2006 - 2007 2nd year of hunting

Page 4

Kansas Hunting Continued

Like a Gypsy

This is my F350. Packed full of hunting and camping gear. Some areas I hunted was miles from water. More than once I had locals pull up to me and as what the heck that sail on top of my truck was for. Fortunately for me, I found Diesel was actually much cheaper than Gasoline during my trip. 

Day 7, November 15, 2007

Wire Haired Vizslas

I have been thinking about getting a pup in a year or two as a second dog to back up my Vizsla. Because I have a Vizsla and so happy with her, I have been considering a WHV. Would be better for the colder water hunts. So after some morning pheasant hunting that only landed me a rabbit, I waited around for brother firefighter, friend, and forum member Steve Heath who was coming to Kansas to hunt with me for a few days, to show up. We then took the rest of the day to go visit a breeder in Salina Kansas. They let all the dogs out to play with my "Smooth Hair" Vizsla. It was madness with 10 or 15 excited dogs running around. Really amazed at the variety in the coats. The shorter coated ones having more personality like my Smooth hair and the longer ones more laid back. It was almost dark, so not able to get many pictures. First picture is with Deb Wall and one of her Wirehairs next to my Smooth hair. 

And then the madness of happy to see us dogs. 

Really interesting to visit with "hairy" Vizslas. A rather uncommon breed in the US. 

With Steve on hand I informed him the areas we where going to hunt where not so good. Saved a lot of time by scouting and talking to locals the day before. So we made a hunting plan to new areas North East of Sylvan Grove KS for the next day. We did finally get into some Pheasant!

Day 7, November 16, 2007

Looking for Pheasants

Steve made the drive to meet me in Kansas and this his first day hunting. His first KS Pheasant hunting experience also. We studied the maps and made a road plan to hit public WIHA hunting areas trying to pick ones that had or where near water. Locals had indicated that due to the drought, if we find water we will find birds. First place was CRP and had strips of land cut and bailed. We walked the uncut strips, only finding rabbits and a couple hens. These Mule Deer ran off when we drove up. 

Passing on some other units that did not look so good, we found one still with fairly tall CRP. A prairie chicken flew off a tree when when we drove by it. Steve wanted to pass on it, but I told him it was the best I had seen in three days of looking. We picked a large corner of the property and did a zig zag walk back and fourth making the triangle smaller with each pass. A few hens and three prairie chickens flew out, but not in season yet. Steve picked up a Rooster on the second time we flushed him as we closed the triangle up. First Pheasant of the trip and the first one for my dog. I was relieved after talking Steve into driving all the way up there to hunt. 

Moving on down the road to the next area we saw Roosters running down the road next to the hunting area. One I was watching took flight and was trying to get to the private side. I hit reverse and kept up with him for a while trying to block him into staying on the public side. I ended up in the ditch and the Rooster ended up across the road. 

Turned out the owner of the property nearby saw us. Nice guy. He reminisced some old hunting stories with us and offered his half section of land for us to hunt during our stay. We picked up three more birds here, including my first. I lost one that ran, because my dog was busy retrieving Steve's bird. The bird I did come away with also ran. Blaze showed great skill in running it down, catching it out of the air as it tried to take flight again. 

 

You know how there is always one guy in the boat fishing the same depth, the same bait, and off the same side of the boat, that just keeps catching all the fish. That was Steve this day. Pheasants just kept appearing before him, and most with easy straight away shots. He finished his limit at the next WIHA area we hit. We saw only three quail this day, but I was in a decisive moment trying to block a running pheasant for Steve. I hesitated ended up missing the quail, and had no shells in hand for the pheasant, but man was it fun. Turned into a great day of hunting. 

On the way back to the cabin I noticed a Kansas Sunset picture opportunity and just had to run off into the ditch to get the camera out. 

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2005 - 2006 Hunting Season

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