Quail Hunting

I started hunting quail in South Texas when I was a kid. It was my passion for many years, and I live in the right place for it. South Texas has the habitat and the land use practices that support the largest quail population in the United States.

To the average person traveling through South Texas on US Highway 77 or US Highway 281, the area seems to contain scrub brush, cactus and little else. One must get off the main roads and spend some time on the big ranches that own the land in South Texas to appreciate that this area is a haven for all kinds of wildlife.

There are white-tailed deer, javelina, feral hogs, bobcats, an occasional mountain lion, and other smaller mammals. The birds consist of several types of dove, wild turkey, ducks, geese, sand hill cranes, and above all, Bob White quail, the king of game birds.

The Bob White quail hunting in our area is the best in the world.

Unfortunately, I am no longer hunting quail since our hunting lease was not renewed.

John and his favorite pointer, Jane, on the old Quailmobile

Serious South Texas quail hunters have bird dogs and hunting cars for quail hunting.

I raised and trained my own hunting dogs for many years. After we lost our lease, I gave three of my younger dogs to good hunting owners and kept my old favorite, Jane, pictured above (in our younger days). I finally buried her when she died at thirteen and a half. I am out of the dog business, but I still miss them.

The other dimension of my quail hunting was designing and building my own hunting car. Long ago, a friend called it the "quailmobile" and the name stuck. I built my first quailmobile in 1978 using a 1968 VW bus body. I have rebuilt it three times since then. Thank goodness, VW buses are easy to find in junk yards since that is the source of most of my parts for these projects.

I documented the latest rebuild of the quailmobile in several pages on this website so you can see that it was a major undertaking. I hope you enjoy reading about the project.

Come along with me and let's remember great quail hunts and look at hunting cars.

John Howe

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