So I had a work acquaintance this weekend tell me about how he was hunting in South Texas a few months back and was plinking off quail with a suppressed .22 rifle under a deer feeder.

I know that Texas now allows suppressed weapons to be used for hunting, but can you shoot quail with a rifle and can you hunt them under a feeder?

I know both of those are illegal for migratory birds, and I assumed the same rules would apply for quail, but then I thought of turkeys and how some shoot them under feeders with rifles and figured quail would fall into that same category. Plus I know you can use an unplugged gun for upland game, so maybe you can use a rifle as well if you wanted to.

I looked up the regs and found nothing saying it was illegal. I would probably argue it is bad form at a minimum as bad as quail population are hurting, but I am just looking for an answer on the legality of what he said he was doing in Texas.

aka Skillet Shooting. Nothing illegal about it, and a good way to get a mess of quail for dinner. The purists tend to frown upon it though.

I coulda sworn that you used to could not be able to shoot turkeys with rimfire.

But I just read through the digest and it says it is LEGAL to shoot non-migratory game birds with any legal firearm.

"Frowned upon" would be an understatement. That's pretty low in my book.

No feeder for your deer, fightin?

just like how most south texas quail hunting outfits refuse to use pointing dogs. They corn the roads, then drive down them in a truck waiting to see birds on the road. Then a few gunners start mowing them down and they send the labs out to fetch em up.

I really dont like it being a birddog person, but it is what it is down there.

Thanks. That was my assessment as well after reading the regs. Legal, but obviously frowned upon.

At least I got him away from doing the same thing to doves after a discussion on the legality of it all.

Should be illegal. A lot of people are spending a lot of time and money to restore the quail population before they become a threatened species in the wild. If you want to shoot a bird with a rifle shoot a crow or pigeon or any other non game bird.

birddog, setting aside whether you should shoot quail with a 22, at least they are shooting them to eat.

What you suggest is shooting a bird for target practice. (assuming you aren't talking about protecting pecan trees, etc.)

That is something I do disagree with.

I'm a bit late, but it's legal for quail, not legal for dove:

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Means and Methods

Firearms

NEW LAW: Silencers may be used to take any wildlife resource; however, all federal, state and local laws continue to apply.

Game animals and game birds may be hunted with any legal firearm, EXCEPT:

white-tailed deer, mule deer, desert bighorn sheep, and pronghorn antelope may NOT be hunted with rimfire ammunition of any caliber.
shotguns are the only legal firearm that may be used to hunt Eastern turkey during the spring Eastern turkey season (see County Listing). Rifles and handguns may not be used to hunt Eastern turkey.
pellet guns and other air guns are NOT LEGAL.
fully automatic firearms are NOT LEGAL.
a shotgun is the only legal firearm for hunting migratory game birds (see Definitions - Legal Shotgun).

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http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/regulations/fish_hunt/hunt/means/

[This message has been edited by plowboy1065 (edited 3/18/2013 12:34p).]

Never left the blind empty handed growing up. Always came back with at least some rabbits and quail with the .22.

Although sore today I had a great day of quail hunting yesterday in N Texas - yes they are pen raised, no, its not the same as wild, but we went thru 3 pairs of pointers and had a great time with my 12 year old who got some fun shooting in.

Taco, I'm not much of a deer hunter, but I'm not crazy about shooting them at a feeder either. Nobody's hunting to survive anymore, so the least we can do is be a good sportsman.

At least the deer population in most places can handle it. People get too greedy with the quail, and they might ruin it for all of us.

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Nobody's hunting to survive anymore, so the least we can do is be a good sportsman.

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What is un-sporstman about legally taking game?

You may not like the methods, but in the grand scheme of things you have to realize that is completely irrelevant.

Complaining about using a .22 and taking quail at a feeder is no different than stating taking a deer at a feeder is "unsportsman" as well, because they are the exact same principle.

I'm a big proponent hunting deer over a feeder, but it's not the same thing. Baiting a species like deer that essentially overpopulated is not the same thing as baiting a species like quail that is struggling to hang on.

Also, legal does not necessarily equal sporting. What is sporting is a case by case argument for a different thread, but you cannot dispositively state that the legality of an activity makes it sporting.

To each his own I guess. It's bad sportsmanship, and morally wrong in my opinion. If a bobwhite quail hunter really valued & respected his quarry then he would hunt them the right way - with pointers & no skillet shots. I don't always apply the same standards when hunting blues since they won't hold for a dog, but even then I won't shoot them on the ground.

I think most serious quail hunters & field trialers would agree.

Just because it's legal to do something doesn't make it OK. Is it illegal for kids to refuse to shake hands after a baseball game? No, but it's bad sportsmanship.

^
says the guy that uses a trained dog to find his game for him...see how this works?

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At least the deer population in most places can handle it. People get too greedy with the quail, and they might ruin it for all of us.

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I don't see much of a problem with it, as long as people aren't getting to greedy. I think it would be terrible game management to plan a full on quail hunt that involves nothing but shooting quail at a feeder. But if you see quail under a feeder and decided to take a couple to go with dinner, I don't see too much harm in it. Sure you give the guy a hard time for being lazy, but I wouldn't get upset over it.

Lots of hunters have hang-ups, and not many of them make sense. I've hunted with guys who bragged about being "sporting" and insisted no one should use anything larger than a 28 or .410, then they wounded birds all day, with many they couldn't find because they'd glide away on broken wings.

So, OP, how do ya' feel about using a crossbow to shoot a bob white under a feeder?

[This message has been edited by Ark03 (edited 3/19/2013 12:54p).]

I dont know how big a hole a 22 would make in the breast of a quail, but I would be upset if someone did that ruining good meat. However, I wouldn't think there's anything unsportsmanlike about shooting the heads off them at 50 yards plus if you're good enough to do that. But I probly wouldn't shoot them just because of how few of them are left.

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To each his own I guess. It's bad sportsmanship, and morally wrong in my opinion. If a bobwhite quail hunter really valued & respected his quarry then he would hunt them the right way - with pointers & no skillet shots.

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Why is it that using a dog suddenly makes it more sporting?

It really doesn't - it is just perceived as a superior method because it has been done that way for a long time. I could make a strong argument after chasing quail across the AZ desert that using a dog is equally bad sportsmaship.

I agree that legal does not necessarily equate to moral, but in this case what constitutes "moral" is basically an arbitrary set of standards that not even this board would come to 100% agreement on. Which is why we have definitions of legal and illegal.

The point is that whether you take the game with a shotgun and 3 or 4 pointers telling you where the birds are prior to shooting, or skillet shooting them - taking X birds is taking X birds.

Pretty hard to argue that point.

Yep, it's an opinion. A dead quail is a dead quail. I never said skillet shooting should be illegal. I don't care how you hunt quail on your own property.

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Why is it that using a dog suddenly makes it more sporting?

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To me walking behind a dog...watching the effort the dogs put into it....seeing one come down hard on a point...watching another dog honor the point... the whir of first flight...a retrieve if you are lucky and then going home tired is more sporting than plinking quail under a feeder.

[This message has been edited by sunchaser (edited 3/19/2013 4:35p).]

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To me walking behind a dog...watching the effort the dogs put into it....seeing one come down hard on a point...watching another dog honor the point... the whir of first flight...a retrieve if you are lucky and then going home tired is more sporting than plinking quail under a feeder.

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I get that you personally enjoy the experience more (so do I), but that does not change the fact that it really is just an opinion on a method when you boil it down.

I'd say the same thing about deer hunting, but I'd get ripped by half (or more) of the posters here.

There are plenty that say the same thing about live bait versus plastics on the bay, or that any form of fly-fishing is cheating or the Sean98's of the world that view any form of deer hunting that doesn't involve a bow (but only one that he personally approves of) as less sporting as well.

In the end, they are all merely opinions. So long as the person doing the skillet shooting does not take more than a limit, there is exactly zero difference between a limit taken with a .22 because you are bored at the deer blind and didn't want to go home empty handed and a limit taken behind a pack of dogs trained to point out quail for the hunter so that the hunter has the most advantage possible with their shotgun.

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So long as the person doing the skillet shooting does not take more than a limit, there is exactly zero difference between a limit taken with a .22 because you are bored at the deer blind and didn't want to go home empty handed and a limit taken behind a pack of dogs trained to point out quail for the hunter so that the hunter has the most advantage possible with their shotgun.

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To quail hunters, this sentiment is the problem. Robert Ruark said it best when he said "The Bobwhite is a gentleman, and you have to approach him as a gentleman...The way you handle quail sort of kicks back on you."
Quail hunting is much more than killing the birds, its the land, the dogs, the birds, the wind, the sun and the people you are with. I have hunted quail basically every other weekend for the past two years and have only killed 4 birds. For people to simply shoot them under a feeder because they have blood lust and just have to shoot something, may be legal, and to some it may be ethical, because to them it is all about the killing. But it is not right. But, live and let live.

So, basically if you don't hunt the way somebody thinks you should hunt, it is unethical, unsporting and they have a "blood lust"?

Gotcha. Or something like that.

You know. We should pass laws to limit the number of quail folks harvest.

I enjoy killin things. I enjoy eating quail. I've never killed a quail. what does it mean?.

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To quail hunters, this sentiment is the problem. Robert Ruark said it best when he said "The Bobwhite is a gentleman, and you have to approach him as a gentleman...The way you handle quail sort of kicks back on you."
Quail hunting is much more than killing the birds, its the land, the dogs, the birds, the wind, the sun and the people you are with. I have hunted quail basically every other weekend for the past two years and have only killed 4 birds. For people to simply shoot them under a feeder because they have blood lust and just have to shoot something, may be legal, and to some it may be ethical, because to them it is all about the killing. But it is not right. But, live and let live.

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Let me get this straight, someone who enjoys the act of stalking quail is normal, but someone who kills them for the purpose of eating only does so because of blood lust?

That sounds backward to me.

For the people who think its ok I am assuming that you are deer hunters, I am not a deer hunter because I think it is boring. I quail hunt, I care nothing about what is going on with deer, but if there was a problem with the deer population and I went around shooting deer from my truck as they stared in my headlights how would y'all feel?

I know spot lighting is illegal but its illegal because it is unsporting, the same a shooting quail with a rifle, or shooting a duck on the water, or a dove on a power line.

You know what's ironic? It's illegal and unsportsmanlike to hunt deer with dogs but sporting for quail yet the opposite for feeders.

Full disclosure: I have never hunted deer nor quail with dogs, but I am quite sure I would enjoy both.

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I know spot lighting is illegal but its illegal because it is unsporting, the same a shooting quail with a rifle, or shooting a duck on the water, or a dove on a power line.

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Spotlighting a game animal such as a deer is illegal for a number of reasons, with "unsporting" being pretty far down the list. And the idea that giving a duck a second to break the water or a dove a second to fly off the power line is somehow "sporting" is kind of funny when you really sit down and think about it.

Again - "sporting" is merely an arbitrary set of opinions or standards that one adheres to. Simple as that, nothing more, nothing less.

I bet a Karankawa would look down his nose at you for using a dog and a shotgun to take quail instead of a bow or some other ingenious primitive weapon, what with having your dogs covey up the quail, let you know exactly where they are roosting at, keeping them (most of the time anyway) in position until you are good and ready to shoot, then only flushing them on command (after you and your group have a set up a perimeter with triangulated fire and are fully prepared for the flush).

It is all a matter of perspective and opinion on the methodology in which a task should be completed.

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Spotlighting a game animal such as a deer is illegal for a number of reasons, with "unsporting" being pretty far down the list

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Would you please post a copy of that list...

Well, sunchaser, I'm not sure that there is a complete and concise list of reasons why spotlighting is illegal. I could give you a couple of common sense reasons why, but I'm not sure that would suffice for you.