Pheasants in Kansas?

[quanah labs]

Hey guys I am planning on hunting pheasant in December up in north west Kansas. I have talked to the areas wildlife biologist and he told me that it was one of the best places mostly because it wasn't hit as hard by the drought like most other parts of the state was. But I would still like to hear from some of the locals or some of you that may have hunted there already this year, what are the bird numbers like?

[SetterNut]

Pheasant season doesn't open for a few more weeks. I think it will be spotty, some decent, some not so good.
I drove through the area as few weeks ago, didn't see much, but the crops were all still out. So it is really hard to say.

[hi-tailyn]

I'm heading to Kansas next weekend for the Youth weekend with my boys. Looks like North of I-70 is better, with less drought on the KS forecast map. Would the Central area North of I-70 be ok, or do we need to head more East or West? Coming up from TX to Salina, and looking for some info or what direction to go to from there. Heard West got large hail storm.
Scott

[topher40]

In my opinion Kansas is a crap shoot this year. There will be pockets of birds for sure but they arent going to be as widespread as usual. It really doesnt matter what part of the state you want to go to I could almost guarantee there was an episode of weather (hail, drought, torrential rains and flooding, etc) at some point through the year.

[jimssetters]

Try contacting a biologist, they should point you in the right direction for you boys to have an awsum trip. Best of luck and be safe.

[tfbirddog2]

Dont bother with biologist they most of them would have to actually get of the office to tell you anything, Im in the Northwest, we didnt have the drought he, but had some bad hail storms come thru, west of Hill City, was hailed out mostly, south of Oakley area in spots too. Other wise if there is cover there are birds, I guide out here and work for rural power company so I cover 9 counties so I think I kinda know a little bit! Northcentral is mostly good allthe time good farming practices helps that! Hightailn try the Glen Elder, Beloit, Osbourne, and Concordia area for your boys should be good in those areas I have private ground in there I can hunt and they say bumper quail this year hit and miss!

[hi-tailyn]

Thanks tfbirddog2 I got motel in Osbourne and looks like a fair amount of walk in areas. Would the bird habitat be better around the wildlife areas vs walk in's? Looking forward to both young boys getting their first "wild" birds. I tried to explain how fast wild birds are. How wild quail explode up and out and take your breath away then they are gone.

[tfbirddog2]

WIHA areas will probably be lots of crop or draws and such public should be mostly CRP with some crop with it.Good luck on your trip, hope it is a safe one and hope you and the boys have a great time!!!

[SetterNut]

Bad news guys.

Took the dogs out for a run this weekend
My 5 month old Setter pup found something


And my 3 year old thought it was important.


And it was important. The last pheasant in Kansas ended up flying to Nebraska before the season opened

[brad27]

Bad news guys.

Took the dogs out for a run this weekend
My 5 month old Setter pup found something


And my 3 year old thought it was important.


And it was important. The last pheasant in Kansas ended up flying to Nebraska before the season opened

nice

[live4point]

Great photos!

[jimssetters]

Called a biologist today and he said that most birds should be killed north of I-70. You are headed in the right direction good luck.

[quanah labs]

Called a biologist today and he said that most birds should be killed north of I-70. You are headed in the right direction good luck.

Thanks for the info! I can't wait to get out there this year with my own dog!!!

[jimssetters]

Anybody know how the kido's done this weekend?

[tfbirddog2]

Step-son got his 2 birds and they saw a good amount of birds, other buddy and his boy did very well too, limited both saturday and sunday.

[quanah labs]

Step-son got his 2 birds and they saw a good amount of birds, other buddy and his boy did very well too, limited both saturday and sunday.

I'm not looking for your honey hole ( you can PM me with it if you just have to )but, were you guys in the Colby area? That is where we are planning on going.

[displaced_texan]

For what it's worth where we dove hunt is VERY close to south west Kansas, we saw more pheasants on our dove hunt that we ever remember seeing. I also saw my first three Prairie Chickens.

[hi-tailyn]

Hunted out of Osborne with the kids last weekend for the youth weekend. Saw some birds. But not the numbers that I would expect for a pre season hunt.Kids were a little slow on getting shots off.What birds that did find flushed closer to me carrying the camera. Hunted north and south of the big lake to the east. Went east to next town and found one covey of quail.

All we hunted was on walk in land. Don't know if that was the difference in finding birds.

Came home with empty cooler w/o any birds. The kids did have a good time and the young dogs started getting the idea on pointing and holding pheasants by the second day.

Want to go back to KS, but don't know if I need to head more east or where. Farmer said they had heavy rains and killed most of the young birds in that area.
Thanks
Scott

hi-tailyn
Rank: Junior Hunter

Posts: 85
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2008 12:26 pm
Location: Fort Worth, Texas

[skeetermc]

We are going to KS the second weekend of the season but only because I hate to have prairie chickens flush and all i can do is say WOW CHICKENS! We are going to take our popup so we can move if need be.

[Birddawg]

I wll let you know how the pheasant hunting is....going this weekend (opening weekend) up around Goodland. Taking my 10yr old son for his first hunt.

[quanah labs]

I wll let you know how the pheasant hunting is....going this weekend (opening weekend) up around Goodland. Taking my 10yr old son for his first hunt.

I look foreward to your hunting review.

Good luck, I hope your son has a great first hunt!

[Birddawg]

I wll let you know how the pheasant hunting is....going this weekend (opening weekend) up around Goodland. Taking my 10yr old son for his first hunt.

I look foreward to your hunting review.

Good luck, I hope your son has a great first hunt!

Thank you very much. It looks like we are going on Saturday. I just got my male back from the trainer yesterday (Thursday). He looked sharp. Here is a pic I took of him on point.

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn26 ... loseup.jpg

I will let you know how it goes.

[jimssetters]

Looks super intense, nice picture.

[Birddawg]

Looks super intense, nice picture.

Thank you!

[quanah labs]

I wll let you know how the pheasant hunting is....going this weekend (opening weekend) up around Goodland. Taking my 10yr old son for his first hunt.

I look foreward to your hunting review.

Good luck, I hope your son has a great first hunt!

Thank you very much. It looks like we are going on Saturday. I just got my male back from the trainer yesterday (Thursday). He looked sharp. Here is a pic I took of him on point.

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn26 ... loseup.jpg

I will let you know how it goes.

I have a good feeling that if there is any birds anywhere near Goodland that pup of yours is going to lock on to them! Nice looking dog!

[Birddawg]

Thank you!
Ok, so I found out how hard it is to take your 10 yr old son on his first hunting trip and watch him and your 2 dogs. Its hard! But we had fun. Need to work on my son trusting in his dog and somehow get him to understand that his dog cant hunt and stay within 10 feet of him. That its ok for him to lose sight of his dog, to trust his dog, and know that his dog is working for him. My boy would get very upset and think his dog Ace, is going to run away. Anyway, we will work on that. Now to the pheasant. First of all it was opening day, and there were a lot of hunters. We passed up fields I wanted to work just because there were others on them. We did find plenty of ground to work even with the large numbers of hunters there. We could only work Walk in areas. It was hot, about 69 at 1 oclock. Even though it was opening day, the birds acted like they have had a lot of pressure on them. Most of them would fly before you could get within 50 yards of them, and the ones that didnt fly, ran. Both my dogs did lock up on some birds, but by the time I could get to them the birds they were on were gone. My female was able to hold this one until I got there:

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn26 ... G_0759.jpg

I actually saw her go on point and could tell the bird was stil there by how she was acting. She was so proud when she was retriving that one for me. My boy was very excited too.
So, how many birds did we see??
I would say around 45 to 50, and about 10 or 12 of them roosters. About half of those were on private land and we could not hunt them. It is VERY dry there. I will deffinatly go back there soon, but Id like it to be cold, maybe even a touch of snow. We will be going to Kansas again over Thanksgiving, and will hunt up around Russel. Everyone I talked to today had seen birds, but most also said they could not get a shot off.
So thats it. My bird is in my freezer now. Im pretty impressed with my male I just got back, and of course my female continues to impress.
Glenn

[quanah labs]

Thanks for the update. It sounds like you guys had a good hunt! Were the crops still standing around the walk in areas?

We hunted a little west of Russell last year ( Wakenney) and there were some really solid bird numbers but we went out without a dog and got skunked. Those wild roosters easily out witted to guys blindley walking thru there fields. They would either run from us or hunker down while we just walked right past them, at least thats what we think was happening because on several occasions we would see birds fly into a field but once we started hunting we could not get them to flush for us.

Things are going to be different now! We are going up north this year with an ace up our sleeve, my new pup!

I talked to the Hays area biologist (Trego Co.) about the bird hunting prospects in his neck of the woods and was told that the drought hit the area pretty hard and the bird hunting would be hit or miss, and expect to miss more often than hit, he said that heading west ( Goodland Colby) area should be a bit better.

We are not going to be able to get out there till mid December so I would really appreciate another update after your Thanksgiving hunt.

Good luck and be safe! I really hope your son will be able to get him a bird.

[jarbo03]

My report and others I have talked to isn't very promising. Saw less than 1/8 the birds we are used to seeing. We hunt with a family of farmers on opening day, and they weren't expecting much, they were right. We hunted north and south of Quinter and east to Wilson, I'm sure there are pockets of good birds out there, we sure didn't find them this weekend. The pup did get some great work on hens the last two days, they were running a lot also, really impressed with the way he handled them. Sprained my ankle on Sat. morn, so he got to practice for duck hunting, had a few good rettrieves while we were blocking. Making another trip over Thanksgiving, will post another report after.

[jimssetters]

Anyone around Jetmore or Hanston?