Got too warm this afternoon to hunt, so I ended up moving a combine about 15 miles from one field to another for my father in-law. Sitting on a tractor is a lot like sitting on the toilet meaning it's a great time for one to think about things. I know there's a lot of you like me that are always thinking about pheasants and everything that goes along with pheasant hunting. So, let's hear some stories on what got you hooked. I didn't hunt growing up, but did a lot of fishing with my dad. When I went off to college my grandpa gave me a 20 gauge shotgun that sit in my apartment for 3 years. One day there was about 6 inches of snow on the ground and I decided to go walk a public field around the lake. I was by myself and after walking for 30 minutes I decided pheasant hunting was not for me and I put my head down and started walking back to the truck. About 20 yards from the end I stepped right on a rooster. As it got up, my first shot was from the hip and then I shouldered the gun and dropped it with the second shot. Needless to say it was the coolest thing ever and I was hooked from that point on. I ended up getting a shorthair, a few hunting buddies and then married a farm girl from Western Kansas and the rest is history.
How did you get hooked?
- Thread starter KansasGsp
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swellcat
Member
Good story and thread.
What's not to love about having your heart put in high gear by wild flapping and the explosion of wings and colour? It's a great chance to be in the glorious country and match wits and athleticism with a tough, wily fowl.
Sure seems like a guy's hooked when he's driving around southwest Mississippi (not exactly pheasant country) and looking and thinking, "Now, that would be a good spot . . . "
What's not to love about having your heart put in high gear by wild flapping and the explosion of wings and colour? It's a great chance to be in the glorious country and match wits and athleticism with a tough, wily fowl.
Sure seems like a guy's hooked when he's driving around southwest Mississippi (not exactly pheasant country) and looking and thinking, "Now, that would be a good spot . . . "
BritChaser
Well-known member
The Hunting Bug
I hunted pheasants a couple of times as a boy. Shot one bird, a hen. In my forties I was unemployed and staying with friends who had a Weimaraner. One winter day when my buddy and I had a bad case of cabin fever, I mentioned that his Weim was a bird dog. He mentioned that he just inherited some shotguns from his dad, so off we went to some nearby public ground with his dog and guns and managed to kick up a couple of coveys of quail. Two years later in '94 and employed again, I bought my first shotgun and began going hunting on weekends with a couple of friends from work, one of whom happened to have a Weim. Since then I've gone pheasant hunting all through each season and have a bird dog that I love to hunt and hang with.
I hunted pheasants a couple of times as a boy. Shot one bird, a hen. In my forties I was unemployed and staying with friends who had a Weimaraner. One winter day when my buddy and I had a bad case of cabin fever, I mentioned that his Weim was a bird dog. He mentioned that he just inherited some shotguns from his dad, so off we went to some nearby public ground with his dog and guns and managed to kick up a couple of coveys of quail. Two years later in '94 and employed again, I bought my first shotgun and began going hunting on weekends with a couple of friends from work, one of whom happened to have a Weim. Since then I've gone pheasant hunting all through each season and have a bird dog that I love to hunt and hang with.
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kansasbrittany
Banned
As a youngster I went b/c I thought that's what all boys who wanted to be men someday were supposed to do. I really got hooked when I got my first pup (13 years old) and my parents turned me loose w/ the dog and the shotgun. I'd walk about 30 yards from the house to an abandon set of railroad tracks in search of quail. We found a covey nearly every time we left the house. Nothing I'd experienced beat the feeling of me and my dog out finding our own food as a team. That team relationship w/ a dog has kept me coming back every since.
Good thread KSGSP!
Good thread KSGSP!
beaker
New member
Hooked? I think it is more of an addiction now. I was a late bloomer, mid twenties, company pheasant hunting trip to Kansas, not a "lodge" shoot either. After the first half hour I was "hooked", like a kid in a candy store. Beautiful country, milo, corn and wheat stubble, CRP, "big" fields - all the company guys complained about the temps, the mud, the lack of birds - I thought this is what heaven must be like. I went for three years without taking a bird home, years have come and gone, my first dog, a GSP, is past her prime and will be replaced soon enough. It is in the blood now and like most here can attest to, it is not the number of birds you shoot, it is the experience you take away from that day in the field.
cannotthinkofausername
New member
good post
i got started when i heard of a fun hunt put on by a teacher in haysville. I didn't want to pay so i went out by myself. This wasn't really that long ago, really i normally hunt quail. I thought it was boring at first because i didn't flush a single bird after about 3 hours of hunting in different fields all over. I started to give up until stumbled and flushed a bird, quickly i pulled my gun and shot once and down it went. I'm planning on going out sometime again before the end of the season. I have never really liked that teacher, but if it wasn't for me not wanting to go to that fun hunt i would never get hooked, so i must say "thank you Bryan Clasen"
i got started when i heard of a fun hunt put on by a teacher in haysville. I didn't want to pay so i went out by myself. This wasn't really that long ago, really i normally hunt quail. I thought it was boring at first because i didn't flush a single bird after about 3 hours of hunting in different fields all over. I started to give up until stumbled and flushed a bird, quickly i pulled my gun and shot once and down it went. I'm planning on going out sometime again before the end of the season. I have never really liked that teacher, but if it wasn't for me not wanting to go to that fun hunt i would never get hooked, so i must say "thank you Bryan Clasen"
PairOfLabs
Active member
Luckily for me my dad really liked to hunt and fish and started taking my younger brother and me along when we were young-quite a while ago, in northern Illinois. I was probably about 11 when I got to carry my first gun-it was either a cut-down H & R break-open single shot 20 GA that kicked like hell or a Fox .410 S by S but I can't remember which came first. We had a whole variety of very poorly trained hunting dogs-a Lab that was gun shy, 3 Weimaraners, and an English Setter. We'd go a few times a year. I hunted a few times in central Illinois around Champaign during college and a few times during the 4 years I lived in Kansas City. I've drifted in and out depending on where I lived and who I could go with. Since 1989 when my wife and I picked up our first yellow lab, I've been hunting more frequently although there was a pretty slow spell for about 8 years after my annual Nebraska group disbanded. I'm now on lab numbers 4 & 5 and doing quite a bit better at the training than my dad. I love getting out with my "boys" and watching them work--feel really bad for them if they don't get to put up some birds--and especially bad when I miss. It's really about getting out and tromping through the fields with friends and dogs and enjoying the countryside. Those birds seem to get smarter every year!! See my post on the Colorado site for "Fresh Snow-better success" for my most memorable hunt for this year and pics of my "boys" Cody (10) and Logan (9 mo).
avidkshunt
New member
Love to be afield in winter
I hunted a bit with my dad and bro's in so ILL for rabbit and quail - you never saw pheasants back there/then- when I was real young (always got stuck cleaning the rabbits). Around 20 bro-in-law handed me a bow and I started bow hunting (and have been hooked since), moved out to KS about 9 years ago chasing work and my son wanted to start bird hunting. We started with goose and had great luck, saw these beautiful birds in the hunting shops and wanted to see if we could find some. Got a GSP and started traveling to central KS about 3 years ago. Still have not got a bird, but its all about sharing time and tradition with my son. We also took up duck hunting and are having a fairly good year with them this year.
We are out almost every weekend from late Sept to mid March (my wife is a saint for allowing all this time afield). Our biggest delima is what to hunt : Archery Deer, Goose, Duck, Turkey, or pheasant/Quail. Whatever it is, its time with my son, creating memories.
Motto: Time spent hunting is not deducted from a man's life - so hunt long and often
I hunted a bit with my dad and bro's in so ILL for rabbit and quail - you never saw pheasants back there/then- when I was real young (always got stuck cleaning the rabbits). Around 20 bro-in-law handed me a bow and I started bow hunting (and have been hooked since), moved out to KS about 9 years ago chasing work and my son wanted to start bird hunting. We started with goose and had great luck, saw these beautiful birds in the hunting shops and wanted to see if we could find some. Got a GSP and started traveling to central KS about 3 years ago. Still have not got a bird, but its all about sharing time and tradition with my son. We also took up duck hunting and are having a fairly good year with them this year.
We are out almost every weekend from late Sept to mid March (my wife is a saint for allowing all this time afield). Our biggest delima is what to hunt : Archery Deer, Goose, Duck, Turkey, or pheasant/Quail. Whatever it is, its time with my son, creating memories.
Motto: Time spent hunting is not deducted from a man's life - so hunt long and often
BritChaser
Well-known member
The Kansas Hunting Dilemma: What to Hunt?
Kansas provides the variety of hunting options that you and yours are enjoying. Don't tell anyone else, OK?
I hunted a bit with my dad and bro's in so ILL for rabbit and quail - you never saw pheasants back there/then- when I was real young (always got stuck cleaning the rabbits). Around 20 bro-in-law handed me a bow and I started bow hunting (and have been hooked since), moved out to KS about 9 years ago chasing work and my son wanted to start bird hunting. We started with goose and had great luck, saw these beautiful birds in the hunting shops and wanted to see if we could find some. Got a GSP and started traveling to central KS about 3 years ago. Still have not got a bird, but its all about sharing time and tradition with my son. We also took up duck hunting and are having a fairly good year with them this year.
We are out almost every weekend from late Sept to mid March (my wife is a saint for allowing all this time afield). Our biggest delima is what to hunt : Archery Deer, Goose, Duck, Turkey, or pheasant/Quail. Whatever it is, its time with my son, creating memories.
Motto: Time spent hunting is not deducted from a man's life - so hunt long and often
Kansas provides the variety of hunting options that you and yours are enjoying. Don't tell anyone else, OK?