Trip Report

R

ron

New member
I recently joined here and appreciated all of the trip reports posted, so I felt obliged to share mine. I've hunted pheasants for a few years in Iowa, but this was my first time hunting Kansas.

My pards and I drove to North Central Kansas last Friday for 2.5 days with a Walk In Hunting Atlas on the dash and no dogs. Tipton, Downs, and Russell. Put some miles on the truck and saw some great landscape in the Smoky Hills. Birds seemed scarce during the warm windy Fri and Sat. but Sunday was better.

We brought home no birds due to sloppy shooting... but ended up finding a honey hole at the end of the hunt on Sunday ...watching them fly across the road from tall grass to cut Milo. We were watching from the truck at the time, as the temperature was 11 and blowing at 25-40 mph...there were 20-25 pheasant total, more than half being roosters...flying from a WIHA area right onto posted property of course. However, a small group of them flew back around to our WIHA property. We strategized, ate some baby snickers,...put on TWO stocking caps, and the stalk began...bottom line is, I missed a perfect opportunity for a double, fumbling with getting the gun to my shoulder properly...and several others flushed out of range at the sound of my misses...:eek:

Had a great time, it was more of a scouting trip than a hunt, but now we know where to zero in on for next year..and maybe a couple of weeks earlier.

Saw a huge 4x muley buck with some does, and a lot of big whitetails. No quail or prairie chickens, tons of rabbits and 4 or 5 different species of hawks and falcons.

Take care and have a good holiday.
 
Thanks for the report! Much appreciated...sure wish I was gettin' after em' today. Lookin' out the window of this f'n factory, watching it snow.....perfect conditions......I'm working:(
 
Heading Out

I'm gearing up and getting the dog ready to make a trip this weekend. Talked to my dad a few minutes ago and he said that they have about 3 inches of snow already and they have about 2 more inches expected. There is a chance of freezing rain Thursday into Friday so that might change my leave time but hopefully it doesn't. Time to chase some roosters on Saturday and then chase some coyotes on Sunday, man it's going to be a great weekend regardless of the weather.....:thumbsup:
 
I also hunted north central KS this week. Had a window of opportunity open up at work and made the 10-hour drive on Saturday night. Hunted WIHA's north of Russell during the cold blast Sunday, Monday & Tuesday. Not the most comfortable hunting with the cold and wind but sure is some nice country.

My goal was to shoot a prairie chicken and a few wild bobs (he has plenty of rooster experience) over my almost 11 year old lab. Sunday we did manage to flush and kill one lone bob and had one opportunity at a PC at about 40 yards. Problem was with the cold my stone hands just didn't react fast enough to knock him down. Also picked up a bonus rooster in the field with the quail.

Monday was a total wash. Hunted hard all day but saw no quail. Saw many PC but none closer than 100 yards.

Tuesday morning was the same results. Hit fields with quail cover or PC cover. Zero bob sightings with all PC contacts at a distance. Decided to switch over to Roosters in the afternoon and targeted fields of heavier CRP next to cut milo. The old dog got his groove back and flushed 15-20 birds that afternoon. All hens except one lone rooster I managed to put in the vest.

I will be back sometime in the future and have a few questions. What is the right habitat to be looking for bobwhites? I targeted diverse grass cover within a couple hundred yards of plum thickets or other short woody cover. Close to milo if possible but if weed seed was present didn't make that a deal breaker. In 2 1/2 days of hard hunting we never hit a covey only the one single.

I think we got the chickens somewhat figured out. Had no trouble seeing numbers of these birds just couldn't get close which to me means a hunt earlier in the season could be more productive.

Roosters weren't an issue. They were where we thought they'd be so any help finding the right cover for Bob's would be much appreciated.

Thanks

DB
 
Posting up in a bean-field is the best way to shoot chickens, unless you're hunting during the early season in Sept.

Move east for better quail numbers, but don't expect great things. A really good day of quail hunting consists of seeing 4 coveys in a day anymore. Head toward Blue Rapids (and nearly every county in between) from where you were if you're hunting quail exclusively.
 
DB,

I have had good luck finding bobs along the edges of thick crp. I've never encountered them in grain fields.

Glad to hear you're still seeing birds in WIHA's this late in the year.
Hunting in those conditions really shows your mettle.

Happy Hunting!

Lefty
 
Thanks for the responses. Probably overthought the whole process. I new from reading the KDWP website that the better quail numbers were east but because the WIHA's were less numerous there and the population centers were closer I headed farther west. Hunting areas with high public land density even if they had lower bird numbers has always worked for me on roosters in SD & thought it might work here with the bob's.

Either way still got to add another wild bird species to the old dogs life list and loved the area. I will be back to hunt Kansas in future seasons. Thanks again for the info.

DB
 
4 coveys in a day kansasbrittney i got a feild that i have walked and kicked up 21 coveys of quail and over a 150 roosters from what i seen all wild birds all on a 160 archs of crp and evergreens
 
remington88 said:
4 coveys in a day kansasbrittney i got a feild that i have walked and kicked up 21 coveys of quail and over a 150 roosters from what i seen all wild birds all on a 160 archs of crp and evergreens
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;) you sure those weren't meadowlarks and crows?;) I'm just kiddin. Sounds like you have a real honey-hole there!

DB, I usually find quail where feed meets crp or brush. I will walk the edge of crp or a fencerow where it butts up against a grain field. Those areas are getting harder to find out West since they tend to farm clear to the road. Farther East, those brushy areas butting up against grain fields are easier to find. 4 coveys would be a great day for me. 21 would cause a stroke.
Good luck on your prairie chicken hunt. In the early season this year, I put a GPS in my vest just for laughs. I walked exactly 13 miles before I got an opportunity to shoot a chicken. Luckily, I made the shot! That bird's picture is my avatar up there in the upper left corner with an exhausted dog. Of course, on the quail opener (not PC season) I flushed a large 'covey' of prairie chickens about 50 yards from the truck. Go figure...:cool:
 
remington88 said:
4 coveys in a day kansasbrittney i got a feild that i have walked and kicked up 21 coveys of quail and over a 150 roosters from what i seen all wild birds all on a 160 archs of crp and evergreens
Click to expand...

Ha! 21 coveys in one day, on 1/4 section of ground??? What part of KS? I don't believe it. I too would like to think it is possible to produce that many wild coveys on 1/4 section......maybe I won't have to buy as much land as I thought:D

Has anyone else ever seen 21 coveys on 1/4 section of land in KS???
 
I have had the priviledge to hunt a farm in south central Kansas. Every time I have ever been the quail hunting has been awesome. The last year I went there were alot of quail and the last covey of the hunt ended up being close to 100 birds.
 
I have some prime quail land and I have seen coveys with upwards of 70 birds in them. We hunted them hot and heavy to help break them up. The most coveys that we flushed were 5 with there being probably 250 or so birds. This is south and west about 15 miles from where we hunted the uncut milo KB. I don't think that hunting singles is considered a covey though......:D maybe to some but not to me......:thumbsup: regardless it's good to see quail making a come back
 
kansasbrittany said:
Ha! 21 coveys in one day, on 1/4 section of ground??? What part of KS? I don't believe it. I too would like to think it is possible to produce that many wild coveys on 1/4 section......maybe I won't have to buy as much land as I thought:D

Has anyone else ever seen 21 coveys on 1/4 section of land in KS???
Click to expand...
Since Remington88 has a guide service it might be possible KB, although I think that some of the birds might have been placed, like I said though it's good to see good quail numbers again regardless of how they get there.....:thumbsup:
 
No doubt. I would be happy to see that many even if half of them were planted. I suppose enhanced habitat may produce that many birds, but I haven't seen it in my lifetime of hunting KS. I've never hunted at any lodges in KS either, so I don't want to say it isn't possible.

remington88,

Do you use surrogators? What is your secret to producing that many quail on a 1/4 section? I'd be willing to pay for a day's access to a 1/4 section w/ just 10 coveys on it......but I'd have to see those 10 coveys before I paid;)
I plan to raise a couple hundred birds next spring so I can see as many coveys per day as I want next season:D
 
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I have lived in southeast Kansas all my life. I have hunted quail for over 25 years and seen some very, very good hunting. I have never seen natural wild bird numbers like rem88 has stated. If his numbers are correct there are a lot of pen raised birds on that 160 acres.
 
Brody's dad said:
I have lived in southeast Kansas all my life. I have hunted quail for over 25 years and seen some very, very good hunting. I have never seen natural wild bird numbers like rem88 has stated. If his numbers are correct there are a lot of pen raised birds on that 160 acres.
Click to expand...

I agree Sir!
 
Brody's dad said:
I have lived in southeast Kansas all my life. I have hunted quail for over 25 years and seen some very, very good hunting. I have never seen natural wild bird numbers like rem88 has stated. If his numbers are correct there are a lot of pen raised birds on that 160 acres.
Click to expand...
agreed also...
 
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