Birds are down But!!!!

M

Michigander

New member
Just returned from the Courtland area. Hunted 4 days and our party shot 18 pheasants and 8 quail. We had to cover a lot of ground to find birds. On the plus side we jumped quite a few hens during our trip and jumped a very nice buck. On the down side there was 6 in our party with 9 dogs. We traveled two thousand miles now thats expensive meat.

We had a great trip and were treated well everywhere we went. Been doing this ten years and will be back again next year.

I learned from several sources that the bird population is way up in the Elsworth? area about two hours south of Courtland. Didn't have an opportunity to get down there.
 
kiotehntr said:
Nah, the bird population stinks around Ellsworth......
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Which way from Ellsworth is it the worst?:)

I am finally going to get to do some hunting. A buddy from Dallas is on his way, so Friday we chase the pheasants and Saturday we will look for the quail. Hope we can find plenty of both and they are in gun range.

Glad our out-of-state hunters had a good time, even though the numbers weren't there. Come back again.
 
M. R. Byrd said:
Which way from Ellsworth is it the worst?:)

I am finally going to get to do some hunting. A buddy from Dallas is on his way, so Friday we chase the pheasants and Saturday we will look for the quail. Hope we can find plenty of both and they are in gun range.

Glad our out-of-state hunters had a good time, even though the numbers weren't there. Come back again.
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MR Byrd, I was actually being sarcastic with my reply....:D I have land SW of Ellsworth into Rice County that I hunt. We saw some good numbers in the youth hunt and also saw some a week or two into the season. The weather\wind has made it pretty rough but I think that a day trip is in order, nothing like a 3.5 hour drive that starts at 3:30am, an all day hunt and then a 3.5 hour drive back that usually puts my truck in my driveway around midnight that same night. Where are you headed this weekend as far as Ellsworth goes, I might have some land that you could hunt on....
 
Thanks for the offer. I knew the bird numbers in your area were reportedly good. We plan to hunt right around Dodge and will see how that goes. The area for Friday holds mostly pheasant and a few quail. The area for Saturday holds pretty much only quail. Friday we will be hunting dogless, since my old guy just can't do it. Saturday we will be hunting behind some English Pointers.
 
Kio

Try leaving from eastern Iowa on a wednesday night at 630 pm to arrive in Liberal the next morning between 630 am and 7 am and then hunt and drink for 3 straight days and leave saturday night from Liberal at 630 pm to arrive home the next day 12 to thirteen hours later.

Ive been to Kansas four times already this year by driving through the night. I end up hunting for a couple of days and drive through the night again to get back home. Some might say I am completely crazy but I simply just can't get enough.

Being a diehard is awesome isnt it?
 
Tpharkman said:
Try leaving from eastern Iowa on a wednesday night at 630 pm to arrive in Liberal the next morning between 630 am and 7 am and then hunt and drink for 3 straight days and leave saturday night from Liberal at 630 pm to arrive home the next day 12 to thirteen hours later.

Ive been to Kansas four times already this year by driving through the night. I end up hunting for a couple of days and drive through the night again to get back home. Some might say I am completely crazy but I simply just can't get enough.

Being a diehard is awesome isnt it?
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Yes it is, saves money on a hotel room. I know that this is off topic but last June my buddy, my boss and one of my contractors drove from KC to Ear Falls, Ontario Canada straight through. Let me re-phrase that I DROVE up there. We left on Wednesday afternoon at 3:20pm and pulled into our hotel Thursday morning right at 9:45am. Would I do it again, heck yeah, to get to do something that I absolutely love...:D Just be safe when you are driving those long hours......:thumbsup:
 
That re-phrase is so important...the only advantage of having the buddies go along is that I have someone to listen to my bs stories while I drive the whole way. Dedbrd is going with me so I will probably get in trouble for that comment but he knows it's true for the most part.
 
hunting around liberal

where around Liberal have u been hunting? What kind of success has your party had?
 
M. R. Byrd said:
Thanks for the offer. I knew the bird numbers in your area were reportedly good. We plan to hunt right around Dodge and will see how that goes. The area for Friday holds mostly pheasant and a few quail. The area for Saturday holds pretty much only quail. Friday we will be hunting dogless, since my old guy just can't do it. Saturday we will be hunting behind some English Pointers.
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Mr. B., any luck on Friday and Saturday?
 
Bilbo-

We had a good weekend. Not a lot of birds in the bag, but we saw lots of birds, most out of gun range.

Friday the wind was brutal(40+mph) and there were lots of pheasants, but they flushed wild for the most part.

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Saturday we chased quail on a Ford County Sandhill Ranch. The quail didn't give us many shots, even though we moved nine coveys. Much of the ranch wasn't grazed last year and the grass was denser and taller than any CRP grass around here, so it made for tough hunting and walking. There were not many trails through the huge plum thickets that would have been there, had cattle been grazing. It was nice seeing that many quail and I know with the density of the cover and the dry scenting conditions there were a lot of birds we weren't finding. The dogs would go on point and by the time we got there the birds had moved and the dogs couldn't find them again.

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Sunday morning we were back to the pheasants again at my place. It was a bluebird day and it was a good thing that my guests saw lots of pheasants on Friday or they would think I had none at all. We could only find a few and they flushed wild. We did manage to move three coveys of quail.

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So we had a good weekend. I would sure like to get some moisture, like six inches of snow on the level, then the perfect hunt before this season is history.
 
Dogman-

While down there we hunt all around Liberal on the north east and west sides--I guess you can't hunt south because that is Oklahoma. Only been down there a couple of days so far this season but we are heading back this week. I would say success was marginal at best on my first trip this year. I blamed it on there being lots of crops still in and temps that were in the mid 70s. Last year was incredible but from my experience this year the drought conditions really cleaned out the pheasants from the pantry.

I have made good friends down there so whether there are birds or not I will always be back just because I enjoy wide open spaces, cold beer, hearty laughter, and the occasional flush of a rooster. The quail seemed to be on every farm we hunted this year. What has your success rate been this year?
 
birds around Liberal

Due to back probs I haven't hunted as much as previous years. But I have been going some over the holidays up to now. I have been seeing good numbers of birds in all directions from town. The birds are spooky but not wild. By that I mean they will jump up wild when you're walking a patch. But they are not busting out when you drive up or slam a car door. So you can have success if you hit and run small patches that can be surrounded and always use the wind to your advantage. Also this time of year its easy to get permission to hunt. The best hunting is always on private land. So don't be afraid to knock on a few doors. What days are you going to be in this area?
 
Maynard, looks like you had a very nice hunt with your friends. Glad you enjoyed yourself. I am in Guymon right now and will sneak across the state line tomorrow early AM. Yes, I am on duty but I need some R & R. I will let you know if I bag any roosters.
 
Saw birds

My buddy and I got back last night from a few hour hunt around the Ellsworth area. We brought back 5 roosters and 2 quail. We saw probably 30 or 40 roosters but most of them flushed way ahead. It was just 2 of us hunting with my GSP Kody. We actually only saw 3 quail and the one that got away flushed way out ahead. Total time in the field was right at 3 hours due to winds in excess of 35 MPH. We only walked 2 fields, one was a 1/4 section milo stubble/wheat stubble cross field and the other was a 1/2 section pasture. The hens were thick as ever and overall it was a pretty good hunt. I definately will get back out before the season ends. The only bad part of the trip was at the end of hunting I went to extract my shells from my new SX3 and the extractor broke off in my hand. Needless to say I was pissed as hell, but went to Bass Pro today where I bought it and they swapped it out for me, no questions asked. I figured with as much money as I spend there and the fact that I know just about all the managers I wouldn't have any trouble, which surprisingly I didn't. I always save my receipts and I had purchased the gun 2 days before Christmas, which helped my cause as well. Overall it was a good weekend except for the gun issue and wind. Good luck to everyone whether you're in the off season or still hunting.
 
Thanks for the report! I've got 2 more pheasant trips left this year. Not sure where next weekend's will be, but the last day of the season we'll be in Scott City. Anyone hunted around Scott City this year?
 
I haven't been to Scott City this year but I have heard it is pretty bad. My Sister lived there last year and I was asking her what she had heard and it wasn't good. That area was drought stricken. Western Ks is really in a drought right now-they haven't really had any snow or rain in months.
 
Tried Stevens County a few days ago and nothing cooking. But, I did find some nice roosters in Kiowa County. I hunted some WICA and got lucky I guess. The wind was blowing enough to knock my hat off. Once the birds got up there was time for one quality shot. A few birds were spooky as they decided to exit the area as I made my first step into the CRP. I was quiet but they must have seen my orange vest, how do you miss that? I found some birds grouped up in some pine trees due to the wind. I really needed to have another hunter with me to do any good though. Four roosters came out the side I was walking and ran like crazy. They took flight out of gun range but it was fun to watch them play their games on me. I could have blasted them on the ground but don't do that as a general rule. The other birds all took off on the side where there wasn't anyone. It sounded like around 25-30 birds total as two or three took off every few seconds. Only took four shots and bagged my four birds. Darn, I was trying to use up the rest of an open box but no luck. I cleaned my gun and it looks like that will be IT until November. It was a good season but the birds were way down in many areas I hunt. Hope everyone else enjoyed themselves this year.
 
PheasantAddict, it is funny what positive thinking does for me. I never think of the possibility I might miss a shot. Heck, if we hunt together you will get plenty of pheasants. I wouldn't even raise my shotgun on a bird that gets up in front of you or if he swings your way. It is your rooster all the way, more fun that way! Hope you had a good season and shot a few birds.
 
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