Canard Gris

Look up Leon Measure’s Shoot Where You Look System. Get a BB gun and cut the sights off and follow his process. There are probably similar programs out there and you can modify it with just using a shotgun and a mirror. Leon can’t get BB guns on the market that are up to his accuracy expectations, and he at one time had an instructional for sale on his work around with a shotgun and mirror.

With the BB gun training, you will save a tremendous amount of money on ammunition and will also save your hearing. You can get setup to do a lot of the work in your backyard or in a garage.You’ll also improve way way faster than by going to the skeet range once a month.

People will laugh at the process but it makes total sense and results in the proper foundation, so that when you do shoot clays or live targets, you’ll much more quickly put the pieces together.

That’s funny for someone in LA to get sensitive about ooser pressure. I probably passed 20 mud motor rigs with LA plates headed south when I returned to Oklahoma from Thanksgiving.

When I used to hunt in Missouri quite a bit, almost every parking lot on the CA’s I frequented would have multiple rigs from LA or MS during the early bow season. The amount of LA folks that travel to hunt these days is staggering. I don’t blame them, because I moved out of the state because I didn’t want to have to travel that far for quality hunting.

But get ready, I’ll bet within a half decade you start to see some of these destination states put guardrails on the non resident pressure. OK already started this process with the increases to non resident deer tag costs.

Is the pasture still predominantly native grasses and forbs? How often is it disturbed with fire or other means?

Scale matters when it comes to quail. Research shows that you need close to 1500 acres of fairly contiguous habitat to maintain a population. And there is a difference in having a sustainable population and having a “huntable” population.

It’s not a magic trick to have quail on a property assuming that there is a large enough footprint of habitat and you have the means/gumption to disturb the land frequently enough to keep it viable for quail. Tall Timbers has the recipe figured out.

Fire ants and predators in general are not the reason for the demise of quail by and large. Can they have negative effects on populations? Sure. But the reason the southeast in general has few quail is because the habitat isn’t there. Introduced grasses, closed canopy forests, lack of disturbance, and intense ag have way more to do with the lack of quail than deer, turkeys, fire ants, coons, etc. You can trap every predator off of land that has no quail and it will make little difference in quail being present.

If you go spend some time in quail country and then go back to the southeast, you will see that the landscape in quail country looks almost nothing like most of the southeast. Here in eastern Oklahoma, we still have quite a few quail present relative to most of the country. I can drive 20 min from my house in a good sized city and hear quail whistle regularly. This area looks nothing like most of the southeast; a much stronger native grass component, some people still burn, drier climate so succession doesn’t occur as quickly, etc. The reasons that they still exist here are evident.

I’ll have to see the research to believe the medicated quail feed/eye worm theory. It’s possible I’ve missed it, but I have not been able to find a single piece of research published by the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch or TTU’s toxicology lab that shows data from on the ground use of the medicated feed. Eye worms have been documented in quail for a long time. I would not be surprised if supplemental feeding of traditional grains in the manner that Tall Timbers promotes would be more beneficial than the medicated feed.

I believe the SD has some requirement on outfitters to release some amount of pheasants based on the number of birds they harvest. I don’t know the exact language of the law so I could be wrong, but many outfitters in SD do supplement wild birds with pen raised birds. I’m not a pheasant guy so I haven’t gone to SD other than to hunt grouse.

I will say this about pheasants, pen raised pheasants can act considerably more wild than pen raised quail. People that would know have told me that after pre release pheasants have been on the landscape for awhile, they are no easy target. I’m talking about birds that have been on the ground for a few weeks or longer, the ones that don’t get immediately nuked by predators. Not to say they are as difficult to hunt as wild birds by any stretch.

That area won’t have many sand burrs, they would only be present around disturbed areas like edges of roads and possibly edges of crop fields, places like that. I’ve hunted KS from one corner to the next and the only area I have booted dogs due to burrs is the extreme Western reaches. A dog having soft pads would be the main reason to boot. If you do for some reason find a lot of burrs, you can make a boot out of duck tape that is disposable and works fine, it’s my boot of choice. Lewis boots are too heavy and clunky and not necessary for that area.

That is not a generally great part of the state for pheasants. Pheasants are present, but that is generally a better region for quail with some mixed bag opportunities. If I’m hunting a place that could have both species, I’m shooting 20 gauge 2-3/4” 1oz high brass 6’s. For quail I would just go with high brass 7.5’s. I have shot many many pheasants with an ounce of 7.5’s out of a 20 gauge. Just remember that if the bird is in good range, almost any load will do the trick. Im not saying shoot 7.5’s in a place that is more likely to produce pheasants, but super heavy 3” pheasant loads are generally not needed.

Good luck, bird numbers in that state are spotty. Keep extra clothes in the truck in case you have a morning with heavy moisture on the grass, you can get pretty wet on those early walks. Park as far away as you can stand to walk from the ground you plan on hunting and try to stay as quiet as you can while hunting. Be careful with the roads, that area has gotten some moisture recently.

Have you considered getting a peddle driven kayak for him to use? A 10 year old could handle modern day peddle driven kayaks, and this would resolve any issues with long distance paddling. Obviously this would be a different dynamic than buying a boat, but you could get a peddle driven kayak and a trailer to carry the new kayak plus your current kayak. Would be a great deal cheaper with basically no maintenance or other costs.

I fished out of a pirogue a fair amount at 10 years old. It was doable. Modern day peddle drive kayaks are more fish able than lots of power boats. Just something to think about.

After a season where I wasn't able to travel near as much as normal due to what seemed like an endless number of unexpected issues, I'm planning to hit it very hard this coming season.

Will start off with turkeys here in Oklahoma. Will also hunt turkeys in KS and MO.

Planning to spend 3-4 weeks in ND/MT in late September and early October chasing prairie grouse and then pheasants.

Potentially a northwoods trip to MN or WI for grouse.

Typical quail and pheasants in OK and KS. Then maybe rounding out the end of the season with a quail trip to NM or AZ depending on the rainfall they get this nesting season.

So many places to go, but so little time to fit it all in.

That country looks pretty parched. We got some rain closer to my neck of the woods (north of you) and have had some good hunting.

I'm not buying the parasite stuff. Eye worms have been documented in quail for a long time, even when numbers were consistently higher than they have been for the last decade or so (excluding the boom years in the mid-20 teens). I have a contact that is involved with the Rolling Plains Quail Research ranch, and from what he has told me, all the money they have spent on the parasite work and medicated feed has borne no fruit.

My belief is that changing ranching practices, combined with extended periods of drought/unstable weather, and likely elevated predator numbers are what is responsible for the poor bird numbers in many places. I spend a lot of time in what has historically been quail country, and a lot of these ranches are grown up in cedars, graze to the dirt, etc. I don't think that west Texas/western OK is one huge quail landscape like it once was. My impression is that the quality habitat is considerably more fragmented than it has been historically.

I am extremely paranoid about those collars being on. My dogs are generally out of sight while hunting, so I'm constantly checking the GPS. Was out hunting some high and weedy cover a few weeks ago and checked my collar to see where my pointer was, and had a low battery signal on my Alpha. The collar was close to 90% charged when I had left the truck just a few minutes prior. Turns out I had a bad battery.

Few things in my hobbies will cause anxiety like a big running bird dog being out of sight and wearing a tracking collar that isn't working (or not on). Glad you found her and that she's home safe.

Now how were the quail numbers?

The gun is not critical, bring whatever you are comfortable shooting. I would take into account the weight of a gun more than anything, lugging around a very heavy gun could get old, but it’s not a huge deal.

You would need to find out if you are going to need steel shot, some public land areas (if that’s what you are hunting) require non-toxic shot. For lead loads in 12 gauge, I typically shoot 1-1/8 or 1-1/4 oz #5’s or #6’s. In 20 gauge, I usually shoot 3” #5’s when I can find them. Most high brass loads are sufficient, I have killed many wild roosters with 20 gauge 1oz 7-1/2 high brass loads. It’s not the ideal pheasant load, but I wouldn’t lose a ton of sleep over not having extremely heavy loads. Just something sufficient.

I would bring a pair of rubber knee boots and a pair of hiking boots. Knee boots might be needed if it’s wet and you are hunting cattail sloughs. You don’t need special clothing other than some heavy faced pants, or you can get a pair of chaps. A bird hunting vest of some kind would be nice to hold shells and birds. Typical hunting coats/pullovers/layers are sufficient. Some people make it too complicated. I typically quail and pheasant hunt in a pair of light brush pants or jeans with a worn out old hoodie on.

And yes, I would say it’s worth the trouble to go.