WIHA etiquette

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OpenSeason1

New member
Have another WIHA question. This weekend, the wife and I hunted some great WIHA lands in Edwards, Ford, and Pawnee counties. Saturday afternoon, we hunted a piece of land that had good numbers of birds, at dust we watched 50+ birds fly out of a standing milo field into the WIHA. Before sunrise we were back at this WIHA waiting on daylight. I decided to park 250 yards west of the milo, so we could get ready and not make too much noise, then walk the dogs down the road and enter the CRP next to the milo to start our hunt. As we were about to get out of the truck, several trucks pulled up and stopped right at the corner next to the milo. I flashed my lights letting them know we were there. They flashed back and 10 guys promptly got out and headed right into the crp. Being very frustrated, we left and went to another field.

Is this common? Should we have just went ahead and hunted here any way? I guess in the future I will just park right where we want to hunt, I was just wanting to keep the noise down, since I knew there were lots of birds in that field.

We are new to bird hunting, and I would like to just know what the common practice is when there are other hunters already at a field. Do you just jump in and beat them to the best spot?
 
I'm afraid you do just jump in and beat them to the best spot. I hate it sometimes, but what can you do? Parking in the spot where you want to start is all you can do, unless you want to try to bloody someone's nose (someone who has a shotgun:eek:). Anyway, this happens a lot. If you knew there were birds there, and you were there first, you aren't in the wrong by hunting the field anyway. I've done it both ways. I've been mad enough to go to another field, but I've learned that if the field is big enough, it really doesn't matter. Some folks are terribly rude. Parking trucks all around the field wouldn't necessarily give you exclusive enjoyment of a particular WIHA parcel. They probably thought you were flashing them for the sake of your own personal safety, not b/c you actually expected them to find a different field since you were there first;)

If ya can't beat em'......join em'!
 
I think you should have parked where you wanted to hunt then you would avoid confusion, you should know if they were a** ho*es or not sure what your doing. I never hunt on top of someone else if it's a huge field I might go on the opposite side away from the hunters and it would depend on if it was a couple of guys or an army. I never had that problem in ND lucky I guess hope when I come to KS in Jan. it's not so crowded.
 
In times past when I have hunted in Kansas, it is my brother and me with 4-6 dogs, 2 out at a time. I have had situations when another group is looking to hunt a WIHA at the same time. More than once we have gotten together with the other group and "teamed up" by coming in from opposite corners, usually for the good of both groups.
 
I see the error on my part. It will not happen again. I will definitely park where I plan to hunt. Thanks for the info!
 
treedaddy said:
In times past when I have hunted in Kansas, it is my brother and me with 4-6 dogs, 2 out at a time. I have had situations when another group is looking to hunt a WIHA at the same time. More than once we have gotten together with the other group and "teamed up" by coming in from opposite corners, usually for the good of both groups.
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This is a good approach. Problem is, when I go out w/ 2 or 3 people, it's b/c I only want to hunt w/ 2 or 3 people. It would be nice if there were some rules pertaining to such a thing. Not to change the subject, but it sure would be nice if there were group size limits imposed on WIHA as well!
 
It is my understanding that by rule you have to park next to the field you are hunting...is that not correct? Sorry about your trouble; my boys and I hunted all day Wed and Thurs and a half day Fri and felt like we had the state to ourselves. When we were headed home, we passed a large group of hunters in a field that we had hit earlier that day. I felt bad for them...er...not really but I do think it's first in gets the birds.
 
Walk In Frustrations

OpenSeason1 said:
Have another WIHA question. This weekend, the wife and I hunted some great WIHA lands in Edwards, Ford, and Pawnee counties. Saturday afternoon, we hunted a piece of land that had good numbers of birds, at dust we watched 50+ birds fly out of a standing milo field into the WIHA. Before sunrise we were back at this WIHA waiting on daylight. I decided to park 250 yards west of the milo, so we could get ready and not make too much noise, then walk the dogs down the road and enter the CRP next to the milo to start our hunt. As we were about to get out of the truck, several trucks pulled up and stopped right at the corner next to the milo. I flashed my lights letting them know we were there. They flashed back and 10 guys promptly got out and headed right into the crp. Being very frustrated, we left and went to another field.

Is this common? Should we have just went ahead and hunted here any way? I guess in the future I will just park right where we want to hunt, I was just wanting to keep the noise down, since I knew there were lots of birds in that field.

We are new to bird hunting, and I would like to just know what the common practice is when there are other hunters already at a field. Do you just jump in and beat them to the best spot?
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You were smart to minimize your noise by parking away from the area you intended to hunt -- a very good tactic. But as others have said, you need to park beside the walk in patch you intend to enter to make your intentions known. Your flashing of your car lights may have been interpreted merely as a signal of your presence to ensure your safety when the shootin' started. Under the circumstances, the other party had nothing to go on to indicate your intent to enter the walk in patch. As Beaker points out below, you can enter the field before shooting hours and just wait for the magic minute to arrive. Blaze orange clothing will announce your presence from a long distance.

Last season four of us were taking a line through a half section of CRP walk in, a lot of ground for four hunters. Two trucks pulled up beside us and out jumped two or three strangers who joined our line. At first I thought it was pushy, but then I thought it is public hunting ground, not ours, and a very large field. Besides, a longer line traps more birds. We kept moving and shifted sideways to let them in. They were safe, quiet, and hunted with skill. At the end of the field we got acquainted, they were gentlemen, so we ended up inviting them to continue hunting with us as we went to other walk in patches. It turned out to be a nice deal.

Stay sneaky and you'll have a great season.
 
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One of the things that we have learned to do is drop blockers off at the opposite end of the WIHA, especially for the those first light fields. If another group comes by they'll see hunters, some drive by, some stop and talk, some stop and hunt; it depends. I know it is difficult to do that as a solo or 2-3, but for our small group it seems to work. Never have had a confrontation. Personally, if the field is "taken", I'll move on.
 
Great Idea

beaker said:
One of the things that we have learned to do is drop blockers off at the opposite end of the WIHA, especially for the those first light fields. If another group comes by they'll see hunters, some drive by, some stop and talk, some stop and hunt; it depends. I know it is difficult to do that as a solo or 2-3, but for our small group it seems to work. Never have had a confrontation. Personally, if the field is "taken", I'll move on.
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Putting in the blockers early is a great idea to make clear the intent to hunt the particular patch.
 
BritChaser said:
You were smart to minimize your noise by parking away from the area you intended to hunt -- a very good tactic. But as others have said, you need to park beside the walk in patch you intend to enter to make your intentions known. Your flashing of your car lights may have been interpreted merely as a signal of your presence to ensure your safety when the shootin' started. Under the circumstances, the other party had nothing to go on to indicate your intent to enter the walk in patch. As Beaker points out below, you can enter the field before shooting hours and just wait for the magic minute to arrive. Blaze orange clothing will announce your presence from a long distance.

Last season four of us were taking a line through a half section of CRP walk in, a lot of ground for four hunters. Two trucks pulled up beside us and out jumped two or three strangers who joined our line. At first I thought it was pushy, but then I thought it is public hunting ground, not ours, and a very large field. Besides, a longer line traps more birds. We kept moving and shifted sideways to let them in. They were safe, quiet, and hunted with skill. At the end of the field we got acquainted, they were gentlemen, so we ended up inviting them to continue hunting with us as we went to other walk in patches. It turned out to be a nice deal.

Stay sneaky and you'll have a great season.
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We were parked in front of the walk in, we were parked 200-250 yards west of the north west corner of the walk in area. Like said earlier, I will park at the spot I intend to start next time. Or go ahead and walk to the edge of the field before shooting hours start and wait with the gun unloaded until shooting hours/light arrive.
 
OpenSeason1 said:
We were parked in front of the walk in, we were parked 200-250 yards west of the north west corner of the walk in area. Like said earlier, I will park at the spot I intend to start next time. Or go ahead and walk to the edge of the field before shooting hours start and wait with the gun unloaded until shooting hours/light arrive.
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I've used the stealth method many times myself, although on private property. With walk-ins, ya gotta stake your claim though. I'll bet what you experienced isn't that uncommon.
 
Looks like we will be going to SW Kansas this weekend hunting private land for the most part, but will be much more agressive in my intent if we hunt WIHA's.
 
OpenSeason1 said:
Looks like we will be going to SW Kansas this weekend hunting private land for the most part, but will be much more agressive in my intent if we hunt WIHA's.
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It's unfortunate that you had that happen to you, you did handle it well, better than I would have as a matter of fact. I agree with the others about staking a claim first. There are 2 tracts of WIHA that are seperated by a highway and if we pull up to the north tract and it's got hunters in it or waiting to get in it, we go to the south tract and walk quickly to the northern edge and squat down. The birds that they kick up unseen or miss usually fly right into us. It's a little bit of cheating but we're not doing anything illegal or "crowding" the other group....:D
 
Being from out of State I also felt like our group needed to be the only ones in the WIHA, but after hunting with the locals and going on private ground I realized the more the better hunting. You have got to remember that you are usually hunting very large sections of ground and with dogs, 5 guys or less you could use all the help you can get to pin the birds. All of the natives that I have hunted with have always said their is plenty of room for everyone. Since then I have had a change of attitude and much better success.


Good luck and be safe.
 
I am the kind of guy that will not jump in a field with someone already in or someone that is waiting to get in. Occasionally will hunt a field and get to the center and realize that someone else is also doing the same thing from the other side, both parties usually turn and hunt back towards where they started. Every once in awhile, I will have some jacka$$ jump in on top of me and bust the birds out that I was pushing. At that point I will confront them and give them a piece of my mind. Just happened last week, some Kentuckians road shot the birds that I pushed from a maze field into a weedy ditch with me just a hundred yards away working that direction.
 
BusterB said:
Being from out of State I also felt like our group needed to be the only ones in the WIHA, but after hunting with the locals and going on private ground I realized the more the better hunting. You have got to remember that you are usually hunting very large sections of ground and with dogs, 5 guys or less you could use all the help you can get to pin the birds. All of the natives that I have hunted with have always said their is plenty of room for everyone. Since then I have had a change of attitude and much better success.
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Growing up back east, where hunters always outnumber the pheasants, this was a really hard thing for me to learn. Our group has teamed up with other groups that arrived on big sections the same time we did and its great how quickly the tensions ease when you start planning a hunt together.
 
Field Diplomacy

Rapscallion Vermilion said:
Growing up back east, where hunters always outnumber the pheasants, this was a really hard thing for me to learn. Our group has teamed up with other groups that arrived on big sections the same time we did and its great how quickly the tensions ease when you start planning a hunt together.
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This is a very productive and mature approach and enhances everyone's chances of bagging the wily birds.
 
Claiming the field

When we were down last week we also saw an area we wanted to hunt first thing in the morning but we were late getting there. A truck with Missouri plates was parked in the drive. We didn't see anyone in the field but left it and went to another. Then we started noticing other fields that had trucks with Missouri plates parked in them or beside them and no one in the field. On one field we got out and used binocs to check for any other hunters and since there was no one in the field, we hunted it but came in from another side. That truck was parked there three hours later and it was only a quarter section.
We began to assume (rightly so I believe) they were parking trucks trying to "stake" fields for themselves.
I don't like to horn it on other hunters and I don't really like to hunt with big groups or people I don't know. I usually go with a couple of good friends that I know are safe and leave it at that.
I always thought that when you parked your truck you would be hunting in the field but from what I saw I'm not sure that is the case anymore.
 
airmedic1 said:
When we were down last week we also saw an area we wanted to hunt first thing in the morning but we were late getting there. A truck with Missouri plates was parked in the drive. We didn't see anyone in the field but left it and went to another. Then we started noticing other fields that had trucks with Missouri plates parked in them or beside them and no one in the field. On one field we got out and used binocs to check for any other hunters and since there was no one in the field, we hunted it but came in from another side. That truck was parked there three hours later and it was only a quarter section.
We began to assume (rightly so I believe) they were parking trucks trying to "stake" fields for themselves.
I don't like to horn it on other hunters and I don't really like to hunt with big groups or people I don't know. I usually go with a couple of good friends that I know are safe and leave it at that.
I always thought that when you parked your truck you would be hunting in the field but from what I saw I'm not sure that is the case anymore.
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Now I think that would upset me somewhat. I mean it's there for everybody to hunt, things like that is a good way for a farmer to just take it out of WIHA and post it no tresspassing.
 
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