Opening Day in Kansas

Got 2 "pretty crappy" and one "could of been worse" coming from the 3 groups I talked to that I trust. The "could of been worse" was a long ways from the other 2, those 2 bad reports were within an hr of each other hunting private and wiha. Second hand knowledge though
 
A group from work was out hunting family ground out by Goodland. 7 guys with four dogs shot 4 birds hunting most of the day. Said they saw maybe 20 total.
 
very spotty. Didn’t see a bird the first 2 hours, then found them in heavy cover (on a 65 degree day?!) quail probably not as good as expected/reported by the farmer. Pheasant probably a little better. There had to be water nearby, to find any birds.
 
How was it? I'm especially curious about the Liberal-Hugoton area. Thanks!
North Central woke up to near tropical storm winds. Three guys, two dogs, 3 roosters, 4 quail and we missed a lot of quail. This morning (much better wind situation) 2 hours, 1 rooster, missed more quail, 2 guys, 1 dog. If you are willing to hunt quail with an occasional bonus pheasant it’s not the worst year ever. But it’s not good especially pheasant wise.
 
Got out again for a couple of walks. First WIHA was quiet. Flushed a hen. Ran into a muley buck down in a draw. He actually shadowed us on our way back to the truck. His left tines were broken off so looked like he had been scraping and maybe he was just looking for another fight.
Pushed on to one of my favorite WIHA. It’s nothing more than a postage stamp. Most people just pass it by. It has always had held a bird or two.
Put three birds in the vest. Saw two others that flushed out of range.

Now that opening weekend is over it’s time to get back to chasing prairie chickens.
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I ended with a limit out of Nebraska yesterday at about 1230. I hit a couple of draws in Ks that hold birds , I think they had both been hunted. The second one there was one rooster in it that flushed wild. Walking back to the truck my peake was walking behind me at a trailing heel. I turned around and looked at her and was surprised to see her carrying a dead rooster. She was so proud like she was carrying around an old shoe just waiting for me to take it from her.
Had forty minutes left to walk a chicken field , two flushed wild on the wrong side of the ridge.
 
Got out again for a couple of walks. First WIHA was quiet. Flushed a hen. Ran into a muley buck down in a draw. He actually shadowed us on our way back to the truck. His left tines were broken off so looked like he had been scraping and maybe he was just looking for another fight.
Pushed on to one of my favorite WIHA. It’s nothing more than a postage stamp. Most people just pass it by. It has always had held a bird or two.
Put three birds in the vest. Saw two others that flushed out of range.

Now that opening weekend is over it’s time to get back to chasing prairie chickens.
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Borrowing GetTothePoint's lingo, we had a several spots that were " pretty crappy" and several that "could have been better".

One WIHA that has always held birds was a complete bust. It's a short quarter of CRP that usually has grain close. Closest grain was couple hundred yards. The CRP was burned in the spring. So, it was super tall but thin at ground level with some nice ragweed, smartweed, goldenrod, etc mixed in (which is why they burn), but it also probably means a near total lack of nesting this past spring. If birds find their way back over the winter it will make great nesting cover this coming spring.
 
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I lost access to the property I had been hunting since the 90s due to a land sale, so rather than trying to figure out a new spot on opening morning I decided to not head as far west and just try and get the pup on some birds. We found one covey of quail and I shot one for the dogs and called it a day. I will wait until the "opening day" rush wears off and try later in the season.
 

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