NE Opener.

E

esetter

Active member
Just got home from my first ever trip to NE. Hunted SW and SC areas.3.5 days , 4 guys , 4 dogs, Lots of ground , good habitat. Birds were Super Spooky!!! Just about everywhere we pulled into on opening day had hunters. Roosters acted like late season birds. Tough to get on. I hit one I though was dead in the air that ran away. The four of us all had a miss , id say we took some long shots. 1 rooster in the bag. Couple of quail. We moved 3 coveys one day. One of the guys in our group has hunted that area the last several years. We mostly went to areas he had marked. Some of those had been hayed. Weather was too hot and dry. I spoke with a NGF&P guy , he said other hunters he had talked to had complained about the birds being spooky. Most crops were off. Not a super successful hunt but had fun. Got to add another state to my dogs list!
 
esetter said:
Just got home from my first ever trip to NE. Hunted SW and SC areas.3.5 days , 4 guys , 4 dogs, Lots of ground , good habitat. Birds were Super Spooky!!! Just about everywhere we pulled into on opening day had hunters. Roosters acted like late season birds. Tough to get on. I hit one I though was dead in the air that ran away. The four of us all had a miss , id say we took some long shots. 1 rooster in the bag. Couple of quail. We moved 3 coveys one day. One of the guys in our group has hunted that area the last several years. We mostly went to areas he had marked. Some of those had been hayed. Weather was too hot and dry. I spoke with a NGF&P guy , he said other hunters he had talked to had complained about the birds being spooky. Most crops were off. Not a super successful hunt but had fun. Got to add another state to my dogs list!
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Did you post this somewhere else? I swear I just read this lol
 
hunted SW nebraska opener too. Probably the lowest bird population I have seen for many, many years? Most the guys we talked to had very poor success, lots of crp had been hayed due to the dry conditions (guess NE always haying in dry conditons?) They need alot of snow and rain to get the habitat-nesting back in place.
 
What I noticed where I was hunting they planted hardly any corn circles and birds were tough to come by as a result. Saw very few birds which is rare for an opener. Saw several NE license plates at the motel where these folks breasted out their birds which is illegal. Called the local game warden and not sure if he looked into it or not. That is plain ass lazy and wasteful IMO.
 
it was poor hunting last season and they predicted 5% decrease compared to then. Kansas going to be similar, except for a few more quail.
 
Yea , We have discussed only hunting quail on the KS trips for years , due to insanity we just keep pounding crp looking for Pheasants. I think had we concentrated on quail we would have had a much better trip.
 
hunter94 said:
I doubt that, Iowa not that good!
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Don’t get me wrong, Iowa is pretty sad too. It brings me no joy to see what has happened to pheasant populations in Kansas or Iowa. But it’s the reality. Iowa has fallen farther from it’s heyday, but Kansas’ agricultural practices are doing to it’s pheasant population what Iowa did in the 90s and 2000s to theirs. It would surprise me if they kill over 400,000 roosters this year in Kansas.
 
I think Kansas will kill more if the counts weren't just estimates. Based simply on the massive amounts of public lands being available vs Iowa. Its definitely declined in the last 11 years I've been hunting there. I thought in general the habitat in NE looked better. I haven't hunted Iowa since 2002 and 2004. Id like to check it out.
 
I'm headed to Nebraska this afternoon to hunt the weekend. The Nebraska wildlife biologists marketers published that the July mail carrier survey showed an increase from last year, at least in the area where we're headed. Based on what I'm reading above, I think I'll lower my expectations.
 
matto said:
I'm headed to Nebraska this afternoon to hunt the weekend. The Nebraska wildlife biologists marketers published that the July mail carrier survey showed an increase from last year, at least in the area where we're headed. Based on what I'm reading above, I think I'll lower my expectations.
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You may get some better weather and less pressure. It wasn't a waste land , good luck!!
 
Three of us walked hard on the opener and we noticed a huge decline in birds. One in the bag and my brother missed one shot. Lots of walking and normal crp fields we hunt were ALL hayed. Still, we had a good time in the fresh air.
 
I really think it depends on where you are in the state this year. There are some pockets of really nice bird numbers this year, especially quail. A buddy and I hunted sunday evening of the opener on OFW land for an hour and saw at least three dozen pheasants in one push.
 
This was only our second year in Nebraska and we hunted only walk-in lands. We did better than we did last year and we had fun, but it wasn't good. Some fields had birds, some didn't. Many CRP fields had been grazed or partially hayed. The other hunters at the hotel all reported low success. Weather didn't help any: 70s and HIGH winds.
 
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