Season Assessment

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westksbowhunter

Well-known member
Been out pheasant hunting 5 times now and have spent over 30 days bowhunting in pheasant country. My assessment is that numbers in the counties I hunt are down a bit from last year. Had we not had that cold front and wet cold weather during the early hatching period, I think we would have had a bumper hatch. CRP fields look good but fire weed is not existent this year. Just don't have the weedy cover. But there are a few birds to hunt and lets hope for a good hatch in 2026 and continued wet weather, just not at the end of May or early June. There is about a month there where we need warm and very dry weather. We just want a very raining late June and July.
 
In the area that I hunt, my observation from hunting 5 days on the opener was that there were more pheasants than the last few years. They were harder to corral as there was still standing crop about everywhere. Looking forward to returning between Christmas and New Years and reassess. The quail were definitely better than last year with some really large coveys, but still not like 3 and 4 years ago.
 
The area I go and am fortunate to have some private access had quail numbers better than I've seen in a lot of years, saw a few distant pheasant but really hot the days we were out. We had great success on quail on private then hunted some public ground in the exact same area and didn't see a bird. Second year in a row that has been the case
 
westksbowhunter said:
I hunt all private ground
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I crossed to the dark side on that trip and over dinner we leased the waterways and some pasture from the farmer we have permission on. The existing farmer hays them and briefly runs cattle on the little pasture there is. It feels dirty and is the first "pay to play" situation I've had to do but I'm sick of the public situation and driving to another state all the time gets expensive. We've always had permission to hunt these places but for years I've wondered about the added success we'd have if they'd leave the waterways alone. Now we'll find out I guess. With this and a adjoining property we have permission on I can at least kill a weekend on private.
 
I saw a lot of 30 plus bird flushes last year. Where I seen 30 last year I'm seeing 15 this year. Not for sure what the harvest was estimated to be last year, but I assume well under 350,000. I know 2023 was one of the worst. I expect this year will be slightly under last year. Far from spectacular compared to 2004-2010. Some of those years were not far from a million birds. I was able to shoot a few limits quick last year. But we do have adequate birds to hunt.
 
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Matte said:
Been spectacular for us. Every morning if I could shoot better I would have limited out in about 1 mile of walking. Been a long time since I have seen 30+ Bird flushes in several differrent areas of the state. Had a buddy that just hunted Sd and he was even impressed.
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Until this last weekend, we have seen the same thing. Last year was good to great in spots. This year has been good to great almost everywhere.
Unfortunately we have lost several birds because the rain that help the birds populate, also have created some very heavy cover. Because of the number of birds that flush in close proximity coupled with poor shooting or shooting longer ranges, has resulted in more running birds. Often, we have two or three birds down in the same area and not enough dog power.
Additionally, there's so much scent when this happens, it has been harder to get them tracking a runner.
Friday was a decent day, but the birds just weren't where they have been. Saturday in the wind, if we got a bird up, you did not have much time to make a shot before it was in the wind and impossible to hit.
 
Pretty good season so far. We've seen better numbers than last year, both pheasants and quail. The pheasants have been much more "bunched up" than I expected for as early and warm as it has been. Where I saw 4-6 last year, I'm seeing 10-15 this year. One small spot that normally has maybe one or two had about 8. The coveys are in all the right places and seem bigger, with a covey or two in places unexpected.
 
Got an invite up in Mitchell Co around New Years. They did well on the opener. Anyone been up that way lately?
 
Matte said:
Been spectacular for us. Every morning if I could shoot better I would have limited out in about 1 mile of walking. Been a long time since I have seen 30+ Bird flushes in several differrent areas of the state. Had a buddy that just hunted Sd and he was even impressed.
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westksbowhunter said:
I saw a lot of 30 plus bird flushes last year. Where I seen 30 last year I'm seeing 15 this year. Not for sure what the harvest was estimated to be last year, but I assume well under 350,000. I know 2023 was one of the worst. I expect this year will be slightly under last year. Far from spectacular compared to 2004-2010. Some of those years were not far from a million birds. I was able to shoot a few limits quick last year. But we do have adequate birds to hunt.
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We didn't see near the pheasants you guys are talking but the quail were up id say.
 
LostE said:
270k
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I figured it was somewhere around there. It has been so bad for so long many forget what a great year looks like. We will be way under what a good year actually is again this year. When we start harvesting 750,000 plus birds a year I might use the word spectacular but we won't harvest half that this year. My goal is 30 birds in Kansas far from the 75 I was shooting each season back from 2002-2012. I remember days back in the 80's where we would see what we called a tornado of pheasants. Groups of over a 100 birds. Last time I saw a giant group like that was 2002 in Ness county.
 
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