marsingbob
Member
Report on Kansas.
I headed home after two full weeks in Hill City, and other places in Kansas. I arrived on December 17 and left New Years Day, so I was there for the Christmas day storm. I thought some might be interested in my impressions.
I am a westerner, from Idaho, but I have lived and hunted pheasants and quail in Nevada, Oregon and California. In each, access to hunting area was a major problem. I saw Idaho in the 60â??s when it was as good as it gets, but even then finding places to hunt was an issue. Kansas has thousands and thousands of acres available in the WIHAs and more in other public land. There are birds in almost all of it. Sure, some are better, some are worse. Private land is better on the average because it is hunted less, but a good hunter with a good dog, and particularly two or three good hunters working together can have very good results on WIHAs only. (I hunted alone exclusively). You can drive in any direction in the areas I looked at and pretty soon a WIHA sign with be there, and the land will have more than enough birds to be worth hunting.
There is a lot of discussion here on how many or how few birds a hunter can take in a day. My success on bird numbers was not remarkable. I averaged about a pheasant a day and maybe two or three quail in areas that had quail. Some days were better, some not quite as good. However I am old and I tire easily now. My dog had no experience on pheasants and had problems understanding pheasants. My dog had not hunted where there were rabbits, and she had some difficulty understanding we were not rabbit hunting. My eyes are not good and I missed a lot of birds. I donâ??t think I ever hunted more than 4 or 5 hours a day.
The thing about Kansas is not the number of birds, it is the quality of hunting. The cover is relatively easy and fun to hunt, and there were reasonable numbers of birds almost everywhere. I rarely heard a shot from another hunter and only once encountered a hunter while I was in a field. I never felt crowded. Sometimes there were hunter tracks. Many were fairly old, a few were fresh.
There is a lot of worrying and discussion here about some â??secretâ?� spot. The good spots are not that hard to find, just pay attention to what is there and start looking at different areas. While I like the â??edgeâ?� areas because they held more quail, it is no secret that pheasants like CRP grass next to feed, particularly something like corn or milo. I am also not convinced that success is dictated by the area of the state. I hunted near Hill City, Jewell, and east of Dodge. There were huntable numbers of birds in each of these areas.
There are almost no people out there. The farms are so efficient, the area one family farms is so large, that the country is almost deserted.
At times Kansas is a sad place. There are hundreds and hundreds of abandoned farmsteads. Each is the story of several generations who lived and died on a farm that is now a sad memorial to their lives. Even the towns are gradually shrinking away. Notice the age of the peopleâ??very young or in their 50â??s or 60â??s. In much of the West the small towns were destroyed by growth. My home town had 2500 people when I started high school. Now it has 80,000, and I do not recognize it when I go back for the occasional funeral. I wonder which is more painfulâ??destruction by the absence of people, or by too many people.
Anyway, go and hunt it and see it while it lasts. It is worth the time, worth the money, worth the effort. Hunt hard, but enjoy the country and the experience. Do not worry too much about whether you kill 4 pheasants a day. One bird well hunted with a dog that does a great job is worth many times a limit taken in a lucky group hunt with the birds surrounded and shot in a barrage in which few know which birds they shot and little hunting skill is required.
I headed home after two full weeks in Hill City, and other places in Kansas. I arrived on December 17 and left New Years Day, so I was there for the Christmas day storm. I thought some might be interested in my impressions.
I am a westerner, from Idaho, but I have lived and hunted pheasants and quail in Nevada, Oregon and California. In each, access to hunting area was a major problem. I saw Idaho in the 60â??s when it was as good as it gets, but even then finding places to hunt was an issue. Kansas has thousands and thousands of acres available in the WIHAs and more in other public land. There are birds in almost all of it. Sure, some are better, some are worse. Private land is better on the average because it is hunted less, but a good hunter with a good dog, and particularly two or three good hunters working together can have very good results on WIHAs only. (I hunted alone exclusively). You can drive in any direction in the areas I looked at and pretty soon a WIHA sign with be there, and the land will have more than enough birds to be worth hunting.
There is a lot of discussion here on how many or how few birds a hunter can take in a day. My success on bird numbers was not remarkable. I averaged about a pheasant a day and maybe two or three quail in areas that had quail. Some days were better, some not quite as good. However I am old and I tire easily now. My dog had no experience on pheasants and had problems understanding pheasants. My dog had not hunted where there were rabbits, and she had some difficulty understanding we were not rabbit hunting. My eyes are not good and I missed a lot of birds. I donâ??t think I ever hunted more than 4 or 5 hours a day.
The thing about Kansas is not the number of birds, it is the quality of hunting. The cover is relatively easy and fun to hunt, and there were reasonable numbers of birds almost everywhere. I rarely heard a shot from another hunter and only once encountered a hunter while I was in a field. I never felt crowded. Sometimes there were hunter tracks. Many were fairly old, a few were fresh.
There is a lot of worrying and discussion here about some â??secretâ?� spot. The good spots are not that hard to find, just pay attention to what is there and start looking at different areas. While I like the â??edgeâ?� areas because they held more quail, it is no secret that pheasants like CRP grass next to feed, particularly something like corn or milo. I am also not convinced that success is dictated by the area of the state. I hunted near Hill City, Jewell, and east of Dodge. There were huntable numbers of birds in each of these areas.
There are almost no people out there. The farms are so efficient, the area one family farms is so large, that the country is almost deserted.
At times Kansas is a sad place. There are hundreds and hundreds of abandoned farmsteads. Each is the story of several generations who lived and died on a farm that is now a sad memorial to their lives. Even the towns are gradually shrinking away. Notice the age of the peopleâ??very young or in their 50â??s or 60â??s. In much of the West the small towns were destroyed by growth. My home town had 2500 people when I started high school. Now it has 80,000, and I do not recognize it when I go back for the occasional funeral. I wonder which is more painfulâ??destruction by the absence of people, or by too many people.
Anyway, go and hunt it and see it while it lasts. It is worth the time, worth the money, worth the effort. Hunt hard, but enjoy the country and the experience. Do not worry too much about whether you kill 4 pheasants a day. One bird well hunted with a dog that does a great job is worth many times a limit taken in a lucky group hunt with the birds surrounded and shot in a barrage in which few know which birds they shot and little hunting skill is required.
W KS town.
