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Hunting Experience Shapes Quail Management in Mississippi

By John Mark Curtis, Mississippi & Alabama State Coordinator

“It’s a great idea,” Mr. Jimmy mused, leaning back in his chair. “You can’t be much of a quail biologist if you’ve never been quail hunting.”

I nodded in agreement. While I’ve known more than a few wildlife professionals who don’t hunt that are excellent biologists, I wouldn’t call them the norm in the world of game management. I can also say that, in my own life, many of my biggest lightbulb moments regarding bobwhite management came from a covey of wild birds flipping the switch as they erupted in a flurry of wingbeats.

Hunting may not be fundamental to being a good quail biologist, but not hunting quail is certainly a missed opportunity to interact with the bird in its habitat. If there’s a better classroom than the places quail live, and better teachers than Mr. and Mrs. Bobwhite, I don’t know them.

That’s what led me to this moment, sitting in Mr. Jimmy Bryan’s office, the owner of Prairie Wildlife, an Orvis-endorsed sporting estate located in West Point, Mississippi. The favor I had just asked hung in the air like the cigar smoke floating a few feet above our heads.

At the time, I had seven QF biologists on staff who had never hunted quail, and I was asking for the opportunity to change that with very little to offer in return. Luckily for me, the training of young quail biologists has, in the time I’ve known him, always been a passion of Mr. Jimmy’s.

He paused, took another pull from his cigar, and slowly exhaled a fresh plume of smoke. “Let’s make it happen. Get us some dates and we’ll make it work.”

A month later, a group of biologists from Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky gathered at Prairie Wildlife to learn about quail hunting and go on their first quail hunt. They were taught gun safety and received shooting instruction from Xavier Fairley, Prairie Wildlife’s Shooting Instructor, learned about bird dogs from General Manager Bennie Atkinson, and participated in a released quail hunt guided by fellow biologists and Dr. Mark McConnell, the Assistant Gamebird Professor at Mississippi State University.

All of this was followed by a fried quail dinner, the perfect ending to two days spent afield. The event was a huge success, and the young professionals who attended left with a greater understanding and appreciation for quail hunting.

It may come as a shock to find out that many of our Quail Forever biologists haven’t spent much time behind a bird dog. It shouldn’t.

Using Mississippi as an example, the number of quail hunters in the state has hovered below 10,000 for the past 25 years. That’s less than 0.3% of Mississippi’s population. This trend isn’t unique to my home state. Since the 1980’s, upland hunting has been on a downward trend across most of the Southeast. Considering most of our Farm Bill biologists are in their 20’s, they’ve grown up during a time with incredibly limited quail hunting opportunities. This isn’t anyone’s fault, but it does create a bit of a problem.

Talking to one of the biologists after the event, she described upland hunting as being “gatekept.”

My first instinct was to push back hard. “That’s not true!” I thought. Most of the bird hunters I know, would be happy to take anyone who asked. But then I thought about my own experience.

When I started working for Quail Forever as a Farm Bill biologist, I had to buy a bird dog to get into upland hunting. I’d worked with and been interested in quail for my entire professional career, and even had family members who hunted quail up until the late 1980’s. On paper, you would think I would have been given every opportunity to quail hunt, but I was never able to find a mentor to show me the ropes.

I just had to jump in and hope for the best. Luckily, I had grown up in a hunting family and was already comfortable with gun safety, hunting on public land, scouting, and many of the other skills that are roadblocks to those who are interested in upland hunting. On top of that, a good public land quail route or a cover that consistently produces a few woodcock points is only found with quite a bit of blood and boot leather. Those who know of such places in my neck of the woods tend to be pretty tight lipped about it. Combine all of these factors, and it’s easy to see how the path to becoming a quail hunter in the South is a pretty steep grade with more than a few washouts along the way.

Regardless of how we got here, we now live in a world where most quail biologists aren’t quail hunters.

Maybe you don’t see this as a problem. But if you’re like me, and you believe time in the field is invaluable, that the lessons learned behind a bird dog are as important as anything that can be learned from a textbook, and that it is important for quail biologists to be knowledgeable about upland hunting, if not an active participants, then there are ways you can help!

For starters, contact your QF state coordinator and see if there is a need for a QF Staff Learn to Hunt event in your area. These events take quite a bit of planning and resources. Funding, a location to host the event, dog handlers, and hunter mentors can all be limiting factors that make these events difficult to pull off.

Ask your state coordinator how you can help, and be open to their ideas. Additionally, if you’re currently working with a Farm Bill biologist, or any biologist for that matter, offer to take them hunting! In many cases, young professionals are afraid to ask for help, and you may have to start the conversation.

Be open to allowing them to participate at a level that they are comfortable with. They may not want to carry a gun or shoot their first time out. They may just want to tag along for the experience. If so, that’s still a great opportunity to familiarize your local biologist with the things you are most passionate about. Many people have never had the opportunity to watch a well-trained bird dog at work, and that experience alone has been enough to start more than a few down the path to becoming bird hunters!

Sitting at the lunch table later that day, I turned to one of the biologists and asked, “How was today? Did you have fun?”

“It was such a great day!” she replied. “The only problem is now I really want to buy a new shotgun and a bird dog puppy.”

I grinned. Yep, today was a great day indeed.

The author would like to thank Jimmy Bryan, Bennie Atkinson, Xavier Fairley, and the staff at Prairie Wildlife for hosting this event. He would also like to thank Dr. Mark McConnell and Caleb Blake for their assistance as guides and dog handlers. To find and contact your state coordinator go here.