My son and I along with 2 other hunters are looking at making a trip to Kansas for pheasant in early December. This is my son and I second time hunting for them . We went to west Texas last year on the public land and saw only one bird. We're just looking for any and all advice as far as locations and the like. We'll be hunting the public lands much as we do in Texas . I have an energetic 2 yr old Female GSHP . I understand the walker and blocker approach but how should I include my dog ? Also I'd like to find some live birds to train with prior to going up there. We live in the Austin area. Like I said ,ANY information will be greatly appreciated. The more the better. Thanks guys and gals

With only four people and one dog going you have to try to look for smaller areas to hunt. My friend and I usually go opening weekend in Central KS around Great Bend. Sometimes even though the entire section is huntable we only focus on a corner and just let the dog work. It is always enjoyable. Hope it goes well.

Just let the dog out on Walk-In Public Hunting areas and let her work intot he wind. You'll get some to sit for her. As Rockhunter suggested, the corners of those areas are good as well, or areas that are noticeably thicker than others.

do a search here, lots of diy hunts and good information.

Welcome to the THF

look for draws that have heavy cover, target cover areas where milo or corn has been cut, deserted farm buildings that have a lot of cover grown up around. don't hesitate to stop and ask for places to hunt, always offer to share if you get any birds.

I was so excited to see replies ,I forgot to login and was confused as to why I couldn't reply to say thanks for your replies: Rockhunter,Bassfishinglawyer, and TreeBass. I'm doing a search now on Great Bend and surrounding areas.We're looking forward to the experience.The kansas Parks and wildlife site has some great info as well.
http://kdwp.state.ks.us/news/Hunting

NO problem. Good luck with it. I'll be inthe Greensburg/Mullinville/Coldwater area on the 2nd weekend.

The walk in hunting program that KDWP does opens up lots of land for you to bird hunt. Most will be large areas of CRP grass. With just 4 people, my suggestion is to download the Walk in hunting altas from the website and look for the smaller areas as a starting place. Lots of them can be covered by a handful of people and a dog.

Then once you get up there you can drive around and look at the larger areas and see which ones have smaller pockets or corners that your group can cover.

One other suggestion I have for you. You may want to avoid the first two weeks of December if possible. The Kansas rifle season for deer runs Dec 2-13 and that puts a lot of extra people out in the field and may make landowners less likely to give you permission to bird hunt.

Thanks for the info Kansas Kid. I don't know if I'll be able to change my plans for this year , my son has his college break that week and it's better to have a bad hunting trip than a divorce as I promised the wife I wouldn't be in the woods around Christmas... again I guess we'll just stick to the WIHA's. I still haven't nailed down a spcific region. I hope to have that worked out by week's end.

Headed to Garden soon as football is over. Spend a day hunting around Lakin and Syracuse. Then head to Ulyssess and the next day go to Dighton/Scott area. Last 2 days will be spent at the best spots I find. Hope to have fun with all the guys again. Love me some pheasant.

Some beautiful area (assuming you are looking for birds that is)! Spent a lot of time playing baseball in some of those towns back in the day.

We go to Bunker Hill KS there is alot of walk in hunting there and north east is a large lake with some small tracts. Hopefully we will be there in mid Nov. Good luck where ever you go.

thanks again guys , I'm stuck with my head in the atlas but keep bringing the info, wish I could get up there sooner but do believe that my vacation request for 2010 reflects early November off

I hunt on private land, so dont have specifics on WIHA, but this year the area north of Dodge City (and I think they have a lot of WIHA in and around Edwards county) looks like its going to be real good this year.