JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — With quail and pheasant-hunting season starting Nov. 1, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) advises hunters that quail and pheasant production appears better than expected despite harsh conditions last winter and flooding this spring.
Each August, MDC conservation agents record the numbers of quail and pheasants they see while driving a 30-mile route – called the roadside index. A total of 110 routes are completed around the state. These numbers are then tallied and grouped by eight geographic areas of production – called zoogeographic regions.
According to MDC, this year’s statewide average roadside index of 1.8 quail per route is slightly above last year’s index of 1.7. An average of 0.3 pheasants were recorded per route, unchanged from last year.
“Hunters can expect to find a similar number of quail as last year, except for the Northeast Riverbreaks and Western Prairie regions where numbers were down notably,” said MDC Small Game Coordinator David Hoover.
Hoover added that opportunities to hunt pheasants are much more limited, but northern portions of the Northwest Prairie and Northern Riverbreaks regions showed the best numbers this year.
“The amount of quality habitat is the most important factor for maintaining quail and pheasant populations, but weather also plays a very important, and often unpredictable, role,” said Hoover. “This year’s better-than-expected production highlighted this complicated relationship. The wetter-than-normal conditions this spring and early summer likely benefited birds in areas with good habitat due to the unusually high number of crop field acres that did not get planted and were left fallow for much of the summer. While not good for farmers, it was good for quail and pheasants as it created near ideal brood-rearing conditions.”
Hunting season for quail and pheasants is Nov. 1-Jan. 15, 2020. The daily bag limit for quail is eight with a possession limit of 16. Daily bag limit for pheasant is two male pheasants with a possession limit of 4.