Kansas Quail

[Dan Steingraber]

Great day with great friends and great guns.

[Harold Lee Pickens]

Looks like a great day, Dan.
What is the gun on the top of the picture.
I went to Kansas in January for three years, lately been going to South Dakota.
Maybe back to Kansas next year.

[Dan Steingraber]

Looks like a great day, Dan.
What is the gun on the top of the picture.
I went to Kansas in January for three years, lately been going to South Dakota.
Maybe back to Kansas next year.

AYA 28 Harold. Quail numbers are good this year. And it was 65 degrees today. Tough on the dogs but they still found birds.

[Andrew Sacco]

Beautiful Dan. I am still kicking myself hard over the number of aYa and Arrietta I passed up over the years because I thought, "That's so expensive, I'm not spending $2500 on a used 28 gauge..."

[Daryl Corona]

Andy...:banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

[Bill Murphy]

I worked in a shop that sold AYA guns. As I recall, the #2 was bought wholesale for about $2300 and I never took advantage. The #4 was under two grand. A friend sold me his #2 .410 for about $2600, just months before they started selling new for over $7000. It happened very fast.

[Stan Hillis]

Been a long time since I've seen 11 wild bu'hrds on a tailgate. A most sincere congratulations to y'all. Good picture!

[Kenny Graft]

I have hunted Kansas for many years starting in 2008. When Ruby my Gordon setter was 10 months old, we had a great 6 full days in Hill City area Kansas. I got my first double on wild Quail over Ruby...I miss that girl. I lost her a month ago at 14 years and 9 months. Kansas is on track after the years long drought and I have joined a face book blog for Kansas hunting and folks are doing very well now out there. Its time to take my two young setter pups out this coming November....(-:

[Harold Lee Pickens]

Kenny, did not know that sweet, old Ruby had passed. She was such a nice old gal. So sorry to hear this, I know you and Kim were heartbroken.

[Dave Tatman]

Kenny, I’m so sorry to hear about Ruby. She played her position and did her job nobly for many years. My thoughts are with you and Kim. Thank goodness for your crazy pups to fill the void. And those two are on their way to being fine bird dogs in their own right!

See you in a couple weeks.

Dave

[Kenny Graft]

Thanks Guys....Ruby was a Jewel. My good friend had his mom paint this picture from a photo we took of Ruby when she was about 8. It is a great likeness of her! It sits on my dresser, and I see her every day.

[Garry L Gordon]

Sorry to learn of Miss Ruby, but she owned you for a long time. We are the richer for having been owned by a dog.

[Dan Steingraber]

My VHE 28 had a wonderful day.

[Reggie Bishop]

Nice shooting Dan!

[Dan Steingraber]

If you know, you know.

[Reggie Bishop]

Boundary marker?

[Garry L Gordon]

We find those fenceposts throughout the prairie. Particularly poignant along the Cimarron Trail in SW Kansas.

[Dan Steingraber]

Boundary marker?

Limestone fence post. Absolutely mind boggling when you consider the effort required. Settling and surviving in these beautiful, yet brutally demanding areas of our country, gives me incredible respect and admiration for the men and women who dared to travel and settle here.

[Dean Weber]

Although I am guilty of being geeked out by stories of the birds, dogs, and guns, the curiosity of “finds” like the fenceposts paints a vivid picture in my mind. For me, it makes me feel a bit small to think someone set these posts as a matter of their daily life.

Dan, do you suspect the horizontal marks on the post you pictured are from harvesting the stone (drill marks) or from fence wire rubbing over the decades?

[Dan Steingraber]

Although I am guilty if of being geeked out by stories of the birds, dogs, and guns, the curiosity of “finds” like the fenceposts paints a vivid picture in my mind. For me, it makes me feel a bit small to think someone set these posts as a matter of their daily life.

Dan, do you suspect the horizontal marks on the post you pictured are from harvesting the stone (drill marks) or from fence wire rubbing over the decades?

Dean, I am of a similar mind. While I am often stunned by the sheer beauty of a dog moving gracefully and purposefully across a hillside, head high and taking in all the wind has to offer, I am also overcome with a desire to lie on the ground and “feel” the rich history it holds. Did a group of Cheyenne braves hunt these very hills and draws? I just can’t adequately describe the fullness that visiting these wonderful places provide me.
We saw various means of attaching the wire to the posts. I think it’s likely that the first installment of wire was simply wrapped around the stone like in Gary’s picture. I think the subsequent generations of wire were sometimes attached by drilling and inserting a pin into the hole and wrapping the wire around it. It’s counterintuitive for us to realize that a fence post might outlive several generations of wire.

[Phil Yearout]

They’re drill marks from cutting the stone.

[Dan Steingraber]

That’s a good point Phil. We did see posts still in use with pins in them to hold the wire though.

[Phil Yearout]

Yeah, they'd use that way of attaching the wire. Those grooves left by the drills were handy for keeping wire in place too! Those posts can weight several hundred pounds; that's probably one reason you often find them where they were put originally :). I have just a piece of one that often finds its way into some seasonal decor here at the house...

https://i.imgur.com/dafltK9l.jpg

[Rick Roemer]

I find it interesting to see how different regions solve the same problems. Fence posts are a good example. Depending where you go they’re made out of different materials, using what was available regionally. Osage orange is pretty common where I’m from, Kansas definitely takes the award for heaviest fence post and probably most long lasting!

[Garry L Gordon]

The Midwest prairie can grow Osage Orange also. It is some of the hardest — and heaviest — of all woods. You can dull a chain saw or burn out a stove with it.