Originally Posted By: ChiefShotguns
I am of the opinion that the "plantations" in the SouthEast that tell you they hunt "wild" birds are stretching the truth, to put it mildly. I have lived in the South all my life, I have hunted wild quail very often in the past (I am 68 now) , and yes, there are scattered areas now that have very small populations of wild quail, but they are very nomadic. That is to say that they will be in one area one year and gone to another the next. There are simply to many predators in the SouthEast for any sustainable populations of wild quail to exist, according to all the experts I hear. The plantations are shooting early released birds, with extra pen raised birds put out in most of them on the morning of your hunt. That's not wild birds. If you are bent on having a "traditional" plantation hunt with all the trappings, then go for it, just don't expect to be shooting wild birds.

For those who would be happy with released birds, and at much lower rates (and ambiance) I won't give away all my secrets, but this one is able to handle more hunters than some of the smaller sites I go to, so try this:

http://www.trophyquestinc.com/MillwoodHunts.html

Oh, I live adjacent to Fort Benning. I would say there are quite likely more areas of truly wild quail on Fort Benning than in all of the remainder of the SouthEast. They do not remain in one area, however, they have adapted to moving around due to very heavy predation. Fort Benning is also VERY, VERY picky about who gets to hunt there. Not very many do. I have known of some with pretty good connections who could not hunt there.


Thanks for the reply. I have always heard that Ft. Benning wasn't great for quail but maybe I was told that so that I wouldn't try it out myself. I have hunted some public land in Alabama a couple times but I haven't found more than 2 coveys a day. Some of my hunting partners have found up to 5 or 6 covies (on rare occasions of course) but, in all honestly, they are more knowledgeable quail hunters than I am. Does Ft. Benning have a public hunting area?.. most bases do.

I have seen the hunts at Millwood on TV and I was impressed. The quality of the birds was very good. Many of them flew as coveys but they had a few that needed a little kicking. What's more, the hunt took place at the end of the season. Usually, by then, most preserves rely totally on birds released prior to hunt.

Pine Hill's claim of having wild birds is not what sold me on the hunt. I knew there wouldn't be many but I do believe there are some. When I spoke with the owner, Doug Coe, he told me that most guest choose not to go after the wild birds. On a heavily hunted plantation (although Pine Hill isn't hunted NEARLY as hard as most preserves... especially for its size) the wild birds move to the thickest cover to be found. Doug told me that most hunters just don't care enough to get in there and find them. I believe there are wild birds (not many, but some) but that is not the reason we chose Pine Hill. I know that most of the birds we shoot will be released. When I watched the video of a Pine Hill hunt, I couldn't tell if the covies were wild or released. That's what I was looking for.

If you want to see the video of the hunt at Millwood Plantation, click on the link and type in "Millwood quail".
http://www.myoutdoortv.com/search-videos.html

Thanks again!

Adam

Last edited by Adam Stinson; 08/17/08 12:03 AM.