What happened the last 2 days of season?

S

sas

Member
Trying to increase my knowledge a bit about our N0.1 hunting pleasure.

I have talked to several other parties that were hunting the last week all the way from the Kan-Okla line to north to I 70. We were all finding lots of birds through Sat. when we were hunting in our shirt sleeves. They were in the grass and lots in the stubble.

That good cold front we were praying for came in on Sunday and the birds seemed to disappear. They didn't seem to be in the grass or stubble.

I would like to hear some educated guesses as to what happened And if you were finding birds, when, type cover, how many etc.

Thanks.
 
sas said:
Trying to increase my knowledge a bit about our N0.1 hunting pleasure.

I have talked to several other parties that were hunting the last week all the way from the Kan-Okla line to north to I 70. We were all finding lots of birds through Sat. when we were hunting in our shirt sleeves. They were in the grass and lots in the stubble.

That good cold front we were praying for came in on Sunday and the birds seemed to disappear. They didn't seem to be in the grass or stubble.

I would like to hear some educated guesses as to what happened And if you were finding birds, when, type cover, how many etc.

Thanks.
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I'd have to know what time the cold front arrived to answer that question. Not that I know everything, but I have started keeping close tabs on behaviors related to the arrival of a cold front. IT MATTERS I can tell you that. A cold front to us might seem severe, but that late in the winter, I don't know that it matters much to the birds unless it is a nasty one. I can't remember the temp that w/e b/c I didn't get to hunt wild birds so I didn't pay attention. Maybe they spent the day feeding, especially if the next day was to be even colder.
 
I guess it depends on where you were at. We shot them in wheat stubble and crp after it cooled down. When it was hot Thursday and Friday we were shooting them in tumble weeds and plum thickets.
 
saw nothing different- except the pheasnts were more skittish- what day did you say it came in- I was out Friday, Saturday, and Sunday- just a few hours each morning though-
 
If you get it figured out, please let me know - there is definitely some kind of pattern to it, because the EXACT same thing happened on the final wknd just across the border over here in CO. A friend hunted on that warm Sat & found lots of birds all holding surprisingly well for such a hot late-season day. I joined him on Sun & we couldn't find a single bird anywhere to save our life until well into mid afternoon. We went back to all the very same areas on that brutal last-day Mon & found a steady pick of roosters holding tight as quail everywhere we went! :confused:

KB, you nailed it on the head - Sun was cold/damp & foggy, the beginning of a front be4 Mon became absolutely brutal - but we checked every kind of reliable/regularly-known/old-standby pheasant haunts there were on Sun, from grass, thickets & shelterbelts to LOTS of feeding fields (corn, wheat stubble, ect.) & nary a bird in any of it??? Talked to a couple other well-seasoned hunters who said ditto... :confused:
 
you have to admit- pheasants survive because they adapt

I went out that sunday morning- 1/2 mile by mile grass WIHA- time to let all 4 go- called it quits after 3 roosters- sometimes there's an advantage to pointing dogs that really get out there

in the yard take a few pictures- good end to the season
 
Let me put out a little more info. We were hunting on the KS-OK line. On Sat
(29th) we were in our shirt sleeves and bird activity seemed normal. Three of us did well and one limited in 45 min in some grass. We saw birds in all kinds of cover. I know one group (16) limited in wheat stubble. Another group averaged over 2 per man. Sunday rolls in and the temp dropped 30 and stayed there most of the day. We went to places that we were saving that we knew were good and barely scratched. Birds were not running the roads or even flushing way off for that matter. About mid afternood we started to see a few in some wheat stubble. It was like they vanished. We are fair hunters with decent dogs, (Pointers, Labs, Britts) and I would usually think that much hunting with just coon dogs would have found more birds. Monday (31st) morning it started freezing rain and we left. It later turned into ice, snow and that week was pretty rough for cold temperatures throughout Kansas and N. Oklahoma. I realize that if birds are not moving it is a lot harder to pick up their scent, but they were either sitting extra tight or they reversed their usual feed-cover-feed routine. We hunted heavy grass, light grass, milo, wheat, everything there was that would hide a bird. We tried to mix it up, reverse direction, begged and cried but they just weren't there.
 
I had a post earlier and it sounded like something very similar to what you experienced. We hunted private ground in Southwest Kansas and limited both days pretty easy earlier in the season. 4 of us went to the same places toward the end of January and had a tough time putting birds in the bag. We got into quite a few hens, but the roosters were no where to be found. Like you said, they weren't flushing out ahead of us, so I don't know where they were at. We found most of the roosters in wheat stubble, but seen about 1/10th of what we had seen earlier in the season.
 
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