Kansas Hunts
Pheasant Specific
Upland Bird Topics | We realize hunting pictures without text fail to put the picture into context in terms of what is to be expected with our Kansas pheasant hunting. We will attempt to add some of that understanding without repeating too much of what has already been said.
Over the years of working with many traveling pheasant hunters we found these dog-on-point pictures to serve the pheasant hunter/reader well at getting a eye calibrated for what habitat to pheasant 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 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 or that which is the earliest detected. This dog has typically an 8 to 12 foot point standoff on a single pheasant and that is all the more important in the thinner grass seen in this picture. Dogs with less than 6 foot point standoff on pheasants will more likely than not have blank points from running birds. Every pheasant topic on this page is subject to debate and criticism as upland bird hunters are an opinionated lot. If we all agree that our motivation is to encourage as much hunt quality as possible for the membership renewals of our hunters then we may also agree this discussion is not bird dog hunter ego, but rather hunter success motivated. The backing dog is as necessary as is a dog that is steady hunter flush as well as wild flush. A dog that breaks point on any flush will most likely further flush surrounding pheasants and lessen the quality of the hunt in terms of no additional points and hunter shot opportunity. Such a flush running dog will also find additional success at more wild flushes taking him well out of gun, beeper collar and hunting range for that walk. The cause is that rarely is there just one pheasant in the immediate area when a dog points. Experienced pheasant hunters believe that for every pheasant pointed there are more that run and fewer that wild flush away beyond that of the pointed bird. A pheasant flushing dog will find a series of pheasants that if all are cased that hunter will be pheasant hunting without a dog soon after entering the field.
The two Kansas hunt pictures on this web page are from the same field. All of our several pheasant regions overlap that of varying quail population density distribution range. 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. Such combination pheasant and quail fields are common to a Kansas hunt.
Part of the fun of our hunts is the amount of acreage we have available to each self guided hunter each day allows for this 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 members that complain they do not bag limits. We have had comments that our website does present that every hunter will be highly successful. We will also state emphatically that our wild pheasant and Bobwhite Quail hunts are as hard of bird hunts as there will be for great plains bird hunts. 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 bird hunts find our pheasant and quail hunts to be physically easy, see more birds, more enjoyable for eyes on dog action and 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. 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. |
