11/18/19 Tennessee Wild Quail Hunt For Swamp Rabbits

After returning from my pheasant hunt I’ve been itching to get back into the swing of bird hunting with my dog. Quail season doesn’t open until next week in Mississippi but since I was planning on wild bird hunting in Texas over Thanksgiving, I figured I’d try and get the dog a little more field work before we got to where there actually might be some quail.

I bought my Tennessee non-resident small game hunting license and WMA ex-waterfowl permit and headed for one of the states four designated northern bobwhite quail anchor WMA’s.

https://www.tn.gov/news/2014/10/14/four-wildlife-management-areas-selected-as-northern-bobwhite-quail-anchor-l.html

Wolf River is the closest Tennessee WMA to my home in Oxford and even though Unit 1 (that portion of the WMA south of TN highway 57) is closed to quail hunting, Wolf River Unit 2 is open for quail concurrent with statewide seasons.

I arrived around 10:30 and parked at what I thought was the entrance. I saw a game warden and considered going down to talk to him but wasn’t sure if it was a law enforcement officer or area personnel and was in a hurry. I kept driving down the dirt road until it came to a dead end in a TWRA prepared dove field. As I was getting ready to load out, a man in a pickup pulled up and we visited for a few minutes. He was deer hunting and had mentioned he had just stoped and talked to the game warden up the street. Since I wanted to be 100% certain of my intended activities and game, I decided to drive back up the road and introduce myself. He was super friendly and clarified that Unit 2 of Wolf River was in fact open to quail and that I did not need steel to hunt woodcock.

I headed back to the dove field and began my long walk around the perimeter of the unit. Along the way I encountered a couple of deer, many wood ducks, an armadillo and several rabbits. Since it was rabbit season and I hadn’t eaten them in years, I decided to harvest a couple.

The first rabbit of the day was seen on the edge of a slough and when I jumped it, it hopped maybe three times and stopped, concerned about me and the dog, but not so much that it ran off. One shot, one kill. The dog was hesitant at first to fetch it up but once I started to act like I was going to run off, he grabbed the rabbit and chased after me.

The kind of place I found swamp rabbits in South Central Tennessee

I hunted back to the truck and encountered one more rabbit, again another jump, five step run and pause, followed by an easy one shot, one kill. Accustomed to the fur in his mouth, Dublin retrieved this rabbit with a bit more poise.

We made a big loop back to the truck without seeing any quail but had time to check out one more spot so headed to Hays Crossing Wetland (a tract of Wolf River WMA Unit 2).

I walked through some crazy thick stuff but didn’t see a bird or beast until we almost got back got and Dublin went on point, sticking his head in a hole. Seconds later a cottontail came storming out another hole and managed to get 2 yards from under my feet before the Benelli found its third and final target of the hunt.

By this point, my hunting buddy had figured out the game and excitedly returned the rabbit to hand.

We humped back out to the parking area, took a few hour pictures then headed home to show the kids and clean the harvest.

Landry and Cal were both appropriately amused. They admired and inspected the kill before I caped, quartered and froze it.