Anyone know how are the quail numbers are in west Tx this year?

I was out there last week and saw a bunch south of Midland near Crane. Mostly bobs. The area has had a lot of water this year.

Sounds like the Bobs are moving west. I hunted quail heavily in and around the Odessa area in the late 70s to early 90s. We never found Bobs west of Stanton in any numbers.

I hope to get back to lower panhande next year. If I can talk my spouse into a couple bird dogs. I've had some great hunts out west of Childress,Tx. One lease we had was covered in blues and bobs. An old timer taught us trick to hold those running blues. We did't try it the first day and they liked to run 5 dogs to death. The second day we used it and they held in open country. We had some great shooting. Oh my those were the days!

Our lease on the Pitchfork Ranch is littered with Bobs, and the others are Blues I believe. You can shoot limits without dogs easily out there... it's between Abilene and Lubbock..

I enjoy hunting Bobs with dogs, but hunting blues with them is a waste of time. I can do way better moving without the dogs. It's a sight game not a scent game when you're after Blues.

I was talking to a friend a few days ago who said it looks like more birds than any time in recent years.

Depends on what you call "West Texas".

Starting with the area around Midlland-Odessa and west of there, rainfall has been plentiful in mid and late summer, so quail populations should be pretty good.

However, the Rolling Plains (starting around Abilene and going north and west toward the panhandle) has only received its first summer rainfall in the last few days. There is still an opportunity for a late hatch, but prospects don't look nearly as good as last year's banner populations. South and west toward San Angelo doesn't look much better.

More so than most years, I look for 2006-07 to be spotty across "West" Texas (west of the 98th meridian), with some locally good populations but generally average to below average numbers.