These days, with years of field experience under my belt, I've perfected my approach to dogless quail hunting.

Woodsmanship, stealth and a gun with ample reach and knockdown power are the cornerstones to my strategy.

Let's talk about the gun first.

When hunting over a dog, a light-kicking 16- or 20-gauge with an open choke and shells featuring small shot are the perfect choice.

Shots will typically be short and in most cases, the dog will run down any cripples before they escape.

For the dogless hunter, shots are typically longer. It is much more important to kill the bird outright, since you won't be able to rely on a dog to corral cripples. Use a 12-gauge sporting a full choke and shells loaded with No. 6, No. 5 or even No. 4.

Using large shot for quail is a major divergence from conventional wisdom. But when you study the dynamics of dogless hunting, it makes perfect sense.

Classic quail loads lose a lot of steam once the shot moves beyond 30 yards. It's this loss of hitting power that results in a high percentage of wounded birds at ranges beyond 30 yards. When using larger shot, you are making a tradeoff. Since there are fewer individual pellets in a 1-ounce payload of shot, you'll miss more birds than you would with lighter shot. But each pellet retains more velocity downrange. The birds you hit with larger shot are more likely to go down and stay down.

When pursuing quail with a pointer, the dog does most of the hunting, and the hunter does the shooting. Without a dog, it's up to you to do the hunting before any shooting can take place. This is where woodsmanship comes into play.

Carry binoculars in the woods specifically for spotting sentry birds and feeding quail.

As I move from one high spot to another, I glass around cover that's from 100 to 300 yards away.

Quail feed primarily on grass seeds and fresh greens such as clover. This type of forage is found in open areas, yet quail don't like to stray too far from cover. You won't find quail out in an open meadow, but nor will you encounter many birds in dense woodlots. Broken woods with a mix of brush thickets, oaks, pines and grassy openings are ideal for quail, since such locations offer them the ability to feed while remaining close to the security offered by the brush.

Remember, quail are on the menu of every predator from falcons to bobcats, so for them, security is a major concern.

A covey of feeding quail almost always has one or more sentry birds. However, once the hunter is wise to their strategy, the game can be reversed, allowing you to spot a covey long before they see you.

I carry binoculars in the woods specifically for spotting sentry birds and feeding quail. As I move from one high spot to another, I glass around cover that's from 100 to 300 yards away.

When I spot quail, I take a moment to figure out the best way to approach them. Ideally, I want to skirt around them and approach from a direction that will put me within range before the covey bolts into the brush.

The morning hours between 8 a.m. and noon offer the best hunting for the dogless, since this is the time that you'll most likely encounter feeding quail. In the afternoon hours, quail spend much of their time posted up in cover, making it very difficult for the hunter to get the drop on them before they run off.