Not a complete bust but......

CharBroiled said:
Conditions were unfavorable at best. We saw 13 roosters, 5 hens but 30-35 quail. Problem was we only had shots at two of the roosters as they were flushing wild. We called it good at 11:30 a.m. with a rooster and a quail.

This morning wasn't better. Again, the birds were running or flushing out of range until about 9ish. We saw 13 more roosters, 8 hens, and another mess of about 30-35 quail in three coveys. After 9, the birds were holding incredibly tight. We bagged three roosters and two quail after having shots at four of the roosters we saw.

One of the roosters I shot, I have to give an assist to a prairie hawk. My dad and I were blocking a draw while the other four guys walked to us. We had no more set up and heard a rooster squawking. I yelled to my dad to pay attention I could hear the bird cackling. The rest of our group was still over 500 yards away. A couple of minutes later, the bird busted on my side, with a hawk giving chase.

The rooster landed in the milo 60 yards away as the hawk made a swoop down. I took three steps to where the rooster landed and it busted again coming right at me, flying low as the hawk was trying to give chase. One shot later, the bird was in my bag.

Maybe I need to train a falcon to be my bird dog.
Click to expand...

Or trade your shotgun for the falcon, then you can harvest both sexes!! Are you checking the ages on any of the Roosters?
 
CharBroiled said:
Conditions were unfavorable at best. We saw 13 roosters, 5 hens but 30-35 quail. Problem was we only had shots at two of the roosters as they were flushing wild. We called it good at 11:30 a.m. with a rooster and a quail.

This morning wasn't better. Again, the birds were running or flushing out of range until about 9ish. We saw 13 more roosters, 8 hens, and another mess of about 30-35 quail in three coveys. After 9, the birds were holding incredibly tight. We bagged three roosters and two quail after having shots at four of the roosters we saw.

One of the roosters I shot, I have to give an assist to a prairie hawk. My dad and I were blocking a draw while the other four guys walked to us. We had no more set up and heard a rooster squawking. I yelled to my dad to pay attention I could hear the bird cackling. The rest of our group was still over 500 yards away. A couple of minutes later, the bird busted on my side, with a hawk giving chase.

The rooster landed in the milo 60 yards away as the hawk made a swoop down. I took three steps to where the rooster landed and it busted again coming right at me, flying low as the hawk was trying to give chase. One shot later, the bird was in my bag.

Maybe I need to train a falcon to be my bird dog.
Click to expand...

I use a hawk screamer instead of a whistle.
 
Better numbers

Not the greatest weather, but saw more quail/pheasant than last 3 yrs. 8 of us without dogs got 21 roosters and 10 quail yesterday. Milo stubble in the am was productive.
 
Last edited:
gsh lover said:
we hunted all day saturday and till 11.00 today. Had a very large group, to many for my tastes, but thats life. we saw well over 150 birds, with a nice 50 50 hen/rooster, all in grass.Not sure how many we finished up with, but well over 30 roosters. No quail where spotted. first time in 27 years that we didn't have any dogs to hunt with, kind of sad.
if the winter is mild, and a wet summer again, next season should be great.
Click to expand...

Ouch. Dog work is probably the biggest reason I bird hunt.
 
4 of us went out to a spot we hadn't been since 2010 .Less grass and more weeds. We shot a few and missed more. Warm and windy ,moisture was good. Cut the rattle off of a dead snake on the road. Watched a hen hit a powerline. Saw 40-50 a day.I'd say numbers about like 2009
 
Sounds like it's going to be spotty like last year with just a few more birds in areas that had birds last year. They say bird numbers are up, which I'm sure they are but up from the past two years doesn't mean much. I still say we may not ever fully recover.

Sounds like Iowa is killing as many birds as we are.
 
it takes time to recover, last summer was the first one in a long time the heat was not brutal....2-3 years of much better brood rearing conditions will be necessary to see real improvement.....the numbers always go down faster than they come back...coming up to evaluate the situation in December, after things settle a bit.
 
KS Native said:
Can anyone speak to the hunting pressure around Hill City and/or SW Kansas?
Click to expand...

I was 20 miles from Hill City and there were a lot of hunters on Saturday. Fewer on Sunday. As bad of cover as I have seen in 20 years. Lots of green wheat, grass is poor. Ponds are dry. They need 3o inches of wet, wet, snow this winter.
 
Thanks for the info nwkansnative. I was north of Salina near the Nebraska border and also saw lots of hunters. On Saturday, saw 12-15 groups working a 5 square mile area. The ones I talked to had very little success. Cover was good but like you said it was very dry.
 
KS Native said:
Can anyone speak to the hunting pressure around Hill City and/or SW Kansas?
Click to expand...


I hunted from Hill City all the way to Hays. Lots and Lots of hunters. We had 2 groups, one group of 5 with 3 dogs killed 4 pheasants and 6 quail and one group of 3 with 3 dogs killed 6 and 10 quail. More quail than last year but pheasants about the same. All private land.

zeepo
 
Zeepo said:
I hunted from Hill City all the way to Hays. Lots and Lots of hunters. We had 2 groups, one group of 5 with 3 dogs killed 4 pheasants and 6 quail and one group of 3 with 3 dogs killed 6 and 10 quail. More quail than last year but pheasants about the same. All private land.

zeepo
Click to expand...

I appreciate the info. Had not been out on Opening Weekend for several years so I have been trying to understand the hunting pressure coming during some down years in numbers. Seems the optimistic forecast got more people out maybe.
 
KS Native said:
I appreciate the info. Had not been out on Opening Weekend for several years so I have been trying to understand the hunting pressure coming during some down years in numbers. Seems the optimistic forecast got more people out maybe.
Click to expand...

I quit hunting the opening weekend several years ago too. It's busy flush or bust... folks just can't stay away. I don't have access to a ton of private land, so I choose not to participate in the rat race that is opening weekend :D
 
Haven't read through all the reports, but it was on par with my expectations. Better than last year, but still not "good". Scenting conditions were bad, the wind was bad, but we saw and killed birds. I wish our recovery rate would have been a little better...

Our group ended up being 18, but 7 of them were between 11-16 years old. Everyone got to shoot.
 
Stay positive everyone. I have 12,000 acres in KS and I saw more birds this summer/early fall than I have since maybe 2009-2010. I was disappointed in the amount of bird we saw opening weekend. I know I have a ton of bird out there. But remember the 3 things you don't want as a bird hunter are hot, dry, and windy, and we had all 3 this weekend. I have 10 bird dogs that vary from great to average, but I will admit they were not in the best shape and the weather sapped the energy from them quickly. I didn't get may points till Sunday afternoon. We are getting moisture tonight which will help. Long story short, there are more birds out there than people saw this weekend. When the weather turns cooler and the wind dies down, it will make a big difference.
 
PheasantNut said:
Stay positive everyone. I have 12,000 acres in KS and I saw more birds this summer/early fall than I have since maybe 2009-2010. I was disappointed in the amount of bird we saw opening weekend. I know I have a ton of bird out there. But remember the 3 things you don't want as a bird hunter are hot, dry, and windy, and we had all 3 this weekend. I have 10 bird dogs that vary from great to average, but I will admit they were not in the best shape and the weather sapped the energy from them quickly. I didn't get may points till Sunday afternoon. We are getting moisture tonight which will help. Long story short, there are more birds out there than people saw this weekend. When the weather turns cooler and the wind dies down, it will make a big difference.
Click to expand...

Are you seeing any young birds that do not have color yet? A friend of mine just finished up with fall harvest and said he was seeing young birds that were small and had not much color. I raised birds years ago and that would make those birds around the 10 week range. He as well saw more birds as the summer went on and through the fall harvest. They sure are resilent!!
 
I did not age every rooster we killed, but the last one I shot on Sunday was the youngest I've ever seen. It was fully colored, but the "spurs" were absolutely nubs. They were smaller than even a milo kernel. During dove season I saw a pheasant chick that was only marginally larger than a fully grown quail. It got up and flew, but not very well and not very far.

There's definitely some young birds out there, but we also shot some 2nd or 3rd year birds.
 
Spotted at best in Michelle county. Hunted a small mix of private and public with not much luck. I was able to pull a limit of roosters on the last hunt of the weekend within the last 2 hours of light. Only places we could find birds was where no one else wanted to walk but that's how public hunting goes. A mixture of weather conditions and most crop was winter wheat a think hurting the birds around the lake. Dint really see many hunters, I think we need to move farther west. we had 12 people in our group with 6 dogs and maybe saw 40 birds, mostly hens. The 4 roosters I did harvest were all 3 year old birds as well.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top