Prairie Chickens

carptom1 said:
That’s my story too… Wife’s explorer, kennel in back cargo area 30 degrees outside middle of nowhere SD. Not a fun drive home
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Ouch!!! Mine was a quick drive to Orchelins with the windows down and hose bath with some kind of skunk off shampoo in the parking lot before heading home. Still not great, but much better than that!!
Ozium saved my marriage. 😂
 
RutCrazed said:
Ouch!!! Mine was a quick drive to Orchelins with the windows down and hose bath with some kind of skunk off shampoo in the parking lot before heading home. Still not great, but much better than that!!
Ozium saved my marriage. 😂
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So I was a couple hours from Mitchell and was lucky enough to find a car wash with a dog wash room right behind cabelas. That mixed with some v8( couldn’t find tomato juice) and a little peroxide and it killed it about 80%. But it took awhile to get it out of her vehicle ( she has a nose like a freaking blood hound) I could smell it on the dogs shocked collar for most of a year. Needless to say her vehicle doesn’t get to go hunting anymore. I need to get out after some chickens. I haven’t really hunted them since the middle 70’s down in Westphalia Kansas.
 
I went back out on Sunday (9/28) and didn't see any birds, but also did not have my dogs get sprayed by a skunk, so it wasn't a total loss. 😂
We only hunted for a couple hours due to the heat, I am really looking forward to cooler weather!!
 
Made a quick trip out Tuesday to stretch the legs and give the dogs something to do besides drive me crazy. Saw one group of six, one pair and two singles. None got up in gun range but I was pleased with seeing anything really. I felt like 4 contacts in about that many hrs walking was pretty good.

As an aside, what is the farthest east anyone has seen antelope?
 
Jet said:
Made a quick trip out Tuesday to stretch the legs and give the dogs something to do besides drive me crazy. Saw one group of six, one pair and two singles. None got up in gun range but I was pleased with seeing anything really. I felt like 4 contacts in about that many hrs walking was pretty good.

As an aside, what is the farthest east anyone has seen antelope?
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Hey that’s awesome that’s a good day!

Antelope? There use to be a group by the matfield green ( bazaar) cattle pens along the turnpike. I think they are a reintroduction.
 
Jet said:
Made a quick trip out Tuesday to stretch the legs and give the dogs something to do besides drive me crazy. Saw one group of six, one pair and two singles. None got up in gun range but I was pleased with seeing anything really. I felt like 4 contacts in about that many hrs walking was pretty good.

As an aside, what is the farthest east anyone has seen antelope?
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I've seen groups of 40+ in the winter near our land by Colby while pheasant hunting, in the summer you will see smaller groups around.

I'm pretty sure the biggest population in KS is a long the smoky hill river in western KS.

Here is a terrible zoomed in picture of a large group of antelope. I was walking up to hunt the weedy draw in the middle of the picture and about a mile away a large herd of antelope took off.
 

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ben ji said:
I've seen groups of 40+ in the winter near our land by Colby while pheasant hunting, in the summer you will see smaller groups around.

I'm pretty sure the biggest population in KS is a long the smoky hill river in western KS.

Here is a terrible zoomed in picture of a large group of antelope. I was walking up to hunt the weedy draw in the middle of the picture and about a mile away a large herd of antelope took off.
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That is a good sized herd of antelope. Also, that draw looks like a great place to find some pheasants!!
 
I finally got out yesterday. We hunted one spot before it got too hot. Saw a single and a pair within 50 yards of each other after almost 2 hours of walking. The pair was on the edge of gun range for the other guy, but he didn't shoot. Then my dog locked up pretty hard, again probably only 50 yards from where the pair got up. Turned out to be a rooster. That was a surprise. My other dog pointed and then trailed a group of about 5 turkeys from a hillside down towards a draw. And then a couple of points on box turtles :). Anybody know what the limit is on those?

A good day nonetheless.
 
I went out again on Saturday (10/4) to a different spot. We were only able to hunt about 2 hours due to the heat, I went a little over 4 miles and the dogs went over 7. We had a couple unproductive points and I did see one lone chicken flying past us well out of gun range. I am going to give the dogs a weekend off and hunt deer with family out of state and then try again. At this point I am going with the blind squirrel mentality!!! 😂
 
I went out yesterday mid afternoon and evening. I tried a new field and the grass was way too thick for chickens.
Walked a second field and the chickens were flocked up , nice flock I dropped the nearest one from the rise. I didn’t hit it very well and the dogs were occupied so I had to keep an eye on it. For a second there it was pandemonium , small groups and stragglers continued to get up. Wally picked up the bird after some looking.
Walked one last field before heading home. The wind was in our face and the dogs adrenaline was still up. Flushed a single and a pair but blew them out long.

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BrownDogsCan2 said:
I went out yesterday mid afternoon and evening. I tried a new field and the grass was way too thick for chickens.
Walked a second field and the chickens were flocked up , nice flock I dropped the nearest one from the rise. I didn’t hit it very well and the dogs were occupied so I had to keep an eye on it. For a second there it was pandemonium , small groups and stragglers continued to get up. Wally picked up the bird after some looking.
Walked one last field before heading home. The wind was in our face and the dogs adrenaline was still up. Flushed a single and a pair but blew them out long.

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Nice picture.
 
I took a week off from chasing Kansas prairie chickens and took my son back to Utah where I lived for 30+ years to chase mule deer with my family. He took a nice 3 point with a broken antler and then went went trout fishing. Now I am ready to get back to chickens!! I wish we could get the weather we had back there out here, 40s & 50s with a dusting of snow one morning.
 

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RutCrazed said:
I took a week off from chasing Kansas prairie chickens and took my son back to Utah where I lived for 30+ years to chase mule deer with my family. He took a nice 3 point with a broken antler and then went went trout fishing. Now I am ready to get back to chickens!! I wish we could get the weather we had back there out here, 40s & 50s with a dusting of snow one morning.
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I absolutely love the wood grain on his stock! How'd the trout fishing go?
 
Bob Id hunt the same places I’d hunt in the morning. The Kansas chickens I hunt it’s mainly ridges and saddles. Face your elbow into the wind and that little crease running down the inside of your elbow, the top third of it that is where they are most lilkely to be. That with some wind. If It’s calm they are probably going to be in that same area but higher and in thinner, loosely flocked and milling around. When I’ve gotten into the big flocks they have mostly been in the afternoon. And the dogs smell them way before you see them. where they have been not where they are. They may have walked 80 yds (it’s usually more like 50) from where the dogs first smell them and where you find them.
If I know where they should be I try to catch them by coming down on them, going uphill is futile
 
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BrownDogsCan2 said:
Bob Id hunt the same places I’d hunt in the morning. The Kansas chickens I hunt it’s mainly ridges and saddles. Face your elbow into the wind and that little crease running down the inside of your elbow, the top third of it that is where they are most lilkely to be. That with some wind. If It’s calm they are probably going to be in that same area but higher and in thinner, loosely flocked and milling around. When I’ve gotten into the big flocks they have mostly been in the afternoon. And the dogs smell them way before you see them. where they have been not where they are. They may have walked 80 yds (it’s usually more like 50) from where the dogs first smell them and where you find them.
If I know where they should be I try to catch them by coming down on them, going uphill is futile
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Great advice! Exactly what I needed.

Thank you
 
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