Archery for Quail

April 25, 2019

Question: I am planning on archery hunting for quail this year. Do the same laws from shotgun apply to archery? Does the quail have to be flying before shooting at it? Or if archery hunting, can the quail be standing on the ground or sitting in the trees? (John V.)

Answer: There are early archery seasons provided for quail, so using archery equipment generally allows you to hunt both during the archery season (listed under CCR Title 14, section 300) and during the general season. Otherwise, the bag and possession limits are the same.

As far as deciding whether to shoot the birds when flying vs when they are standing on the ground or roosting in trees is not a legal question but instead an ethics decision that you must make. Under the widely accepted “fair chase” principles that most hunters abide by, shooting upland game birds or waterfowl under conditions other than when they are flying violate this widely accepted fair chase code of ethics. Archery hunters are often viewed as having accepted an even higher level of fair chase principals due to the vastly greater challenge to successfully take game via archery (at least for most of us!), compared to firearm. However, the decision to take a game bird on the ground vs. in the air remains a decision you must make on your own, regardless of your chosen method of take.

I'm no archer, but hitting a quail that's in flight seems like it would be insanely difficult...

Who could nail a flying quail with an bow & arrow?  That's some Robin Hood shit.  Its hard enough with a 12-guage spray.  As a kid in TX, my dad took me hunting for blue quail and we literally had to run after them to get them to take flight, stop, and shoot.  It was not easy, and that was with a freakin spray of buck shot.  Ethically, I tend to feel like it would be cool if you took one standing on the ground or in a tree... with a shotgun, not so much.