Quail Hunting
Quail hunting in Mid-America Hunting Association is on 100% wild quail on private land. Foot hunting only. All hunts are self guided. Hunters are separated to insure no quail hunter mixes his dogs with others.
"Took Kelly for a walk in the park quick hunt and ended up with a limit in an hour and a half. She pointed and retrieved all of them. She even pointed two on a 3 ft. lead on the way back to the truck."
Wild Quail Hunting
Association quail hunting covers three states of Iowa, Missouri and Kansas. Advance to state specific quail hunting information:
Kansas Quail Hunting
Missouri Quail Hunting
Iowa Quail Hunting
Natural birds on existing terrain.
A good example of Missouri's bobwhite quail country of mixed farm fields in the lower elevations with plenty of edge and timbered ridges.
All hunt on their own at their own pace to their on level of dog power, willingness to walk and shooting ability.
Kansas Bobwhite Quail hunting is much different than Missouri as driven by habitat with flat fields and thinner edge areas that frequently run to greater depth. The difference is caused by the topography of Missouri having higher ridge and lower with steeper drains. Kansas quail hunting is the other direction with wider and shallower drains. Both offer good quail hunting with a chance at variety of scenery rather than running dogs on the same field each hunt.
Two dogs, 2 hunters, 8 quail. One of our attempts to show what wild game hunts is all about and that includes that not every quail hunting day is a limit day, but every day can be on coveys and singles.
Studying quail at every chance makes it easier for us to give recommendations to our hunters of where to go quail hunting.
Quail found dusting by Jon Nee while out on a land run in mid summer.
A sample of one of our private land hunting maps that represents an upland bird hunting unit.
There is over 3,000 gross acres of private land on this map sheet that represents the land available to hunt for that day. Actual quail protective cover on this acreage is far less than the total. The best quail hunting is on grain farms where the majority of the acreage is in crop.
Quail hunting is for the Bobwhite Quail starting in southern Iowa, through north Missouri out to western Kansas. This region covers a variety of quail hunting over varying/mixed bird densities and cover.
This region allows for a selection of quail habitat that covers open sky or closed woods along with the accompanying easy and difficult shooting.
What it is that we offer is wild Bobwhite Quail hunting on natural terrain for the do it yourself quail hunter. We lease the private land for our exclusive use, recommend to the hunter where to quail hunt and provide a local lodging listing. After that the self guided hunter is quail hunting on his own. Providing his own dog power, shooting ability and willingness to walk.
Under our system all may be quail hunting any time during the season as often as he wants to. More importantly he will be quail hunting with out encountering any public land hunter mentality.
After the first quail hunt a leisurely approach will be adopted by the hunter as he will find that he is not in competition with others. He will have the entire day to enjoy his dog at work. Each time that hunter and dog steps from their truck they may do so onto a different field each day of every trip. And our quail hunting fields are large.
While many quail hunters can cover a lot of ground it commonly takes only 3 - quarter sections for a full day's hunt. If that hunter walks fast enough to cover each quarter in two hours each then he will have consumed 6 day light hours. The rest would be break time between walks. For those that quail hunt faster each day will have more lease land to hunt than daylight hours to cover.
Those with the quail dog power may find that 3 - quarters are but 2/3'rd of a hunting day and either they will have a limit or work their quail dogs until dark. In any case plan on quail hunting at your own pace as once here the land and the quail are here for the hunting.
Amongst MAHA quail hunting members they are largely divided between two groups. The dedicated quail hunting only bird dog hunter. And, those that prefer the mixed bag that includes quail and pheasant hunting during the same trip. All may hunt the bird(s) of their choice.
Missouri Quail Hunting
The quail hunting only members spend most of the season in Missouri. Missouri has easy walking small farm grain crop field edge quail habitat. This Missouri quail hunting is largely on circular fields that allow for plenty of dog observation and the chance at open sky shots. The consequence is plenty of quail coveys heading into the wood lines cutting short shot opportunity.
Missouri's quail hunting is generally considered better for more singles action after the covey flush. And, that point about Missouri having a lot more quail than pheasants is a discriminator many quail hunters select above all else of where to go quail hunting.
The challenges continue for the single quail hunter working a brushed and grassed in fence line with his bird dog as this type of habitat nearly always has the quail flushing to the far side cleanly escaping the hunter. Two hunters, one on ether side of the fence line or creek bottom gain far more action of shots on quail.
Those quail hunters that prefer the mixed bag hunting with the easier to harvest pheasant will spend their quail hunting days in Kansas.
Missouri hunting land acreage map.
Kansas Quail Hunting
Kansas upland bird hunts with a mixture of tall grass pheasant and wooded and brushy draw bobwhite hunts gives the quail hunter a choice of variety frequently on the same day. The hoped for and very difficult to achieve bag limit of both wild pheasant and Bobwhite Quail in one day is possible only for those with the best dogs. Such a day will surely make a picture to bring a smile to that hunter's face for years to come.
Many times we will receive upland bird hunter feedback that they were able to see plenty of both pheasant and quail well in excess of several day's limits only to have few in the bag. Typically, quail being the lesser of the two in the bag.
Digging deeper into these conversations frequently reveals the bird dog in question is better at either pheasant or quail hunting. Fewer are superior at both.
We do not broach shooting skill levels during these conversations. However, suffice it to say a certain MAHA partner took a friend that joined the year before on a short quail hunting trip. On the first field there was 17 points. Not one bobwhite in the bag. This partner's friend was the one who always out shot the others on the skeet range. Of course as friendships go this became one of those rubber meets the road points of humor between these two. One of them is frequently asked how his skeet taste.
This kind of quail hunting story we have found to be more common than most would want to believe. That is until their first wild quail hunting trip. Nothing will compare to pen raise or field trial quail shooting.
Self Guided Hunts on Wild Quail
A single bobwhite quail point after a covey flush.
The Association's owner's two boys learning the trade. Jon Nee has been upland bird dog runner for a lot longer than most. He is passing that onto the next generation of hunters. His dog in this case is a superior quail hunter and weak on pheasant.
Successful quail hunting comes from having land in the right region of the state and with the right habitat. Training and working our own pointing upland bird dogs allows us the ability to speak from first hand experience. That is where to go quail hunting. That above all else is cause for why we have the quail hunting quality and membership renewal rate that we do. That is simply to having wild Bobwhite Quail hunting for every day the quail hunter has to quail hunt.
Iowa Quail Hunting
Iowa quail hunting seems to have inherited baggage. This includes Iowa residents. many find it hard to believe that Iowa does have quail. For most of the state that is true. However, for the south central counties that boarder northern Missouri's very good quail hunting region there are plenty of coveys to be hunted.
A second aspect specific to the Association's Iowa quail hunting is the limited lease land acreage. This seems to be disliked by many that opt for the larger lease land acreage states of Kansas and Missouri. The reality is that most bird hunters chose to hunt Kansas with its higher pheasant population. The same for Missouri for quail.
A Iowa quail hunting avoidance motivator is the presence of pheasants. the dedicated quail only hunter will travel further south into Missouri where quail only land exists.
Many of our quail hunters will turn away from a rooster. Not even firing a shot. This is a means to prevent their highly tuned quail hunting dogs from being distracted by running pheasants. These are the same hunters that when quail hunting do so alone to further ensure their dogs remain free of unwanted influences of other hunters or their dogs.
Not only may all MAHA quail hunters chose where to quail hunt, they also may select their habitat type of as well.
Iowa's shallow open drainage's with expansive large grain crop fields allow for plenty of long running quail edge. Missouri's more rolling terrain and smaller fields may mean more stops to more farms. However, the circular edge of Missouri's fields makes for a nicer walk by avoiding having to cover the same ground on a linear fence line. And, Kansas with its mixture of brushy draw, crop edge and tall grass prevents boredom with any one type of habitat. All together a great quail hunting variety.
...Should have been a limit day but shooting was awful. Slick pointed at least 5 or 6 additional singles/doubles that I missed. But it reminds me that I'd much rather hunt quail than pheasants...
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