryland dog training permit online and your in.

Bill is right. I never abused the privilege. I imposed a personal limit of four birds on myself. That was enough. There were areas on that state land where most people didn't go and I knew where the coveys were likely to be. Most of the pressure, if you could call it that, was on the first few fields. I hunted them a lot too.

I for one applaud our sister state to the south, something I seldom do but I think in this instance that the State of Massachusetts is doing a great thing for sportsman of there state. You can work your dogs late into the winter for not a lot of money. Massachusetts is not exactly know as the king of Quail State and I imagine that in the end there will be more quail there when the season started due to the released birds. Have fun Allen.

Know nothing about released quail, but in my years of gunning Springer field trials, the accepted knowledge was that released phez wouldn't last more than several days, between hawks, and not knowing how to forage for food

Tom will remember flushing enormous coveys of apparent field trial quail that somehow survived long enough to form these large coveys. We didn't see them in the large coveys often, but often enough to know that they had been on the loose for a good period of time.

Turns out that the local bird breeder that Fish and Wildlife told me to get the birds from is out of any birds until next September. I've contacted 2 or 3 others in the state who advertise quail and they're out too. So, it looks like if I want any birds they will come out of Pennsylvania. He ships. Could get pricey so we'll see. Best laid plans......

Oh, and on Jan 14 I go in for carpal tunnel surgery on my left hand, my thumb and trigger finger are f#$%#% up. Doc says I can shoot in 2 weeks following. Now if the snow will hold off for Feb, maybe we can put up some quail...

Sorry Allen. I got the last of the quail for dog training from your MA Fish/Wildlife contact.

Bill, I'm not sure the coveys were field trial quail. Our buddy Jeff M. shot at the field trials and he told me they used chukers. They may have used quail also but he didn't mention quail when I asked him what birds they used. I think most of the quail that were released were for dog training, but I could be wrong. There was a game warden that came by from time to time and he usually stopped and talked for a while. Nice guy. I mentioned my theory on natural reproduction and he nodded his head in agreement. He told me he shot every cat he saw on that property on sight. I imagine he killed quite a few of them over the years.

Tom, the "game warden" that used to hang out around the parking area seemed to be the kind of guy who would keep the cats in check. One day, I met him out on the road and stopped to chat. I had left the tailgate up on my truck while I hunted around the road. We were about 200 yards from the truck, chatting, and I quietly said "kennel" to Eva. She ran to the truck and jumped in. I could have blown that guy away with a breath. In the seventies, my brother in law and I hunted that property and found four or six big covies a day. The pressure was very light because the cover was very thick. My brother in law lived in an enormous old farmhouse on the river on Schiffeley Mill Road, so was only three or four miles from the property. His duck boat was moored at his back gate and we hunted ducks on the river before work as many days a week as we chose. Hurricane Agnes ran him out of that great property, but he was relocated across River Road by the Feds to a very nice home about a half mile from the river.

You guys get a long season. Out here the quail season closes Jan 30, in OK Feb 15 and at the end of Feb further southwest. I’ll be chasing birds until the end.