Kansas Bobwhite Quail Hunting
Kansas Quail Hunting Scenes
Looking to the background of the pictures shows kansas quail holding cover.
Kansas short prairie grass. Certainly a joy to be able to watch a good bird dog at work. A case when the covey flushed away from the edge cover and made for some excellent single quail, blue sky hunting.
One of those lucky days when the covey flushed from the tree lined edge into the short grass field allowing these youth brothers a chance at blue sky shooting and dad a picture to last for a lifetime of memories.
Long ago we recognized the value of presenting habitat pictures above that of harvest of piles of dead birds. each snapshot takes away a bit of the mystery of where to hunt.
Recurring grain fields, wooded creek bottoms, small wood patches and wide fence rows all frequently on the same farm.
The point about this habitat is that much is written about "soft edge" habitat and we agree it is the most valuable. This picture is of a single's point on not so soft edge habitat, in this case the first after the covey flush. The covey came out of the same type of thin cover that characterizes this entire 1/2 mile fence line separating two row crop fields. The hunter with an eye for this kind of habitat will not pass on this field.
Kansas quail hunting has been as good or better in some years than Missouri quail with Missouri often considered having the best quail hunting of our three state region. This quail hunting comparison is based on covey counts rather than habitat type. A small quail hunting distinction made more apparent when examining habitat by region.
In both Kansas and Missouri during up years 8 coveys before lunch have been experienced and of course there are the zero to 4 covey days that make for the long days between quail points.
Quail densities and better hunting localities are influenced primarily on regional spring rains. During down years 4 covey days are possible for those that want to walk and have the bird dogs capable of locating target habitat. In any case of any quail hunting day watching dogs in action is a good quail hunting day and our weather and cover allows for much singles action after the covey flush.
All of our quail hunting and habitat is 100% natural for the self guided wild quail hunting experience the majority of hunters desire. To gain that wild quail advantage we lease land that has a history of good quail reproduction capability. Confidence in this comes from two sources. The first is that we are quail hunters ourselves over our own bird dogs. Second, we are operating a business (not a club) dependent on return customers, or members in our case. Quail hunters come back for years of hunting as we do get them on birds and do so without competition from others.
Kansas quail hunting habitat in the better regions of the state is quite similar to Missouri. Quail will readily be found along row crop fields dissected by wooded and brush edged dry and wet creeks as well as farm land with slope too steep for machinery and covered with mixed grasses, conifer as well as deciduous trees and general scrub.
What will be more prevalent for our Kansas habitat compared to Missouri and Iowa is the small grain fields of milo and wheat as well as forage fields of alfalfa and clover. The milo being the most preferred food during winter. The occasional cornfield will also be present and in general the same overall mix of cover and winter time food source combination as all other good upland bird areas.
Those going Kansas quail hunting will quickly distinguish between the good and less efficient quail dogs. This quail dog distinction appears driven by habitat variety.
This distinction of dog quail hunting proficiency becomes evident in Kansas on the same farm or at least the same trip as each dog can be repeatedly hunted over a variety of quail cover. It will not be long until one type of quail cover illustrates the better quail finding dog power of one dog over another.
The fast running quail dog may miss entirely the many small patches of grass or not always run downwind the many offshoot farm field waterways and creek tributaries typical to Kansas. This quail habitat makes the argument for putting down two dogs that will work independent of each other on the ground at the same time to cover more of the variety of Kansas quail habitat that will be found each time stepping from a truck.
Such quail habitat variety is frequently found on the same farm. Switching cover with the same dog brace may show the earlier weak quail dog to find his niche and be the one to out perform the other.
Quail Hunt Through The Entire Season
A gloomy overcast late January hunt. Cool, not overly cold, with good scent conditions allowed by the slight breeze.
Cutting through crop field drainage's. Wooded above and open below.
Our winter snow ground accumulation is not any reason to stop quail hunting.
We will offer extensive pictures of our Kansas quail hunting habitat both during season with its brown drab looks as well as these fall pictures that show better the variety of cover.
This picture well inside of a lease shows a likely place to start quail hunting. A early and warm season Kansas milo field after harvest ringed by grass and brushed in fence line and tree line. The better edge running dog would automatically cast down the edge and dive into those unseen scent cones. The easy field edge walking and about 50/50 blue sky or woods shooting will make for a good covey flush followed by a few singles points. The ideal would be to split the covey to have some birds to hunt on the return walk to the truck.
Within this section we have gone heavy into the habitat pictures. Just to show that our self guided hunters do harvest birds we put this one in. Not a limit, just a good field day.
Jerry sent this in. He is one our our long time hunters with more knowledge of more covey locations than most. He is also a member of the one bird in the bag per covey club.
The Kansas quail hunter has a bonus of the pheasant hunting on the same Kansas hunting trip, if desired. It is the hunter's choice that he can influence by selection of more predominate quail or pheasant cover.
For those that disdain the rooster and seek a pure Kansas quail hunting experience alone, that option is only available on our SE Kansas lease land. However, what is more common while Kansas quail hunting the same cover that holds coveys will occasionally produce a pheasant or two making for a mixed bag pheasant and quail hunt. Also, for those wanting a change of pace from the crop edge fields, Kansas has plenty of tall grass prairie areas where the pheasants daytime loaf in the often told about stories of seeing 10, 20, 30 or more pheasants at one time.
With the upland bird season runs from early in November to late in January combined with a lack of winter snow accumulation makes our self guided hunts, dog loving bird hunter's leases the place to be right through the end of the season. The land we lease is leased for its habitat quality at holding birds both ringneck and bobwhite and it is only a matter of which region of the more predominate bird of where to hunt.
For those coming to Kansas for their wild Bobwhite Quail hunting we understand what it means to be a traveling quail hunter. We will seek to get quail hunter to the right spot where to park his truck, step out and go Kansas quail hunting.
We can accomplish this type of quality quail hunting without guiding the Kansas quail hunter simply due to our being pointing dog quail hunters ourselves. That advantage combined with that we are out on the Kansas lease land 12 months each year, as this is our sole occupation, gives us direct boots on the ground experience within the better quail hunting localities.
Each Kansas hunter on his first quail hunting trip will be walking onto private ground where he has not personally met with the landowner. Most quail hunters will feel a little twinge in their gut when doing so as all want to be legal and not offend any trespassing laws. All will get over this feeling as the maps we issue are as clear as Kansas State can make them and are the very same maps the county sheriff, local utility Co-Ops and real estate agents use to navigate the Kansas country side.
The Kansas maps are not yet perfect as some will experience the frustration that almost half of the Kansas counties now have county road signs and have named the roads in compliance with the 911 emergency response system. The Kansas State drawn road maps lag behind the road signs and while present on the ground the Kansas road maps do not all yet have the road names posted. Once Kansas refines their maps so will we.
Using our issued hunting land maps with acreage posted we mark the corner posts and 1/2 mile posts of the properties with our signs that will give the quail hunter the confidence he is on the right hunting lease.
Kansas Quail Country
Just one piece of a farm that will take hours to hunt and yield its quail. A willingness to walk, shooting skill and dog power are required to have a good quail hunt. Land and quail are waiting.
With quail hunters coming from a good many states we receive and listen to much feedback about the variance in quail hunting experiences as described about Kansas.
The one Kansas quail hunting comment that stands out the most frequent comes from the many covey only quail hunters that tell of their state lacking the single quail point action after the covey flush. What they experience in the central midwest while quail hunting is quite different with much singles points after the covey flush as most prior to this experience were covey flush shooters only.
These quail hunters comment on the frenzied dog work they get to watch as their dogs seem to be in quail heaven working singles for the first time. This is the point in time many of these quail hunters find that one quail dog is plenty, two dogs make the hunter to work more than desired by walking fast between points and three quail dogs even for two hunters a bit much.
What is more interesting is that these same hunters find the more enjoyable hunts of more than one dog on the ground at a time to be best with dogs that back, steady to point, flush, wing and shot, breaking only on command. Anything less and dogs will be flushing birds well before the hunter is set to shoot.
This is the best criteria for the number of dogs on the ground at one time during any hunt. A covey of 20 birds will easily yield 3 to 6 singles points for a single dog and more with a brace. Having more dogs on the ground will only serve the hunter if they are steady to break on command.
A key point about MAHA quail hunting and leases in general is that we distinguish ourselves different from public land hunting through managing hunter pressure.
We as a hunting business seek return memberships and recognize the key element to return hunter is hunt quality. Enhancing hunt quality means we limit hunter pressure in all forms. Part of that limitation includes our dog rules concerning quail hunting, prohibition on limited camping, not allowing pre season dog work or any commercial dog training activities. This keeps anyone's decision criteria on whether to apply for our membership simple.
If that criteria is singularly the ability to have good quail hunting in terms of wild quail hunting on natural habitat and being able to go quail hunting as often as desired and do so without competition from others than the quail hunter is well advised to apply for membership. If that quail hunter has any other desires simply do not waste our time talking to us.
We do not vary from our quality hunt business. It is that simple. For most self guided quail hunters of their own quail dogs our Kansas quail hunting will fit their requirements for abundance of land and quail.
Our approach to provide do it yourself Kansas quail hunting extends beyond the distinction of our private vice public lands difference and extends to the quail hunter himself.
Our prices allow the average quail hunter that wants an entire season availability of wild quail hunting do do so on the right habitat within the right region of Kansas. And, the quail hunter we seek is a hunter not a tourist seeking quail hunting guides, dogs, lodge, Jacuzzi and prepared meals. We provide the Kansas quail hunting land for those that can quail hunt on their own. Those wanting the corporate hunter environment are well suited other than with us.
Even though no one quail hunter has the capacity to quail hunt the entire Kansas season or leases we keep our administration simple by making the whole Kansas quail season available rather than count days for each hunter. All may quail hunt any time during the Kansas season and do so on their schedule without long lead time planning. Any quail hunter in the Association past his first season will tell how he waits just before his quail hunt to decide where to go and will use current weather forecasts as part of the quail hunting locality decision.
Overall, our upland birds and dog work is as good as it gets in the central mid-west and the quail are there to be hunted by those with the dog power and willingness to cover ground.
For those wanting to do more research about our organization, or quail hunting quality a method told to us through the years to be effective for developing decision criteria has been to read our rules, several testimonials and from these sources develop some 'test' questions. Call us to discuss these questions and in that conversation if we agree we can work together then we will provide a listing of members to call by telephone.
Ask these members the same set of questions an gauge the consistency of responses. The greater the consistency the more likely the reliability of what may be expected. After all this there is not much else to be done and it comes down to the hunter pays his money and takes his chances or not. Either way this system will attenuate wasting any of the hunter's or our time.
Paid Self Guided Hunter Attitude
Jerry's new dog Annie's first wild quail.
Quail hunting is by far the most difficult hunt we offer just due to the walking required to develop knowledge of where the coveys are located. Part of the consequence of a self guided hunter organization. That consequence defined further is in that for every 1,000 acres of quail habitat, the coveys generally occupy a 5 square acre area. To find the several coveys or those several 5 acre localities for each 1,000 acres of land takes the willingness to walk all of the acreage. The benefit of quail hunting within a self guided hunter organization as opposed to a knock-on-door or public lands hunter is that the self guided hunter does not shoot out a covey as he is there for reasons other than the birds alone. That self guided quail hunter husbands his known coveys to insure good hunts to come. The public lands hunter shoots every quail he can as he knows that if he does not the next free land hunter will.
Since we built this web site back in 1996 we have learned much from listening to prospective, current new and older members of what kind of pictures to show and which pictures have more value than others. This picture is just such a case.
Many new to the central mid-west have a concern about being able to identify property lines to prevent accidental trespass onto other land than what we have under lease. This pictures of a fence line single quail point long after the covey flush illustrates well the obvious demarcation of property lines. Between the two farms in this picture the more valued quail hunting lease is that with grain crop fields rather than the hay field to the left. The next value is that of dogs on point as proof of quail holding habitat better than can be seen in a harvest limit picture of birds, dogs and hunter at a truck. The geese flying over are just a bonus to make the day more enjoyable.