HuntingNet.com Forums - Russell, KS pheasant hunt report

Oh Well...we got skunked on this 2nd to last weekend of the season. I'd be disappointed, but we all agreed it beat sitting on the couch watching the playoffs.
The snow we had here in NE KS wasn't there in Central KS. It was 40-50 degrees with a building wind of 10-20mph, and sunshine. Our party ended up being 4 adults and 3 teenage boys, w/ 2 dogs, 1 Brit male, one Springer female (6 yr. old). Kinda noisy and the dogs weren't too sharp until later, as they'd never worked together either, but we covered a lot of ground to no avail. As we drove into Luray (just north of Russell) we spotted THREE roosters in the ditch along the road! Thought it was a good omen. But, alas, that was the most roosters we saw in one place all day.
Lots of hens flying, some in groups, but all the still-alive roosters by now are VERY educated, running and flying 200 yds off. Not a single shot fired (at a pheasant, ahem). I imagine those damned Meadowlarks take a pounding this time of year from frustrated hunters! hehe) Not that I shot anything -- my gun is clean.
Lesson learned (for the benefit of you folks): we didn't post on our first field, and saw those smart birds going out the other end right off. I took poster duty and we had hens coming at us. I caught a glimpse of a rooster running parallel to us in untilled Milo as we BS'd and walked back to the truck along the road. Soon as we hit the field, he popped up, and flew JUST far enough away.
Didn't see any quail at all -- although we attacked some of those tight spots that looked ideal for quail and the time of year.
The bright side is we saw a LOT of hens and some smart roosters -- so there will be some good hunting next year, pending good weather, etc. Probably need to get some private land permission too adjacent to the WIHA areas. We shall see!

Dan