jerry66stl,
You are correct. There are some plant and shoot pheasant and chukar locations in Arizona. We use one of them for the Jr. Pheasant hunt which is setup by Game and Fish in conjunction with the Wild Turkey Federation for about 90 youngsters selected by lottery from the year's Hunter Education courses better performing graduates as recommended by their instructors. About half of this state is not privately owned so there is plenty of room to hunt wild birds. Our problem is we have been in a less than normal rainfall pattern for about the last 10 years and rainfall here is the key to plentiful quail. With a couple years in a row of decent winter rainfall the situation changes into really great bird hunting. They need the small greens the rain brings for the hens to come into egg laying condition and the young need the small insects once they hatch. There have been boom years when I encountered coveys upwards of 300 birds. Right now I will only take a bird or two to keep my dog happy as the breeding stock is pretty low in the desert. Plenty in town around the golf courses though.
