Howdy from Kansas!

Kansan

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Hello all! My name is Kyler, and I'm an agronomy student currently attending school at Kansas State University. I've browsed the forums for quite some time, but finally decided to make an account. I'm from southeast Kansas, and have been an avid hunter all of my life. Anything that crawls or flies in Chautauqua county Kansas, I hunt it. However, the one thing I haven't gotten the chance to hunt much is upland birds. There are no pheasants to speak of in my part of the state, and until the past couple of years, the quail have been spotty too. So I primarily hunt deer, turkeys, and waterfowl. My family traditionally hunted quail back in "the good ol' days" but doesn't really hunt upland anymore. I've never shot a pheasant in my life, and have shot a handful of quail. I've always been fascinated by upland birds, and find it absurd that I've never been hunting for them. I've been to South Dakota spring snow goose hunting several times and seeing all of those pheasants was absolutely incredible! What beautiful birds, and tasty too. I have a one year old black lab who in his first year of hunting waterfowl has done incredible! He has a nose like a bloodhound, and I know he'd be great on upland. With the dramatic increase in quail populations on our family farm and all across the state, I have decided I'm fed up with not hunting upland birds. So next season I intend to hunt quail around home, and also try to find a rooster or two out west. I have no doubt that upland bird hunting will be a serious passion of mine, like I feel about hunting all other sorts of game. So I made an account to pick your brains about what I need to do to get my dog and I prepared to hunt next season. Sorry for the long winded post, I tend to be that way. I look forward to getting to know you all and becoming part of the community.
 
Hello all! My name is Kyler, and I'm an agronomy student currently attending school at Kansas State University. I've browsed the forums for quite some time, but finally decided to make an account. I'm from southeast Kansas, and have been an avid hunter all of my life. Anything that crawls or flies in Chautauqua county Kansas, I hunt it. However, the one thing I haven't gotten the chance to hunt much is upland birds. There are no pheasants to speak of in my part of the state, and until the past couple of years, the quail have been spotty too. So I primarily hunt deer, turkeys, and waterfowl. My family traditionally hunted quail back in "the good ol' days" but doesn't really hunt upland anymore. I've never shot a pheasant in my life, and have shot a handful of quail. I've always been fascinated by upland birds, and find it absurd that I've never been hunting for them. I've been to South Dakota spring snow goose hunting several times and seeing all of those pheasants was absolutely incredible! What beautiful birds, and tasty too. I have a one year old black lab who in his first year of hunting waterfowl has done incredible! He has a nose like a bloodhound, and I know he'd be great on upland. With the dramatic increase in quail populations on our family farm and all across the state, I have decided I'm fed up with not hunting upland birds. So next season I intend to hunt quail around home, and also try to find a rooster or two out west. I have no doubt that upland bird hunting will be a serious passion of mine, like I feel about hunting all other sorts of game. So I made an account to pick your brains about what I need to do to get my dog and I prepared to hunt next season. Sorry for the long winded post, I tend to be that way. I look forward to getting to know you all and becoming part of the community.


Welcome Kyler - if you're at KSU you really dont need to travel home to get into some good hunting - plenty of good quail spots, pheasant and prairie chicken hunting within a couple hours of Manhattan. Pheasant per my understanding should be better the closer to Nebraska you go or further west of Manhattan you go. I normally dont hunt much more than 50 or so miles N of I70 and normally stay west of Salina when I go up North but have hunted near Manhattan a handful of times but a bit west and north of there. Should be able to find plenty of waterfowl and turkey spots too. I'm thinking KSU manages the Kanza but you cant run dogs there if I recall? Maybe the school or ag dept controls some other ground with wild birds where you could run the dog? I've only trained pointing dogs but would think the principles are the same with a lab - the more wild bird contacts and praise you can give them the better. I'd feel comfortable running the dog on wild birds for a month or so then start up again around August/Sept again.


Maybe if you network around a bit in the Wildlife and Outdoor enterprise department at the school you can make some contacts to hook you up with some training grounds. I'm thinking they still offer that program?
 
Welcome Kyler - if you're at KSU you really dont need to travel home to get into some good hunting - plenty of good quail spots, pheasant and prairie chicken hunting within a couple hours of Manhattan. Pheasant per my understanding should be better the closer to Nebraska you go or further west of Manhattan you go. I normally dont hunt much more than 50 or so miles N of I70 and normally stay west of Salina when I go up North but have hunted near Manhattan a handful of times but a bit west and north of there. Should be able to find plenty of waterfowl and turkey spots too. I'm thinking KSU manages the Kanza but you cant run dogs there if I recall? Maybe the school or ag dept controls some other ground with wild birds where you could run the dog? I've only trained pointing dogs but would think the principles are the same with a lab - the more wild bird contacts and praise you can give them the better. I'd feel comfortable running the dog on wild birds for a month or so then start up again around August/Sept again.


Maybe if you network around a bit in the Wildlife and Outdoor enterprise department at the school you can make some contacts to hook you up with some training grounds. I'm thinking they still offer that program?

Yes, K-State owns and manages Konza Prairie. Which I know has tons of quail, as well as quite a few prairie chickens. Even a few pheasants out there. But it's no hunting, and no dogs allowed. They do have the Wildlife and Outdoor Enterprise Management program still. The College of Agriculture owns several farms and cattle pastures as well, but I'm not sure if I could run dogs out there.

Are you saying just take the dog out this time of year to find birds?
 
Are you saying just take the dog out this time of year to find birds?


Yeah why not? When I lived near Garden City, was single and had more time I'd do that all the time - had permission on some places to just run the dogs - go for a 30 min to hour walk - find some birds and maybe make on some basic obedience if needed or drive backroads - places I knew I could let her out to run on birds I'd do so or if I saw them run across the roads etc. Once spring was in full force I'd stop then start again in August/Sept when the weather was a bit more agreeable.

Birds and bird contacts make a bird dog.
 
Hello Kyler and welcome. You sound like a man that appreciates the great outdoor and wildlife. We will have to get wild pheasants started in Chautaqua county. Its just not right to live that close to the great north American wild pheasant range and not having a lot of wild pheasants to hunt and enjoy seeing.

There are a few truly wild pheasants near the western edge of Chautaqua county, near Dexter. It may take a long time but the truly wild pheasant population will over time build up critical mass and expand eastward.

Almost fifty years ago (1968) I would visit friends around Wichita and in the fields in that area wild pheasants were few back then. Now 2017 wild pheasants are commonly seen all around Wichita.

I spoke with Kansas wildlife officials numerous time about wild trapping wild pheasant from out west and transplanting them eastward. But they don't seem to be interested.

Maybe as an agronomy student you can convince them to give it a try. Or encourage land owners (in eastern counties) to release wilder and predator alert strains of pen raised pheasants like the Manchurian ringneck or the Bianchi pheasant (also called the Afghan White-Winged pheasant).
 
Hello Kyler and welcome. You sound like a man that appreciates the great outdoor and wildlife. We will have to get wild pheasants started in Chautaqua county. Its just not right to live that close to the great north American wild pheasant range and not having a lot of wild pheasants to hunt and enjoy seeing.

There are a few truly wild pheasants near the western edge of Chautaqua county, near Dexter. It may take a long time but the truly wild pheasant population will over time build up critical mass and expand eastward.

Almost fifty years ago (1968) I would visit friends around Wichita and in the fields in that area wild pheasants were few back then. Now 2017 wild pheasants are commonly seen all around Wichita.

I spoke with Kansas wildlife officials numerous time about wild trapping wild pheasant from out west and transplanting them eastward. But they don't seem to be interested.

Maybe as an agronomy student you can convince them to give it a try. Or encourage land owners (in eastern counties) to release wilder and predator alert strains of pen raised pheasants like the Manchurian ringneck or the Bianchi pheasant (also called the Afghan White-Winged pheasant).

We actually have seen a couple of pheasants out here the past year or two. I saw a beautiful big rooster standing right in the middle of the road a couple of months ago. Had to rub my eyes and make sure they are working right. They are a very rare site out here for sure. And were toward the eastern side of Chautauqua county in the more heavily timbered area. I know that there's more pheasants, along with some Prairie Chickens 10 miles or so west.

Quail on the other hand have absolutely exploded. We have multiple 25+ bird coveys that we see regularly. I hope the trend continues, very exciting to see that many quail around now days. We haven't hunted them yet, but that could change this year depending on what kind of hatch we get.
 
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