If I have one thing against deer leases, it’s that it has made access to upland hunting almost impossible. My experiences the past 2-3 seasons are strictly based from I-135 west to highway 281 from Ok to Ne lines. I have seen a few things. 1) the land that is groomed for deer holds good bird numbers. Have gotten in deer leased ground the past few January’s after deer season and have had good bird hunts. 2) private land in this area has had decent bird numbers as long as habitat is decent/good, as long as it is not over pressured with hunting. 3) regardless of how how good the habitat is in this area, the bird numbers in wiha are 1/5th or less than the numbers on adjacent private ground.
I have not been clear out west to hunt, so the above 3rd observation might not hold true out there. In the central part of the state, where I have experience, I think we are seeing over pressured ground resulting in birds being hunted to the point where there are not enough to reproduce into good populations or they are relocating permanently to private ground.
I am not a fan of leasing ground, but have 4-5 family members that hunt that would gladly go in on a lease just to have a place we could call our own that could get bird numbers up in. Problem is the days of $2-$3/acre bird leases don’t exist anymore. With deer hunters paying crazy numbers for their leases and the state trying to enroll as much as they can in wiha, there aren’t many opportunities to get good upland land to hunt. Sorry for being long winded or if I veered off topic, but I think this is just more than a deer lease, or a habitat or an out of state hunter problem. All of these factors are contributing to the severe decline in Ks upland hunting.
A lot of people claim that nw Ks is still great for hunting wiha. What if Mother Nature wipes out all the quail and the few phez in central Ks? Every in and out of state hunter will hammer nw Ks, I bet it would be ruined in 2 yrs. Because like we have seen so many times in here and FB from out of state guys, “yeah we walked 4 days hard, saw 5 roosters and killed 4 of them, but it is still more birds than we would have seen in TN or wherever.” Have nothing against out of state guys, but KS wiha is being over pressured to the point of not coming back, and the big money deer hunters are landlocking the rest of the prime private ground.
I have not been clear out west to hunt, so the above 3rd observation might not hold true out there. In the central part of the state, where I have experience, I think we are seeing over pressured ground resulting in birds being hunted to the point where there are not enough to reproduce into good populations or they are relocating permanently to private ground.
I am not a fan of leasing ground, but have 4-5 family members that hunt that would gladly go in on a lease just to have a place we could call our own that could get bird numbers up in. Problem is the days of $2-$3/acre bird leases don’t exist anymore. With deer hunters paying crazy numbers for their leases and the state trying to enroll as much as they can in wiha, there aren’t many opportunities to get good upland land to hunt. Sorry for being long winded or if I veered off topic, but I think this is just more than a deer lease, or a habitat or an out of state hunter problem. All of these factors are contributing to the severe decline in Ks upland hunting.
A lot of people claim that nw Ks is still great for hunting wiha. What if Mother Nature wipes out all the quail and the few phez in central Ks? Every in and out of state hunter will hammer nw Ks, I bet it would be ruined in 2 yrs. Because like we have seen so many times in here and FB from out of state guys, “yeah we walked 4 days hard, saw 5 roosters and killed 4 of them, but it is still more birds than we would have seen in TN or wherever.” Have nothing against out of state guys, but KS wiha is being over pressured to the point of not coming back, and the big money deer hunters are landlocking the rest of the prime private ground.
