Kansas Pheasant Hunting
Ranking
Kansas pheasant hunting has a season length, favorable weather, habitat variety and multiple wild upland birds are benefits not available in states ranked higher for their hunt quality.
Kansas pheasant hunting offers the most tall grass, draws and crop edge pheasant habitat than other pheasant hunting states plus Bobwhite Quail and Prairie Chicken.
Kenneth from Arizona highlighted on several pages of this web site due to his prolific picture taking habit we certainly all appreciate. The dog with bird about to be handed over is one of three Kenneth runs.
Kenneth makes several trips per season for our leases passing on his relation's land in Texas quail country to include pheasant along with the overlapping quail we have. He also has transitioned with his hunts from retrievers to pointers and pictured above is his older and first retriever taken out for a short hunt just as most of us do all of our favored senior partners.
This day was especially good due to its pleasant temperatures and in less than 30 minutes two roosters found, flushed, shot and retrieved. One after being a runner. At 11 years old that was enough hunting for that dog for the day.
The partnership between man and dog is the final reward for a day in the field, a trip or the season. The birds will be forgotten, the memories of a good dog remain. Those that recognize the difference between this type of bird hunting and a South Dakota 1/2 day hunt and lodge combination will seek more information from us.
We could and will later show many pictures of harvested pheasants, however there is more to enjoying the day in the field and this picture is one small example.
Randy sent in this picture of three skulls found in one season while bird hunting.
Scrub draw single pheasant point. A warm overly bright sunny morning creating lots of shadow with the remnants of an earlier snow fall.
While Kansas is frequently ranked behind that of South Dakota and Iowa, the difference in those rankings is typically based on a single decision criteria of birds bagged. These birds-in-the-bag counts always surprise many, as many hunters have not been surveyed.
For those interested in simply filling a bag limit one trip a season the many daily pay hunt services within any of these three states will suffice. However, for the do it yourself pheasant hunt experience of being able to hunt at anytime during the entire season, as often as desired and do so on private land that has sufficient acreage to have 100% wild quail and pheasants on natural habitat and have a long season through the end of January and have the ability to hunt wild pheasant and quail, then Kansas outranks all other states by a long shot.
Advantages
MAHA Kansas pheasant hunting does provide all these advantages of mild winter temperatures, a variety of habitat from crop edge to tall prairie grass, wild quail and pheasant mix, longer season, no day restrictions for non-residents and the most important Kansas pheasant hunting distinction of all, the ability to hunt private land we lease for our exclusive use.
Those coming Kansas pheasant hunting will be able to hunt on their own, at their own pace, with their own dogs and employ their own pheasant hunting techniques to outwit these Kansas birds with their strong survival instinct. And, the bird numbers are there, we cover several Kansas pheasant regions and never have all regions during one season been fully up or down. We will always have a good area somewhere.
This ability to return to the same locality for do it yourself Kansas pheasant hunts as well as explore new pheasant ground each hunt makes for the added pleasure of seeing new places and adventure of different habitat.
Variety
We ensure our do it yourself pheasant hunters do hunt the right region of any of our three states based and their upland bird preference and habitat preference.
Kansas hunters will have more to select from in terms of habitat variety ranging from tall grass, draw and crop edge where as in Iowa and Missouri the habitat is more limited. With this kind of choice the hunter is not left to one option in terms of where to hunt, Kansas, Missouri or Iowa. And, when selecting to hunt Kansas the variety of pheasant and quail habitat may be all hunted the same day or the same trip.
Our pheasant hunt flexibility advantage is all the more important when one region or state has devastating spring rains during the critical period of nesting and brooding where rainfall can quickly wipe out ground nests or brooding chicks. The MAHA staff will be well aware of where the better conditions occurred and recommend to the member where to hunt.
These recommendations by the MAHA staff are derived from their own bird dog on the ground Kansas pheasant hunting experience with the private lease land as they cover that ground 12 months of the year.
2010 Kansas Pheasant Hunting Land
Posted are the Kansas counties and acreage available for hunting in each county. Not all are within good pheasant hunting regions.
Having a land management staff that also hunts and not just bird hunts but also trains and hunts their own dogs means they will be able to discuss the detail all hunters want to know of where and when the better areas will be. Hunters can trust these recommendations as the MAHA staff has the pure motivation of getting every hunter to renew their yearly membership knowing full well the hunter will only do so if the hunt is good.
Our self guided Kansas pheasant hunting will not disappoint the true dog loving hunter. The opportunity to hunt quail on the same trip makes for an upland bird experience that will bring most back for years to come.
Big Land
Our wild upland bird country is big. The picture above is a milo stubble field of over 200 acres that extends into a grassed in waterway, the ideal combination of habitat that coves a 320 or 1/2 section of farm ground.
Our Kansas pheasant hunts requires a good bit of walking, a dog with good point standoff typically greater than 6 feet on a single bird. A dog that works close over a variety of habitat will make for a better hunt.
Pheasants within crop stubble will disperse and occupy these areas during different periods of the day of varying densities more so than in tall grass. This allows for more singles points and less conflicting varying aged scents again as compared to tall grass that concentrates pheasants into larger flocks with a great deal of overlapping scent cones. This variety of Kansas pheasant hunt conditions seems to be a benefit or a consequence dependent upon the hunter or his dog power.
Two hunters with three dogs on such a lease will take a minimum of 2 hours and more likely over 3 to hunt such a pheasant field as every corner, drainage, and thick spot across the entire acreage is a potential bird spot. Hunting by walking a geometric shape as a square or an oval will miss bird holding spots. Walking with dogs that will follow the hunter covering all cover spots relative to cover quality, wind, terrain, bird finds and dog work will make for a more productive hunt. A single hunter with one dog may find this field to be 4 hours of bird action making two such properties a full day's hunt, with a good break in between required by the exercise.
Those that simply walk straight in and out leave plenty of undisturbed birds for the rest of us. This is the nature of our Kansas hunts that is distinctive of that in Missouri or Iowa. Simply that of very large habitat areas.
Wheat stubble is the same as for the milo picture above this one. The best wheat stubble is that with weeds or a grass of brush drainage's within it. This field does have such drainage's and just as this picture shows the cover is not seen until walked on top of it.