Tomorrow is opening day for wild pheasant hunting. Its been 15 years since I hunted pheasants up there and it was fun chasing those wild fast flying pheasants. I am just curious to know how are they doing. And if we still have a huntable population. A report would be nice.

Panhandle is a big place. To answer your question check the perception maps for rain fail totals from Jan 22 - aug 1, 22. If your area is below average, it’s going to be rough.

My place had 7” total from Jan to Aug. birds are sparse

I saw 3 birds two weeks ago when I was MD hunting around Plainview. Not enough to haul the dog up . I did see one big covey of Bob's which was encouraging. I'll leave them alone as well. Maybe some will survive the winter.

Some occasional roosters have been seen around Dalhart but numbers are way, way down. I live here and don't bother with them. We saw next to zero precipitation from November until late June.

I’m north of Dumas, it’s been a rough year

Talked to my friends that own and farm about 10K acres up there. They said don't bother there aren't enough pheasant or quail to make the trip worthwhile.

I'm going to try and shoot some in New Mexico this weekend. Wish me luck.

We have been doing the opening weekend Olton Chamber of Commerce Pheasant Hunt for years. They release birds to supplement the wild bird population. Some years the harvest is close to 50/50 wild/released, but most years there are more released birds harvested.

This year I did not see a wild bird out of everything harvested by our group of 16
Still had a GREAT TIME and the dogs do not know the difference.

My Brit pointed two decent sized covey's of Quail. That was unexpected.

I got the same report from my guy.

We hunted Olton for the first time this year. Tough going. My Brittany did well. Our group only bumped one covey of quail.