Our children want us to come to Louisiana for Thanksgiving and I'd like to hook up for a quail hunt in Louisiana, Mississippi or Georgia.

Do any of you have any suggestions? We are not necessarily looking for a 5 star lodge but decent accomodations for my wife and I and good plentuful numbers of birds etc.

I would sincerely appreciate any information or direction/suggestions.

Thanks,

I don't have an exact answer because I only know the Mid-South. But much of the states you asked about no longer have wild birds, excepting isolated local pockets. Finding those, knowing the right people, getting permission to hunt and bird numbers would be big questions. So, what you probably come down to here are pen-raised birds at commercial shooting preserves.

There are MANY of those throughout the South. The good ones are pricey and are tricky on being able to make reservations at because of being popular. Weekend hunts at well-liked places near large metro areas fill up early and there may be established relationships with groups who are repeat customers. So the earlier the reservations are made, the better.

Weekday hunts are easier to book, but are still competitive. Typically you choose either morning, afternoon (the hardest to reserve) or all day. The more people you are bringing, the more welcome you will be.

You're doing the right thing on starting early and I'd go ahead and call some places now and make your inquiries. If your children in La. don't know of any, you can do an internet search, but sometimes the best ones are hard to find like that. It it were me, I'd ask around at local sporting goods stores and at the local gun club. I suggest you start with closest to home or wherever you're headed to and work further away as need be until you find something. In other words, Georgia's a long, long way from La.

On commercial preserves, plentiful numbers is something you shouldn't have to worry about. I also wouldn't worry at all about the lodging as long as there's a decent motel at a nearby town. On premises lodging will run the cost up and says nothing about the quality of the hunt. And make no mistake, the hunt quality varies tremendously. I'd only go to one that you can get multiple good recommendations on and put that first before the lodging or complimentary meals or whether they use 1800s horse drawn transportation etc.

I'd be a lot more concerned with whether the operator is professional enough to call you and cancel the hunt when it's been raining or too cold, the reason being the birds won't flush properly and it won't resemble the hunting of wild birds at all, which is what you're trying to simulate as much as possible. At least that's what I expect.

That's just general advice and hopefully it helps.