They've gone insane here. Yesterday morning I walked out to my truck in the parking lot at work and there was a youngish doe trotting up the shoulder of the fairly busy 4-lane highway. It paused, and I shouted; "What are you doing? Get away from the road!" It stared at me so I shouted, "Get over here!" and here she comes.

Walked right up to me and sniffed my leg and let me rub behind her ear. I said, "Come on with me away from the road" and started walking to the back lot that is wooded about 200 yards back. She walked beside me all the way like a damned dog. Craziest thing I've ever seen.

How's everybody's upland bird numbers looking?

Season starts tomorrow here in Kansas. Better quail numbers, not sure about the pheasants. Probably a feast or famine type of season.

Gonna be a shitty opening weekend for the orange army...cold as hell and windy as shit. Hope they all stay home

My dad has only seen a few pheasant the past two weeks. He and I saw a hen run into some milo stubble today and that is it. My uncle used to combine for a family out in Healy and all year round they said they saw them every where. What we’ve heard from all over is that opening day hit and the suckers just disappeared. We just checked into a hotel in Hays and are going to hunt some areas he scooped out earlier in between here and Healy. Though an old boy here at the hotel coming from Colby said they are all over out there. Said they have signs on the hotel rooms saying not to clean the birds in the rooms. Of course, those signs could have been there for some time and not indicative of this season.

Otherwise, it’s been a covey of quail here and there.

There are some, not a ton out here. (I’m south and west of Healy 30 miles)

The only ones I’ve seen where in stripped wheat stubble and they’ll be hard to get out. Probably OK if you have a good dog, but not a ton.

I went pheasant hunting for about 10 years out in Gorham, KS and it got progressively worse every year.

I quit going 6-8 years ago. It’s mostly just walking fields these days.

I’m sure there’s a reason but the hell if I know what it is.

Usually habitat quality and drought are the greatest factors, but in my area of South-Central Kansas, we didn't have significant issues with either.

Predation is likely worse due to rock-bottom furbearer prices and a decrease in trapping interest.

My guess is that if it does get good, it will be after the weather gets consistently cold, and all the standing milo is cut.

Even the waterfowl openers were meh, likely due to such a mild fall throughout the flyway.

Still working on the good dog. High bred and you can tell but, only two years old and needing to actually get into birds consistently to get it all put together.


Weather certainly hasn’t been helping. It was good and cold yesterday morning but, we got back to truck at one point in the afternoon and it was reading 75 degrees out. A nice cold spell and maybe even a light snow would be nice.

I haven’t been up there, but there are probably several reasons.

6-8 years ago was the worst drought since the Dust Bowl. Here anyway. I imagine there too.

That area is probably far enough east they probably switched to some beans. Those are cut off on the ground as opposed to leaving standing stalks.

Another component is there are fewer shitty farmers. When I was a kid there were always some ****ers that would have a weed mess. And that is cover and a good food source for pheasants. Economics and attrition has drive those guys out to a high degree. I’m guessing Gorham hasn’t escaped that economic trend.

Here there is less irrigation by a substantial amount. I don’t know if there was ever irrigation there, so that may not be a factor.

Predation is a major issue. Now there are far more coyotes than there used to be. And the first Fox moved in probably 5 years ago. Those quick little ****ers are hard to kill.

I’m sure there are other components I’m missing, because in theory the bitds should have bounced back better after the drought. And there will be some where there is cover and water, but the numbers just won’t take off it seems.

I'm almost certain birds of prey are a factor.

I saw a covey of quail in Holt County Missouri while deer hunting last week. First quail I've seen or heard in the 9 years I've lived at Big Lake. Brought back some fond memories of my old English Setter Sam I enjoyed for 13 years back in the 70's and 80's.

Just an idea for you pheasant hunters out there that are struggling to find pheasants.
Up here in Nebraska the pheasant population is dam near zero.
But we do have a Pheasants Forever club about 35miles west of Omaha. Have I ever hunted the P-forever land or belong to the club? No.
But I know every farmer and land owner with in 2 miles of
P-forever's land and have permission to hunt it. And those lands around Pheasants Forever are full of escapees.
So if you have a pheasant preservation club around.
You want to hunt as close to that property as possible.
And dogs you need good dogs to hunt Pheasants.

Could very well be. I was on the tractor and I saw a hawk come along and just obliterate this hen pheasant. Couldn't see it coming, had no chance. They're not made to defend against that kind of predator.

Holy shit.

So my sister won a dove hunt in Argentina for 6 people and my brother in law invited me and my best friend (who's my OTHER brother in-law but who's wife is my wife's sister and also my sister's best friend; long story).

Evidently Argentina dove hunting is one of the 'bucket list' items for hunters. From what I can tell Doves are a massive nuisances in Argentina and so these hunts are so insane that EACH hunter in the group can be expected to fire 1,000 rounds in a given day.

1,000 ****ing rounds?!?!

5 days in Argentina with guides taking us up into the mountains to roust these things and 'bird boys' who chase down and count our birds. Then around mid-day you go cut down some trees, start a big damn fire, have some drinks and then go out shooting again.

Not gonna lie - this sounds cool as shit.

It really is a bucket list hunt for wing shooters.

The only thing that really compares from an action perspective is a midwest snow goose hunt when you're on the absolute X during a weather event.

Enjoy the shit out of that. I'm jealous.