Colorado scaled quail season 2026-27: dates, units and bag limits

Scaled quail is open in Colorado from November 14, 2026 to January 31, 2027, in the areas listed below. This page has the 2026-27 dates, the daily bag and possession limits, the licences you need and the rules that apply, read from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife brochure.

2026-27 season dates and limits

Shooting hours: Half an hour before sunrise to sunset.

Units we can plan for scaled quail

The legal area is as the brochure words it in the table above. These are the units inside it that our maps cover: a unit missing from a list may still be open, so check the brochure.

Quail season, south-east: east of I-25 and south of I-70 (I-25 to Byers) and US 36 (Byers to Kansas); also the parts of Pueblo, Fremont, Huerfano, El Paso and Las Animas counties west of I-25

22 units: 113, 119, 120, 121, 122, 124, 125, 126, 127, 130, 132, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147.

8 a day and 24 in possession of each quail species.

Quail season, north-east: east of I-25 and north of I-70 (I-25 to Byers) and US 36 (Byers to Kansas)

10 units: 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98.

8 a day and 24 in possession of each quail species.

Quail season, west of I-25: west of I-25, except the parts of Pueblo, Fremont, Huerfano, El Paso and Las Animas counties, which stay open to 31 January

111 units: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 86, 131, 161, 171, 181, 191, 201, 211, 214, 231, 301, 361, 371, 411, 421, 431, 441, 444, 471, 481, 500, 501, 521, 551, 561, 581, 681, 682, 691, 711, 741, 751, 771, 791, 861.

The five counties are not mapped, so the shorter season is used for every unit west of I-25.

Licences and stamps

• Colorado small game licence
• Colorado Habitat Stamp
• Harvest Information Program (HIP) number for this season

Rules for scaled quail

• Shotgun (10 gauge or smaller, no slugs, three shells at most), bow or crossbow only. No rifles or handguns.
• Keep one fully feathered wing or the head on each bird until you are home.
• Quail hunting is prohibited on Horsethief Canyon State Wildlife Area.

Do not mistake these for scaled quail

• Lesser prairie-chicken (protected or closed: never shoot): Chicken-sized, round and barred, in the same south-east sand sage. A quail is the size of your fist and runs in a covey. No season.
• Northern bobwhite and Gambel's quail (different season or permit): Both are legal in the same season with their own limit of 8. A bobwhite is rusty with a white or buff throat; a Gambel's has a black teardrop plume. A scaled quail is grey with a white-tipped crest and scaly breast.

How to hunt scaled quail

• Scaled quail run. Push a covey fast until it flushes, mark where the singles land, then walk them up.
• Check stock tanks, windmills and old farmsteads, and look for tracks in the sand.
• Shots are low. Know where your partners and dog are.

What a map cannot tell you

• The Comanche National Grassland and State Trust Land hold much of the public scaled quail country. National grassland is not in the planner's ownership layers unless it shows as National Forest land.
• Walk-In Access parcels are not in the planner.
• Old farmsteads and guzzlers, which hold coveys, are not layers the planner has.

Source

2026 Colorado Small Game & Waterfowl brochure (corrections 21 Aug 2026), pages 3, 5, 7 and 11; CPW regulations chapter W-3 (07/16/2026): https://cpw.widen.net/s/bklvf2bjmw/colorado-small-game--waterfowl-brochure. Read October 2, 2026. Rules change every year, and corrections are issued during the season: read the current brochure before you hunt.