Raise out of state fees!!

I think most areas mentioned are in the Omaha , Lincoln area and I could see how the demand is high and population can’t handle the pressure .

I get it I am not a fan of shooting released birds eather .
 
Different opening for non resident doesn't make any sense. It already opens the same weekend as Missouri firearms deer which should reduce the numbers some in Ks. Not sure about other surrounding states.
What does make sense is opening quail season on the Monday after pheasant. Also, limiting the number in a party in same field. Not sure how that could be done though.
Not sure why the complaint for the nonresident license fees either. They raised it 25% just a couple years ago.
As for the covey exterminators, if they shot well enough, hopefully they'll learn in time. A lot of the area I hunt in Missouri you have to flush the covey, count the birds and then go after singles if there were enough. If there weren't enough you still let your dog point singles for practice.
 
Raise the out of state License . While you are at it make every store charge double to non residents. If you don’t want my out of state money fine. Maybe SD is the place to go
 
I think most areas mentioned are in the Omaha , Lincoln area and I could see how the demand is high and population can’t handle the pressure .

I get it I am not a fan of shooting released birds eather .

me either, i think game and fish is simply trying to stimulate the sport by releasing birds where there are very few....
that part of Nebraska is farmed fence row to fence row......there is no habitat left there.
 
i never shoot on the covey rise......usually loaded with 5's for pheasants, need to see the size of the covey and watching where they land....to be able to work singles is a better experience for the dog.
 
I will quit hunting before I ever shoot a tame bird.

A quick Google search showed that Nebraska has been releasing "several hundred" roosters into 9 or more public hunting areas right before the Thanksgiving holiday
since at least 2013.

The point of the exercise is to have some birds to shoot for the family holiday. Fathers and sons going out together, grandfathers and grandsons going out together and all having some chance of getting a shot.

I applaud NE for doing it. Anything that gets families and youngsters out in the field together and interested in the preservation of pheasant hunting is OK by me.

As for "tame" birds, well...yes...I think we'd all rather shoot wild birds all the time. I think we also realize that hundreds of thousands if not millions of pen raised pheasants are released every year. And we all realize that every single pheasant we shoot has a released bird in its family history somewhere.

Personally, I've shot both. A lot of wild birds. A relative handful of pen raised birds. In both cases, I've seen poor flyers and strong flyers. You can have extremely challenging hunting on released birds IF they are properly flight conditioned. OTOH, there are the ones you have to boot to get them to fly. I've seen that on a few wild birds too.

Oh, and NE biologist say one cock bird can service about a dozen hens. So if just ONE of those "hundreds" released survives to do his duty in the spring, and each hen produces 10 surviving chicks, there's another hundred or so pheasants in NE. What's not to like?

Bottom line: Good for Nebraska. I'm glad they're giving families a reason to get out and hunt together. I believe it will promote the sport and help pheasants in the long run.
 
Lower the limit on quail. An 8 bird limit is not necessary.

I agree. Drop the limit to 4 or 5, limit the season to 4 or 5 weeks, and no hunting past 1 pm. Then the quail will not be harassed during the hardest part of the winter. I won't shoot quail after noon myself. Always thought it best to leave them as much time as needed to regroup.
 
I am in favor of not letting out of state hunters hunt for the first week of the season.

How about excluding non-residents from hunting AT ALL for the first week just like South Dakota does?
 
What about making it reciprocal, if kansas makes no hunting open week then all hunters from kansas should have to wait to elk hunt Colorado or hunt anywhere on opening day . It's already that way with trapping, so be careful what you wish you for.
 
Probably ought to limit the droughts, floods and snow storms too!

In all seriousness, dropping the limit to 6 would be good, but I would guess the swings in weather and the declining habitat are more to blame for the quail numbers. How many coveys were wiped out when south central and central KS received all of the rain in early October? Draws, sloughs and creeks were overflowing with the nearly 9+ inches of rain in under a week. I would wager those floods had way more impact than hunting pressure ever could. With ideal conditions, the bobwhite can live up to five years, but the average lifespan is a mere six months.

Limiting chances for out of state hunters, probably takes away from license sale revenues which can be fed back into the KDWPT budget. How would you enforce party size limitations? How can the game wardens manage hunting parties if you were to put a timeframe on quail?

The simple solution is to drop the limit number by a couple of birds and hope the weather holds.
 
As an out of state Hunter I don't come to Kansas for opening week hunting season, just due to the out of state hunters... I have hunted Kansas many be years, and usually it is never in November anymore I just do not appreciate the crowds and the rudeness... I also don't come to Kansas just to kill a bunch of birds ... It's an experience for me. I enjoy the time in the coffee shops in the mornings the quick sandwich from the local shop... The burger at the bar n grill in town the folks the conversation the land ... All of it...
I've worked in Kansas alot on the same areas I have hunted.... I just enjoy the folks and time I spend there... All but one year it is just me and my dogs hunting... We do well... Enjoy the time spent there better....
I'm all in for no out if state hunters the opening week
 
Most states have a reciprocity law regarding license sales. If more states regulate NR's then those NR's will require their DNR regulate NR in turn. Be careful what you wish for. I don't know why I'm posting this as I doubt that the complainers ever hunt outside their own state. That's where the personal ownership originates.

Back in the 80's Nebraska had east/west zones for quail. 6-E. and 8-W. Game wardens requested that it be changed to 6 statewide because they felt handicapped processing guys in the east with 8 quail who claimed that they shot some or all in the west zone. The reason for the higher limits for quail is that biologists realize that good years are far between due to weather, not hunter harvest. They can't rationalize leaving excess birds to die when there are hunters who appreciate the time afield. Of course hunters always appear to bleed for the birds when in reality they're attempting to save more for themselves. We can not stockpile wildlife by limiting harvest. You stockpile wildlife by creating better and larger habitat and with cooperation from the weather gods.

East river South Dakota prairie grouse shooting hours revert to same as pheasant once pheasant season opens, while west river prairie grouse stays sunrise to set all season. They don't seem to have a problem enforcing that.
 
well as a out of state pheasant hunter that has come to Kansas for many years, made very close friends with farmers there has seen the good and bad.
We dont complain on cost of license. The complaint is we will pay the fees but the crp and walk in conditions dont warrant it. I don't know how you can raise fees when most of the wiha is so poorly managed. The one thing that really struck my husband and I since we started coming here were the farmers we meet are great people but are not hunters and only hunt ONE weekend of the year for pheasant. The hunting practice that is used is not giving the pheasant a chance. The get as many people 20-30 and block the ends of the field and then just blast them, don't see much of a difference in the previous comment on the quail covey.
We have been devoted to coming every year and have spent alot of money and traveled 13+ hrs to leave very disappointed in the hunting but the friends were what was bringing us back. We live for this time of year, pheasant hunting is the best time of year travel all over BUT this year we are not planning on spending it on Hunting trips to Kansas. We will be making our annual thanksgiving visit to see our farmer friends but our hunting trips are planned outside Kansas.

The last 2 years when we have been there has hardly been any hunters and motels were empty. Kansas has been ignoring the signs and I am sure the income and profits from out of state hunters revenue that have been declining are noticed and hopefully will start to do some proactive practices.
 
Oklahoma limit is 10, Texas is 15. Good years=birds. Bad years=no birds. Would having a limit of 4 or 5 made a difference in Texas and Oklahoma from the last few years to this year? Are hunters the reason the numbers are down this year in those same areas where hunters were finding and killing a lot of birds over the last few years? Doubt it.
 
Amen, Brother Randy!

i have hunted Kansas as an NR for over 20 years now......it used to be awesome pheasant hunting there.....it was not ever known as a quail state, almost everyone came to hunt pheasants. the weather has and continues to affect the pheasant reproduction........drought and too much untimely rainfall (this year especially).....the quail bag limit was 6 for many years, no need for it to be 8. i prefer to take only 2 birds out of a normal sized covey....never shoot on the rise, need to judge how many are in the covey.....anything less than 10 birds, should be left alone as these birds are not as hardy as pheasants.....besides, i want to find this covey next year too. mostly i like to work my dog on the singles....don't have to shoot many or any to get the work in...the best part of the Kansas experience is the vast amount of WIHA's. some are worthless, but many offer many acres of grass and stubble in which to run the dog, all day long....and after the opener, especially mid week, i can avoid most other hunters.

Iowa is suffering from a lack of plentiful WIHA's.....from what i saw last year, there is too much "moonscape" from soybean production and not enough CRP. The main cover is roadside ditches.

SD is a joke...for the amount of public hunters and hunting pressure, they are really short of offering enough high quality public ground. SD is really about pay to hunt pen raised birds, as there are over 200 commercial hunting areas that do this. If you have access to enough private ground for no fee, then it can work for you there very well. but paying $200 a day to shoot a mix of wild and pen raised birds is just bullshit....i can stay home and shoot pen raised birds and sleep in my own bed every night....no travel costs either.

NE is adding some high quality walk in ground in their new walk in program, but it is limited and concentrated in the SW part of the state. The majority of the rest of the state has become intensely farmed with little or no landowner interest in habitat programs.

For me Kansas is a short 7 hour drive, offers both quail and pheasants and there is plenty of ground to chose from......yes, there are fewer birds, but i don't struggle to find access.
 
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