i have hunted Kansas as an NR for over 20 years now......it used to be awesome pheasant hunting there.....it was not ever known as a quail state, almost everyone came to hunt pheasants. the weather has and continues to affect the pheasant reproduction........drought and too much untimely rainfall (this year especially).....the quail bag limit was 6 for many years, no need for it to be 8. i prefer to take only 2 birds out of a normal sized covey....never shoot on the rise, need to judge how many are in the covey.....anything less than 10 birds, should be left alone as these birds are not as hardy as pheasants.....besides, i want to find this covey next year too. mostly i like to work my dog on the singles....don't have to shoot many or any to get the work in...the best part of the Kansas experience is the vast amount of WIHA's. some are worthless, but many offer many acres of grass and stubble in which to run the dog, all day long....and after the opener, especially mid week, i can avoid most other hunters.
Iowa is suffering from a lack of plentiful WIHA's.....from what i saw last year, there is too much "moonscape" from soybean production and not enough CRP. The main cover is roadside ditches.
SD is a joke...for the amount of public hunters and hunting pressure, they are really short of offering enough high quality public ground. SD is really about pay to hunt pen raised birds, as there are over 200 commercial hunting areas that do this. If you have access to enough private ground for no fee, then it can work for you there very well. but paying $200 a day to shoot a mix of wild and pen raised birds is just bullshit....i can stay home and shoot pen raised birds and sleep in my own bed every night....no travel costs either.
NE is adding some high quality walk in ground in their new walk in program, but it is limited and concentrated in the SW part of the state. The majority of the rest of the state has become intensely farmed with little or no landowner interest in habitat programs.
For me Kansas is a short 7 hour drive, offers both quail and pheasants and there is plenty of ground to chose from......yes, there are fewer birds, but i don't struggle to find access.