Toad
Active member
Just got home last night from SW Kansas. Met a good hunting buddy at 4:30 AM in Newton, KS on Friday morning and headed West for good times and adventures. After getting blanked earlier this year in NW Kansas, I didn't expect to shoot anything, but figured that going was a better choice than not going. The dogs were jacked, as always, and could not wait to get going.
Conditions out there were as bad or worse than I had imagined. We saw a few decent "pockets" of cover as we hunted our way West. I was relieved to see a lot less bare dirt than I saw in NW. At least there is some stubble, grass in the pastures, and even green wheat to stop the blowing dust (unlike NW, which was bare dirt in many places).
Here was a field of milo that butted up against a weedy wheat field. From the road, I imagined it would be money in the bank. But as you can see, there wasn't much cover, and neither field produced any birds for us.
We had a pizza lunch at Romano's in Kinsley, which was good as usual, and cruised in a generally West direction after lunch while checking WIHA. We ended our hunting day with a failed pass-shoot on some resident Canada geese. We saw a few roosters (while driving) that we planned to hunt on Saturday, but only managed to find hens while actually hunting on Friday (and not very many of them).
Saturday we hunted a couple of the better looking fields in the morning, but produced absolutely nothing from them. We continued cruising with our WIHA map and crossing off parcel after parcel as we went. Just not enough cover to hunt... We had another good lunch in Jetmore at the Brown's Corner Cafe, and kept on cruising. As the afternoon wore on, we would hit a spot here and there, and kept coming up empty. We saw whitetails here and there on WIHA, but did not pursue them due to the high afternoon temps and the threat of spoilage. Finally, we circled back to the spot where we had observed the roosters on the previous day (saving the best for last), and put a hunt on them.
Probably 20-25 birds came out of the shelterbelt as we approached it, starting when we were probably 300 yards away. When we finally got into gun range, the last three or four hens blew out of the tumbleweeds, and one rooster. Turns out it would be my only shot for the weekend, so I am really happy I made it count. One shot, one bird, just like I like it!
It went down in the upright position, with feet scrambling, and Daisy did what she was born to do! Her tracking and retrieving ability after the shot has never ceased to amaze me, and I WILL NOT hunt pheasants without her on the ground.:10sign: Due to the height of the tumbleweeds, she did not see where the bird went down, so we both hustled in the direction of the fall. My anxiety was building until I saw her moment of recognition as she hit the scent and started trailing. I followed closely behind her, shotgun ready, as she trailed the bird. About 30 yards from the fall, it launched from the grass right in front of her nose, and she lunged and snatched it, bringing it politely to hand just like the lady she is. We returned to the shelterbelt, hoping to find another rooster for my buddy, but it was hens only after that...
We ended the day with another failed attempt to pass shoot the geese.
Sunday morning we did a bit more cruising and looking before a big breakfast with my family in Dodge City. Afterwards, we made another attempt on the shelterbelt, by having my buddy sneak up and block the end while Daisy and I walked it out. Unfortunately, the weather caused the birds to act totally different than they did on Saturday, and the only roosters came early, held for the dog, flushed in easy shotgun range, but unfortunately in an "unshootable" location/direction due to livestock. It was really fun anyway, because Daisy was birdy the entire time, and I absolutely LOVED her catwalking-pointing-catwalking-pointing, until she locked up and I would flush another hen. It was the most intense I have seen her this season, I think because it was finally cold enough to get the birds to hold, and there was probably more scent in spite of the dry conditions.
This pic illustrates how dry it was around the shelterbelt, but you can see that it has obviously held birds since the last rain, whenever that was...
After that, we continued East and glassed a couple of the WIHAs where we have seen whitetails in the past, but the cold temps and wind must have had them hiding somewhere else. We gave the dogs a potty break and a run at one of the larger WIHAs, and managed to put up four hens in about 30 minutes, which was a good sign since we had seen so few birds all weekend.
In the end, we managed to shoot just one rooster for the weekend, and saw very, VERY few birds compared to a couple years ago. With fuel, cheap hotel, and food, it was about a $200 bird for me. But I am lucky because my buddy dropped the same amount of money for no birds... But honestly, we headed West for an adventure, and an adventure is what we found...
I'll certainly keep going to SW Kansas to hunt and visit family because they are the kind, generous, and lots of fun. But without the family ties out there, it is probably not worth the hunting effort. We burned a ton of fuel and bootleather, and saw very, very few birds.
Conditions out there were as bad or worse than I had imagined. We saw a few decent "pockets" of cover as we hunted our way West. I was relieved to see a lot less bare dirt than I saw in NW. At least there is some stubble, grass in the pastures, and even green wheat to stop the blowing dust (unlike NW, which was bare dirt in many places).
Here was a field of milo that butted up against a weedy wheat field. From the road, I imagined it would be money in the bank. But as you can see, there wasn't much cover, and neither field produced any birds for us.
We had a pizza lunch at Romano's in Kinsley, which was good as usual, and cruised in a generally West direction after lunch while checking WIHA. We ended our hunting day with a failed pass-shoot on some resident Canada geese. We saw a few roosters (while driving) that we planned to hunt on Saturday, but only managed to find hens while actually hunting on Friday (and not very many of them).
Saturday we hunted a couple of the better looking fields in the morning, but produced absolutely nothing from them. We continued cruising with our WIHA map and crossing off parcel after parcel as we went. Just not enough cover to hunt... We had another good lunch in Jetmore at the Brown's Corner Cafe, and kept on cruising. As the afternoon wore on, we would hit a spot here and there, and kept coming up empty. We saw whitetails here and there on WIHA, but did not pursue them due to the high afternoon temps and the threat of spoilage. Finally, we circled back to the spot where we had observed the roosters on the previous day (saving the best for last), and put a hunt on them.
Probably 20-25 birds came out of the shelterbelt as we approached it, starting when we were probably 300 yards away. When we finally got into gun range, the last three or four hens blew out of the tumbleweeds, and one rooster. Turns out it would be my only shot for the weekend, so I am really happy I made it count. One shot, one bird, just like I like it!
It went down in the upright position, with feet scrambling, and Daisy did what she was born to do! Her tracking and retrieving ability after the shot has never ceased to amaze me, and I WILL NOT hunt pheasants without her on the ground.:10sign: Due to the height of the tumbleweeds, she did not see where the bird went down, so we both hustled in the direction of the fall. My anxiety was building until I saw her moment of recognition as she hit the scent and started trailing. I followed closely behind her, shotgun ready, as she trailed the bird. About 30 yards from the fall, it launched from the grass right in front of her nose, and she lunged and snatched it, bringing it politely to hand just like the lady she is. We returned to the shelterbelt, hoping to find another rooster for my buddy, but it was hens only after that...
We ended the day with another failed attempt to pass shoot the geese.
Sunday morning we did a bit more cruising and looking before a big breakfast with my family in Dodge City. Afterwards, we made another attempt on the shelterbelt, by having my buddy sneak up and block the end while Daisy and I walked it out. Unfortunately, the weather caused the birds to act totally different than they did on Saturday, and the only roosters came early, held for the dog, flushed in easy shotgun range, but unfortunately in an "unshootable" location/direction due to livestock. It was really fun anyway, because Daisy was birdy the entire time, and I absolutely LOVED her catwalking-pointing-catwalking-pointing, until she locked up and I would flush another hen. It was the most intense I have seen her this season, I think because it was finally cold enough to get the birds to hold, and there was probably more scent in spite of the dry conditions.
This pic illustrates how dry it was around the shelterbelt, but you can see that it has obviously held birds since the last rain, whenever that was...
After that, we continued East and glassed a couple of the WIHAs where we have seen whitetails in the past, but the cold temps and wind must have had them hiding somewhere else. We gave the dogs a potty break and a run at one of the larger WIHAs, and managed to put up four hens in about 30 minutes, which was a good sign since we had seen so few birds all weekend.
In the end, we managed to shoot just one rooster for the weekend, and saw very, VERY few birds compared to a couple years ago. With fuel, cheap hotel, and food, it was about a $200 bird for me. But I am lucky because my buddy dropped the same amount of money for no birds... But honestly, we headed West for an adventure, and an adventure is what we found...
I'll certainly keep going to SW Kansas to hunt and visit family because they are the kind, generous, and lots of fun. But without the family ties out there, it is probably not worth the hunting effort. We burned a ton of fuel and bootleather, and saw very, very few birds.
