Headed West this weekend...

K

kspheasantfan

New member
Well, looks like my other hunting buddies have wimped out this weekend, but I still want to go (this is the weather I've been waiting for). This is only my second trip of the season and I'm thinking about heading towards Rush or Ellis Counties. I have never hunted either one of these counties, so if anyone has any advice and would like to share, I'm all ears. Going alone with my 6 year old britany, Brandy. If anyone is in the area and want to work a field or have a couple beers Saturday night, just PM me.
 
If you're headed to Rush county, you'll need a 4-wheel drive if the snow melts. Not sure how much snow they got out that way, but I know their roads get pretty nasty out that way when it's wet! There are a few WIHAs with some super heavy cover that should be holding some birds. That area has a nice mixture of crops and cover on the tracts that are enrolled.
 
kansasbrittany said:
If you're headed to Rush county, you'll need a 4-wheel drive if the snow melts. Not sure how much snow they got out that way, but I know their roads get pretty nasty out that way when it's wet! There are a few WIHAs with some super heavy cover that should be holding some birds. That area has a nice mixture of crops and cover on the tracts that are enrolled.
Click to expand...
Hey KB, last night I threw a set of BF Goodrich All Terrain TA KO's 31x10.50x15's on the truck. Bring on the nasty roads :cheers: hopefully the rain turns to snow though, BTW I have your mini cooler in my truck, I'll get it back to you hopefully this weekend if you're around.
 
kansasbrittany said:
If you're headed to Rush county, you'll need a 4-wheel drive if the snow melts. ... I know their roads get pretty nasty out that way when it's wet! There are a few WIHAs with some super heavy cover that should be holding some birds. That area has a nice mixture of crops and cover on the tracts that are enrolled.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight KB. I appreciate the feedback. They will probably have some melting Thurs and Friday, but Sat and Sun forecast is REAL COLD! :eek: I won't be out there until Sat afternoon, so hopefully everything is frozen solid by then. I'll watch myself. :thumbsup:
 
kiotehntr said:
Hey KB, last night I threw a set of BF Goodrich All Terrain TA KO's 31x10.50x15's on the truck. Bring on the nasty roads :cheers: hopefully the rain turns to snow though, BTW I have your mini cooler in my truck, I'll get it back to you hopefully this weekend if you're around.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Either my wife or I will be there. I plan to go shoot some geese if I'm caught up on schoolwork!
 
kspheasantfan said:
Well, looks like my other hunting buddies have wimped out this weekend, but I still want to go (this is the weather I've been waiting for). This is only my second trip of the season and I'm thinking about heading towards Rush or Ellis Counties. I have never hunted either one of these counties, so if anyone has any advice and would like to share, I'm all ears. Going alone with my 6 year old britany, Brandy. If anyone is in the area and want to work a field or have a couple beers Saturday night, just PM me.
Click to expand...

I hunted south of there 1st week of the season. I did talk to a couple of guys that did pretty good on Rush Co. WIHA. I know that doesn't help much.

Good luck and be sure to report back.

My season is most likely done but there is a slight chance I can get away in Jan.

Lefty
 
I'm back....

Well, I'm back from Central KS. Hunted Ellis, Rush and some of Ness county. All Wiha. The wiha is getting hunted pretty hard.
Brandy and I found birds in the very first field we hunted. :eek: We were both so excited we botch the entire hunt up. Ohh well, it got her going. After that I was very optimistic. 3-4 hours later optimism was gone, but we were able to find 1 rooster. (see pic below). This bird "popped the cherry" on my new CZ O/U 20 ga. and it's a good thing, I was beginning to loose my confidence. One shot, dead. Brandy retrieved it back to me and dropped it at my feet. (Not bad for a pointer with no formal training!). Brandy and I had a great time, weather wasn't that bad. Just not enough roosters. I would recommend the LaCrosse Motel. Very friendly, clean, and no smoke smell. Only took one other shot on Sunday (missed). My Dad gets here next week from Oregon. I sure would like to put him on some wild birds, just don't know where they all are.
 
Heading West again...

Well, heading out again this weekend. Still not sure where to go. I hunted WIHA in Lincoln, Rush, Ellis this year with OK hunting but nothing to get me to go back to those spots again. My Dad is here from out of state and this will be his first wild bird Kansas hunt. Would love to put him on some birds. I'm not asking for anyone's specific hunting spots, but if anyone can point us in the right direction it would be much appreciated. Not sure if should go back to Central KS? Head further West? NW? SC? ???:(
 
We hunt a little further West and have done ok. Seems like we are seeing more hunters this year than in years past.
 
Where to hunt

I just got back from 3 days in Kansas where we were hunting in areas from rush county to ness to trego and then to graham. IMHO if the weather stays as seasonable as it is then you will need to focus more on walking stocks and cut wheat than you will in hunting the grass or gnarly weeds. We had great hunts in the grass on the WIHAs very early and absolute first thing in the morning and then after about 930 it was like you couldn't find a bird in the grass with a grenade let alone a bunch of dogs and walkers. Compare that to walking stocks, where at 1230 one day we hunted a 180 acre patch of cut milo and shot 5 roosters in less than an hour. We never got a bird out of the grass fields between about 930 and 330 over the 3 day period. Any weed holes or scraggly pivot corners or just any small and somewhat shielded (from public view) patch of cover could be good. It needed to be in or near cut crops and those areas did hold some birds that were loafing in the midday hours but the CRP grass just didn't produce midday.

The weather is awful nice and the birds that could be anywhere are just that, anywhere. I wish i could say the birds that are anywhere are everywhere but I can't. Hunters on the other hand are everywhere and I have honestly never seen that many trucks filled with hunters since I started hunting in Kansas about 10 years ago.

Good luck and have fun.
 
Tpharkman said:
I just got back from 3 days in Kansas where we were hunting in areas from rush county to ness to trego and then to graham. IMHO if the weather stays as seasonable as it is then you will need to focus more on walking stocks and cut wheat than you will in hunting the grass or gnarly weeds. We had great hunts in the grass on the WIHAs very early and absolute first thing in the morning and then after about 930 it was like you couldn't find a bird in the grass with a grenade let alone a bunch of dogs and walkers. Compare that to walking stocks, where at 1230 one day we hunted a 180 acre patch of cut milo and shot 5 roosters in less than an hour. We never got a bird out of the grass fields between about 930 and 330 over the 3 day period. Any weed holes or scraggly pivot corners or just any small and somewhat shielded (from public view) patch of cover could be good. It needed to be in or near cut crops and those areas did hold some birds that were loafing in the midday hours but the CRP grass just didn't produce midday.

The weather is awful nice and the birds that could be anywhere are just that, anywhere. I wish i could say the birds that are anywhere are everywhere but I can't.

Good luck and have fun.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info! I appreciate it. I'll report back.
 
I'm back....

Well we came back on Saturday (sorry about the late post :( )
The 3 of us didn't harvest a pheasant but one guy did get a couple of quail in one covey. Funny thing is, we saw plenty of Pheasants on Friday in the warm calm sunshine, many which were out of range. (we managed to miss a couple though :( ). We prayed for some weather for Saturday, and boy did we get it. I big cold front with hard winds hit us Saturday morning. Before the front, we could hear Roosters talking, but never could find them. Never took a shot on Saturday and hunted till the sun went down. It totally baffled us. :confused:
We hunted into the wind or cross wind and worked mostly CRP in the WIHA. I found it is very difficult to find fields with food on WIHA program in this area (at least where we were). Would liked to have spent more time in Milo.

3 trips this year, 1 bird. The price of my Kansas Pheasant Education is getting up there. My wife says the price of pheasant dinner is getting even higher. We had a great time, and it was my Dad's first trip to Central Kansas on a wild bird hunt. A memorable trip regardless of the lack of shooting.

Thanks for everyone's advice. Not sure if I'm going to make it out again this year or not. You know what they say: If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

Cheers! :cheers:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top