A while back we got the idea to go on a pheasant hunt in Garden City, Kansas. My dad has some friends out that way with some great farmland for hunting. So about a month ago we put the final touches on making it happen over this Thanksgiving break.
Billy (dad), Ty (brother), Mike (brother-in-law), Jerry, Ryan, and I met up in Garden City at the Drees Farm on Saturday ready for a great week of hunting. We hunted three full days and saw a lot of country.This was a new experience for us westerners that are accustomed to hunting in the mountains. I now know why they call them flat-landers. You can see for miles, but if it weren't for the curve of the earth, I am pretty sure you could see forever. And not only is it flat but I only counted about a dozen trees in the whole county. Of course those were planted in some guys yard.
We hunted uncut milo fields the first day. This was tricky since a pheasant can run faster then he can fly. You can walk and walk all day, but they only fly when they run out of cover. So when you are walking a section, you walk a mile, but the birds don't fly until you have chased them to the last hundred yards or so.
Needless to say, we walked at least ten miles a day. But who hasn't gone hunting with my dad and not worn out his hunting boots?
Then next day we went out with a friend of the Drees. We hunted a little milo, some corn, and a lot of CRP. CRP stands for Crop Reduction Program. Basically the government pays the farmers to not grow crops on certain parts of their farms to prevent over harvesting of the land. Well, a CRP field is a field of native grass and tumble weeds.
We also learned the technique of jumping pits. Around some of the farms you will find old dirt tanks that are dry and overgrown with grass and weeds. Well the pheasants really like to hang out in these pits. We would surround the pit, and send Ty and boomer in to jump the birds out.
The last day was the best day for hunting. Duane and Daryl were kind enough to leave the last field of milo in forty yard strips for us. This keeps the birds from escaping laterally. That way they all run to the end and fly rather then just run around.
We were able to hunt the same strips of milo a couple of times and still have a lot of birds flushing.
All in all it was a great hunt. We got a lot of birds, saw some huge deer, and had some good times with friends. I hope this can happen again. Maybe I can talk my dad into taking me deer hunting there next year. We'll see.
I want to thank Duane, Daryl, Steve, Wayne, and everyone else that made this trip a success.
By the way, I plan on writing about coyote hunting Kansas-style and how to exit a moving truck. So keep an eye out for more from this trip.
