kansas?????

[RBraddy]

Went to kansas over thanksgiving weekend and stayed in Great Bend. Hunted walk-ins all weekend, took 6 good dogs and saw very few pheasants and no quail. Slow dissappointing weekend. Would much rather shoot quail but having trouble locating them. Any suggestions.

[topher40]

If you would rather shoot quail dont go so far west. Quail in the east, mixed bag in Central, and mostly all pheasants in the west.

[RBraddy]

There are not many walk ins in the eastern half of the state and the walkins that are there are spread out so u can not conentrate on one area

[topher40]

You are correct, although isnt the point to find birds? Does it really matter if you have to drive 5-10 miles between spots if your finding birds? Fact is that there just arent the quail numbers the further west you go and if that is what you are looking for you are shooting yourself in the foot by passing up ground to the east for the sake of convenience.

[Shadow]

Went to kansas over thanksgiving weekend and stayed in Great Bend. Hunted walk-ins all weekend, took 6 good dogs and saw very few pheasants and no quail. Slow dissappointing weekend. Would much rather shoot quail but having trouble locating them. Any suggestions.

post that every where you can on the internet

[muddycreek]

RBraddy wrote:
Went to kansas over thanksgiving weekend and stayed in Great Bend. Hunted walk-ins all weekend, took 6 good dogs and saw very few pheasants and no quail. Slow dissappointing weekend. Would much rather shoot quail but having trouble locating them. Any suggestions.

post that every where you can on the internet

I've been trying...

Seriously, does anyone else think the Upland Forecast was a bit "rosy" this year. I'm seeing birds, but not to the extent of the forecast.

[ACooper]

RBraddy wrote:
Went to kansas over thanksgiving weekend and stayed in Great Bend. Hunted walk-ins all weekend, took 6 good dogs and saw very few pheasants and no quail. Slow dissappointing weekend. Would much rather shoot quail but having trouble locating them. Any suggestions.

post that every where you can on the internet

I've been trying...

Seriously, does anyone else think the Upland Forecast was a bit "rosy" this year. I'm seeing birds, but not to the extent of the forecast.

Seems like the forcast is always "a bit rosy", the dept of wildlife trying to attract hunters and ern more revenue!

[natetnc]

i was finding a good number of quail compared to previous years. with that said i agree with acooper, the forecast are almost always optimistic.

being an out of state hunter like yourself my only advice is to find an area and spend some time working it. pick a general area of the state and hit the WIHA or WMA in that area. it takes time to learn where the birds are, find them and remember them. even when you are in KS it is hard to meet the expectations you have when you only hunt the area for 1 wk. i am on my 3rd year in the same area of KS and just now learning where some birds are, it is much different than hunting in NC, there is so much good habitat.

the birds i found this year were in concentrated areas, i either found them or i didn't, some mornings i would hit 3-4 coveys and other mornings i would blank. i did find a good many pheasants too but they were ALL hens.... where did the roosters go? i hunted them in wide crp strips seperating crop fields, i find they hold better in that environment and with a 1man/1dog team there is no chance when they start running.

[natetnc]

i was thinking of heading to SW KS next year around the 1st of Jan, anyone ever hunted that area? thinking around cimarron national grasslands. i have heard good things about the quail hunting in that area but would like to get more input before i go the extra distance.

not trying to hi-jack this thread, i think it stays on track with the focus of mentioning general areas in KS that might be better suited for hunting quail.

[CZShooter]

All I can tell you is my buddy and I saw more birds than ever before, and all the guys I ran into were doing the same. Limits were common on pheasants, and we got into to 2-3 covies of quail every day. Hunted lots of WIHAs around Hodgeman, Kiowa, and Pawnee counties. Hunted 6 full days and only failed to limit on pheasants once. Posted some photos of my trip under the topic "Kansas 2009 = Great Hunt!"

[Shadow]

natetnc- nice looking Britt

almost 40 years hunting Kansas- eastern 1/3rd used to be real good for quail

think the trick with pheasants is looking for that grass by feed fields- hunting it slowly and one or two with good pointing dogs is the ticket- works for quail also
not a lot of quail arround the SW- know that some have released blues and bobwhites- could be if folks don't pressure quail they might be good someday

I've run into a few coveys but haven't shot any

CZ- I'd say you did real good- nice pictures on your post

[CimarronGSPs]

HUnt the Pratt and Greensburg areas. They have had a good year this Spring and summer.

[hotrod13]

I hunted in the Pratt/Stafford area on opening weekend on family land. We found plenty of pheasants and hit 3 or 4 coveys of quail. We hunted corners of crp grass with with cut crops (corn or beans). Quail never really do great in this area (this is the first time we shot them in the last couple of years), and the numbers are about the same we see every year. I was hoping there would be more or larger covey's due to the fact that they had not been hunted for several years and I am the only one who bird hunts this land. Anyway in this part of Kansas it seems quail are pretty much a rarity. Good luck and good hunting.

[TXShooter]

I just got back from Kansas yesterday and we found lots of quail in the Southeast, but they were all on private land.

Went to the far Southwest to chase pheasants and the birds were very plentiful.