How much pressure is too much on a quail covey?

[Boudroux]

Last quail season I found a spot that has lots of quail and zero pressure on SoCal public land. So far this year it appears there are certainly more birds than last however I'm worried about over hunting it. Between last year and so far this year my old man and I have not seen a single other hunter, boot prints or empty shells so for sure there is little pressure from other hunters.

Since opener we've been up three times and we both are bringing home a few birds each trip. The two little canyons we go into each had coveys, last year we estimated there were 15 or so that we could see on flushes. This year we are seeing more like 25-30 in each canyon and I'd hate to screw this up for future seasons by taking to many birds. I have 5 and 7 yr old sons and hope to be getting them into these same canyons in the future so this subject really has me thinking.

This area is a 4 mile hike in to the first of the two canyons and between the hiking in/out and hunting the two it really makes for a long day so we have not gone any further into this area but I know there are many more little side canyons further up this spot and I'd bet all the side canyons hold coveys. I've read about coveys mixing into each other if they are close enough but in all honesty I've not been at this for 30 years or something so I'm only drawing from what I can find on the net. I know there are many of you who are far more experienced than myself.

I'd love to hear some thoughts on this subject from Y'all.

 

[Gspman]

Well start by sending me a pm with the exact location. I'll then go in and see how things are and give you a first hand opinion .

If you are really seeing 15+ healthy Coveys and only bring in a few birds out of all the coveys it seams like you are doing well. A rule of thumb I was always taught was you can thin out a healthy covey of 30-50 birds by about 1/4 25% a season and be fine for next season. I've been at this a while but I'm sure many other guys will have more knowledge and opinions.

 

[ilovesprig]

Boudroux,

Sounds like your coveys are doing fine......Nature will take care of itself.....Quail are resilient and can produce large numbers in one rightly timed rainy season.....Plus, older birds get to be older by running more and flying less.....

 

[SurfNHuntSD]

Sounds OK to me as well.. plus its 4 miles in, most quail hunters aren't hiking that far.

 

[SluiceCoot]

You're doing just fine. If you hunt it on back to back days I'm sure you will find day #2 harder. For whatever reason, my second day hunts are always much harder. I think it takes a few days for the quail to covey back up in their normal spots.

 

[ilovesprig]

Got this picture of this cock bird couple days ago.....Only 2 left..... ???

.

 

[Deleted member 27310]

that lil guy is the look out, I've ran into a single and then find out that 10 were in the bush and flush out at mock speed .. quail are awesome

 

[Boudroux]

Just got back from Potter County PA, rural upstate, visiting inlaws. Without even trying we saw tons of turkey, deer and a few black bears. One day I'll go back with my rifle and do some hunting but my wife always plans the trip to the minute to be able to spend time with all her family and hunting doesn't factor into her plans. 10 years and probably 15 trips back there and I keep saying next trip I'm going early or staying after to hunt. Her uncles are all friggen mountain men and don't believe I've ever shot something in limp wristed SoCal LOL

Thanks for the input all. I'm going back up the canyon tomorrow with the old man to complete the TurQuailDovekin meal for next week!

 

[Bonejour]

that lil guy is the look out, I've ran into a single and then find out that 10 were in the bush and flush out at mock speed .. quail are awesome

I love to watch them flush up through brush like that. You hear them working there way up through the dry stuff, and when one flushes, get ready for the next wave, then the next!

 

[Kellendv]

Since opener we've been up three times and we both are bringing home a few birds each trip. The two little canyons we go into each had coveys, last year we estimated there were 15 or so that we could see on flushes. This year we are seeing more like 25-30 in each canyon and I'd hate to screw this up for future seasons by taking to many birds. I have 5 and 7 yr old sons and hope to be getting them into these same canyons in the future so this subject really has me thinking.

Good job for getting out and putting in the miles! I love quail hunting and I don't think twice about hiking 10 miles on a day of quail hunting. Bird numbers are still very down here, but there are pockets of good habitat that has everything they need where you can find "good" quail numbers like you have. Quail are incredibly resilient and when there are good rains, they can bounce back quite quickly. From where they are at right now, in one year of good rains we might be able to get back to "good" covey sizes, it would take two years of good conditions to get back to "great" coveys.

If you want to figure out approximately how many will be there next year, you can do some basic math. Average clutch size is around 12 (if we get the rains, some times they do not reproduce at all if the conditions are bad). Let's say for this discussion that we have a 50 percent survival rate to the hunting season.. So, if you have 20 birds, and they are magically matched and you have 10 breeding pairs within that 20 (you don't), that covey has the potential to grow to a covey of 80. But that is in ideal conditions, which obviously have not been occurring lately. We will see what happens with the forecasted El Niño rains.

When I am hunting with my dogs, I will shoot maybe one bird out of a covey of 8, a dozen to 15 birds I might shoot two, just because I want to shoot a bird over each dogs point. 20 birds I might shoot 3. Usually I go home with 1 or 2 birds. I like hunting them and I want to be able to go back and hunt them over the course of the season and shoot more birds over my dogs. I also rotate my spots so I don't pressure one covey to much. If it was me I would manage my take from that spot because it has the potential to blow up this year with the rains (we will see.....). But I am in no way telling you what you should do. That is my metric.

Anyway, sounds like you found a good spot! Good job for getting out there.

 

[Boudroux]

Thanks for all the advice everyone.