Missouri Pheasant Hunting
Missouri pheasant hunting is limited as Missouri pheasant habitat is localized as is its pheasant population having low densities. Missouri upland bird hunting is for Bobwhite Quail with an occasional pheasant from its northern region. The better pheasant hunting is to be found in Kansas.
Why Not Missouri Pheasant Hunting - The Farming Difference
Missouri's lower quality pheasants hunting stems largely from a lack of large contiguous tall grass acreage. And, that will not change. Missouri has two regions. One is grain farming and the other is the Ozark Mountains. Mountains require no discussion of their poor pheasant hunting. Farming on the other hand directly affects all of our Iowa, Kansas and Missouri pheasant hunting.
Within Missouri's grain farming region that is suited for tall grass lands the soil and rainfall is such to produce the high value grains of soybean and corn. CRP never has and most likely never will pay enough to overcome the profit gained from these two crops. Quail hunting on the other hand benefits greatly from Missouri's river bottom land and grain farming.
Without large acreage tall grass what is left is the occasional low brush grass waterway and fallow farm that will hold pheasants. This cover is a minority within this agricultural rich region to the point that active pheasant hunting is a bonus and not part of the hunt.
Missouri Pheasant Hunting Region
Optimistically it is written in some Missouri upland bird publications that pheasants are present north of HWY 70. It is more likely to find pheasants north of HWY 36 in Missouri. Missouri is known to have the least pheasant numbers of our three hunting states (Iowa and Kansas) region where Mid-America Hunting Association has private land hunting.
The upland bird habitat of grass, brush and wooded drainage's both wet and dry cutting through Missouri's grain farming region creates miles of edge protective cover along food source gain fields. That creates covey hunting country. Missouri on an average year will have more wild Bobwhite Quail than Kansas. Kansas will have more pheasant. This gives choice to upland bird hunting of what to hunt and cover habitat variety. Most pheasant hunters that do hunt Missouri do so as a stop over hunt to shorten their drive while traveling to or from a Kansas pheasant hunt.
Our wild Missouri pheasant hunting is north of highway 70 and some other small pockets located elsewhere in the state. The prime Missouri counties are the northern two tier counties along the Iowa state line.
Missouri's the daily ringneck limit is 2. The significant difference between our Missouri pheasant hunts and that in Kansas are the larger number of quail coveys to be found. This makes Missouri the first choice for those hunters desiring a upland bird mix with an emphasis on quail hunting.
Missouri counties and the acreage available in that county for hunting.
Missouri Upland Bird Hunting & Habitat
Typical upland bird habitat is the soft edge that sometimes runs for a good distance around fields, along creek bottoms and wood patches.
For the majority of upland bird hunters this state provides far more quail than ringneck. When the roosters are found it is on these seemingly small patches of cover along the field edge. For anyone accustomed to shooting quail the rooster on rise seems far too easy of a target. If one is missed it is largely due to surprise than shooting conditions.
Pheasant Hunting Habitat examples showing large acreage tall grass pheasant hunting lands page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7...
While limited in range, ringneck habitat does offer some advantages that Kansas does not.
These advantages largely center on the habitat is predominately farm fields with only occasional CRP in tall grass. These farm fields are generally smaller as tree lined creeks and fence rows subdivide many of the farms.
Running bird dogs anywhere in this state will also set up many deer and turkey spots as the entire state holds both in very huntable populations. Those wanting to break a bird dog from pointing or running turkeys will find plenty of opportunity to do so.
Missouri upland bird season starts the first of November and runs to 15 January. This is one week earlier than Kansas and less than a week after Iowa opens the last Saturday in October. Kansas remains open through the end of January.
All land is divided into units of hunting land with a specified gun limit. Their purpose is to prevent too many hunters on too few acres and too many consecutive days.
The intended result is a good day in the field working dogs on birds that have not been pressured whenever the member has time to hunt. The upland bird units also allow us to prevent hunters from excessively working any one unit.
As we are a private land self guided hunter business and not a hunting club we can insure this as that is our assurance of returning memberships.
Missouri's pheasant hunting option is not the best choice compared to our Kansas or Iowa land. Missouri upland bird hunting is an acceptable hunt in the northern reaches of the state for those more oriented toward quail rather than pheasant hunting.
Kansas Pheasant Hunting Is The Best We Have
What Missouri lacks Kansas has much of. That difference is tall grass lands of large acreage. The protective cover habitat pheasants desire. The cause for Kansas having more tall acreage is lower quality soil and less rainfall than Missouri. This drives lower value grain farming of wheat and milo. Soybean and corn when found is either in the lower pheasant density higher rainfall region of eastern Kansas or irrigated in central and western Kansas, the higher density pheasant regions. In these areas CRP payments are competitive with profit margins of wheat and milo. That plus lower rainfall makes CRP an attractive diversified income source for many farmers especially so on drought years. This brings us to one advantage of this hunting Association over that of a local outfitter.
Mid-America Hunting Association Upland Bird Hunter Advantage
That advantage is we do not operate a lodge. Our hunters lodge in local motels. That allows us to spend Association hunter dollars where we get the most return for the upland bird hunter. For the pheasant hunter he has a choice between occasional pheasants and more quail in Missouri. Or, a lot more pheasant and less quail in Kansas.
Flushing/retrieving dog hunters will travel to the tall grass lands for the higher density pheasant populations in cover that tends to keep dogs close. Pointing dog hunters frequently tire of walking the tall grass and seek quail hunts for more points per mile and easier walking of grain field edges.
Flexibility To The Hunt
The real advantage is that every upland bird hunter has flexibility of choice. That choice is of what bird and habitat that he wants to hunt. A hard value to find elsewhere. That is on non-competitive private land wild upland bird hunting.