Kansas Pheasant Hunting Beliefs and Value
Our self guided Kansas pheasant hunting is the best pheasant hunt of our three state upland bird region. The range of habitat making that better hunt possible. This is true in spite of what many feel about Iowa. Some also believe we offer too much.
Kansas Pheasant Hunter Feedback
Another Kansas Pheasant Hunter
Here's a couple of shots from last week (youth weekend - 16 yrs and younger / prior to opening day for everyone else).
This was Joe's and Daisy's first rooster. It was a great weekend. We saw a lot of birds, but only had 3 roosters in shooting range. Joe bagged only one, but it was a great shot and retrieve for the team.
I was very pleased with Daisy this weekend (opener). We got 4 birds (three ringneck, one quail) in the bag and could have had 3 more easily. I lost one and just outright missed 2 easy shots. Six or more birds got up in each of the two misses and I just got two excited.
The wind was terrible. Only when it calmed down a bit was she able to pick up the scent, track and flush. She had numerous perfect flushes. I read her all the way and she ran the birds down and flushed them. She maintained in control throughout. It was great. She's going to be a great bird dog. Once it gets cooler and she increases her stamina...watch out!
Joe
Cost Versus Value
Comments from prospective pheasant hunters before membership application include such analysis of why must they pay for three states of private land access when they plan to only Kansas pheasant hunt. The reality of our membership costs is that no one hunter is paying enough money to cover all the leases he will hunt. Having multiple hunters paying for the land is far more economical approach to securing more land. Besides within our approach we do not expect every hunter to hunt all three states. If we did we would have to increase our costs to secure more land.
This typically leads into the next question of how can we lease so much land and not over populate it with hunters. The answer is that we do not cater to just one type of hunter. We allow Mule and Whitetail Deer; Eastern and Rio Grande Turkey; goose and duck hunts. Add to this that the majority of our membership is non-resident to our locality. Hunters travel from 36 states with many spending a week a year. It quickly becomes apparent hunters will not be crossing the tracks of others or mixing their dogs. The simple math of season days, acreage and hunters shows this.
The real confidence the hunter has that he will be able to hunt wild birds is a business decision. That decision made back in 1965 was and is to cater to only self guided hunters as an efficient business cost benefit operating basis.
This means we are opposed to a club or preserve mentality of escorting hunters. We realize that the only reason any hunter would return is if they have a good hunt. That is what we seek and work towards.
Now back to the original Kansas pheasant hunter questions of why pay to hunt or have access to such a large amount of land. The answer is that the hunter is not. But, he and the deer and turkey hunter are. Each may use the same land at different times for different purpose and not adversely impact on the other.
Kansas Pheasant Hunts
We realize pictures need text to put the picture into context. In this care in terms of what is to be expected with our Kansas pheasant hunts. We will attempt to add some of that understanding without repeating too much of what has already been said.
Use of pointing dog pictures is due to the ease at getting pictures. That is pictures of the dogs. Flushing/retrieving dogs and their hunters are welcomed. We receive far fewer pictures of flushing/retrieving dogs simply due to the difficulty of taking pictures of dogs moving quickly through the grass. Especially those dogs on birds.
Over the years of working with many traveling pheasant hunters we found these dog-on-point pictures to serve the hunter/reader well at getting an eye calibrated for what habitat to hunt.
The dog on point has the pointing style of crouching down. His value as a pheasant hunter is his long standoff on point. Sometimes referred to as a dog that points first scent rather than strong scent point (core scent or cone scent). The difference is a dog that has a longer rather than a shorter standoff while on point is assumed to be pointing fringe cone scent. That which is the earliest detected. This dog has typically an 8 to 12 foot point standoff on a single bird. That is all the more important in the thinner less likely to hold a ringneck for point grass seen in this picture. Dogs with less than 6 foot point standoff will more likely than not have blank points from running birds.
Every topic on this page is subject to debate and criticism. Upland bird hunters are an opinionated lot. If we all agree that our motivation is to encourage as much hunt quality as possible for Association hunter renewals. Then we may also agree this discussion is not bird dog hunter ego, but rather hunter success motivated.
A backing dog is a great advantage. This continues with a dog that is steady to hunter flush and wild flush. Having that means more shot opportunity. Missing any one of these dog behaviors is all the difference required between good and bad hunts.
A dog that breaks point or a flusher that chases on any flush will most likely further flush surrounding pheasants. And, frequently do so without hunter shot opportunity. This lessens the quality of the hunt in terms of no additional points and hunter shot opportunity for that spot in that field. Most that have some time in the field, especially the solitary hunter with one dog, knows full well more birds are bypassed in a field than are flushed or pointed. Lessen the disturbance to that field outside of gun range and the return walk to the truck will gain another point/flush or more.
A flush running dog will also find additional success at more wild flushes taking him well out of gun and bell/beeper collar range running the remainder of that field. The cause is that rarely is there just one bird in the immediate area when a dog points. Experienced hunters believe that for every point/flush there are more that run and fewer that wild flush. A flushing running dog will find a series of pheasants that if all are chased that hunter will be without a dog soon after entering the field.
Upland Bird Hunt Of Pheasant And Bobwhite Quail
All of our several upland bird regions overlap that of varying quail population density distribution. The typical indicator of what is being pointed, either a pheasant or quail, is the immediate habitat and location within the large acreage tall grass field. Quail are more likely, not always, in the grass edge along a crop field and especially so near a lightly wooded waterway, fence line or brush edge woodlot. Pheasants can be any where in the tall grass and less likely along wooded edge lines and more so nearer grain fields. Such combination pheasant and quail fields are common to a Kansas hunt.
Having hunted through the tall grass to the creek line a covey of quail was found.
Part of the fun of our hunts is the amount of acreage we have available to each self guided hunter. That recurs each day allowing for the mystery of what is out there when stepping from the truck onto a different farm each time heading out.
With all of these presentations we do not intend to promote the ideal that every hunt is successful. We do have upland bird hunters every year that find our hunts too hard. We have first year Association hunters that complain they do not bag limits. We have had comments that our web site does present that every hunter will be successful. We will also state emphatically that our wild upland bird hunts are hard.
Those that want a tougher upland bird hunt should try a mountain grouse hunt, run some chukar ridges or even the ruff grouse of Michigan wooded flat lands. Those that have been on such upland bird hunts find our pheasant and quail hunts to be physically easy, see more birds, more enjoyable for eyes on dog action. Simple things such as the ability to enjoy the day in the outdoors without worry of checking a compass every 15 minutes or making sure they did pack an extra set of GPS batteries make the hunt that much better. Those concerns are a bigger load than the difficult fatigue generating walks and short quick shots of fleeting brown whorls dodging trees. These are the kind of hunters that find the quality of the hunt more appealing than bird numbers.
What are reasonable upland bird hunter expectations for our wild upland bird hunts?
It is only the hardest walking strength, never miss shooting ability and the hunter with a brace of the best dog power of long standoff, backing, steady to wild flush, close working, slow stalk, fast ground running dogs that will bag a limit of pheasant and quail in a single day. There are less than a dozen such hunters in the entire Association.
What can be expected is that each do it yourself hunter each day will have his dog on birds, pheasant and quail if he likes. After that it is all up to the hunter.