Anyone hunt in Illinois or Missouri?

[BellaDad]

I live around St. Louis, take a few trips a year but wondered if anyone hunted eastern or NE Missouri or even the Illinois side for birds? I know the MO department of conservation has been working 19 quail habitat restoration projects at various public areas but not sure if they've taken off yet since this is still early in the program.

Anyone hunt birds in MO or IL? I know of some quail areas, I hear pheasant up north....anything else around here? Grouse, woodcock, etc.? Do you hunt public or private?

[dog dr]

i live in pike counry IL. not many birds around here, but i am hearing reports that quail numbers are better than usual this year. i havent been out for quial yet. i hunt the IL DNR controlled pheasant thing. its a good program, their birds are goos flyers and the roosters tend to run alot, so its pretty close to wild birds. they still have ALOT of spots left, if you want to get online and get a reservation. pretty fair on price for residents, not sure about non-residents. i have been to east cebntral IL once this year, and the pheasant numbers are down. there was still some standing corn, though, so maybe they were all in it. what kind of dog do you have??

[BellaDad]

I have a GSP, she's 15 weeks. She won't be out this year, already planning for next year though.

[Will]

I live in Central Illinois....pretty much in the middle of what used to be considered paradise for pheasant hunters. It's a heckuva day now if you shoot a limit lemme tell ya. You won't do it often here, especially after opening day.

We are losing our controlled hunt areas here due to our Governor. They will run through the end of the month and the whole place gets locked up.

I wouldn't look for Illinois' pheasant numbers to bounce back. We are looking at Missouri for quail hunting now just to get into some birds. Keep an eye out on those programs over there because they can be a great thing once established.

[BMURPH]

I live in suburbs of STL I'll be hunting this week in NE Mo and around Springfield Il, I'll let you know how it is. Last year NE MO was worst every experienced did well in IL on both quail/Pheas. Hunted S. Dakota first of Nov this year because of youth deer season.

[BMURPH]

Went up to NEMO yesterday.I was only able to hunt for four hours between visiting land owner and having too get back by 4:00. Hunted 120 acres off main farm. Saw only one quail. Probably a covey around just did not see it. Have a 6mo Shorthair that might of put up the birds without me seeing. Hunted the main area had two covies. One real nice sized. Did not do a lot of shooting. Mostly working dogs trying to get them on birds. I'll be hunting again this weekend maybe IL.

[smoothbean]

Question for Will. I used to live near Golden, Illinois ( moned to Indiana about a year and a half ago). Anyway, when I lived there we went to Jim Edgar Panther Creek about weekly. I heard talk of the FINE( I better not put what I would really like to call him) Gov. wanting to close these places. Where do you live and is Jim Edgar Panther Creek being closed? I was wanting to check with them and see if I can still meet some of my hunting buddies and go there even though I am a nonresident. This would be a terrible loss. I think the Il DNR site says it is 26 square miles.

[BellaDad]

BMurph - did you find many birds? I am going to wait until after the season to take my 16 week gsp and let her experience some wild birds (havne't introduced gun yet so don't want to risk it)....any places in particular that are worth visiting?

[dog dr]

the IL controlled phesant hunts are still in progress, including at Jim Edgar Panther creek, and they will take place next year as well. however, next year there will be a fee increase, from $15 per hunter to $25!! also, i dont think they are putting out 2 birds per hunter this year. i have heard the rumor that alot of guys are suspecting this. i hunted panther creek yesterday, and we only put up 4 birds in our area (there should have been 6). could we have missed some?? yes, but my dog usually does a pretty good job of finding them, AND, there was fresh snow on the ground and we only saw 3 bird tracks. not solid evidence, but makes you wonder with all the budget cuts.

[smoothbean]

Wow that's a pretty big increase in fees. There was some suspicion that they did not put out all the birds that the said they did 2 years ago when I was still going there on a regular basis. I guess there is really no way to tell for sure. I think it is great that they are not closing down. That would be a huge blow to lose such a great resource. I'm gonna have to give them a call and see if I can still go, even though I am an out of stater now.

[BellaDad]

The website states Illinois hunters only. Maybe I just misread it, I'll look again.

[dog dr]

i know a non-resident can hunt with a resident that has the reservation, but as far as a non-res getting a reservation i dont know. alot of the other sites around the state still have spots open. panther creek is all booked up, as usual. check out horseshoe lake and eldon hazlett.

[whitedogone]

Is it just me or does anyone else not think of controled release as hunting?

WDO

[Will]

The controlled hunts are not shut down? I just got back from South Dakota and was expecting not to have the state ground to hunt anymore!!! I don't see the online reservation system as showing spots available in December. Is the rest of the season working as "stand by" permits?

As for the number of birds....we hunt Moraine View mostly and the park employees running the hunts said they release almost 500 birds per week. The number of birds released vary from day to day and are higher on weekends.

WDO - I too have some issues with hunting the "liberated" birds in the controlled hunts....but unfortunately I find it a necessary evil. Our wild bird numbers are so poor that I feel it's best to utilize the controlled hunts to give our wild population a break. Yeah some of these birds are big dummies....you can actually see some of them just sit there.....but....the ones who have been out for a few weeks can be pretty darn near wild acting. Most of them go to the timber or timber edges and they can be pretty hard to hunt in there.

Either way...I hope the program is and stays alive. It's not hunting wild birds....but it beats the heck out of sitting at home.

Dog Dr - How is the wild quail population down on Jim Edgar outside of the management area? We hunted it last year for a day and found a nice covey...was great for the pup.

[Ecw21]

I second (and third) the opinion that wild pheasant population in Illinois seem to be down this year. We hunt a big plot of farmland around Kankakee and we are lucky to contact 2 birds in an outing. I will say that we have seen a larger population of roosters...not sure what that means exactly. Frustrating, especially when you hear about how many birds used to be in East Central Illinois.

[Will]

I called Moraine View to inquire about the controlled pheasant hunting and they are shut down....only a recording to answer explaining the closing.

[whitedogone]

I know that the populations are no where near the "haydays". But there are still quite a few birds if you hunt the right places. We hunted Pheasants opening day close to home. 3 of us limited out in a couple of hours. I have hunted another farm close to that one once and shot 4 birds and hunted the place we hunted opening day and the 2 of us limited out again in short order. We saw close to 50 birds between the two farms. Again this was big birds close to B/N.
I have only hunted our farms a couple of times. It's mainly quail over that way. On One place (160 ac.) we pushed two large coveys around along with a smaller one. On our other place (160 ac also) we only saw one nice covey. But I'm sure there is another one somewhere around there. We also hunted one of my uncles places (320ac.)that I have been bow hunting. We didn't see any birds there. But 2 weeks ago I had a covey of 22 birds walk under my stand and my dad who was hunting up on the other end of the place said he kicked up a large covey when he was walking out. I haven't even hunted the farm that I always have my best shooting year after year. We lease it to NR deer hunters and I won't step foot on it till after second season. We'll see after the Deer hunters get done with it this weekend.WDO

[Will]

Oh yeah...there are birds....we just really tried to utilize the state ground to help keep the pressure off our wild population. We just got back from a quick run of one of our creeks with heavy cover and shot a limit for two guys in about an hour. I just won't go back there for a while now. I dunno...maybe I'm nuts, but I kinda feel like I'm trying to be conservative with what we have left.

Wild quail around B/N? Sweeeeet. That is something I'd like to get into....we don't have enough cover here for quail....maybe a few spots here and there but they'd have to be supplemented to get them started.

[whitedogone]

Oh yeah...there are birds....we just really tried to utilize the state ground to help keep the pressure off our wild population. We just got back from a quick run of one of our creeks with heavy cover and shot a limit for two guys in about an hour. I just won't go back there for a while now. I dunno...maybe I'm nuts, but I kinda feel like I'm trying to be conservative with what we have left.

Wild quail around B/N? Sweeeeet. That is something I'd like to get into....we don't have enough cover here for quail....maybe a few spots here and there but they'd have to be supplemented to get them started.

Where I quail hunt is quite a bit farther west. I hunt big birds between Peoria and B/N. WDO

[BellaDad]

What is B/N? And how far is that area from the St. Louis area?

[BMURPH]

Been hunting NEMO. Have gotten into a lot more birds than last year. Have not hunted in IL. as of yet. The report from IL.farmer is that he has been seeing birds, both phez and quail. For Belladad, I run my dogs at Busch. No birds but do get the excercise. You might check with the people more familiar with Il. Does any one know if Pyamid State Park is open for dog training during/after hunting season. I have run in trials there but do not know their rules or regs.

[BellaDad]

I live about 10 miles from Busch, I'm going to take the pup out to run her once second season of rifle hunting is over. I know you can dove hunt out there in the fall but that's about it for birds from what I've heard. There is one of those quail habitat improvement areas up in Lincoln county and a couple in central Missouri that I'm planning on taking her out to once the season is over to see if she can scare a few up. Other than that I don't think I'll get her on any wild birds this year.

[Boxa]

I've hunted seven days so far in Missouri this year since the opener (11/1/2008, I live just west of St. Louis - hunting all over the state) and I've been averaging about 2 coveys per day with lots of walking (sunup to about 11am, then 2 or 2:30 til dark) Have moved just over 1 pheasant per day also.

Hunted 2 days west of Salina, KS - Quail fair, Pheasants poor

Hunted 3 days West of Seymour, TX - Quail fair to poor

Unfortunately the bird hunting around STL seems to be a pay to play game... either you pay for pen raised birds and shoot 'em. OR you pay for gas and hotels to go where you think there'll be birds!

[Boxa]

Ps - That's seven days total... not seven days in Missouri. I WISH!!!

[BellaDad]

I've been to a couple of the game farms and they're a good way to get your dog on some birds, I also take a trip or two to Nebraska and hoping to start taking one to Kansas each year for 2-3 days a piece. Other than that it would just be nice to get on some birds for the dogs sake.

Boxa - do you hunt private or public land? Have you heard about successes of any of the quail habitat improvement projects at any of the CAs across the state? I'd imagine that it will take a couple of years to be truly successful. We're putting some time and money into improving our property but don't expect to see any returns out of that for a few years at a minimum.

[Boxa]

I hunt a mixture of public and private land. Probably more public than private. The Dept of Conservation is starting to make efforts, but could do a better job. However, even if they were doing everything they could for quail it'd still be tough b/c of a variety of factors - Most notably HABITAT LOSS due to changes in farming practices (Think bigger acreage, less treelines and hedgerows, and fescue grass instead of native grasses). This coupled with predators, varmints, poor hatching and it is truly a miracle that any quail survive... especially when you consider that the day a quail hatches its only about the size of the end of your thumb!

To answer your other question, I've tried a couple of the CA's and found that they're not much different than the rest of the state - except maybe with more hunting pressure. However, with continued habitat improvements and good hatching conditions for a few years they'll improve.

[BMURPH]

Hunted IL yesterday. Extreme wind. Did not seem like they were down (phes) in numbers compared to last year. I did see only one covey of quail. I've been finding birds in both Mo and Il where their is cover.

[lvrgsp]

I'v been hunting since opening day here in IL. I've moved at least one covey almost everyday, have seen some pheasant just about everyday out.
Went to Kansas for 3 days, had a nice covey the first day and 2 hens pointed. The second day we saw maybe 6 birds total 2 cocks the rest hens, and I will not shoot birds unless my dogs work em. Third day we hit the motherload of hens both dogs worke close to 10 birds each, with one cock pointed for Jack. Went out here at home this weekend and got a covey of 20 quail up, Jack had 2 cocks pointed, Jill worked quail 3 times nicely, so were seeing birds just a few here and there.
B/N is Bloomington Normal

Chip

[birdogg42]

I have hunted every weekend and about 7-8 weekdays.I have been averaging about a covey per hour. The conservation programs that the private landowners have put in have helped tremendously.

mike

[whitedogone]

Didn't go this weekend because of the wind and the fact that I had to get my last 60#'s of venison made into salami and in the smoker. I did hunt last wednesday. We worked 4 (yes 4) covies of one farm and 1 covey each on 2 other farms. Two of us hunting and we managed 2 limits (16). Only saw 2 Pheasants. WDO

[donpetstop]

I hunted NEMO last weekend around Memphis. Found 1 covey of 12-13 birds on Saturday after 4 hours of walking. Flew over on neighbors that no hunting is allowed. 1 pheasant flushed 200 yards ahead. Sunday found one covey of 12 birds after 5 hours walking. We had 600 acres to hunt and just not that many birds. Most of NEMO had poor hatches due to very wet spring and summer. Game farms for me the rest of the year. At least the game farm goes until end of March.

[Boxa]

Hunted hard in Central MO between Christmas and New Year's. Found about 1 covey per 2.5 - 3 hours walked. Tough Sleddin' for sure!!!

[lvrgsp]

I sure hope all this ice and bad weather we had here the last few weeks did'nt do to much damage on the birds. We did get out this past weekend, and saw quite a few birds, but the wind was blowing 20mph and that really had em spooked, did get a couple of nice points over Jack on some hens. Did not get out nearly as much as I usually do.

Chip

[Meller]

Hunt hard in central missouri also, been averaging about a covey every hour; some of the covey's are pretty small, so don't try to kill unless at least 10 to 15 birds get up; got to leave some seed if going to harvest next year. Can get some good pictures though, plan on doing that after the season closes too, Nothing like wild birds!

[Boxa]

Covey and hour is pretty good in my book. I'm assuming this is private ground with some habitat management?

Gotta love wild birds is right.... We'll go back in late January and March and 'check' on the coveys to see how they're doing.