quail

[R. Miller]

Not sure where I should have posted this. I recently bought a new setter pup. I have hunting public lands and wild birds my whole life, and have never been to a shooting preserve. I am thinking about taking the young pup to a preserve next spring just to get him on a few birds, and while I'm at it, thought about going for something fun that I haven't had a chance to hunt in MN-bobwhite quail. I have looked on the web. Does anyone have experience with this or could anyone recommend any good preserves within and hour or two of the metro? I'll keep researching-just thought I'd throw it out there.

[gspman]

If you want to do bobwhite quail that's fine but understand this - the vast majority of pen raised bobwhite are horrible flyers (not much altitude and very little distance) and don't come close to comparing with real bobwhite. With a pup that is a pointer this is a problem because they'll land close by and your pup will catch them which will start it down the road to bad habits. Plus they have a tendency to walk around instead of fly when you go in to flush. If your pup sees a quail walking in front of it the most likely response will be to break and try to catch it. This will start another bad habit.

If you want to do something different my suggestion would be chukar partridge. They are better flyers and are a little more substantial than quail.

[R. Miller]

That's probably why I'm not a big fan of game farms. Thanks for the chukar info though. That sounds like it be fun and probably better for a young pup for early bird exposure.

[311Hemi]

Good to know gspman! I have never used Quail and I guess I will continue with that. I was not aware of that...and have been using Chukar all summer. The Chukar have been flying good even after a month or two in a bigger pen...and don't reange from where they are planted.

[2 DA GILLS]

I agree that the quail that I have used in training and shot at preserves have been poor flyers. I had some issues with poor flying quail with my dog when he was a pup, but we came through it alright. It was exactly as gspman described with flying short distances after the flush and allowing the dog to catch the bird. I got away from those quail quickly.