Quail hunting in the Carolinas

Quail-Main — Quail hunting with a side-by-side shotgun was the standard throughout the golden age of the sport. Today, over-and-unders are common.

Carolina quail hunting remains a reality

It’s the iconic Carolina sport: chasing quail with a trusty shotgun behind an equally trusty bird dog.

Mr. Bob once provided enough opportunities for the elite as well as the everyman. But his numbers have dropped considerably since those good old days. Land usage and management changes have led to a steep decline in bobwhite populations over the last 50 years. But bird hunters can still enjoy the grand old pursuit in North and South Carolina. They just have to know where to look.

Hunting preserves offer quail hunters the option of taking pheasants and/or chukars as well, adding even more excitement to the pursuit of Mr. Bob.

North Carolina

Christopher Kreh, former upland game bird biologist for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) and the current assistant chief of its Game and Furbearer Program, said hunters in the Old North State have several options for pursuing bobwhites, although some are better than others.

“Quail populations are at their lowest point ever in North Carolina,” Kreh said. “They’re still fairly common in the coastal plain. And they’re getting pretty scarce in the Piedmont, and they’re just about extirpated from most of the mountains. So hunters will want to look east of I-95.”

Fewer people, more active forestry management and agriculture mean the coastal plain can still hold these relatively high populations of quail. Hunters have several game lands to choose from here. Kreh recommends the permit-hunting options at the Voice of America Game Land and Murphy-Brown Corporate CURE Area. The deadline to apply for these permits is Oct. 1. So plan accordingly next season.

Historically, the Piedmont was the best bet for North Carolina bird hunters because of its soil quality and the number of small farms that dotted the landscape. Increasing urban development has changed that. But quail hunters can still find success in this region, too, if they do their homework.

Quality quail hunting requires quality quail habitat, which includes thick, grassy, and weedy edges along fields and forests.

Leave some for tomorrow

While quail numbers are certainly low in the mountains, Kreh said some grouse and woodcock hunters will occasionally harvest a bobwhite if the habitat is right. Be sure to leave a few birds if you do happen across a covey in order to keep it going for future seasons.

Regardless of which game land you hunt, NCWRC makes it a point to manage each of them for a wide variety of species, including quail.

“We do a lot of habitat work on all of our game lands,” Kreh said. “A lot of prescribed fire, a lot of active timber management for low basal area and good herbaceous ground cover. That’s particularly true on the game lands in the eastern part of the state, where we’ve got a lot more row pines.”

For more information on quail hunting in North Carolina, visit ncwildlife.org.

South Carolina

The Palmetto State has also seen a drop in quail populations over the years because of urbanization and changing land management. But it is currently seeing a resurgence thanks to a major investment in the species. In December 2014, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) began work on the South Carolina Bobwhite Initiative. This program was designed to improve quail habitat on several public hunting areas across the state through controlled burning, tree thinning, and more.

These focal regions include Sumter National Forest; Sand Hills National Wildlife Refuge; Oak Lea Wildlife Management Area; the Webb, Hamilton Ridge, and Palachucola Wildlife Management Areas. And in September 2021, one was added on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land in McCormick County.

The initiative’s goal is twofold: better the quail habitat on these public areas while also showing landowners how to do the same on private acreage. Michael Hook, SCDNR quail coordinator and Small Game Program leader, said the results have been very encouraging.

“We didn’t take ‘good’ quail habitat; we took what most people were dealing with here in South Carolina,” Hook said. “The idea was to show people you could do the work and the birds will respond.

“In each one of these focal areas,” Hook added, “we have Farm Bill biologists, and their job is to go out into private individuals’ pieces of property, talk them through it, show them how to do it, find the cost-share monies that are available to do this work, and then implement it on their own property. So, you’re changing the whole landscape for quail — sort of a hub-and-spoke deal, where the focal areas — the public lands — are the hub and the private lands around them are the spokes.”

Things are looking up

It has taken the state a few years to begin to see the fruits of this initiative. That’s understandable given the time needed to acquire permits for management on the various lands and then actually conduct the burns, thinning, etc. But two of the properties had record years in 2021 for spring counts, whistle counts, and fall covey counts.

“It’s simple,” Hook said. “In a pine system, you open up the pines, let some sunlight hit the ground, and then you maintain that weedy, nasty, grassy [ground cover] that we used to create by accident, and the birds will flourish. It takes thinning and burning — the two biggest keys.”

The best part? These are native quail that already exist on the landscape, albeit in limited numbers. Hook said transplanting birds can speed up the process. But given the right habitat, wild birds will respond accordingly and repopulate the areas on their own.

“We’ll go out to someone’s property who hasn’t seen a quail in years, and they’ll ask you, ‘Where did these birds come from?’” Hook said. “I’ll say, ‘Look, you build it, they’ll show up, and they’re going to come.’ You’ll get a look of disbelief, but if they do the work, inevitably, in a couple of years, you’ll get a phone call, ‘Mike, you will not believe what I heard today. I heard a bird whistling on my property. I saw one run across my road.’”

For more information on the South Carolina Bobwhite Initiative, visit scbobwhites.org.

Make sure that your bird dog is up for the challenge before a hunt, as you don’t want to squander any chances on the coveys still available to you. (Photo by Taylor Pardue)

Preserving the pursuit

Chasing wild quail is considered the ideal hunting scenario by many, but hunters can still enjoy the thrill of rising birds through the numerous hunting preserves located across both states. These often have the added bonus of letting you use one of the lodge’s trained bird dogs in lieu of your own, as well as prepping and packaging the birds for you after a hunt. Many preserves also offer clay shooting as a warm-up before the hunt.

Preserves let you add other species on to your hunt, too, including pheasants and/or chukars. These can give you different game meats to enjoy, a little more color in the bag, and a new challenge for your bird dog if they have never encountered these game birds.

Hunting preserves have maintained the legacy of quail hunting throughout the last few decades of population decline. And while it is exciting to hear of the management efforts taking place across North and South Carolina, it remains to be seen if quail can ever fully reclaim the numbers they have lost since then. In order to protect these limited hunting opportunities, preserves will likely continue to be the best option for introducing youth to the sport or regularly working a new bird dog for the foreseeable future.