NW Report

kiotehntr

kiotehntr

Super Moderator
Got back late Sunday night from 2 days hunting Graham County. Saturday we shot 8 and Sunday we shot 18 with 4 quail. We hunted a mix of private and WIHA with most birds coming off of private. We saw at least 200 birds and probably the same number of hunters! The WIHA really got hit hard. The roads were slop so 4wd was a must. Had a really great hunt with some really great hunters!!!! Not hunting this week due to moving into my new house but I'm hitting it hard the final 2 days of season.. Good Luck all!!!
 
good show kio man i am embarrased to say this was the first weekend in my life i blanked in my fav county smith had fun but didnt shoot a single bird wow i suck lol oh well
 
Kio--
I guess it isn't really surprising that you saw so many hunters in Graham County. It seems to me that area of the state gets mentioned on this forum more than any other area in Kansas by about 3 to 1. I am not sure if it is because there is so much WIHA ground there, truly lots of birds there or simply because it is the place most often talked about.

Still I am amazed you saw that many hunters but I am not amazed that you had that good of a hunt. That is a real good number of birds given the sloppy/crunchy conditions coupled with the warm front and bluebird skies.

Onlyapointer--Sounds like you need to go find yourself a slump buster...jk...you will probably shoot so many next time out you will need a bushel basket to carry them out of the field.
 
Most of the WIHA ground lookd like prime land. Everything that we drove past (WIHA's) looked excellent to say the least. We just are lucky that we have private land up there that we hunted. It doesn't get hunted but maybe 3 or 4 times a season so the birds know that they're safe. The final field of the day was a pasture draw with thickets and thick grass. It had a wheat stubble on the south side of it. I was one of the blockers and when the guys topped the hill about 400 yards away the birds started flushing into the wheat field. There were 3 flushes that had well over 40 birds in them along with the numerous 4 to 5 bird flushes. We surrounded the wheat stubble and walked it ending up with 10 birds shot. The birds were real skittish and most escaped out the sides well ahead of the walkers and well out of range of the blockers.
 
I was hunting last weekend also in Graham county. From what I am seeing the western part of the county is holding about twice the birds as the east. I base this on private land that I hunt. I did see quite a few hunters also and a lot of road hunting going on. We did pretty well ourselves 3 guys 24 roosters in 3 days.
Kiotehntr,
Was the wheat sprayed or was it weedy. My farmer friend is a no till guy and sprays his wheat so there is no weeds. I have hunted it some but with little success but the most I hunt with is 3 guys and mostly 2, so we have no blockers.

zeepo
 
Zeepo said:
I was hunting last weekend also in Graham county. From what I am seeing the western part of the county is holding about twice the birds as the east. I base this on private land that I hunt. I did see quite a few hunters also and a lot of road hunting going on. We did pretty well ourselves 3 guys 24 roosters in 3 days.
Kiotehntr,
Was the wheat sprayed or was it weedy. My farmer friend is a no till guy and sprays his wheat so there is no weeds. I have hunted it some but with little success but the most I hunt with is 3 guys and mostly 2, so we have no blockers.

zeepo
Click to expand...
When asking about the wheat are you talking about stubble or the planted hard winter wheat? The stubble we hunted was tall and bushy which provided great cover. The hard winter wheat looked real brown and almost dead in quite a few spots. It should recover though.
 
I was talking about the stubble. I wish I had weedy stubble to hunt, what my friend has is all sprayed and very clean. I am sure it holds birds but you would never get them to hold.

zeepo
 
You'd be surprised how well they hold in short cut stubble. I hunt alot of those types of fields and shoot quite a few birds. The weather plays a big role in success as well as early versus late season. It's pretty amazing that a bright red and blue head with a white collar can duck down and hide in just a few inches of cover.
 
Kiotehntr,
Its weird how one day they hold and the next get up a mile away. Never have figured out why. Does your Dad live near Palco or near Hill City. My friends are all from Palco.

Gary
 
My dad lives in Ellsworth County. The contractor that took us hunting has family up north of Hill City about 13 miles. He grew up in that area so we hunted all his family's land. If you're familiar with that area you probably have heard of America's Best Steaks, located in Bogue Ks, that's whose land we hunted on.
 
I love the stubble and would probably consider it my favorite cover to hunt. I can always see the dog and I love watching him catch scent and zig zag through the rows and even point and hold birds when we are really lucky. The longer the stubble the more confident I am that it holds birds but I have to admit that I have killed them out of stubble short enough to be considered a brazilian wax.
 
Is there anything in particular you are looking for when you hunt the stubble? Most of the time I don't even get out to hunt a stubble field although I have heard they hold birds I just don't have confidence that a pheasant is going to hold in something a couple inches tall.
 
Look for tall stubble, the taller the better. Also look for weeds, especially if its tumble weeds. If you can find a weedy wheat field it will be worth hunting.

zeepo
 
I have had birds flush under foot as well as hold for points in cut fields. I have even had success hunting large cut fields all by myself with just me and the dog...shhhsshh it is still a secret!!

As Zeepo has said the more weeds the better.
 
I had some luck last this past sunday in an 80 of cut milo, no weeds to be found except in a small small water way that drained through it. It was just me and my dog. He did point 1 rooster and flushed 5-6. Now it wasn't exactly good luck but it was "luck". It would have been good luck if I could have hit something.
 
I have had real good luck in wheat stubble 4-5 times now while a hawk had birds pinned down tight who didn't want to fly or run one inch!...Otherwise, I have always pretty much ignored the wheat stubble thinking that a rooster would just run into the next county in that stuff. I have come across quite a bit of longer/raggedy wheat stubble this year (not just the "crew-cut" stuff)...

You guys have really got me thinking now - cause I see at least a stray rooster or two in the wheat stubble every time I'm out (and that's only the ones I see). In fact, come to think of it - on my last hawk experience in the wheat I made a quick bump-&-run on what I thought was just one lone rooster - only to find 15-20 additional birds flushing right out from under my feet all the way to the end of the corner & I never saw a one of them before they flushed (and believe me, I was looking real hard while the dog was staying so birdy)...You would think I would have been a faster learner from those hawks! If they'll hold for a hawk, why wouldn't they hold for me & the pooch! :cool:

Thx for the tip-off! I'll be givin it a try on the next run... :thumbsup:
 
Find the natural flush points and try to work the birds into them. If the wheat stubble just runs into milo stubble then I would probably steer another direction. On the other hand if it leads to a corner or a road or better yet a fenceline then it becomes an ideal place to hunt.

Last year we walked through a little patch of wheat stubble to get to a hairy draw full of grass and horse weeds. Walked the hole draw and pinched it in the middle to flush and kill one bird. When my buddy shot that bird the little patch of cut wheat we just walked through erupted with pheasants flying everywhere. It was a long narrow field with a barren field on one side and a fence at the other. To make a long story short if we had walked the wheat first we would probably have shot multiple birds instead of just one.
 
The cut wheat is hard on the dogs especially if its really dry out, I have pulled small pieces of wheat stubble out of my dogs chest before. I always put the boots and a chest protector on them before going in.

zeepo
 
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