Best Place You Hunted this Season

BritChaser

BritChaser

Well-known member
What is the single best field or other location you hunted this season? When in the season did you hunt it?

I'll start. It was opening day in KS, second Saturday in November. A section I hunt in NW is about one-third pasture and two-thirds tilled with a pivot in the middle of the north end. There were corn stalks under the pivot and the rest of the tillable was milo stalks. Cattle had not been put on the pasture and the grass was higher and thicker than ever. The birds were in the milo, the weedy fence rows, and then hiding in the grass as the hunting progressed. Everywhere we went in that section we put up birds. The dogs pointed again and again. That kind of hunting could spoil you.
 
As far as bird numbers, we hunted a field in Southwest Kansas and it was a forage feed or haygrazer, whatever you call it and 4 of us shot probably 30 birds from it this past season. We got into well over 200 birds each time we hunted it. As far as most enjoyable field, I shot a rooster, a quail, and a prairie chicken from the same public hunting field in Northcentral Kansas this past season.
 
sort of lucky- haven't found much of a r
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eason to drive all over the place
 
A cow pasture in C KS that held 6 or 7 coveys of quail was probably the birdiest place I hunted this year.

The youth opener we were in C KS as well and found a nice CRP field. There weren't birds "everywhere" but enough for the youngin' to limit in very short order. I'd say that was the best bird hunt of the season for me, though I never fired a shot.

I'm sure if I'd had a chance to make it out later in the season when it finally got cold and we had some moisture, I would've had a birdier story to tell. Hot dry days were all I had this year (except a semi-chilly, very windy Thanksgiving Day hunt). I appreciated every outing a great deal and only got skunked once. The day we got skunked we'd quit by 11am (no effort = no birds!). We managed to visit the Garden of Eden in Wilson, KS. For those of you that haven't been, it's worth seeing:thumbsup:
 
Here are two of my favorite locations to hunt Roosters.
First, classic draw cover with thick red grass, plum thickets, wild sunflower, and a few Cedar trees all bordered by topped wheat and corn. About 80 acres of cover in all. Always holds birds, even a few quail.
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Next, this is 5 quarters (800 acres) that have gone Rouge! Not really CRP, but a variety of different grasses/weeds/kochia and a TON of birds. This place is the rooster COOP in the area. This year the farmer put a couple strips of dry corn in the middle of all the weeds. It is also bordered by corn circles on 3 sides. I can't even count the number of birds we have taken out of this piece the past few years. It is huge cover, but there are always a few velcro roosters that will hold tight. Notice my dog watching my buddy. I had just killed my 4 roosters and my buddy was trying to pick up a couple more for his limit. :cheers:
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The dog is still watching my buddy and wanting to get back in the cover, but we were done!
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4 of us were in a cattail patch of about 40 acres in south dakota in mid december. have hunted this public patch the last few years. Anyway 4 of us shot 9 cocks in about 45 minutes. We kinda of pinched them against the frozen lake, and they came out 1 or 2 at a time and flew back over our heads. They wanted nothing to do with flying over a half mile of ice. We just let the dogs work. real thick nasty stuff about waist high.
 
50' north of my pole shed on New years Day after a big blizzard. The ground lifted off and i triple without really thinking much about it and was done in 5 minutes. Sometimes it is more the weather than the place that makes it good.
 
Quail. Squaw leap, 6000+- acres of rolling hills to steep terrain in the San Jaquine river gorge. A seemingly endless population of quail that are just hard enough to hunt to deter the "weekend warrior". On any one day hunt we moved no less than 5 coveys and sometimes 7 or 8. Not my easiest spot to hunt, but my favorite.

Pheasant. A field edge bordering a canal and ending in a nice slough. We pulled more wild birds from here than the rest of our spots combined.

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The fist tree down the way always seemed to hold a rooster.

The reward for hunting hard all day and finishing our limit in the "honey hole".

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If you zoom in a bit on JP (the handsome beast in front) you can see that his lip is completely raw from hunting heavy cover hard for 6 days straight.
 
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Shadow said:
excellent picture quail hound- that second one should go in a frame
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Thank-you Shadow. That was a great day and a fond memory. I think I will frame that one.:cheers:
 
JPH said:
Here are two of my favorite locations to hunt Roosters.
First, classic draw cover with thick red grass, plum thickets, wild sunflower, and a few Cedar trees all bordered by topped wheat and corn. About 80 acres of cover in all. Always holds birds, even a few quail.
P1010038.jpg


Next, this is 5 quarters (800 acres) that have gone Rouge! Not really CRP, but a variety of different grasses/weeds/kochia and a TON of birds. This place is the rooster COOP in the area. This year the farmer put a couple strips of dry corn in the middle of all the weeds. It is also bordered by corn circles on 3 sides. I can't even count the number of birds we have taken out of this piece the past few years. It is huge cover, but there are always a few velcro roosters that will hold tight.:cheers:
P1010045.jpg
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Great photos! Thanks for posting them.
 
kansasbrittany said:
I'm sure if I'd had a chance to make it out later in the season when it finally got cold and we had some moisture, I would've had a birdier story to tell. Hot dry days were all I had this year (except a semi-chilly, very windy Thanksgiving Day hunt). I appreciated every outing a great deal and only got skunked once. The day we got skunked we'd quit by 11am (no effort = no birds!). We managed to visit the Garden of Eden in Wilson, KS. For those of you that haven't been, it's worth seeing:thumbsup:
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Not trying to be rude KB, but I've got to correct you. The Garden of Eden is actually in Lucas, KS which is north of Wilson Lake. And it is a very interesting place. Its a great place to take young kids on a nice afternoon.


My best hunt was on some public ground here in C KS. by my lonesome I walked a small cattail slough about 10 yards wide with about 3 inches of snow on the ground. My lab went on point, I could see the first rooster in the short cattails. The dog went in to flush and I dropped the bird in one shot. about 100 yards further down dog went on point again. Again one shot one kill. Then on my way back to the truck I hit one last little spot about 60 yards from the truck. About 10 birds flushed mostly hens but I was able to harvest another rooster. I went 3 birds in 3 shots and the dog retrieved 3 for 3. It was an awesome day. Best I've ever done.
 
Nice pics guys:thumbsup: Quail Hound those are some handsome Springers you have there. Who's there breeder? --1pheas4
 
1pheas4 said:
Nice pics guys:thumbsup: Quail Hound those are some handsome Springers you have there. Who's there breeder? --1pheas4
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Thank you, good looks are a given with springers.:D They are both from local "backyard" breeders, nothing special. They both have a few Fc and Mh in their pedigrees but nothing extraordinary. I lucked out on my male, he is a beast in the field and the female is slowly but surely coming around. Next time I won't press my luck though I will buy from a reputable breeder with superior pedigrees.
 
kansashunting said:
Not trying to be rude KB, but I've got to correct you. The Garden of Eden is actually in Lucas, KS which is north of Wilson Lake. And it is a very interesting place. Its a great place to take young kids on a nice afternoon.
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Yeah, Lucas, not Wilson:eek:. Thanks for pointing that out:). I'd hate to get pm's next season from guys that couldn't find it. Sometimes when I'm posting from work I just hammer away on the keyboard and don't take the time to proof read.
 
I didn't have a banner season on Pheasant (I did on ducks). Every year is different and that is one of the things I love. You can't go on auto pilot.

My best hunt this year was a state run public patch in North Central Kansas. 2 men and 2 boys with two dogs put up two dozen birds. We got some we missed some. We outsmarted some, we got out smarted. It was a good day of fair chase.

I like all the posts about public land in Kansas. It is encouraging to be reminded that if you get out and work you can have a great hunt on public land.
 
FCSpringer said:
I wish I was with Quail hound about right now.:(
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Lol Fc. The weather hear is nice right now, but it will be 110 degrees soon. Plus its getting hard to afford the sunshine.:eek: I'm thinking a move to Oregon or Idaho may be in our future.:thumbsup:
 
A place I call the ravine. It is a little a little over a quarter mile from my house. A little strip of grass that is 50 to 20 yds wide and probably 350 yds long. I took my dog out there a little before sundown one evening. About 50 yds in he points one of his stylish points. I moved in about 20 yds in front of him, the rooster flushes I shoot the bird but did not get a clean kill. He went to retrieve the bird and brought the bird back to me and sat down beside me. I told him it does not get any better than that and we went home.
 
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