southern gentleman | QUAIL HUNTING
On the Trail for Quail By Jason Frye | Photography courtesy of Little Q Ranch
Fall means prime hunting time in the fallow fields of Mississippi.
When November dawns in Mississippi, it’s best not to be a quail on the wing in that soft morning light. You’ll cut too fine a silhouette and the beating of your wings as you explode into the sky will draw too many eyes in your direction because November means quail hunting season. Each and every one of you fine Southern Gents who hail from Mississippi, went to school in Mississippi, or find yourself transplanted into that fertile soil knows this. There’s something to the chill in the air and the sight of stubbled cornfields that lets you know it’s time to oil up your shotgun, don your shooting vest, grab the dog, and head out into the frosty morning to bag a few birds. I grew up in West Virginia, hunting on the 160 acres or so my parents own, and all it took for me to disappear into the woods was a short walk across the yard, then I’d return hours later with the pockets of my hunting jacket bulging with squirrel, pheasant, or grouse. It wasn’t until years later that I hunted quail and from that first statuesque pause-and-point from the dogs I wondered why my dad didn’t clear out a dozen acres for quail hunting. Then I remembered that flat land is as precious and rare in West Virginia as mountains are in Mississippi and I settled in to hunt. 68 DeSoto
As it turns out, Mississippi is a fine place for birding. I’d heard the tales of epic duck hunts on the Delta, fishing and shooting trips along coastal marshes and creeks, and day-long quail hunts in winter fields that always concluded with a feast and a bottle of something to warm you from the inside out making its way around the group. But I’d heard these things said around barbecue pits late at night when that bottle might not be the only thing passed from hand to hand, and I figured they were just that: stories to tell around the fire, something to recall while making yourself just a little bit more of a hero than you really were. Turns out I was wrong. And it turns out that Mississippi is loaded with land where you can quail hunt, family land and hunting preserves alike. Just a few minutes east of Oxford, Square Books, and the University of Mississippi, Little Q Ranch Quail Hunting Preserve gives you the chance to bag birds throughout hunting season (from November through March). Guides and some mighty fine bird dogs join you in the field for a half-day or fullday of hunting. You’re just about guaranteed to bring home at least one bird as guides allot 12 birds released per hunter for half-day hunts and a full two-dozen on daylong hunts.
