North Carolina Quail Hunting Forecast 2018


Weather and Conditions

"Anecdotal reports suggest that the hatch and chick survival were similar to what has been seen in recent years," reports Christopher Kreh, upland game bird biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. "We don’t do any regionally-based surveys, just a few on very specific areas.  On those areas, whistle counts were similar to or slightly below recent year averages."

Top Spots

"There are very few quail, and very little quail hunting in the mountain region," says Kreh. "There are a few areas of the piedmont that have quail, but hunting there is generally fairly poor. Better quail hunting occurs in the sandhills of southeastern NC and the coastal plain, generally east of I-95. In the southeastern coastal plain, hunting will likely be affected some as a result of hurricane Florence. Some areas experienced severe flooding for long periods of time and may have been detrimental to quail in those areas. Also, access for hunters and vehicles will likely be limited on many areas as a result of washed out culverts, roads, and fields. "