Newbie Headed to Kansas for the First Time - Updated with Report

C

cddogfan1

New member
Posted this in the Intro Forum re-posting here to see if I get a few more responses. Please delete if thats not allowed.

I live in Central Georgia. Always been a avid deer, turkey, duck and small game hunter. Just getting into upland hunting and traveling to do so. This will be my first season traveling with a trip planned in late December , early January for Kansas. Taking my GWP pup and my 15 year old son. Had this same trip planed last year but lost my GWP to the mail carrier so I had to cancel and start all over with a new dog. Will be staying in the Dodge City area and hunting west of there. I have 3000 acre day leased for 3 days and plan to hit some walk in area also if needed. I am a newbie to the area and upland hunting in general came here to search for information and would greatly appreciate any advice someone was willing to give. From where to eat, anny side trips worth a detour, game signs to look for just whatever. If anybody is free on Dec 3 to Jan 1 and is interested in showing a newbie the ropes or if a newbie also and want to share in the learning curve with me shoot me a PM and we can discuss.

Thanks

Chris
 
Sorry to here about your first dog , good you have access to private ground . Birds will be feeding in the wheat and Milo,stubble early . If you have waterways / draws that run through crop fields that have good cover in them this can be a good place to start .

Also if you are hunting where there are center pivots the pivot corners where irrigation doesn’t hit I’d often in native grass these area can be real good since the bedroom is right next to the kitchen .

Hope this helps a bit
 
Make the most of your private, by January it could be substantially better than public. I’ve had some really good quail hunts west of there with bonus pheasant encounters.. have a plan for grass burs
 
On average, I would estimate that I'll walk 15-20,000 steps in a full day of hunting. I'm guessing the dog gets at least double that. These steps often involve dragging legs through heavy cover or pushing through heavy weeds. It takes a toll on your body if you aren't in shape. If you are going to be here for several days, use some moderation the first couple of days so you both (and the new pup) have some energy for days 3, 4 and beyond. Carry plenty of water and snacks for both man and dog.
Look for pheasant tracks on road ways if the roads are dusty or lucky enough to have some snow cover ground during your trip. Where there are pheasants, you should find quail. Birds like weeds either in the food source or near food sources (corn and milo fields). Abandoned farm sites with tree rows are always good.
Restaurants are plentiful near Dodge, especially mexican food. Look at Trip Advisor for restaurant recommendations.
I'd have 6 shot shells since a mixed bag may occupy the same field. I'm sure you know this being from Georgia, but larger pellets are tough on quail. Should be a good area for finding birds. You can always drive looking for a better spots, but unnecessary if you find birds the first 2-3 days near your land lease. Just keep marching, you'll find more birds, even if they weren't there the day before.
Good luck! Hopefully you can meet some locals. Having a kid in your party, will help break the ice when asking for permission. Treat them well, and it could turn into a lifelong relationship for return trips each year.
 
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Carguy2Banker said:
On average, I would estimate that I'll walk 15-20,000 steps in a full day of hunting. I'm guessing the dog gets at least double that. These steps often involve dragging legs through heavy cover or pushing through heavy weeds. It takes a toll on your body of you aren't in shape. If you are going to be here for several days, use some moderation the first couple of days so you both (and the new pup) have some energy for days 3, 4 and beyond. Carry plenty of water and snacks for both man and dog.
Look for pheasant tracks on road ways if the roads are dusty or lucky enough to have some snow cover ground during your trip. Where there are pheasants, you should find quail. Birds like weeds either in the food source or near food sources (corn and milo fields). Abandoned farm sites with tree rows are always good.
Restaurants are plentiful near Dodge, especially mexican food. Look at Trip Advisor for restaurant recommendations.
I'd have 6 shot shells since a mixed bag may occupy the same field. I'm sure you know this being from Georgia, but larger pellets are tough on quail. Should be a good area for finding birds. You can always drive looking for a better spots, but unnecessary if you find birds the first 2-3 days near your land lease.
Good luck! Hopefully you can meet some locals. Having a kid in your party, will help break the ice when asking for permission. Treat them well, and it could turn into a lifelong relationship for return trips each year.
Click to expand...
Good point about carrying dog water, aside from swinging temps it could be low humidity and dusty.
 
Carguy2Banker said:
On average, I would estimate that I'll walk 15-20,000 steps in a full day of hunting. I'm guessing the dog gets at least double that. These steps often involve dragging legs through heavy cover or pushing through heavy weeds. It takes a toll on your body if you aren't in shape. If you are going to be here for several days, use some moderation the first couple of days so you both (and the new pup) have some energy for days 3, 4 and beyond. Carry plenty of water and snacks for both man and dog.
Look for pheasant tracks on road ways if the roads are dusty or lucky enough to have some snow cover ground during your trip. Where there are pheasants, you should find quail. Birds like weeds either in the food source or near food sources (corn and milo fields). Abandoned farm sites with tree rows are always good.
Restaurants are plentiful near Dodge, especially mexican food. Look at Trip Advisor for restaurant recommendations.
I'd have 6 shot shells since a mixed bag may occupy the same field. I'm sure you know this being from Georgia, but larger pellets are tough on quail. Should be a good area for finding birds. You can always drive looking for a better spots, but unnecessary if you find birds the first 2-3 days near your land lease. Just keep marching, you'll find more birds, even if they weren't there the day before.
Good luck! Hopefully you can meet some locals. Having a kid in your party, will help break the ice when asking for permission. Treat them well, and it could turn into a lifelong relationship for return trips each year.
Click to expand...

There is nothing better than a light 1 inch snow overnight so that you can see pheasant tracks the next morning. You can do all the scouting you want but its the easiest way to know if birds are actually in the field you are hunting.

A couple of years ago I was hunting a harvested corn field next to some CRP....Saw some tracks and followed them into the CRP, lost the track and followed them back then back to where I was. I couldn't figure out where the bird was and my 2 year old dog was working on some other scent so I decided to take a piss.

Right when it started flowing a rooster flew up about 2 ft to my left and scared the shit out of me, I guess it had just buried itself in the grass and camped out. I fumbled around with the gun and by the time I got a shot off I was too flustered and missed it.

10/10 Would recommend.
 
So we had a great time. Although we came home with a empty game bag. We have a load of memories and lessons learned to help us with the next trip. Which I am already planning.

Day 1 - Was not able to meet landowner until after we hunted. We turned out on a huge cut milo field. Walked it all morning and found 1 hen pheasant. Owner later told me this was probably a mistake with just us 2 and 1 dog. Especially with the warmer weather. Meet with the owner and he pointed out some areas on his land map. Told me to concentrate on ticker cover. Basically area between crops where the tractors could not get and it grows up.

Day 2 - Took the information from Day 1. Hit a few places based on that and found 6 pheasants with 3 being rosters. Also found 1 big covey of quail. But between the warm weather, a 9 month old GWP rookie, we were never afforded any good shots. (Owner of the property said the birds are more prone to flush sooner) Do yall concur with that statement. Did not hunt much that day because it was obvious the dog was struggling due to the miles we put on him day 1.

Day 3 - Taking our previous days experiences we hit a few places and were in brides. Probably found 20-25 pheasant in 3 locations and another big covey of quail. Again no real shots just like the day before but we did locate birds.


Dodge City was great. Plenty of good restaurant. Nice clean city I thought for the most part. We will definitely go back and do this trip again. Hopefully with this education and another year of dog training we come back next time with birds. It was a great Father , Son and Dog trip.
 
Glad you had a good time with the kid and dog, one of the things I love about pheasant hunting is the worst case scenario you still hiked a couple of miles through nature and got to enjoy being outside.

I hunted out in NWKS for the third time last weekend and one thing that really stuck out to me was the birds were flushing super far away or right next to me compared to the first two hunts. That's pretty typical for late season birds though, the ones that have survived multiple hunters either GTFO at the first sounds or bury themselves down deep until you are right on top of them hoping you will walk past them.

Give the dog another year or so and it will start finding the ones buried in the grass 5-10 ft away that you might have walked by on this trip.

Hopefully you get cooler weather next time as dogs tire out pretty quickly in the afternoon when its up in the 60's. Ideal weather would be in the 40-45 degree range with a light wind...but next time you out you will probably get 20 degrees and blowing snow in 30mph winds...Just how it is.
 
cddogfan1 said:
So we had a great time. Although we came home with a empty game bag. We have a load of memories and lessons learned to help us with the next trip. Which I am already planning.

Day 1 - Was not able to meet landowner until after we hunted. We turned out on a huge cut milo field. Walked it all morning and found 1 hen pheasant. Owner later told me this was probably a mistake with just us 2 and 1 dog. Especially with the warmer weather. Meet with the owner and he pointed out some areas on his land map. Told me to concentrate on ticker cover. Basically area between crops where the tractors could not get and it grows up.

Day 2 - Took the information from Day 1. Hit a few places based on that and found 6 pheasants with 3 being rosters. Also found 1 big covey of quail. But between the warm weather, a 9 month old GWP rookie, we were never afforded any good shots. (Owner of the property said the birds are more prone to flush sooner) Do yall concur with that statement. Did not hunt much that day because it was obvious the dog was struggling due to the miles we put on him day 1.

Day 3 - Taking our previous days experiences we hit a few places and were in brides. Probably found 20-25 pheasant in 3 locations and another big covey of quail. Again no real shots just like the day before but we did locate birds.


Dodge City was great. Plenty of good restaurant. Nice clean city I thought for the most part. We will definitely go back and do this trip again. Hopefully with this education and another year of dog training we come back next time with birds. It was a great Father , Son and Dog trip.
Click to expand...
One tip on quail that's different than pheasants. If you watch where they land after the initial flush, it's easier to get shots on singles as they tend to sit longer. Sometimes it's hard to get them to flush again, but since you know where they are, you can be patient and hunt that area very slow and thorough. This is excellent for young dog development also.
 
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