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I wouldn't no more believe they were wild quail than I believe a horse could fly.

'Tis so. Mostly around the Albany to Thomasville area. It's probably the only place left, east of the Mississippi, that has such a vast area managed for wild quail. As Gil said, that's the "secret". These 1000 acre tracts won't cut it for really allowing wild bird numbers to build back from the few coveys already there. They need tens of thousands of contiguous acres. You can help, on small tracts, but nothing like what's in SW GA.

Chokee Plantation, near Leesburg, is such a place. A couple years ago the going rate was $11,500 per gun.

SRH

I love to quail hunt, but not enough to pay $11,500 per gun per hunt. There must be tons of money in Georgia if folks can afford that!

Not that many Georgia folks own the plantations much less have the money to pay the fees to hunt such places. The folks who own plantations often commute to Thomasville and Albany by private jets. Just so happens my friend at this point of his life realizes he can't take it with him and he couldn't possibly spend it all if he tried. I'm not sure if Chokee still offers the wild bird hunts to the public but that's one of the places h he has hunted, but not this year. He also owns 6500 acres of quail property near here, but on one tract it's early season released birds on 1500 acres; on 5000 acres 60 miles from the 1500, he's attempting to resurrect wild bird populations with a plan formulated by Tall Timbers. Neither place are within 200 miles of SW Ga. Gil

Go to Google Earth. "Thomasville, Ga." There's a patch of land 30 x 20 miles to the SW. Note the absence of production fields, but a wad of smaller patches, food plots. Then travel down to Iamonia, FL, just below the Ga/FL line. Zoom in to an area; doesn't much matter where. You'll note checkerboarding. This is "blocking" which is usually 30 x 30 or 40 x 40 yards. Lanes are cut through the underbrush and grasses to allow food trails to be established for the wild birds. It also facilitates bird hunting. With two guns walking in different lanes with the dog handler flushing, it's a safe approach to the covey. This is just a sampling of the scale of bird plantations near Thomasville and Albany.

Ames Plantation with the University of Tennessee studying it can't have wild quail.

And you think they can.

They'll figure out the wild quail problem one day. It won't be in time for you and me though jOe...Geo

At least we enjoyed the best of the end of it!

I see small coveys of wild birds at least once a week, this time of year. I saw a covey fly across the highway Friday afternoon. But, the coveys are very small, seldom over 10 birds each. My hat's off to the little boogers. They are true survivors, of whatever it is that decimated their numbers.

I bought a 526 acre farm in 1989 that had been repossessed by Farmer's Home in 1979. It had sat idle for 10 years, and had grown up in broomsage, scattered briar patches and volunteer pines. Beautiful habitat. There was at least 10 coveys of wild birds on the place. I had to cultivate the fields to plant crops, in order to pay for the place. We got a couple of good years of bird hunting on it, but the coveys dwindled down to about 2-3, which remain to this day. I see them often, but seldom try to hunt them.

SRH

Just out of curiosity- re-reading a SC article 2013 about the National held on the old Hobart Ames property.(1) Are the birds pen-raised, or native stock? (2) Do they shoot the birds over the dawgs points, or flush them and fire blank shells instead, as they do with dog trials here in MI-??

It�s complicated fox.

The grounds at Ames are managed to differentiate between the most elite birddogs.

So, in field trials, no shooting of birds is done. That�s not the purpose. But, there have to be enough on the courses for the dogs to find enough over the course of three hours to differentiate between the best and all the rest.
So, they supplement the native stocks.