Hunting has not depreciated quail populations in Texas.
What has wiped them out is fire ants.
Quail nest on the ground and fire ants wipe the chicks out.
Great Commercial from Bennett Buildings.
“We will give you a free fire arm with each steel building”
Thats a long standing debate among Texas hunters. I agree the quail get hit hard by fire ants the moment they come out of the shell but we have a couple of other forces working against them with feral hogs being one and change in habitat being another. Here in West TX we don’t have a fire ant problem but we are starting to get a hog problem. another critter that place hell on baby quail is Road Runners, they eat baby quail like popcorn.