Report from annual Kansas hunting trip

R

retrvrman

New member
All I can say is how much I love going out to Dodge City area and chasing roosters for 3 1/2 days. I have been hunting out there since 1996. There has only been two years I did not hunt. The year I was stationed on a remote tour in South Korea and the year of the drought (two years ago when it was really bad). My brother got to come up from Dallas with a couple of our cousins and me, my son and best friend met them out there.

On Saturday, 15 November we shot 16 roosters amongst 7 hunters.

Sunday 16 November we shot 15 roosters amongst 7 hunters.

Monday 17 November it was just four of us and we shot 9 birds.

Hunted with my yellow pointing lab male, Remi, 2 1/2yrs old and my other two flushing labs, females, Roxie (choco) and Daisy (yellow). My best friend had his black lab male, Huck, out for the first time on wild birds and he is pointing lab also.

My brother had never gone pheasant hunting, ever :eek: and he limited out on Saturday. My 15yr old son limited out on Monday, he even manage to bag one bobwhite quail. I came close Sunday but lost one cripple, dang it :mad::mad: Even with the dogs....:confused:

We got some good weather, Saturday was chilly, dusty....then Saturday night into Sunday morning, snow on the ground, cold, not much wind. Monday morning was bitter cold, 6degrees and boy were the birds bunched up then.

I would post pics however ever since a year ago, I have not been able to. Maybe I will e-mail them to Chad and maybe he can.

All and all it was a very successful hunt. The switchgrass is coming back, weeds are taller, thicker, CRP is getting there, still not them same as before the drought, however with another good year of rains and no hail things should get back to better levels.

Funny, I hope with anticipation like a kid on Christmas morning for our pheasant hunting trip to KS, it is finally here and then BAM!! It is over....good times, good memories, good dogs and good family and friends.

That's what it is all about...
 
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Greg,

Great work! That's a good trip. Its evident the birds have improved across much of the state and that next year, with a bit of luck, we could be sitting pretty again.

If the other Chad doesn't get you taken care of on the pics, I can help. Photobucket is the only way to go!
 
Great news! I'm heading east to Kansas in the morning with a couple other guys from RMPLA. Hoping to put up a few roosters! :cheers:
 
kansasbrittany said:
Greg,

Great work! That's a good trip. Its evident the birds have improved across much of the state and that next year, with a bit of luck, we could be sitting pretty again.

If the other Chad doesn't get you taken care of on the pics, I can help. Photobucket is the only way to go!
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Chad,
Thanks, well if you look at my avatar you can see how I can not post photos anymore....once I get the pics from my phone onto a stick or my laptop then I will let you know.
 
That is a bunch of shootin' Greg!!! E-mail some pic's and I can throw them up for you!! :10sign:
 
The key as most experienced pheasant hunters know is the weather. Even in the really good years, when the weather was mild, the birds would not be bunched up as much, kind of scattered about here and there. Sunday and Monday morning it was butt ugly cold and man where they bunched up then. The thing I have found is that one day they will be in one spot and then you go back the next day or even a couple of weeks and no where to be found. I can tell the bird numbers are up because of the number of hens we saw and the number of just roosters they were hanging out.

I could drive by certain houses/spots and there would be roosters just hanging out with his girlfriends by a tree row next to the road or drive. I had not seen this number of birds since probably 5yrs ago :confused:

The one thing I did see was the number of hawks!! :eek::mad: There were probably two or three per field/tree row/tailwater pit, etc....locals were still doing some cutting (corn and milo), most of it was out still some areas that were not.

The sad sight I saw was that there were some CRP fields that were mowed and bailed :( and some CRP fields that looked like they needed another good year of growth....

Thinking of heading out again in January, buy a 2015 license and it will be good for next season :thumbsup:
 
BleuBijou said:
That is a bunch of shootin' Greg!!! E-mail some pic's and I can throw them up for you!! :10sign:
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Yeah it was....my best friend bought two boxes ($25 a box :eek:) of the Prairie storms, 3in, #6s...yeah, lets just say after the first day and half he went back to 2 3/4....

I will do that...funny story.

So Colton and I were hunting this long weed patch in between some cut milo and another field (it was down out of the wind, thick and tall). We get to the end and he says "Dad, there are these birds in here they look like small hens"....I said what, let me see, so I walked up with the dogs just getting all kinds of birdy and because it was a mix of tumbleweeds and those tall sticker type weeds that grow with the sunflowers (forget what they are called but they hurt and scratch the doggies noses pretty good)....they fly up and are quail...several bobs, males and females...well we are shooting #5s, but I say "quail, and then I also say make sure where the dogs are before you shoot, as they don't get that high off the ground".....that's when Colton gets one, I missed....but it was kind of funny. He had seen them before, but it was like two years ago....
 
Fun to see how he has grown the last couple years. I know he won't ask the question again of what are all these little hens!!! You had a great trip!:thumbsup:
 
BleuBijou said:
Fun to see how he has grown the last couple years. I know he won't ask the question again of what are all these little hens!!! You had a great trip!:thumbsup:
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Thanks, yeah he has....the only thing sometimes is as you know he has bipolar and ADHD. and is on meds (no worries guys, it isn't a safety hazard with him having a gun). So for the most part he does really well listening to me, except when he gets a wild hair and decides or thinks he can chase down some roosters that have flushed and started to fly to South Dakota :eek: Meanwhile we are all trying to get back to the trucks get the dogs loaded and waiting for him....:rolleyes:

He is learning....we had 7 guys, so me and my buddy would push a field with our dogs with one other and then I would have Colton go block with the others and he would kind of tell them what to do because he had hunted some of these fields and my brother had not hunted before so he helped him out...getting him to clean the birds, now that is what I am working on now.

Greg
 
Thanks for the report. Sounds like a great time and this is one of the better reports I've heard.

You mentioned a lot of hawks, man I also saw a bunch in eastern CO this last week-end. The area I was in the hawks far out numbered the pheasants seen and that is not good :mad:

I've not been one to rant about hawks (I still think quality habitat is the biggest factor) but with the number of birds of prey I saw you have to think they are limiting the pheasants in coming back to respectable levels.
 
sounds like a GREAT time...thanks for the update...I look forward to my quail trips to Kansas every year
:cheers:
 
Greg,

Thanks for the post. Glad you had a successful hunt, including a lot of bird encounters. Sorry to miss Friday nite at Bad Habits, but was with my wife attending grandkids' awards in KC.

I look forward to the pics.
 
M. R. Byrd said:
Greg,

Thanks for the post. Glad you had a successful hunt, including a lot of bird encounters. Sorry to miss Friday nite at Bad Habits, but was with my wife attending grandkids' awards in KC.

I look forward to the pics.
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That's okay Manyard, gotta love those grandkids ;) We had a good time at the Bad Habit, said hello to Angie, she reported that hunting was pretty decent in and around Dodge. I had the Bad Habit burger :eek::D and few libations....we may try to get back there in January for MLK weekend (I am a DoD contractor so I get all federal holidays off, that would be a 3 day weekend for me) so I figure will buy a 2015 license and hunt January and then have it for next season!!
 
Nice report Greg. Good to hear that you and the family had a bunch of success. Hope you have the same success if you go out again in Jan.
 
Curious said:
Nice report Greg. Good to hear that you and the family had a bunch of success. Hope you have the same success if you go out again in Jan.
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they always have a bunch of success. if they go out in Jan. they will have success as well. Question................ how many of you can tell the sex of quail when they flush?? Maybe I'm just lame, but I can't. :)
 
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