Heck of a contribution first post or 8273th post. Welcome sjohn. Looking forward to more of your posts.
Edit: your second post came in after I posted. Nice!
Took our Boykin out scouting today, mainly looking for places to deer hunt next season in the Croatan. Hoping to also flush up a few woodcock just for fun, my wife had never seen anything flushed by a dog. No woodcock, but he did hit a huge covey of bobwhites! Have to remember that for next weekend...
we were hog hunting last weekend in SC down around Charleston in the Francis Marion forest and got two up in the morning....
Dummies... they both got up underfoot and went dead away for 20 yards before setting down again...
Sounds good. Go after them. I am convinced that hunting pressure is the least important factor in quail populations. If they're there - hunt them. I hear a lot of guys say (on private land) that they are going to not hunt them to protect them for future recovery. Nothing ever happens, and 2 years later the covey is gone, and neither the hunter nor the quail benefitted. If you've got a covey, consider it a blessing and go shoot a few. It won't make one bit of difference in the long run.
I would love to meet up and talk about hunting them. I have used my labs for quail hunting but just got my first GSP last week. I can't wait for the season to come back in and see how he does. I'm really looking forward to just going out and scouting game lands. Ive never hunted on game lands and I also know that it might be a waste of time but really looking forward to doing something new with the family and dogs.