Public Hunting Near Valentine

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bleedin_maroon

New member
I'll be making a rooster trip in a few weeks and am having a little trouble deciding on a location. One of the options is the Valentine area, but I don't know anyone there and will be hunting 100% public ground. I know there is a ton of ground available at Valentine NWR, McKelvie NF, and Niobrara NWR that allegedly hold a bunch of grouse, which would be a sweet bonus, but haven't seen much mentioned about the quality of pheasant hunting. I'm willing to walk all day if I need to for 3 birds, but I just want to make sure I'm somewhere with a decent population so that I'm giving myself a chance. Anyone here care to share their experiences hunting these areas? Thanks in advance for the input.
 
We drove south of Valentine about 10 years ago and two roosters flew up together in the refuge. So we took our first pheasant hunt to Nebraska and started in the refuge. No birds, so we went north by Ainsworth. We had a good dog and tried the public land there. Saw a few grouse, no pheasants. At that time there wasn't much corn. The next day we headed south looking for corn that was near public land. We ended up south of Ogallala. We found birds there. I would try in the Southwest part. If you hadn't done so yet, you can order an atlas of public land from the Game and Parks Department. The atlas is also online. Good luck.
 
If you are looking for pheasants, I would skip McKelvie. Hunted there several years and have only seen sharptails and prairie chickens. No pheasants.
 
You may walk all week to get 3 pheasants in that area. Great grouse hunting though. For pheasants think South Central to South West part of state. Get an atlas, start driving, find the spots with habitat, start hunting.
 
Thanks for the input guys.

Is grouse hunting still productive in those areas late season (mid-late December)? If I'm lucky enough to fill my possession limit down south I wouldn't mind swinging through the area for some bonus birds.
 
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