We're not in Kansas any more...

[mobirdhunter]

...but spent the last week in the Flint Hills, enjoying beautiful late winter weather on the prairie. We headed South to Kansas on a whim after our end of season weather turned bad in our home covers on the Iowa-Missouri border. We found a nice place to stay in a small Kansas prairie town and, after exploring, found some wild Bobs, enough to keep us walking through some of the nicest cover (and weather!) I've had the pleasure to hunt in.

We had hoped to meet Phil Yearout for a hunt, but things did not work out for that -- hopefully next year. A belated Happy Birthday, Phil!

Our original plan was to stay an extra day after the season to be able to explore more of the area, but a pending storm caused us to head home early.

It's so hard to leave a season, not knowing how many more we might have. But we have our plans for the future. At the end of every season, I always think of the quotation from George Bird Evans' Song of Autumn,“There was a period in the seriousness of youth when I used to ponder which was the most impelling — anticipation, experience, or reminiscence. I now know that memory is all three.” I "bagged" many memories this past season.

Photo Key:

1-3: We used to regularly hunt this area back in the early 2000s, and it was nice to experience this unique landscape again. For those not familiar with the Flint Hills, it is the last remaining, large scale tall grass prairie, an ecosystem that once covered much of the Mid-West. The name comes from the shallow soil in the uplands that prevented the plowing of most of the area. It is now cattle country and the last stronghold of the greater prairie chicken. Chickens were not on our agenda, but we found Mr. Bob in huntable numbers.
4: Elaine and I always enjoy getting to know an area beyond its hunting. There are good people in the middle-middle, and they do some interesting things. Don't talk politics, ask for a personal story, and you are often in for a treat.
5: Remnants of old homesteads are always interesting find back in the woods. Like our old guns, these places have many stories in their past.
6: The Bobs were hunter-wise and knew how to escape. Here's a single from what I call a "River Covey," one that stays close to a river/creek and knows to fly across it to escape pressure. We drove around and walked in to find the singles. If you look close on the right side of this photo, you can see one that was able to sneak out the back door. Alder is on point in front of me, and when I turned to watch the back-door bird leave, the one she was pointing burst out from under her nose and escaped back across the river.
7-8: Alder pinned a running cover in some heavy cover after we trailed it over 75 yards. I managed a double from this large covey of late season birds.

[Bruce Hering]

Originally Posted by Garry L Gordon

...but spent the last week in the Flint Hills, enjoying beautiful late winter weather on the prairie. We headed South to Kansas on a whim after our end of season weather turned bad in our home covers on the Iowa-Missouri border. We found a nice place to stay in a small Kansas prairie town and, after exploring, found some wild Bobs, enough to keep us walking through some of the nicest cover (and weather!) I've had the pleasure to hunt in.

We had hoped to meet Phil Yearout for a hunt, but things did not work out for that -- hopefully next year. A belated Happy Birthday, Phil!

Our original plan was to stay an extra day after the season to be able to explore more of the area, but a pending storm caused us to head home early.

It's so hard to leave a season, not knowing how many more we might have. But we have our plans for the future. At the end of every season, I always think of the quotation from George Bird Evans' Song of Autumn,“There was a period in the seriousness of youth when I used to ponder which was the most impelling — anticipation, experience, or reminiscence. I now know that memory is all three.” I "bagged" many memories this past season.

Gary:

Nice hunt.

How is the weather at home now ? We are still getting rain, but the temps are now near freezing. I do hope that we can avoid too much ice. We shall see.

[mobirdhunter]

Photo key:

1: When we found coveys, it was easy to tell they'd seen a dog and hunter a time or two. We talked with a local conservation area manager who noted how much more wary birds were here than in central or western Kansas. They reminded us of our North Missouri birds, running far and fast, and flushing quickly.

2-5: Our last day was really too hot to hunt, getting up to 73 degrees. We quit after a morning hunt and went back to our cabin to sit in the shade with the dogs. With about an hour left in the last day of the season, Elaine asked if I wanted to get out for the last hour. I did. Right from the truck Aspen showed signs of scent. Photo 2 is the beginning of his unraveling the mystery of scent from a late day, running covey. He made long casts searching for more scent across the harvested bean field before heading into a broom sedge buffer. He finally pinned another large covey which gave me a bird on the rise and another on a follow-up single -- both delivered by Aspen.
6: I'd told Phil Yearout that I'd use one of my Fox guns in his honor if he was able to join us. Our plans fell through for a hunt, and my little DHE 20 was the only gun I used on the trip. It's a great prairie gun with its 30 inch barrels and 6 lbs. 10 oz. heft to keep it swinging. I call it my "pandemic gun" -- it was born during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic and came to me just as we entered our current pandemic. What a gun!

[Setter Man]

Your D has really nice engraving, much more detail than most D's that I have seen.

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Bruce Hering

Gary:

Nice hunt.

How is the weather at home now ? We are still getting rain, but the temps are now near freezing. I do hope that we can avoid too much ice. We shall see.

Bruce, the forecast was for 6-10 inches, but there is not much more than an inch on the ground now. The wind is blowing 30+ mph and it's currently 13 degrees. We may miss out on the heavy snow. I sure hope so. South of us is getting hammered, and we drove through lots of precipitation on our way home from Kansas yesterday. I hope you miss out on the snow and, especially, the ice that seems to be hitting Southern Missouri.

Stay safe!

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Jay Gardner

Your D has really nice engraving, much more detail than most D's that I have seen.

Jay, this gun had lots of idiosyncratic requests in its order, and I think it got a bit more care in its finish. I wrote an article about this gun for Parker Pages a year ago that outlines all of the special requests the original owner, P. C. Jesse of Bowling Green, KY, made for this gun. Jesse was a field trialer, quail hunter, and competitive shooter who knew his guns. I've seen other guns from this time period and they all show exceptional engraving.

[Ken Hill]

Garry,

Glad you had a good trip. To me, birds were pretty sparse this year in Kansas. I hunted western Kansas on 28 Jan and saw quite a few pheasants. They were bunched up. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate this spring and summer to give a good hatch.

Ken

[Reggie B]

As you know, my favorite configuration is a 20 gauge with straight stock and 30” barrels! They just pull at me. That is a nice one!!

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Ken Hill

Garry,

Glad you had a good trip. To me, birds were pretty sparse this year in Kansas. I hunted western Kansas on 28 Jan and saw quite a few pheasants. They were bunched up. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate this spring and summer to give a good hatch.

Ken

Ken, we missed out on the forecast storm yesterday which bodes well for the birds making it through the winter IF we can hold this trend. We found a couple of huge coveys of birds last week on the public ground we hunted. I hope that is also a good sign, but I know it's far too early to tell and our weather can be quite fickle.

I hope your black and red setter brace did well this season.

Take care.

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Reggie Bishop

As you know, my favorite configuration is a 20 gauge with straight stock and 30” barrels! They just pull at me. That is a nice one!!

Reggie, you should have had one of your long-legged beauties out on the prairie with us.