Opening Day.... How did you do?

jjoel

New member
Saw 2 deer, a turkey, a squirrel... 0 birds. Thank you NE KS for a great opener! Hunting with good friends and happy dogs... still beats work.
 
Started out this morning just west of Marysville. It was just me and the 13yr old son and the three dogs. Seen a plenty of hens and only 5 roosters. Ended that hunt with 3 roosters and 5 quail. Now near Smith Center. Will give a report on that tomorrow. :thumbsup:
 
I checked hunters for 9 hours today and the only dead animal I checked was a canvasback! I saw 5 bucks, 2 does, 1 jackrabbit, and 1 covey besides the good number of waterfowl. A guy I was talking to said a pheasant flushed under a hawk to our west as we were talking. I had more duck and deer hunters than I did upland hunters. One Texas gentleman had moved a covey and lost a crip, only shadow of success I heard.
 
Wasn't the best but I have seen worse.


Couple pics of the dog work. My Setter Ace was not at his best. But John's Guys were on their game.

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hunted southeast of norton. Sounded like armageddon out there. I wish i would have set up a roadside shell stand:D. Funny most guys i talked to said they didn't do too well. Must have been a big trap tournament:cool:. Less than 2 birds per hunter. Shot my first one at 7:15 second at 7:30. Never fired another shot. My oldest son had many shooting opportunities, but only 2 birds. My younger son never shot. We saw probably 20 cocks all day, hunting some great looking land. Too phucking hot. Birds were not holding at all. Hunted 75% private. On a good note, the dog was fantastic. Muscled through some minor injuries and 70 degree heat. Worked the cover great, flushed and retrieved both of my birds and one of my sons. Also flushed about 10 hens. A guy asked me if hunting was good. I told him brother, it was great!
 
Me and 4 other guys went out around Wellington for 6 hours bagged 4 not very many around. Hot & windy with very little cover most got up wild. Going out tomorrow after church & hitting a few different spots.
 
I checked hunters for 9 hours today and the only dead animal I checked was a canvasback! I saw 5 bucks, 2 does, 1 jackrabbit, and 1 covey besides the good number of waterfowl. A guy I was talking to said a pheasant flushed under a hawk to our west as we were talking. I had more duck and deer hunters than I did upland hunters. One Texas gentleman had moved a covey and lost a crip, only shadow of success I heard.

So how many do you think you checked? I heard that two years ago B. J. checked something like 140 in one section of ground at Hugoton.

Beautiful day at the Ponderosa, but it was very quiet. The usual crowing has been absent there since the drought started. Usually I would sit on the hill and watch the majestic sunset, or as tonight the beautiful moonrise and listen to a symphony of critters, but tonight it was silent.:(
 
The stat sheet is out in the truck, but if memory serves, I checked 25 hunters and 6 fishermen. I didn't have 140 hunters on the place. Add to that the fact it's hard to check bow hunters and duck hunters, and you get more miles than checks. No tickets makes everyone happy.
 
6 of us hunted until about 3 o'clock. Ended with 6 roosters and 4 quail. Hunted same fields that last year we ended with a limit. Every one of our pheasants was an older bird with white tipped spurs.

The bright side was some awesome dog work, lots of the trailing, pointing, relocating over 100 yards or more, several rock solid points. Both my birds were off of solid points that you couldn't ask for anything better of. The bright side is there were a lot of heart pounding points that ended with a flushed hen.

After about noon the number of trucks driving the roads dropped to nearly nothing. Did watch one field, a half section, that was being pushed by 36 hunters, couldn't count the number of blockers they had. I don't see how that could be fun at all, but thats just me.
 
we get to norton only to find our motel had burnt down 3 weeks ago good thing I packed my camping stuff I never leave town without it

walked all day between 3 of us we had 4 birds all of them were old birds seen lots of hens
 
Saw 1 covey, 1 cock, 1 hen

Started the w/e SICK:mad: Hunted for 2hrs, puked in the field a few times, then drove home w/o seeing a single bird of either species. Went home and slept for 3hrs, then worked to replenish for the next day.

Got out to a public spot at 8am. Walked for 2hrs before coming across a covey. It was a nice size covey 15-18. Took 2 birds out of the covey and wearily meandered toward the road.

As I was driving out of the place I saw a PF/QF sign. I thought about hunting but wasn't feeling so great. Maybe 1/4 mile down the road, there was a rooster in a row of plum thickets. I wanted to work the dogs into the wind, so I turned around. It was nice to hear him cackle as he flew away. The dogs and I made a pass around the inside of the field. That walk yielded a nice hen point. Made me feel better about having bought memberships to those organizations.

This was a humbling opener. HOWEVER, I found it very enjoyable to be away from the crowds today. I was check by a friendly game warden. It's nice to know guys like him are out there. He said I was the only bird hunter he'd seen. There was a deer hunter somewhere, but I never saw him:)
 
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I shot 4 Sat morning and 4 this morning. Of the 8 roosters I shot 7 were old birds. I did find a couple of spots that had quite a few of them.
 
We hunted from sunup till about 4 yesterday Between 10 of us we got 6 cocks and 1 quail. We saw more deer than we did birds. Found a group of turkeys some geese and a fox. All birds were old birds worst opening day we have had in 15 yrs. Dog did very well for his first hunt on wild birds.
 
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we get to norton only to find our motel had burnt down 3 weeks ago good thing I packed my camping stuff I never leave town without it

walked all day between 3 of us we had 4 birds all of them were old birds seen lots of hens

Which motel in Norton burned down?
 
Me and 4 other guys went out around Wellington for 6 hours bagged 4 not very many around. Hot & windy with very little cover most got up wild. Going out tomorrow after church & hitting a few different spots.

Sunday; I & 2 other guys went out after church and shot 3 birds before noon than 3 more men joined us and the 6 of us got 2 more birds. We did see alot of deer but no quail at all. Looks like a tuff year around Sumner County. In two days I did not see another hunting party.
 
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Two great days of hunting for me and my group. All on public ground too, all in areas that suffered tough drought conditions.

Saturday-
4 shorthairs, 1 very out of shape lab :), 6 guys
First of all could not believe how few hunters were out for opening day.
Missed hitting a fat doe by 3.1415 cm, fortunately the ABS did not work and the tires locked up left some serious skid marks on the asphalt. Guy in the passenger seat was still worked up about how close that deer was on the way home from the field that afternoon
Less than 10 minutes into the first field, bust a covey of a dozen or so. Figured we got lucky and that would be all we see all day.
30 minutes later we are walking the field probably 3/8 of a mile from the road, working parallel to it. Notice a brown ranger pickup parked in the middle of the road. As we are walking the truck is backing down the road right in line with our group. After 10-15 minutes I am starting to get mad/worried.I decide I better go check out what is going on. Hike back to the road, about half way there I realize its a KDWP vehicle. Now more worried :( then mad :mad:. Get up to the truck. It is the official KDWP videographer. He had been filming us while hunting. He was very sorry that I had paused our hunt because of him. He then politely asked me to give a report of our hunting for the KDWP website. Not sure if they will post my "interview" hope they don't, but if they do... I figure I will be the most famous guy on UPH for a day.
Back to hunting... Find 4 more coveys that morning, all 10-15 birds each. They seem to know when they flush to fly across the road to the refuge side. Came across a barking dog in some trees, thought someone was coon hunting:confused:??? Ended up being a little orange and white Setter pup on check cord which was tangled in the brush. Picked her up and took her with us for a bit. Spotted some other hunters, figured she belonged to them. Left my hunting party took her back. Did not even thank me! Then whacked the dog with the rope for running off :mad:.
Game warden came by and checked out our group. Pleasant fellow. He concurred that the number of hunters was way down.

Ended the day with Some Fantastic Roys BBQ in Hutch, and 10 quail.

Sunday:
3 guys, 2 gsp's
We hit some Wiha's and found one covey. Then switched to some uncut but knocked down corn. Flushed about 20 pheasant in an hour.

Ended with 5 quail, and 5 pheasants.

Plenty of great dog work, plenty of birds, all in all a great weekend.:10sign:
 
I went out Friday.:eek: "Camera" hunting.:D

I was hoping to educate some of the local quail before the masses hit them on Saturday. Apparently there was no need, since I didn't find any birds to educate.:( It was the thickest cover I have run the pup through yet, and she hunted great, along with Daisy... I was hoping to contribute to the "photos of your dog backing" thread, but no such luck here.:eek:

Hopefully I can get them into some birds this season close to home, or our whole season will boil down to a couple weekend trips out West.:eek: I guess there's always the bird farm...
 
I went out Friday.:eek: "Camera" hunting.:D

I was hoping to educate some of the local quail before the masses hit them on Saturday. Apparently there was no need, since I didn't find any birds to educate.:( It was the thickest cover I have run the pup through yet, and she hunted great, along with Daisy... I was hoping to contribute to the "photos of your dog backing" thread, but no such luck here.:eek:

Hopefully I can get them into some birds this season close to home, or our whole season will boil down to a couple weekend trips out West.:eek: I guess there's always the bird farm...

Toad,

I just wanted to add, I found a lot fewer quail around here than I expected. After last season, I was pretty optimistic (ya know, thinking I might see 5 coveys/day if I worked at it). Lemme tell ya, I'd have to hunt sunup to sundown and I'm still not sure I'd find 5 coveys this season.
 
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