Tips for bobwhites?

[elawrence]

Does anybody have good strategies for the bobwhites? I still haven't figured these guys out... My usual experience with them is this: hear a warning peep, crouch and advance, trying to see where the bird is and... finding nothing at all. I see nothing flying away, no sounds, etc. I'm really puzzled.

[Meatball]

same issue I have with the Turkey in Layton, they are very sensitive. Your best bet is to keep an eye in the sky, and shoot them when they fly away. Thats the only way Ive killed turkey is by shooting them as they fly away

[Carstein83]

Crouching is a good idea in general, but not with Bobwhite Quails. I always run at them, chase them into the air and then shoot at them with the Cacciatore. Don´t forget, that you need to hit them flying, otherwise you don´t get the integrity bonus.

[elawrence]

Thank you folks, I'll keep this in mind. After I posted, I read in the in-game codex that bobwhites have to be flushed out, so I guess they stay hidden unless to give them a good reason to fly off. I'll give it a try again when I'm back on a map that has them...

[sneakybass]

Originally posted by Meatball:

same issue I have with the Turkey in Layton, they are very sensitive. Your best bet is to keep an eye in the sky, and shoot them when they fly away. Thats the only way Ive killed turkey is by shooting them as they fly away

Meatball they have two calls for turkeys one you use to locate stay crouched and call often get within 90 yards then use the other caller and the turkey will come towards you he may fly some times If you stop calling them In keep using your caller,most times i just blast them on the ground as they come right to you .

[aya.sameshima]

i feel binacular is the best thing to use. take them up. and while you look and scout around you walk forward and a bit side walk and forward and side walk and scout around the area the sound came from. they are tricky to find. but when you hit them with the binacular. text will show up ( to spot animal ) then it is just to look back and forward spot the animal and get you gun. and you have a nice dinner :)

[elawrence]

I've been scouring youtube and found a few old vids of bobwhite hunts on Mississippi from some of the more popular streamers. Overall there was nothing that helpful or news to me. And the vids were all done well before the spook distance update. I'm not convinced that the approaches (more or less walking up to the estimated position of the birds following a call) shown in these videos would work now. So any streamer reading this, I'd love (really) to be proven wrong and see a new video, showing a full hunting loop from call to kill, with some figures on how many tries it took.

For me, even after crouch-walking ridiculous distances, down wind, after a mating call (not even a warning call), the birds seem 75% likely (or more) to just... not be anywhere to be found. Tracks can be seen, but following them just tends to get the cycle to repeat again. If the birds flush more or less within range, it's pretty rare. This doesn't seem to be particularly realistic, given that small game birds will often be found by the sides of roads or in small bushes/lower tree branches, and spook when you're literally on top of them (usually scaring the heck out of you, if you're not actually looking for them).

I'll keep trying. Small game in general definitely seems harder to hunt now compared to when I first started playing this game.

[sneakybass]

Next tuesday When Jaxybeard community Manager has his stream I will post on It about this maybe get a reply or let them know there Is a problem with bob white quail and pheasants. ....

[sneakybass]

I also think the aim site on the shot gun Is ok but the shot gun Is too big and wide 11 1/4 inches wide shot gun on a 32 inch monitor full screen way to wide It covers up to much of the screen view would be able to aim faster and get on birds faster and see them from the sides better and below. The site dot is ok 3/16 wide on the screen and add a green dot for shot gun works better In the field .A shot gun is only 2.50 inches or less wide in real life have the vent rib stick up a little higher and that should clear up aiming problems some and allow better aiming from birds from the side..and the shot gun would be even better In game.

[elawrence]

@sneakybass that's awesome, thanks! I think it'd be great to have some 'expert' opinions on small game since the update, if nothing else.

There's one thing I noticed about these quails. When walking in a field looking for them, assuming some are close by, they seem to flush after your character has stopped moving for a few seconds. It's happened twice to me today. On time I went prone to try and call in a raccoon. While I was down and waiting, a bunch of them took off from a nearby bush and flew overhead. Another time, it was just after I stopped moving next to a field because I had to deal with some IRL stuff for a second, and again a flock just takes off... It's sort of annoying, because that behaviour really catches you off-guard!

[sneakybass]

Originally posted by elawrence:

@sneakybass that's awesome, thanks! I think it'd be great to have some 'expert' opinions on small game since the update, if nothing else.

There's one thing I noticed about these quails. When walking in a field looking for them, assuming some are close by, they seem to flush after your character has stopped moving for a few seconds. It's happened twice to me today. On time I went prone to try and call in a raccoon. While I was down and waiting, a bunch of them took off from a nearby bush and flew overhead. Another time, it was just after I stopped moving next to a field because I had to deal with some IRL stuff for a second, and again a flock just takes off... It's sort of annoying, because that behaviour really catches you off-guard!

Thanks elawrence for the comment I have shot a lot of birds and animals In my life time. I think the spook distance Is still broken for quail and pheasant I have killed a few of each , gees you even look thru them with the binos they run like hell. I don't think they need be so spooky. But I would like to see the shotgun trimmed down to see better In game to more realistic size. I think It would be a lot faster to aim and spot birds in flight. Most times I run them down. Or just shoot them when they screw up.

[elawrence]

I've been spending a lot of hours lately focusing on these birds. At this point, it really feels like a 50/50 chance on whether the birds fly off vs just run. But overall, I'm starting to realise that there is just no fool-proof strategy with them. You hear them peep, you keep walking towards them, and just hope they flush towards open terrain.

But that being said, the distance at which they spook (running or flying) is just not right. When they DO fly off, they are so far away as to be near invisible. It's fine in a game, the shells don't make a dent in my earnings, so I can afford to miss. But it's just so damn unrealistic to have game birds flying off that far away from the player. Nobody in real life would bother hunting quails/partridges etc. if the real thing acted like they do in CotW.

I'll try and manage to get a distance reading on a few just for fun (I'm usually too busy trying to shoot them down).

And yeah, you're right about the running Sneaky, I've spotted a few with the binocs once or twice, and they really hustle off...

[elawrence]

I was able to get a distance read off of one bird. It was hard to get a constant bead on the thing, but it looked like 62m. Feels pretty darn far for game bird to spook off, IMO. Even though testing at the range shows that birdshot still appears to have a decent concentration of shot at 100m, the game itself says 25m is the optimal distance for birdshot. Feels a bit cheap to have the birds take off that far. That was one measurement, but it did seem to be the 'usual' sight picture feel of how it looks generally when they take off.

[jimmyporter101068]

i managed to kill 3 quail today but it seems like they spook way too soon , barely in shotgun range.oh and one didnt give me anything because it was on the way down but still in the air when i shot it,,,,GROUNDED...LIKE STILL 10 FEET OFF THE GROUND,,
iHUNTED NEED ZONES,,,AT FEEDING TIME,,,IF you good with the .22 pistol or rifle might get a little more range .

[jimmyporter101068]

FINALLY managed to bag a gold Bobwhite Quail!!!
ive been using the Grelck rifle/shotgun. I do use the shotgun scope mostly to identify where the bird is,Ill hit the X key to make a whistle to spook the bird into flight...
Ive got my zero set at 75, I'll sight with scope then tap the mouse whell to remove it and make the shot.
Ive killed several quail in the last few days using this method.
Hunt both of the farms and woods nearby, check you need zones and hunt the times accordingly, hope this helps someone .

[elawrence]

Grats on that gold quail jimmy! I'll be hitting Cuatro (which I don't really like) to start hunting pheasants soon (and probably Hirsh as well)... See how that turns out.