First trip to Hays, Kansas, for pheasant hunt

C

Chuck Isaac

New member
I would like to say hello to all you people, who love to hunt the beautiful pheasants of Kansas. Living in Western Pennsylvania all my life, I can remember the glory days in the mid 60's, when we had native pheasants abound. The enviormental pressures have changed the small game hunting here, and the only pheasants, are the stocked birds supplied by the state.
Last December, had my left hip replaced, and I feel that I'm in better shape now, then I've been in some five years. With personal therapy,and the desire to get stronger, I have the opportunity to hunt around Hays Kansas on opening week. For years the problem hip has hampered the ablity to hunt the pheasants states.
If anyone would be kind enought to help with any information on the pheansant hunting. I would be most grateful. I've been a gentleman sportman all my life, and hope to pass the tradition to my new grandson.
Thank You Chuck Isaac
 
Chuck, get on the Kansas division of wildlife and parks homepage and find the WIHA maps. print them off, be out early, opening weekend will be crowded, but you should find some birds...have fun and drive safe!
 
Welcome to Kansas!

Mr. Isaac, I bid you welcome to the great and hospitable state of Kansas, my home place on the Great Plains.

Re pheasant hunting around Hays: Hays is a good choice for a place to locate while hunting here. The high plains of western Kansas is big country so bring plenty of gas money for drifting around. Kansas has over one million acres of privately owned land enrolled in the Walk In Hunting Area (WIHA) program. There is no fee to hunt WIHA land; just have a license. The KDWP publishes a hard copy atlas with the entire state's WIHA, federal public hunting land (around reservoirs), and state wildlife areas. On line at KDWP's website you can download maps of smaller areas where you intend to hunt. I recommend that you download about four maps around Hays and then get out the scissors and scotch tape and create a custom WIHA map with Hays at the center which will be a great aid to navigating around and finding the WIHA fields. Once you locate a field -- they are posted with white WIHA signs -- just hunt it if you want to. There is no need or expectation that you contact the owner or occupant. The lines creating squares on the WIHA maps are section roads and lines. A gray line means no road is there. A black line indicates some type of road. Large, multi-section WIHA areas without roads in them are often rough grasslands and poor pheasant habitat. KDWP also publishes online GPS coordinates for WIHA lands. You may be able to see a recent aerial with Google Earth's top service.

Have a great hunt. Share your experiences and photos with us.
 
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Chuck, you should do good around Hays. My neighbor has family in that area who farm thousands of acres and they provided a positive report this year. If you don't find any birds after a brief walk move down the road a mile or two and try a different field. Good luck.
 
Early Corvettes?

Chuck, post some photos of your early Corvettes in the Lounge category of this site.
 
Hunt into the wind

If your hunting party is small make sure to hunt into the wind and take it slow an even stop once in a while. Also of guys walk over birds so trust your dog. It works or me when hunting along or with a buddy. Bilbo's right too was out around Hays last week and it looks promising! Good Luck and Shoot Straight.

Kick'em Up!
 
Good Luck

Good Luck on your hunt sir. We (my dad, my dog, and I) will be hunting there the week of Thanksgiving so let me know how you do. I have always been told Hays is where to go, but Kansas is full of great pheasant opportunities. I have hunted around the Manhattan area where the pheasant numbers aren't supposed to be as good and always had some luck.
 
mbarger said:
I have hunted around the Manhattan area where the pheasant numbers aren't supposed to be as good and always had some luck.
Click to expand...

Shhh...we're trying to keep that on the down low;)

Actually the truth is, I'm impressed. I live about 25 miles from Manhappiness and have never hunted for roosters around there. Congrats!
 
lol. that is what alot of people have told me is that they normally haven't seen many roosters around that area? That was when I was first getting into pheasant hunting and didn't do my research.
 
There are a few pheasants around Manhattan. I even used to see them once in a while around Topeka when I lived there. If a guy had enough access, he could probably do okay close to Manhattan. Unfortunately, I don't...:( The farmers I know get really excited when they see a few pheasants on their land so getting access to hunt them isn't going to happen.

Turkeys, on the other hand...:rolleyes: I see more turkeys in a day around Manhattan than I see pheasants all year.:eek:
 
Toad, you are right on that one. If we would've been turkey hunting, we would have been able to tag out in about 5 minutes
 
Yeah, I live just outside the city limits of Manhattan. Several years ago, I doubled (2 in 1 shot) on turkeys in my backyard. I haven't "hunted" them in the yard since, but they tasted just like any other turkeys. There were so many that year, they were kind of a nuissance.

Two cold, rainy Springs in a row, and their numbers are not so out-of-control now. We still see plenty of them in the area, but I don't have to shoo them out of the yard when I mow anymore. If the population ever gets that bad again, I might invite the whole board over to shoot a Thanksgiving hen.:thumbsup:
 
i too will be out south of hays. the kansas opener has shown the trend of being pretty warm. hopefully thats not the case this year. and im sure u already know but just a reminder, be sure to have plenty of water as towns can be far and inbetween in some areas in the western 1/3 of the state. be sure to stay hidrated, and make sure your dogs(i assume u will be hunting with these great intelegent friends of ours) have plenty of water as well! cant wait to get out. have a great hunt, and please pick up after yourselfs to help keep this great state as clean as we can. and please if you do WIHA, always stay aware of other hunters entering the field from the other(i hope that would have enough respect to wait till your out or move on to another field) but sometimes by mistake or just rudness it happens. good luck and have a safe trip.
 
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