2010 pheasant season

W

Waterfowler2001

Member
I'm just wondering in 2010 kdwpt said the state has had the highest bird numbers in 20 years and historically one of the best seasons ever in Kansas at harvesting 900,000 birds that year..my dad says that the 2010 season was just average compared to the 1980's he said during that decade was probably the best hunting...Kansas harvested over a million birds each year from 1982-1984.. So I was just wondering if you guys thought that the 2010 year was that good? Also what decade was the best hunting do you guys think?
 
2010 was pretty damn good and as good as it gets in recent memory. I remember opening day 2010 we hit my great CRP field that is a mile long with 5 guys and we ended up taking 14 birds in that field. the very next year 2011 we hunted the exact same field on opening morning and got 1 bird. the CRP was about 1/4 as tall as 2010 with very dry conditions
 
I remember seeing a LOT of pheasants during my pre-season scout in 2010. There were birds all over the roads, by the hundreds (literally). For some silly reason, I did not do well that season. I know several times I was dragging my 8yo along with me and his legs would tire early. I guess that was about the time we started hunting shorter days and spending more time with Grampa.

2005 or 2006 was said to be one of the worst years of that decade. The upland forecast was pretty scary.....I've never harvested more birds than I did that season:confused:
 
The best were the late 1970's and early 1980's. North Central Kansas was quail heaven, and there were plenty of pheasants too! By the way, no CRP, the soil bank was nearly gone, no WIHA. Farmland was $250.00 per acre in Jewel, and Smith Counties, but nobody had much money! Almost everyone would let a respectful hunter access. I didn't realize it was heaven, but it's a close as I've come!
 
I enjoyed the 80's !!!! In a lot of ways!! But bird hunting was good!!! It was good in 2000's as well. Spottier , but had no trouble finding them. It will be back.
 
BleuBijou said:
I enjoyed the 80's !!!! In a lot of ways!! But bird hunting was good!!! It was good in 2000's as well. Spottier , but had no trouble finding them. It will be back.
Click to expand...

I sure like the sound of that tune Bleu:thumbsup:

I agree there was some great pheasant hunting out west in the 00's.

What I saw of the late 80's (7-9yo) makes me fortunate to have started upland hunting then. The flocks of Prairie Chickens were incredible in N Lyon county as well (cold as heck sittin' and waitin', but pretty cool when they "finally came in).

You could say I developed my expectations in the 90's. We found quail everywhere we went it seemed. We were regularly surprised by roosters along the way......all in the cow-pastures and hedge-rows of the Flint Hills:cheers:
 
2010 was awfully good, but the years before it were pretty swell also.

When you factor the increasing bird numbers each year (peaking in 2010), against the increasing amount of hunting pressure and the declining quality of WIHA... It was kind of a wash for me.

Maybe in 2010 the bird numbers were at "record highs", but hunters were EVERYWHERE. The decent quality WIHA got absolutely hammered AND more people trespassed or got permission on the private land that we pretty much had to ourselves before that.

So... I would say I had equally good success every season up until 2011. Up until that season, they were all great years but I can't single out any that seemed better than the others.

In 2011, I had a terrible time finding local wild quail, but had some pheasant and quail success out West. In 2012 I found some local quail, but had a pretty rough pheasant season out West.

I wasn't a hunter yet in the '80s.
 
It's amazing in just a few short years how much things can change. So many things can come together to create disaster for wild animals. Some man made and some out of our control.

I do remember in the 80's it seemed that every hedgerow had a couple of coveys in it. Was nothing to see quail running accross the road in front of you in areas that are practically void of them now.

I surely do hope that mother nature cooperates with us soon. Not only for our upland birds but for the waterfowl as well.
 
bird numbers

i mostly have always done well hunting in part cause of the effort and part cause i have always had decent dogs. late 80's through the early 2000's nearly all fields had some birds, limits being the rule but it took all day, i think the year 2010 without a doubt i saw more birds in every field than i can ever remember and some days the quail covey's numbered as high as 9. to me it was wonderful. the kicker in all this was last year. never in my life of hunting kansas had i and my friend ever shot so many birds out of so few fields in so little time, virtually all days were 1/2 day hunts for pheasants only. i know this is the exception, but that was life for me. this year i also did well on pheasants and have no complaints as to my harvest, bird numbers were certainly down but not as much as the places to hunt. mostly i use the walk-in properties, some private but no special deals there. i have never hunted east of norton and rarely very far south of there

cheers
 
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