Trip to NW Kansas

Z

Zbirdman

New member
I am planning a pheasant trip to NW Kansas from Colorado and I am looking for any recommendations on a town to stay in with good access to walk in areas (and hundreds and hundreds of birds, of course :D ).

I am considering Atwood, Norton, Hill City and WaKeeney.

Hunted eastern Colorado last weekend. Saw only 30 birds in a two days, but only as specs on the horizon and I did not bring by 50mm! Many more hunters than birds. Crops were still up though. Should be better later.

Hunted ND a few weeks back. 8 guys limited out each of 3 days, even with crops up. Saw several hundred birds per day. When crops are down there, we see many many more birds.

I don't expect that in Kansas, but something better than Colorado would be nice.

Thanks for any recommendations that anyone can provide?
 
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Any of those areas will put you around some good walk in hunting. Just stay out of the uncut fields. I can stress that enough. Farmers are late on harvest this year so alot of crops are still standing. The farmers have asked for hunters to stay out of uncut. But what I am hearing from my family out there, and even some of the reports on here are that people are ignoring this wish. Respect the farmers and you can hunt for years.
 
Hunted out of Wakeeney last weekend. Most of the crops where still standing. The further south the further along the harvest was. North of Wakeeney I'd guess at 85 - 90% of the milo was still up and 95% of the corn. After the recent wet weather there is no telling when the crops will come down.
 
How were the numbers around Wa Keeney? I had a friend out there deer hunting earlier in the year and he said they were cackling all around........what does it look like through the eyes of a pheasant hunter?
 
Moderate densities in some places and low density in others. If we hunted areas where most of the crops were harvested then we did a lot better. But those are hard to find right now.

Iâ??d say it is average to slightly below average for Kansas. Its spotty though. If you find the right field youâ??ll find more then enough birds to keep you happy. Three of us took 18 birds in 4 days hunting over dogs.

With the crops still up â?? mostly milo â?? the hunting is tough. After the rain on Monday we drove around some of the grass that we had been hunting and you could see tracks all heading into the standing milo and corn.

Unless they can get that stuff cut before the snow starts a lot of birds will find refuge in the standing and soon to be laying down crops.
 
Don't stop in S Clay county! This report is coming from NC, not NW, but today's events aren't worth starting another thread. I hunted alone with 3 dogs near the Dickinson/Clay county line on WIHA today and things aren't so great there. I didn't expect huge numbers of birds, but I expected to see at least a few hens and maybe some quail. I made a full 1 mi. pass through decent CRP only to find one rooster. He is in my fridge. I then headed to Milford. Spent more time checking out the wetlands areas than I did chasing upland game, but still hunted a nice strip of CRP next to a milo field and didn't see anything. I may have killed the only bird in Clay county today:eek:

Headed to C KS tomorrow. Should be a good time with new friends if nothing else. Dad said all but one field of milo is cut in his part of Pawnee county, so we'll find out if that's where the birds have really been hiding. I'm not optimistic about the season at this point:(
 
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kansasbrittany said:
Don't stop in S Clay county! This report is coming from NC, not NW, but today's events aren't worth starting another thread. I hunted alone with 3 dogs near the Dickinson/Clay county line on WIHA today and things aren't so great there. I didn't expect huge numbers of birds, but I expected to see at least a few hens and maybe some quail. I made a full 1 mi. pass through decent CRP only to find one rooster. He is in my fridge. I then headed to Milford. Spent more time checking out the wetlands areas than I did chasing upland game, but still hunted a nice strip of CRP next to a milo field and didn't see anything. I may have killed the only bird in Clay county today:eek:

Headed to C KS tomorrow. Should be a good time with new friends if nothing else. Dad said all but one field of milo is cut in his part of Pawnee county, so we'll find out if that's where the birds have really been hiding. I'm not optimistic about the season at this point:(
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Anxious to hear your report on Central Ks after the milo is out ksbrittany.:thumbsup:
 
Enjoyed a windy day in C KS Saturday. 5 pheasants and 5 quail taken. Still some milo in, but there is enough out that it is no longer an excuse for not seeing large numbers of birds. Numbers there ofcourse aren't as good as they are further west, but it is always nice to get out anyway and it wasn't a total bust. Fortunately, our guide for the day has some great access in the area and he managed to get us on some birds. His access is what put us on our birds and I appreciate his sharing! This isn't a good area for the freelance hunter IMO. Headed back to Rush county next weekend.

May take a day trip to the NW by myself Friday, unless I can find somebody that has the day off and would be interested in meeting up out there.
 
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kansasbrittany said:
Enjoyed a windy day in C KS Saturday. Still some milo in, but there is enough out that it is no longer an excuse for not seeing birds. Numbers there ofcourse aren't as good as they are further west, but it is always nice to get out anyway and it wasn't a total bust. Fortunately, our guide for the day has some great access in the area and he managed to get us on some birds. This isn't a good area for the freelance hunter IMO. Headed back to Rush county next weekend.

May take a day trip to the NW by myself Friday, unless I can find somebody that has the day off and would be interested in meeting up out there.
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Naw it wasn't a total bust but it could have been better. Saw some birds, shot some birds, missed some birds and watched alot of birds take flight as soon as we stepped in the fields. Don't worry KB as soon as we get some snow u, Bilbo, Radar and I will get into more birds. It was a fun day regardless, it was nice to meet some forum members and get to know them better. Until next time........:cheers: :beer: :nutz:
 
In two weeks I'll be travelling from Manhattan to McCook, Nebraska for a hunting trip. I'm thinking I'll make a couple pit stops to let the dog and myself stretch our legs. Might as well stretch our legs in WIHA!!!:D

I was thinking of making a morning stop north of Glen Elder, and then cutting up to HWY 36 for the rest of the trip West. For the second stop, I was thinking anywhere between Oberlin and Smith Center.

Any thoughts on the best county or region along HWY 36? Would I be better off heading as far West as possible? I'm pretty flexible here, as it will be a day to hunt by myself before meeting up with friends.

It will be the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so maybe it would be best to continue West and try to get as far from a population center as possible. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
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