A group of us went to Wakeeney, Ks to chase pheasant, quail, and prairie chickens over the past 5-7 days. It was tough. The birds were skittish. The cover was lacking. Here are my pictures and story.

We headed up to Wakeeney on the 16th. We stopped in some of my old hunting areas on the way for an evening hunt. We found about 12 prairie chickens, 12 pheasant, and a covey of quail on the first day. The chicken season hadn't started yet and I missed my shot at a rooster. Someone else missed the quail because a rooster ran into the brush and the quail coming out took a minute to register.

The second day we drove like crazy. We put over 250 miles on the truck looking for birds. We found a dozen in the fields during the day and over 100 in one field at sun down. I managed to shoot three and miss one. My hunting buddy shot two.

The third day was a little tougher. We hit all new WIHA lands and didn't find any birds until about noon. In one 1000 acre unit, we found three groups of birds totaling about 15 birds. I bagged two. We walked the rest of the day missing our opportunites.

The fourth day we brought some other hunters along so that we could hit some larger areas. We pushed birds all around our blockers and very few shots were taken. In the end of that day, our group only bagged two birds, but one was the first ever for the hunter.

Our fifth and last day took us back to our old stomping grounds. We found 6 chickens. It was now chicken season. We didn't get any, but it wasn't for a lack of walking. We also found 2-3 hens. My dog also caught a cotton tail rabbit. It was released.

A few (really a lot) of pictures:

Enjoy!



Walking.




Double B20 about to push a rooster right to me.




This is Deuce. He is a rescue dog I picked up in August. He has had very little training, but he was excellent.




My first day's haul.




My group's first day's haul.




The Super8 motel has an indoor cleaning station. It was really cold up there, so this was nice.




My dogs working the field.




DoubleB20 working the field.




My second day's haul.




This is Deuce's first pheasant. Deuce found it, I shot it, and he retrieved it to me. It was excellent. He acted like an old pro.

This was this hunter's first pheasant.




This was the closing of the last evening. My dogs wanted more. They were looking back into the field we just cleared.

Here is a camera phone picture of Izzy after the 3rd day of hunting. She just crawled into bed.

This was our first time hunting Pheasants like this, we have both hunted some private land up by Amarillo but this was different. We hunted hard every day but came up short on Pheasants, we saw a total of about 20 but only shot at 2 & they were too far, we did get some good dog work on a few coveys of Quail & did get to kill a few of those but no Pheasants for us. But we had a great time & really enjoyed meeting everyone. We learned a ton about hunting up there & look forward to doing it again when these birds make a comeback. For now we will stick to our few coveys of Quail a day in Oklahoma & pen raised quail at the training field by my house. Most important thing, we had fun & it was a safe trip.

Glad you all had a good time Kevin. Dee and I are headed to Salina on Dec 21st for the Xmas holidays. Hope to get into some pheaseant and quail while we are there.

In 2 1/2 days of hunting, our group flushed 9 roosters, 6 hens and 6 prairie chickens. Colt solidly pointed and held one rooster that was in heavy cover. He bumped 3 roosters and 3 hens while tracking the scent trail. A few presented shot opportunities but unfortunately, we came home empty handed. They were a difficult bird to hunt this year!

This was our first trip to Kansas and even though the hunting was tough, I think we are hooked! It was nice to meet and hunt with a bunch of guys from the forum. We all got along well and had a good time. Since we live down in Houston, its a chore to drive to middle America so we won't be going back this season. However, we plan to make it an annual event, can't wait for next season.

Here are a few pics:

Colt and Pepper searching for fish -



Ed and Pepper working into a bottom-



Colt not enjoying posing for a picture -



The dogs searching for a drink -



Izzy wasn't the only one who liked Super 8's beds -

I concur with the Kansas bird assessment. It was tough this year. We hunted around Colby opening weekend. 9 hunters, 5 dogs, 3 days, 20 birds. Walked 8-10 miles per day and drove 80-160 miles per day. Still beats working.

Great to hear of your rescue of Deuce and that he did a good job for you!