WIHA during deer season

Q

Quailguy36

New member
I am looking to visit Kansas the week after Thanksgiving. I understand "gun" deer season opens that week. Is there ample WIHA for both deer hunters and bird hunters. Looking to hunt central and Eastern Kansas. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.
 
If you pull up to a field and there is a truck parked there then I would head on to the next one. Its very hit and miss on if someone will be deer hunting a spot on any given day. Most importantly wear blaze orange on both you and your dog if your hunting with one, the more the better.
 
If I see someone bird hunting in an adjacent field, I would not think that he has "ownership" of the entire area. If someone is deer hunting their deer hunt does not trump my bird hunting. I will give them space as I would with any other hunter, the question is how much space do you give a deer hunter? 100 yards, 300 yards?
 
Kansasoutdoorsman said:
If you pull up to a field and there is a truck parked there then I would head on to the next one. Its very hit and miss on if someone will be deer hunting a spot on any given day. Most importantly wear blaze orange on both you and your dog if your hunting with one, the more the better.
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Sound advice.

Although I always head to the next spot if I see a truck parked in a WIHA spot regardless of the season. :)


Orange, Orange, Orange Orange for everyone. Especially the dogs. ESPECIALLY the dogs.

I always worried about hunting with friends who have a flashy white setter, like my friend Steve's setters and how their tails would resemble a deer tail...
 
odenney said:
If I see someone bird hunting in an adjacent field, I would not think that he has "ownership" of the entire area. If someone is deer hunting their deer hunt does not trump my bird hunting. I will give them space as I would with any other hunter, the question is how much space do you give a deer hunter? 100 yards, 300 yards?
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I guess I am just a little overly cautious. There is no ownership it just a common curtsey to let people hunt in piece of land if they where there first in my world. I would rather go on and let them enjoy their day than take a change of messing it up. Just me though.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. Moving onto the next spot if someone is already there would be common courtesy as others have mentioned. Is it likely that most of the WIHA areas will have a deer hunter? Are there WIHA or areas to hunt where deer hunting is off limits but bird hunting is allowed. I would rather give the deer hunters plenty of space.
 
Kansasoutdoorsman said:
I guess I am just a little overly cautious. There is no ownership it just a common curtsey to let people hunt in piece of land if they where there first in my world. I would rather go on and let them enjoy their day than take a change of messing it up. Just me though.
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Yes. 100 percent agree.

My dogs run big enough, it just would make me nervous that they would go over there too... And not be very enjoyable for me personally. I just move on. Regardless of whether or not they are deer hunting or upland.

There are too many bad things that could happen that would outweigh the good.
 
Quailguy36 said:
Thanks for the advice guys. Moving onto the next spot if someone is already there would be common courtesy as others have mentioned. Is it likely that most of the WIHA areas will have a deer hunter? Are there WIHA or areas to hunt where deer hunting is off limits but bird hunting is allowed. I would rather give the deer hunters plenty of space.
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Yes there are... Or at least, ones that don't allow rifle hunting. These are typically close to houses or buildings and thus the reason for not allowing the rifle...
 
We have had deer hunters pull up and ask us if we minded them setting at the end of a field to see if we pushed anything out on them. Never really bothered me. They have told us where they saw a rooster or a covey and we have flagged them down and told them where we saw a good buck. Not had any issues except for the time we had scouted the flight path od some chickens , set up to pass shoot them. A van of guys from another state pulled up and parked right where I was sitting. The chickens came seconds after and flared the other way.
 
V-John said:
Yes there are... Or at least, ones that don't allow rifle hunting. These are typically close to houses or buildings and thus the reason for not allowing the rifle...
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I think the ones that don't allow deer hunting are circled in red on the map. Verify this before trusting it.

I've never been west during deer season. Opening weekend the state biologist stopped to talk to us, he was bowhunting private ground next to the WIHA. He said from the last week of October through opening weekend of pheasant anywhere that has a tree out there has a treestand. Said the little cottonwood patch we were standing next to (football field size) had 3 stands in it the week before. During rifle he said there is orange everywhere.

When bird hunting, if we see a truck parked on the WIHA, we skip that patch totally (exception being some 3/4 or full sections, we'll hunt an opposite corner). I'd try and follow that same rule during deer season.
 
Thanks again everyone. Makes me a little nervous being out there opening day of gun season. Hoping I can find some private ground to hunt to avoid competing with the deer hunters on the WIHA for at least part of the time I am there.
 
I have hunted WIHA for years during deer season and have never had an issue. Came upon a group deer hunting last year set up on the far end of a section that we did not see. Might not hurt to drive around and check, but other than that it's always been good for us. I second the wrapping your dogs in orange!
 
Quailguy36 said:
Thanks again everyone. Makes me a little nervous being out there opening day of gun season. Hoping I can find some private ground to hunt to avoid competing with the deer hunters on the WIHA for at least part of the time I am there.
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Maybe I'm just overly cautious but I stay away from public ground during rifle season, I even try to avoid duck hunting the big reservoirs.
 
MoLab152 said:
I have hunted WIHA for years during deer season and have never had an issue. Came upon a group deer hunting last year set up on the far end of a section that we did not see. Might not hurt to drive around and check, but other than that it's always been good for us. I second the wrapping your dogs in orange!
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Same here, never a problem. In fact, having a dog and a pheasant hunter out there can move deer to the deer hunters advantage. As the man said "wear your orange". :thumbsup:
 
I hunt parcels away from the deer hunters if possible. As mentioned in the previous post, pheasant hunters will help move the deer. I always see deer while pheasant hunting during deer season in Kansas.
 
I didn't think about deer season. I usually take 2 trips a year to Kansas and never had an issue. I did have a bowhunter park next to our truck and disappear. On our way back to the truck my dog tracked him to his spot. He was mad. He was also about 75 yards from our truck.

We usually hunt open fields. I have one honey hole that always has deer in it. Now I am concerned about hunting it. I found a deer decoy in there one year, but have never seen a hunter there.
 
I hunted this weekend with 2 younger kids. One was 13, one was 19 with a year old gsp. The pup is not bad at all but saw two deer hunters walking out of a place and ran to them as they were wearing orange like us. The kid went over to get his dog from them and they called him a dickhead! I was his baseball coach for 4 years and love the kid. So my temper flared, I walked over and asked which one wanted to get hit in the mouth! They quickly walked the other way and hopped in their truck. And I'm not that intimidating. They did not park in the public lot so didnt see theyre truck or we would not have hunted there. My opinion, deer season is open waaaayyy longer than bird season. So suck on it! I deer hunt too. But they have 2 months longer to deer hunt than I have to bird hunt. So I dont feel bad at all for em...
 
Did they happen to be there on the ground before you? If the answer is yes then that is not very sportsman like, hunting over ground that is already occupied. Deer are much harder to come by then pheasants so the excuse 2 more months means nothing. Bird season, dove season, turkey season, deer season if you roll up on a Piece of public and it is occupied try and find a different piece and if you suspect it to be deer hunters go back around 11:00 as most will go in for lunch. Plus before 11:00 birds tend to run more than sit so it is generally a better time to hunt rather than first thing in the morning. I am not saying what they did was right but if they were there first let them hunt. We all hunt because it makes us happy but in doing so we need to try and not offend others in the process.
 
He said they didn't park in the parking lot for the walk in ground, so he did not know they were there. If my kid was out there and someone ran their mouth like that I would stand up for them too.
 
There are not parking lots for WIHA. All I was trying to get across is "Hypothetically IF" The deer hunters wee in first which is most likely the case this time of year a little courtesy could have prevented confrontation. That is what I am trying to stress to all hunters.
 
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