Nose to the ground and tail wagging, the setter bounded off into the tawny grass and stopped abruptly. Facing into thick weeds, it locked up like a statue. Suddenly, about a dozen feathered rockets exploded from the thicket and scattered in all directions.
"We have some wild quail, but good, pen-raised birds are actually harder to shoot than wild birds," said Keith Walker, owner of Taylor Creek Shooting Preserve, south of Mobile, Ala. "Wild birds live in those fields and already know where they want to go before anyone flushes them. When they get up, they all go in the same direction. Pen-raised birds that haven't been out in the wild too long don't know where to go. They're unpredictable when flushed and might go in all directions."
Walker owns about 2,300 acres in two sections near Theodore, Ala. We hunted his 300-acre property of fields separated by pine trees and managed for quail. Walker owns another 2,000 acres of pine savannah about two miles away.
"We offer two different kinds of hunting," explained Gene Duke, a guide for Taylor Creek Shooting Preserve. "In some areas, sportsmen hunt over fields with high and cut grass. The other section is mostly tall pines and looks a lot like southwest Georgia. Shooting in the trees gives sportsmen a different kind of competitive environment. It's very challenging because of the way the birds fly through the trees. The shots are faster and the birds a little quicker."
As we drove up to the 1,500-square-foot lodge, we spotted pheasants walking the brushy edges. Although the lodge offers no overnight accommodations, it does provide excellent facilities for day use, private parties, banquets, and socializing.
"We hold pheasant hunts throughout the season," Walker said. "A pretty good number of pheasants survive, especially if they stay around the lodge buildings where predators won't get them. If they get out in the open without any decent cover, predators get them."
Preserve Manages Habitat For Quail Unlike some hunts, where guides put the birds out a few minutes before the shooters arrive, Taylor Creek Shooting Preserve manages the habitat to enhance bird populations and supplements wild quail with pen-raised birds. Released early, pen-raised birds link up with wild ones and learn to fly fast for cover.
"We burn the fields and mow periodically to attract birds to our property," Walker explained. "We also plant food plots and do supplemental feeding to keep birds on the property. The birds we release are a cross between Tennessee red quail and bobwhite quail. They are slightly bigger than native quail, but they fly very well and have good wild characteristics. Some pen-raised birds of this particular cross do become wild and survive long enough to breed. I've seen these hybrids with clutches of young in the spring."
Wild or pen-raised, these birds presented exceptionally challenging shooting. They rapidly disappeared into thickets and embarrassed us on more occasions that I'd care to admit. Sometimes, we didn't even get off any shots at covey rises.
"They are big, hard flying birds," Duke said. "They are some of the fastest flying birds I've ever seen. The trick to handling birds so that they fly well is to not handle them. We don't want to domesticate them. We handle them as little as possible so that when the hunter and dog approaches, they flush like wild birds."
A typical guided hunt lasts about three hours. Each shooter can harvest up to 12 quail, but they can pay for more birds if they wish. Sportsmen can book morning, afternoon or all-day hunts. Most hunts on Taylor Creek Shooting Preserve either begin or end with a lunch at the lodge. After the hunt, the guides quickly clean the birds on special devices set up at processing station.
"We can't guarantee that anyone will shoot birds, but we'll do everything we possibly can to make that happen," Duke emphasized. "In a typical season, we shoot about 6,000 to 7,000 birds. We've had up to 15 hunts in one day, eight in the morning and seven in the afternoon."
Sportsmen may buy an annual membership for unlimited self-guided hunts with their own dogs or preserve dogs. The Alabama wild quail season lasts from November through the end of February, but the preserve season runs from October 1 through March 31.
Besides holding quail and pheasant hunts, the preserve also offers shooters a 12-station sporting clays course and periodically hosts National Sporting Clays Association tournaments. For more information, call 251-583-4793. Online, see www.taylorcreekshooting.com.
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