SW Kansas Bird Hunt

[Phil Lilley]

Just got back from a bird hunting trip.  Stayed in Greenburg, KS and traveled/hunted north and south of Mullenville.  There was already about 6 inches of snow.  It snowed about 6 on Tuesday.  Yes it was windy and cold.

Hunted Monday - saw lots of birds but only in thick CRP areas next to grain fields.  There was a fair number of fields of uncut milo which probably held a lot of birds but impossible to walk.  The stalks were bent over blocking any effort to walk through.  The thick CRP was tough enough to push through, esp with the snow.  Found a couple of coveys of quail.

Tuesday, we hunted in falling snow and a 10 mph east wind.  Four degrees early but it got up to 24.  Great hunting conditions but we didn't have access or many good looking fields.  The fields we walked didn't hold birds because the snow beat down the minimal cover that was there.  Walked some good quail spots but the numbers are down this year - they weren't there.

Wednesday - more of the same.  

We did see a good number of pheasant this year, more than we've seen in the past 3 years.  A lot of roosters too.  They did get up wold on us several times but some did hold tight and we got shots.  8 of us ended up with about 15 pheasants and the same number of quail.

[Phil Lilley]

 

[ness]

Glad to hear you had a decent hunt and the birds are doing OK. I love that area and I sure do miss going out there.

I've stayed in Greensburg a few times and I've hunted out towards Mullinville. Used to belong to a club that had some properties out there, plus there was plenty of good WIHA around too. Last time out saw more quail than pheasant. 

Were you guys on private land or walk in? Did you see many other folks hunting?

Got a text out of the blue from a friend of mine yesterday with a picture of a place in Gove County we just called 'The Big Draw'. Just a great location that our group had kinda loose permission to hunt. Really got me thinking I oughta just pack up and head out somewhere, if for no other reason than to get out. I've got a bad case of the shack nasties. 

 

[Phil Lilley]

Private.  There's very little Walk In hunting areas around there now.  Do you have the app called OnX?  It shows all the WIHA areas.

Didn't see anyone else hunting but there were a couple of guys staying at the motel.  And a group of 8 at the diner.

[ness]

24 minutes ago, Phil Lilley said:

Private.  There's very little Walk In hunting areas around there now.  Do you have the app called OnX?  It shows all the WIHA areas.

Didn't see anyone else hunting but there were a couple of guys staying at the motel.  And a group of 8 at the diner.

I didn't have OnX but I'm looking at it now. Looks pretty handy.