Hays

[Brody's dad]

Has anyone had any luck around Hays this year? I have some ground north and west of there I can hunt but I'm not sure if it's worth the gas money. The bird numbers have not sounded too good this year.

 

[Zeepo]

I just came back from hunting west of Plainville. 2.5 days hunting 1 rooster saw 4 small covies of Quail that I did not shot at and had 8 pointed hens.

zeepo

 

[pheasantquailhunter913]

Birds are down 70 percent or more around there. If you find any cover you can still find a few birds but its pretty tough hunting as 3/4 of the state is.

 

[cheesy]

Birds are down 70 percent or more around there. If you find any cover you can still find a few birds but its pretty tough hunting as 3/4 of the state is.

And the other 1/4 of the state doesn't have pheasants anyway.....

 

[Brody's dad]

Thanks for the information. With gas prices the way they are and no birds I think I'll set this year out.

 

[Powercat5045]

We ended up canceling our Hays hunt over this past weekend because of the conditions but I was out there over Thanksgiving and the only birds I saw were around feedlots where they had water and food. All of my family out that way said the birds just aren't there this year possibly because of a couple of large hail storms in September. I wish I could have walked around a little more over Thanksgiving since we won't be going back out there this year but what little bit I did was not very encouraging.

 

[Zeepo]

Saw pictures of the hail and they were the size of baseballs.

Zeepo

 

[nwkansnative]

This will probably make some of the "this is the worst year ever...stay away" folks mad but there are birds in huntable quantities (public and private) within 40 miles of hays. Numbers are down but we have found birds everwhere we have hunted.