NW Kansas Pheasant & Quail Report

[LaTexCLB]

Just a quick report for folks planning to hunt NW KS this fall. My brother and I spent two days of hard hunting - mostly in and around cut grain fields (milo, corn, wheat) and creek bottoms. We got into one "covey" of pheasant on the edge of a dirty, cut milo field (lots of grain available to eat) near some trees and grassy area. Out of 12 - 15 birds we saw in that area, only 2 or 3 were roosters. So the ratio of roosters to hens was surprisingly low for that field. These were young birds, so my guess was this was basically a hatch that had stayed to gether.

Other than this one spot where we found several birds in a small area, the hunting was pretty tough. My shorthair pointed about four or five other birds. Only one pheasant held for the point - - and it was a black pheasant (I guess a game farm pheasant escapee...!!!). Otherwise, the birds ran like the "bleep". She tracked one pheasant at least 500 yards, but we could not get it flush.

Since the hatch was so poor in many areas due to the drought, my guess is that most of the single birds we contacted were 2 or 3 years old. My theory was that these "veteran" birds had already learned that it was safer to stay on the ground than to flush. In other words, early season pheasant are generally known to be easier hunting because the young birds will be novices to this sport, and the dumb ones tend to hold a little longer and flush within gun range. (That's my theory anyhow...!)

We also got into a few quail, but never found more than 4 or 5 in a single spot (NW KS). I spoke to a guy in SE KS that said he had seen some nice coveys of 15 - 20 birds. I only put my dogs out at one spot in SE KS looking for quail. It was the middle of the day and we did not find anything. Anyway, just thought I'd pass this report on to the GDF community.

[bb560m]

NW KS last weekend off horseback. Lots of birds pointed and held for flush. 100+ pheasants flushed. Guess you just got to know where they are .

[Sniper John]

NW KS last weekend off horseback. Lots of birds pointed and held for flush. 100+ pheasants flushed. Guess you just got to know where they are .

On public?

[bb560m]

NW KS last weekend off horseback. Lots of birds pointed and held for flush. 100+ pheasants flushed. Guess you just got to know where they are .

On public?

Not if you want to find birds!

[duckn66]

I don't believe horses are allowed on KDWP public hunting areas managed for wildlife or WIHA. It's foot traffic only on both. So most likely it would have been private ground.

But you CAN find plenty of birds on public if you know where to look.

[mcclinj]

I hunted WIHA areas in NW Kansas the 3 days prior to Thanksgiving and found 33 pheasants and 2 prairie chickens. I lost my last contact to my right eye due to the dust on the first day there and shot like crap....it probably wasn't entirely related to the contact...lol. I felt bad for my dog, because she really worked well on this trip. Found all the birds in grass adjacent to milo fields....oh and on the edges of posted land...guess where flew after the flush.

-John

[LaTexCLB]

I'm glad you two had relatively good luck. This was only my 2nd wild pheasant hunt. In two days of Walk-In Hunting land only, we saw 12 quail and about 17 pheasant in Norton and Graham county with a couple of very amateur dogs (a 13 month GSP and rarely hunted (lightly trained) 2.5-year old Brittany). It could have been a lot worse!!!