Sam Cowan moves up on a covey located by his Brit Cody and backed by young Bandit. The Beatrice hunter found more birds last season than in he did in 2003, and heard lots of birds whistling this past spring. He’s looking for a good season this year. Photo courtesy of Sam Cowan

Nebraska quail hunters will go into the last month of the season with high hopes for some solid winter action.

Hunters, particularly those who hold the bobs in high esteem, had mixed feelings about the status of this year's population going into the season; whether those views will hold up in January remains to be seen.

"My quail hunting during the 2004-05 season was somewhat better than it was the previous year or two," said Pat McInteer, a 62-year-old Falls City veterinarian who's spent some 36 years in pursuit of the birds. "It's still a long way from good, and I don't think we will ever see the good old days when you could put a couple of decent dogs down and find 10 to 12 coveys."

There is little doubt about the preferences of the vet when it comes to quail hunting: A devout fan of the English pointer, he competes in field trials with the breed and also hunts over them. "I don't shoot many quail anymore," he said. "I love to work the dogs on them and let my hunting friends do the shooting.

"I'm not sure what kind of hunting we will have during the last month of the season. The cover was pretty decent this past summer, but January success hinges on production, cover conditions, and, of course, the weather. If we get hammered by a lot of snow and frigid temperatures, it will of course cut down on success."

Prior to the season, Scott Taylor, upland game program manager for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission in Lincoln, remarked that he expected to see bird numbers very similar to those of last year.

"I have to believe we had an average hatch of young birds, because the weather and cover was fair to good going into the nesting season," he said. "We didn't see anything unusual in the state after the hatch such as extensive hail storms, cold weather or other factors, which cuts into survival of the young bobs."

While last season's harvest figures were not complete when this story went to press, given an average hatch and average survival, hunters may well see a bit of increase in the number of birds this month compared to last year.

The estimated harvest of quail in 2003 was 152,000. In 2004 it was 157,000; hunter numbers were estimated at about 30,000.

Norm Ford, a Lincoln auctioneer, is an avid hunter who works at finding the bobs with his Brittanies "If my recall is correct, I think I had four quail hunts last fall where I killed a limit of birds," he said. "I hunt south-central and southeastern Nebraska. Last year I didn't think the south-central was very good, but the southeast was better than it was in 2003.

"One of my best days was the last day of the season last year. We were hunting southern Lancaster County, and we put up four big coveys. We usually expect the birds to be pretty spooky late in the season, but these birds didn't act as though they had been worked over very much. We had solid covey finds as well as good dog work on the singles. I'm hoping for a couple of hunts like that this season."

Ford hunts with a Franchi semi-automatic 20-gauge bored improved-cylinder -- his favorite for the past 30 to 35 years. He shoots No. 7 1/2 shot.

Bobwhite fan Tom Lococo hunts hard for the entire season. He has some great help in finding the birds with a German wirehair named Titus. The 6-year-old bird dog won the national wirehair championship in October 2004 after winning the open all-age crown in 2003.

"My quail hunting in 2004 was better than it was in 2003, but in the past few years the birds have been harder to find," Lococo said. "I'm in hopes that we see a gradual increase in the quail this year and next. The reason I say that is that I really believe the quail population cycles, and the numbers got about as low as they could in the past couple of years, so I believe we will see some improvement this year and for the next two or three."