Is anyone pheasant or quail hunting?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

C_Hallbert

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Oct 12, 2017
Messages
1,209
Reaction score
1,483
Location
Oklahoma
I am just glad that I got to enjoy years of the best quail hunting anyone could ask for. I was raised on a ranch in southern OK. I could turn my dogs out and within two or three hours put up 8 to 10 coveys. Today I don't believe there is a one covey on the whole place! I go to the meetings that the wildlife dept. puts on to hear their explanation of the problem. All they say is environment, environment, environment... The environment in the county that I live in has not changed. We have never had much farming but we still have acres of pasture with lots of quail feed, plenty of cover but no quail. Some of us armchair biologist say the problem is predators...hawks, owls, coons, even turkeys. We have always had predators. Others say weather...too dry...too wet...it has always too wet or too dry in OK. Did not hinder the quail back in the day. I have said all of that to say this. It is my never to be humble opinion that we have poisoned quail with lots of other little wild critters. We saturate the fields with weed killers, bug killers, brush killers. Those involved with keeping right of ways clear, fence rows, etc. the places where quail used to live and nest spray these areas with potent herbicides that kill everything. At the last game dept. meeting that I attended I asked what had happened to the bullfrogs? There was a time that I could stand out on my porch on a hot summer night and hear them bellowing in every direction. Ever see a horny toad? More properly a horned toad. Everyone used to have 3 or more in the garden. How about an ordinary toad? We used to pitch those old brown light bugs to our local toads until they were so full they could not hop. My belief is they have gone the way of the quail. Too many chemicals. Please excuse this rant for being too long. Just the ruminating of an old coot who has seen the change.

I believe you’re barking up the right tree. Jack and Swamp Rabbits are gone too, and there aren’t many terrapins on the roads, salamanders in the ponds, or snakes around either. I haven’t seen a Flying Squirrel in S.E. Oklahoma in 15 years. Some of my friends blame Coyotes, but I say, “No way!”

Poisons are used everywhere in agriculture and by compulsive homeowners who believe that a lush green lawn and a weedless garden are essential to prove to the world that they are masters of their small domains.....all provided simply and efficiently through the miracles of modern chemistry.

I visited Long Island, N.Y. a few years ago in the summer. Not a butterfly, beetle or moth to be seen, not even in the streetlights..... If this continues, we are going to be gone too. The Earth is going to be as dead as the surface of the moon.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

ignerntbend

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
15,797
Reaction score
3,270
Location
Oklahoma
That smacks of whackadoo environmentalism, Hal.
If I like it, and I do, there has to be something wrong with this picture.

I believe you’re barking up the right tree. Jack and Swamp Rabbits are gone too, and there aren’t many terrapins on the roads, salamanders in the ponds, or snakes around either. I haven’t seen a Flying Squirrel in S.E. Oklahoma in 15 years. Some of my friends blame Coyotes, but I say, “No way!”

Poisons are used everywhere in agriculture and by compulsive homeowners who believe that a lush green lawn and a weedless garden are essential to prove to the world that they are masters of their small domains.....all provided simply and efficiently through the miracles of modern chemistry.

I visited Long Island, N.Y. a few years ago in the summer. Not a butterfly, beetle or moth to be seen, not even in the streetlights..... If this continues, we are going to be gone too. The Earth is going to be as dead as the surface of the moon.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

ElkStalkR

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Jul 20, 2007
Messages
1,411
Reaction score
978
Location
Native Okie stuck in OMAHA
I opted out of opening week in Nebraska due to weather and the farmers still having crops in where we hunt. The plan was to go over Thanksgiving break, but that got cancelled...so nothing from my end unfortunately.

Game preserves are fun but its just not the same...although as the hunting gets worse and worse at our area, they seem more appealing (its nice to at least SEE a bird when you're walking for miles).

That was a good call! Almost zero crops removed for pheasant opener. I didn't hunt it either, but the guys I know who did didn't fare well. Heck half the corn was still in for rifle opener in mid november and finding deer was a chore! Once the deer disappeared into that corn maze you didn't see them again!
 

Okie4570

Sharpshooter
Staff Member
Special Hen Moderator Moderator
Joined
Nov 28, 2010
Messages
22,922
Reaction score
24,758
Location
NWOK
I probably live in a more no-till ag oriented area than most, and we still have bullfrogs and horny toads. Not horny toad numbers like we used to, but I see them frequently during the summer. I'm also one of the few around here who don't poison the harvester ant hills. As long as the water level stay normal, and the frogs have some protective habitat from the herons and egrets, they seem to still be common. During the drought years, it was pretty slim, with dozens of herons and egrets gathered at each little remaining water holes. I know what it is, it's the GMO corn and soybeans killing everything! Except for where ElkStalkR is.......lmao.
 

Master Carper

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Nov 23, 2010
Messages
2,005
Reaction score
1,896
Location
Oklahoma
I grew up in Vinita and started quail hunting in the early 70's and it was nothing to jump no less than 10 covey a day, with anywhere from 10 to 30 quail per covey. It was more fun to watch my neighbors pointers and setters work those birds, even though we would usually shoot 4 birds apiece, take them to the house and go back out the same day with a beagle and jump a dozen rabbits and listen to that beagle sing his happy song!

Sadly, those "good ol days" have gone the way of the dinosaur, and will be no more.

And those quail back then....always big, fat and very healthy, unlike the VERY FEW that I see now days.
 

SoonerP226

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Messages
13,436
Reaction score
13,852
Location
Norman
I saw quite a few ring-necked pheasants last week. If you want to go out to the rural areas around Lubbock, you can see 'em, too. ;)

I haven't seen many bullfrogs recently, but I read a news article about them years ago that said they were being outcompeted by an invasion of some African frog species. I've also heard and read stories about how the frogs are being killed off by poisons, but you can't prove it by my place; between the cicadas and the smaller frogs, it's damn near deafening on a late summer evening. And I still have toads that like to hang around on my porch under the night light by the kitchen door.
 

dlbleak

Sharpshooter
Staff Member
Supporting Member
Special Hen Administrator Moderator Supporter
Joined
Mar 15, 2009
Messages
21,040
Reaction score
25,100
Location
edmond
We’ve sat around the table at my buddy’s farm and theorized that it’s the chemicals. It’s darn near impossible to get a crop yield without them, unfortunately. There are a few places that he doesn’t spray and guess where the birds are?
Mostly we just let the dogs work. We shoot enough to make a side dish but never enough for a whole meal anymore.
 

Okie4570

Sharpshooter
Staff Member
Special Hen Moderator Moderator
Joined
Nov 28, 2010
Messages
22,922
Reaction score
24,758
Location
NWOK
We’ve sat around the table at my buddy’s farm and theorized that it’s the chemicals. It’s darn near impossible to get a crop yield without them, unfortunately. There are a few places that he doesn’t spray and guess where the birds are?
Mostly we just let the dogs work. We shoot enough to make a side dish but never enough for a whole meal anymore.

And those herbicides that he sprays his pastures with eliminates all the broadleaf, forbes and woody vegetation that quail also rely on for seed/feed/cover. Here's a pretty good OSU read.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAYegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw0tavmz9A4mo_y_xS4OLXVf
 

dennishoddy

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Dec 9, 2008
Messages
84,556
Reaction score
61,836
Location
Ponca City Ok
I probably live in a more no-till ag oriented area than most, and we still have bullfrogs and horny toads. Not horny toad numbers like we used to, but I see them frequently during the summer. I'm also one of the few around here who don't poison the harvester ant hills. As long as the water level stay normal, and the frogs have some protective habitat from the herons and egrets, they seem to still be common. During the drought years, it was pretty slim, with dozens of herons and egrets gathered at each little remaining water holes. I know what it is, it's the GMO corn and soybeans killing everything! Except for where ElkStalkR is.......lmao.
I still have bullfrogs at my pond. Posted pics earlier this spring of some big ones that made it to the skillet. If you have bass in your pond, you won't have many frogs. That's just pretty much a gimme. So far my pond is a perch pond and the frogs are flourishing.
When the pond got low during the drought Okie 4570 was talking about, I'd see them under the grass way up on the pond dam under some trees to escape the herons.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom