Your budget can be a factor. I have shot at Southern Woods near Sylvester. Very nice place. I live close enough I drove up for the day and went home without incurring lodging costs. At the time, for breakfast, lunch, quail, taxes, license and tips for my 40 birds was right at $800. Just up the road from me is Southwind near Attapulgus - multiple Orvis winner so the prices reflect that level of luxury. Same for Rio Piedra and a host of others that my friends have shot at. Season typically runs through early/mid March

 

Ok thanks I’ll check them out, Soutgwind didn’t have prices so I was going to call them this week. So far out of what I’ve looked at, Pine Hill is the only one that I’m not willing to pay for. At $5,400 per person I can go elk hunting that price can’t be justified to me.

I’m in northeast ga so I’ll be staying somewhere for the night but most I’ve looked are in the $1,000-1500 per hunter range. I was just trying to not pick blind. I’ve never done any bird hunting before and wanting to get my feet wet.

 

Hanging Rock Plantation near Millen used to offer a great wild bird shoot. Not sure of the status now, give Robert a call.

Hanging Rocks provides deer, quail, turkey hunting and Southern Weddings Venue

Hanging Rocks Plantation offers many different kinds of hunting; deer, turkey, quail and more. Hanging Rocks can also provide country or southern wedding venue for very reasonable prices.

www.hangingrocksplantation.com

 

Bowman89,
Oneounce gave you some good places to visit in GA, I also like Running Creek Ranch in MS for both Pheasant and Quail. My favorite lodge other than the old Nemacoilin set up here in Pa, which is now gone, is the Winghaven Lodge in Kentucky. IMO one of the finest Quail hunting set ups in the USA.
Any of the Orvis & Shooting Sportsman recommended shooting destination lodges are usually top shelf, remember the price will also be equal to what is provided. Ask for current prices and what to expect on the hunts.
Have a great time!

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

 

Have not hunted there, but did shoot sporting clays at a large tournament there; nice terrain, great folks, great accommodations

 

The wife and I hunted at Piney Creek plantation outside of Albany Georgia. Food and lodging are available on site or you could stay in town if you so wished. The lodge was very nice, nothing extravagant, but a very down home feel with good home cooking. Great dogs, great guides and plenty of birds to shoot at.
Prices were fair, but book early in the year as they fill up quickly.
Kentuckycook

 

OP if you can get a copy of the mid summer Shooting Sportsman, there will be ads from pretty much every bird hunting location in the country, including a lot of Georgia quail locales

This might give you some insight into the history of Thomasville area (and some nice tourism things to visit with your spouse:

Encounter Historic Quail Hunt Plantations in Thomasville GA

Explore a country estate, tour a Neoclassical mansion, and plan special events at two historic quail hunt plantations in Thomasville, Georgia, USA.

backroadplanet.com

 

Come away Plantation, Norwood, Ga. Great place to quail hunt! Didn't have to kick the birds to fly, well managed.

Come Away Plantation Norwood, Georgia | Ultimate Quail Hunting

Come Away Plantation | Norwood, Georgia

www.ultimatequailhunting.com

 

I've been a long-time visitor to Morrison Pines in Moutrie. Very welcoming folks, good guides... some with very awesome dogs, beautiful woods, food is down-home Southern goodness. Generally pretty booked up Dec through Feb. Oct, early Nov and March generally have openings.

 

Southwind doesn’t allow 12 ga so they’re out as well. I didn’t realize that would ever be an issue, is that common?

 

I lived in Ga from 1991 till 2005 and only hunted wild quail till about 2002. After 2002 the wild quail were about gone where I hunted. Believe it or not I hunted with a Chesapeake Bay Retriever for quail. She was a pheasant dog and adapted to quail really well. When she was about 8 years old, she would flash point. Then I got a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon when there were no more wild quail to hunt. The wild birds' numbers mimicked what happened to the pheasant in Wisconsin where I am from.

 

12ga is king in the northern part of the state, never held a 28 or 410 in my life. Never owned a 20 ga either but have shot a hand full. I was just surprised because I’ve been to several big dove shoots and everyone has a 12.

If I’m taking the bird home I don’t understand why it matters what it’s shot with. Maybe a plantation hunt isn’t for me, sounds a little stuffy.

 

Not stuffy at all; you hit that tiny bobwhite with a 12 gauge and there won't be much to take home; here in Florida, most folks do not use a 12 for dove either - 410, 28, 20, and a smattering of 16s (typically in a classic SxS) are what you see; again, dove aren't hard to kill, but they are easy to mangle and make them inedible.

 

Home - Dorchester

Fall in Love with Dorchester Our Creation Story Quail Hunting More Information Improve Your Shooting Skills Sporting Clays Throw an Event More Information Welcome to Dorchester! Dorchester is a 5,000 acre hunting preserve on the southeast Georgia coast that offers the finest in quail hunting...

huntdsp.com

Dorchester might fit your plans, but it's on the coast.
South of Savannah, just off I-95.
I coach clays and hunt quail there occasionally.
Birds are a mix of wild and early release.
Bring your 12 and shoot 1 or 7/8ths loads.
Personally, I use my 28.

 

Sounds like I’ve got a good excuse to buy another shotgun and get a different gauge. My wife may have a few questions though lol. Might go see if I can handle a 20 and 28 somewhere and see how I like the feel. It took 8 months to get my 12 so I better get to it.

 

Proceed with Caution!!!!!
20 is good, but you'll most likely fall in love with a 28.
The Mrs. will definitely question the cost of 28 ammo vs. 20.
That is.... if she finds out!

 

I’ve hunted at both Dorchester and Rio Piedra. Both were top notch facilities and had good flying birds. With some occasional wild coveys.

Both also had plenty of guys (and a few ladies) shooting 12 gauges. I mainly use 20’s on quail but wouldn’t necessarily feel “over-gunned” with a 12 on a Plantation hunt.

Here in SC in Clinton we put out some good flying birds at my club - The Clinton House Plantation (part of that name is tough to swallow 😂)

 

Choke and shot load would seem more the issue than gauge....I'm guessing more is involved with the 12 gauge and the customer's use of one on a Preserve.

 

On the plantations where they use pointers to find them and English cockers to flush them; shots can be fairly close - so smaller payloads and fairly open chokes seem to work the best

 

Go to Georgia Outdoor Network, GON.com and sign up for free, hit the chat rooms, they have everything on hunting in GA. Good Luck in finding your perfect place to hunt, and BTW a nice 28 gauge will do quite nicely in hunting quail and will be easy on your shoulder.

 

I live right here in the middle of SW GA quail country and am glad to give you some insight into most of our area commercial plantations. I manage and hunt for wild birds, but have hunted on most of the better commercial places through the years and can give you plenty of options.
The small bore thing is primarily a respect thing for our wild birds as how many you take is about the lowest objective when hunting this special limited resource. With quail preserves, you really aren't running into the same scarcity issue, but the idea is to help the hunters there come as close as possible to experiencing what it's like on our wild bird plantations.

 

Sounds like a lot of fun, good times hunting with dogs!

 

It isn't "blasphemy" and they do cater to the avergae hunter. They prefer you not to destroy the birds. On most of these places, you are not getting the birds you shot, but birds from a previous hunter. I think their goal is to minimize the damage a large 12 gauge load could do to such a small bird. When I left Southern Woods, the birds I brought home were rock solid frozen - no way they did that in an hour or so,
Besides, you'll be walking a lot and a small, light 20, 28 or 410 is much nicer to carry - gives you an excuse to buy another gun - and that isn't a bad thing either!
Have fun wherever you go.

 

Yeah I’ve been looking at 28’s this week actually. So I’ll probably end up with one before I go. I bought myself and my dad matching beretta sp III 12 ga specifically to go hunt together with because I thought it’d be it’d be neat. Guess he gets another one now too lol.

 

If you wanted to extend your hunt while at Southern Woods, you could book a half or whole day at Agri-B. It's a good without a lot of the lush lodging frills and is popular with many of the locals. I hunted there this past season when a couple of doc buddies took me and my son; saw several other local physician friends also there that day. As a side venture, this place supplies many of the quail to other area preserves. Make sure you eat lunch while there; country cooking at its best.

 

Gentlemen,
springhill gives good advise on Agri-B, a no frills great place to hunt wild Quail, and it gives you an opportunity to meet some of the local Shooting Sportsman. I agree with him 100% If you want a great wild Quail hunt ask springhill if he will let you hunt with him on his own property behind his fantastic dogs.
Good luck with that, you will need it.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith

 

Thanks, Dave!
As for Agri-B, I wouldn’t go there expecting wild birds, but of interest to some, there’s a good chance you’ll see some Tennessee Reds along with regular Northern Bobs. I was quite surprised when hunting there this past season to reach down and pick up a bird that looked a bit different. Seems they have found that the Reds fly really well. That said, I was hunting that day with 2 docs, my personal physician and friend, along with his ophthalmologist son-in-law, so I decided to simply bring up the subject of genetics, knowing they’d be at least passingly familiar with the topic. My question was if a Red is simply a bobwhite that ended up with some different plumage, what could cause the pen-raised version of this variety to have any sort of different flight or survival skills? As we wandered around for a bit, none of us could come up with a basis for that hypothesis, but it definitely made for some conversation that you don’t ordinarily get with a shotgun in your hands.

 

springhill,
I was taught long ago that the Tennessee Red version of the Bob White happens because of the feed that the wild Quail originally grew up eating, and yes the Reds on his farm actually were spookier and flew better than the planted Bob Whites, he introduced to his property. The Reds actually looked more like Mearns Quail to me than Bob Whites. I actually asked the old gentlemen how he ended up with Mearns Quail in Tennessee. He then explained to me about Tennessee Reds, which I had never seen before, this was back in the late 60's early 70's when I was attending a small college down south.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man