doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Just back from a great quail hunt

Just back from a great quail hunt
Went to Estanala Plantation in Tn. Had 6 great hunts, 3 days.
My friend and I were killing about about 40 each time out. Sometimes in the morning we would get 43 birds and 38 in the afternoon. Each of the morning/afternoon hunts about the same. The last day was not good as the heavy rain came through the night before and it rained all night.

I have been going to each year to this place for about 8 years now. Always a good time. They now have several fishing lakes too. They still have the old slave quarters when they worked the plantation.

A great place as its very informal

John Boyd

John, some of the modern day shooting "plantations" in the South present a wonderful experience. Most of it is a sham, just as the released bird experience is a sham compared to real wild bird, bird huntin'.

I'd question the old 'slave quarters' myself, we have some tabby (google it) slave quarters left on the GA coast, but I'd think anything inland would be sawdust and termite droppings by now.

I have an old structure on my place in Middle GA people refer to as the 'slave quarters', and it is old and built with stobs of wood hammered through drilled holes in the frame. I've used it as a deer camp. Slave quarters it ain't though...Geo

The quarters have been rebuilt. You can stay in them if you wish.
This place dates back to the 1860s


Thanks!

John

Thanks to you for bringing Estanala to our attention...Geo

Wild quail, released quail?

Termites don't mess with heart pine. I've still got a couple of old tenant houses, on the farm, that my Grandaddy had built back in the 1920s, and they have no termite damage. My house was built in 1875 out of heart pine. The only reason I have Sentricon is because of the additions made over the last 60 years out of lumber other than heart pine. The big beams under my house are put together with wood pegs, but you can see where termites scratched around on the surface then checked out for "greener pastures".

10 to 1 they are released, Bill. I know of only one pay-to-hunt plantation that has true wild quail, bobwhites I mean ....... Chokee, near Albany, GA. Their basic rate is $11,500 for a day and a night for four guns, IIRC.

SRH

Stan, he said they were shooting 80 a day. Wild quail? Nah, not even in Tennessee...Geo

Yes
Released birds
I was shooting 28 & 410 Ga to make it a little more sporting
At least or me
Lots of fun and good friendship

John

Wild quail shooting at places is just too crazy
On price

Wild Wing in KY is another great place, if you're looking for "early release" birds that are much closer to wild than the birds you'll see on most preserves. Don't know how they compare to the released birds on the GA plantations. I've never hunted there.

But this is also looking like a very good year for wild quail in some places. Hunted the OK Panhandle with The Last Buffalo (www.thelastbuffalo.com) about 10 days ago. We moved 14 coveys in around 4 hours on the ground. Good dogs, good guides, good accommodations. But you will pay more, if you figure $ per bird, than you will somewhere like Wild Wing.

We also hunted a day on public land in western OK and found very good wild bird numbers, if you have your own bird dogs and want to give it a shot. Cover is EXTREMELY heavy this year. They got something like 2x their annual rainfall, which gave them a lot of birds but also very heavy cover.

An insight into the great driven shoots in Europe of times gone by was in Guy de la Valdene's Fragrance of Grass. The large manors would stock birds for the shoots, including woodcock.