I ask this question after some of my experiences over the years and a positive one this past Saturday.
I'll start this thread with a little tid bit I heard from one of the more ignorant farmers I came across this season just before Christmas. I had a landowner map and had been scouting some property in an area of KS. We'll call it the middle of the state on west to Colorado. Anyways I have hunted this area since college and had permission from a couple landowners and had found 2 sections of pastures that were continuous and were devoid of any cattle, deer season was over etc.
I knocked on Mr Landowners door, had a smile on my face and was as friendly as ever but was greeted by Mr Grinch. I must have caught him on a bad day, not sure but he was in no mood to talk. When I explained to him that I was wanting to hunt prairie chickens with my friend and our dogs on two empty sections of pasture, he looked at me with a raised eyebrow and stated the paper said they were going extinct so he didnt think that was a good idea. He seemed to get even more agitated as I tried to make further conversation and informed him that the past couple of seasons I had truthfully found more PC's than pheasants. I believe this landowner had lived in this PC rich area of KS for his entire 60 or so years and was surprised to hear him say this. My permission seeking just did not go that well that day, and thinking back on it I believe that my buddy's hunting truck does not look like we are bird hunters, but that we're coyote hunters. He probably assumed I was lying about my intentions and wanted to drive across his property chasing coyotes. That being said, I still couldnt believe he thought they were going extinct. When he said that he was as serious as a heart attack. Im pretty good at reading people and I dont believe there was any sarcasm in the comment.
Another story to relate...in the same area, I had developed a relationship with a farmer and stopped by after hunting his property in the morning to give him a couple gifts of coffee and candies. I had actually gotten a prairie chicken on his property that morning and had informed him of such and wanted to show it to him. He asked my buddy and I 2 or 3 times if we were sure it wasnt a hen pheasant. I kind of laughed and said I was sure. As I was walking off to go retrieve it from the truck he asked the same question to my buddy again
Needless to say in his 60 or so years in the area he had never seen one up close either and said he could hardly tell the difference when they take off up close.
Now that Ive got those two stories out of the way, it had always been happen-chance should I come across a chicken while pheasant or quail hunting. About 5 years ago I set out to purposely try and find chickens instead of pheasants or quail when hunting. I sucked at it the first couple of years I "intentionally" set out to find just Prairie Chicken, but I think I have done a pretty good job of it the past 3 seasons. This year I was finally able to get my young setter enough contacts with them over the previous seasons along with a couple shot birds that she will handle them quite nicely.
Last year I found them countless times and even got 2 in one day (One over point, the other shot from a wild flush hoping my young dog would stop busting them not knowing what they were and start pointing them like pheasants and quail. I think it worked as an hour later that day she pointed a pair allowing me to get one over a point. A fine limit I thought for a bird that is going extinct. During that particular day I found around 40-60 birds. Neither bird was a lesser which still eludes me. Seems the only time I get a lesser in gun range is when they are not in season in January.
Fast forward to Saturday. My buddy and I were hunting some very nice pheasant and quail habitat but not seeing squat. It was in a lower lying area and was sort of muddy. I was growing agitated and said we need to go to a particular WIHA to hunt for some PC's. My buddy was not in the mood to walk so he hunted some trees in hopes of finding some quail and I struck off a mile from the road to some open hill tops far from any trees and with vegetation no taller than mid shin. As luck would have it had one pair pointed, one bird down. If my shooting would have been better I should have had a double. At this point I was about 1.5 miles to 2 miles from any road. Evening was quickly upon me so I followed some more hill tops back to the truck and found a likely chicken hangout. As I was crossing the fence I noted my dog had disappeared over the rise. I walk over it, about 10-20 birds get up. Didnt want to shoot as I didnt see the dog and the birds were just a hair too far out. Walk a little further, about 10-20 more get up. No shot again for the same reason. Walk a little more, same result and I finally see my dog on point as she was at the far end of this flock. She relocates. I keep walking towards her and more get up. I didnt end up shooting as it was quickly getting dark and I just didnt feel comfortable shooting and needed to head to the vehicle as I still had a mile or so to walk. I know it was still legal shooting time, but didnt want to press my luck.
Anyways, when I set out to find the birds I usually find quite a few. Seems like it should be hard to do for a bird that is "going extinct". I'll have to ask Farmer "M" if I can trademark his Prairie chickens are going extinct line.
So, after all that typing and me getting pretty windy do any of you guys specifically target Prairie Chickens in KS?
I told my buddy after yesterday Im only going hunting next weekend if we just go after PC's all day. After my bird and find, he agreed. Conservatively in the flock I found there were 50 birds, there were likely more but there was no way to count for sure. The bird I cleaned had globs of fat on her. I dont think ive ever seen a bird with that much body fat. She was plenty healthy. I found this many prairie chickens in about an hour to hour and a half. Figured that wasnt bad.
My frequency or time between finds isnt as great as it is with pheasants when they have a good year, but a Prairie chicken is like a trophy bird to me. I think they're pretty tough to hunt and every person Ive ever talked too says its near impossible to shoot them with pointing dogs late in the year and that there arent many around. Ive found the contrary. Last year I had more contacts than I can care to remember and found far more Prairie Chickens than I did pheasants, I just did not get good dog work, (namely holding point, from my young dog). One flock was so large, I dont think most people would believe me anyways. (I guarantee it numbered 100-200 birds if not more, the flock was spread out about 200 yards wide on a hillside, it got a nice view from a hillside about 400 yards away as my old setter pointed the flock, then my young dog proceeded to go baserk at all of the scent and busted all of the birds. Was slightly frustrating, but fun to watch as well.)
I'll start this thread with a little tid bit I heard from one of the more ignorant farmers I came across this season just before Christmas. I had a landowner map and had been scouting some property in an area of KS. We'll call it the middle of the state on west to Colorado. Anyways I have hunted this area since college and had permission from a couple landowners and had found 2 sections of pastures that were continuous and were devoid of any cattle, deer season was over etc.
I knocked on Mr Landowners door, had a smile on my face and was as friendly as ever but was greeted by Mr Grinch. I must have caught him on a bad day, not sure but he was in no mood to talk. When I explained to him that I was wanting to hunt prairie chickens with my friend and our dogs on two empty sections of pasture, he looked at me with a raised eyebrow and stated the paper said they were going extinct so he didnt think that was a good idea. He seemed to get even more agitated as I tried to make further conversation and informed him that the past couple of seasons I had truthfully found more PC's than pheasants. I believe this landowner had lived in this PC rich area of KS for his entire 60 or so years and was surprised to hear him say this. My permission seeking just did not go that well that day, and thinking back on it I believe that my buddy's hunting truck does not look like we are bird hunters, but that we're coyote hunters. He probably assumed I was lying about my intentions and wanted to drive across his property chasing coyotes. That being said, I still couldnt believe he thought they were going extinct. When he said that he was as serious as a heart attack. Im pretty good at reading people and I dont believe there was any sarcasm in the comment.
Another story to relate...in the same area, I had developed a relationship with a farmer and stopped by after hunting his property in the morning to give him a couple gifts of coffee and candies. I had actually gotten a prairie chicken on his property that morning and had informed him of such and wanted to show it to him. He asked my buddy and I 2 or 3 times if we were sure it wasnt a hen pheasant. I kind of laughed and said I was sure. As I was walking off to go retrieve it from the truck he asked the same question to my buddy again
Needless to say in his 60 or so years in the area he had never seen one up close either and said he could hardly tell the difference when they take off up close.Now that Ive got those two stories out of the way, it had always been happen-chance should I come across a chicken while pheasant or quail hunting. About 5 years ago I set out to purposely try and find chickens instead of pheasants or quail when hunting. I sucked at it the first couple of years I "intentionally" set out to find just Prairie Chicken, but I think I have done a pretty good job of it the past 3 seasons. This year I was finally able to get my young setter enough contacts with them over the previous seasons along with a couple shot birds that she will handle them quite nicely.
Last year I found them countless times and even got 2 in one day (One over point, the other shot from a wild flush hoping my young dog would stop busting them not knowing what they were and start pointing them like pheasants and quail. I think it worked as an hour later that day she pointed a pair allowing me to get one over a point. A fine limit I thought for a bird that is going extinct.
During that particular day I found around 40-60 birds. Neither bird was a lesser which still eludes me. Seems the only time I get a lesser in gun range is when they are not in season in January.Fast forward to Saturday. My buddy and I were hunting some very nice pheasant and quail habitat but not seeing squat. It was in a lower lying area and was sort of muddy. I was growing agitated and said we need to go to a particular WIHA to hunt for some PC's. My buddy was not in the mood to walk so he hunted some trees in hopes of finding some quail and I struck off a mile from the road to some open hill tops far from any trees and with vegetation no taller than mid shin. As luck would have it had one pair pointed, one bird down. If my shooting would have been better I should have had a double. At this point I was about 1.5 miles to 2 miles from any road. Evening was quickly upon me so I followed some more hill tops back to the truck and found a likely chicken hangout. As I was crossing the fence I noted my dog had disappeared over the rise. I walk over it, about 10-20 birds get up. Didnt want to shoot as I didnt see the dog and the birds were just a hair too far out. Walk a little further, about 10-20 more get up. No shot again for the same reason. Walk a little more, same result and I finally see my dog on point as she was at the far end of this flock. She relocates. I keep walking towards her and more get up. I didnt end up shooting as it was quickly getting dark and I just didnt feel comfortable shooting and needed to head to the vehicle as I still had a mile or so to walk. I know it was still legal shooting time, but didnt want to press my luck.
Anyways, when I set out to find the birds I usually find quite a few. Seems like it should be hard to do for a bird that is "going extinct". I'll have to ask Farmer "M" if I can trademark his Prairie chickens are going extinct line.
So, after all that typing and me getting pretty windy do any of you guys specifically target Prairie Chickens in KS?
I told my buddy after yesterday Im only going hunting next weekend if we just go after PC's all day. After my bird and find, he agreed. Conservatively in the flock I found there were 50 birds, there were likely more but there was no way to count for sure. The bird I cleaned had globs of fat on her. I dont think ive ever seen a bird with that much body fat. She was plenty healthy. I found this many prairie chickens in about an hour to hour and a half. Figured that wasnt bad.
My frequency or time between finds isnt as great as it is with pheasants when they have a good year, but a Prairie chicken is like a trophy bird to me. I think they're pretty tough to hunt and every person Ive ever talked too says its near impossible to shoot them with pointing dogs late in the year and that there arent many around. Ive found the contrary. Last year I had more contacts than I can care to remember and found far more Prairie Chickens than I did pheasants, I just did not get good dog work, (namely holding point, from my young dog). One flock was so large, I dont think most people would believe me anyways. (I guarantee it numbered 100-200 birds if not more, the flock was spread out about 200 yards wide on a hillside, it got a nice view from a hillside about 400 yards away as my old setter pointed the flock, then my young dog proceeded to go baserk at all of the scent and busted all of the birds. Was slightly frustrating, but fun to watch as well.)
