My boy kid texted me early last week and asked if I'd be down for trip to Kansas for the opening weekend of pheasant season. He knows a guy who guides pheasant hunts who had some open spots. My kid lives in the KC area, so I asked, how far from you? I need some details to make travel/work plans, but I'd be in. He said he'd get the info ASAP.
He texted later that day and said, uh... It's a 7 hour drive from KC. Hell, I didn't even know there was 7 hours of Kansas west of KC. He added that we really needed to be there Friday night by 5pm. The town has a big party the day before season opens that is apparently a can't miss shindig.
Back figuring from the 5pm Friday target, I'm questioning my enthusiasm for this trip. To make it even feasible requires flying, with a long gun. To me, that means flying out of Indy. I am NOT dealing with a long gun in a Chicago airport. I started leaning no, but my wife laid a mild guilt trip on me. We only see the kid a few times a year. I never get to hunt with him anymore, etc. She's right of course. I am not getting any younger and had a recent, mild health scare, so you never know how many more chances like this you'll get.
It turns out that thanks to a long flight delay on our last vacation, we had some Southwest vouchers in the bank. I could get a flight from Indy to KC for like $30. The bad part is the flight was at 7am and I'm 2-1/2 hours from Indy. Oh well. I can sleep when I'm dead, right?
So I leave home at 2:30am on Friday, park offsite, ride the shuttle to the airport and get there at 6. Checking my gun at Southwest baggage went seamlessly, other than the lady sticking the TSA card on my shotgun's receiver with packing tape. But I refrained from choking her.
After a short 1-1/2 hour flight, and with the time change, I got to KC at 7:30. I hightailed it to the Southwest office at baggage claim to ask where to retrieve my gun. Every airline and airport seem to have slightly different policies. Nice lady at Southwest said it would come out on the oversized baggage conveyor. She'd snag it, check my ID, and I'd be off. No sooner than she said this, the light came and the conveyor started. Mine was the only bag to come out, so I was on my way in no time.
The kid picked me up and we met a couple of his buddies who decided to come along back at his apartment and set off by 9. The drive was uneventful. Just long and boring. Once you get west of Wichita, Kansas is flat, mostly treeless, and littered with small towns consisting of a gas station, a Dollar General, a grain elevator, and maybe a liquor store if they're lucky. We hit the Holiday Inn in Liberal, KS around 3 and left at 4 to make the 45 minute drive west to Hugoton for the pre-opening day festivities.
I had done some googling pre-trip about the town of Hugoton to see what was up with this event. It's a fundraiser for a charity called Pheasant Heaven. In 20 years they've raised 6 million dollars doing 2 fundraisers a year. A golf outing, and the event we attended, their calf fry. For those unfamiliar, calf fry means fried calf balls. 800 pounds of calf balls are sliced, breaded, and deep fried. They are served with a homemade cocktail sauce and are quite delicious. They also serve smoked, pulled beef and pork. The beef was amazing, the pork, eh... It was ok. They have a live auction with many guns, most sold 3x above retail, and a raffle with even more guns.
We met our guides from PQ Outfitters, Zach, who brings his dogs up from Oklahoma City every weekend during pheasant season and Christian, whose family owns the land we'd be hunting on, along with the rest of our hunting party. 18 in total. We had guys from Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Colorado. The plan was to meet back in Hugoton at 6am for breakfast before hitting the fields.
I had seen google maps pics of the area we'd be hunting, it's basically the center pivot irrigation capital of the world. So most every field has 4 untilled corners that only grow prairie grasses. Any unirrigated fields were just mile long stretches of head high grass. Until you get on the ground it's hard to envision the vastness of it all. For reference, the big circles are a mile in diameter.
It kinda looks like this everywhere you look...
At first I thought 18 guys seemed like a lot. Once we got out there, I was like, this ain't nearly enough. Hunting is done with walkers and blockers. For the walkers, we had our guide Zach's 2 dogs, and the dogs several of the other hunters brought with them. My kid is in sales for Garmin and just happened to bring along several of Garmin's latest and greatest dog collars for anybody wanting to test one. The collars are amazing. The remote lets you see the dogs location, tells you the exact distance to the dog, and even beeps to notify you the dog is on point. Of course if the dog isn't following it's orders, you can provide some mild electro-shock therapy to get it back on track, up to a mile away.
And if you choose to be a walker, be prepared to WALK. We logged almost 20K steps on Saturday and and 15K Sunday. Blockers along the road end up walking as the line of walkers reaches them. Those blockers at the end of the field just sit and wait.
Unfortunately, on Saturday birds were very spotty and largely uncooperative in getting themselves shot. We probably jumped 20ish roosters all day and only got 8-10 along with a handful of quail. My son and one buddy did each shoot their first pheasants, so I count it as a win.
Our outfitter was hosting a big dinner at his farm, but with us staying so far away, we passed and headed back to the hotel in the evening. My kid thought that since I couldn't easily take any birds home, it'd be a good idea to bring his Weber to cook on. So Saturday night we grilled bacon wrapped pheasant jalapeno poppers, quail, and deer brats in the Holiday Inn parking lot.
While grillin, and maybe drinkin, I noticed there was a Kansas DNR K9 truck parked at our hotel. Pretty soon the DNR officer came out to get dogfood out of his truck. I was watching him and could tell he was looking for the source of the smell of charcoal. He spotted us in the corner of the parking lot and wandered over. I thought he might not be happy with our open containers of alcohol, but instead he laughed and asked if we were tailgating. I said, yep. Tailgating in honor of opening day of pheasant season. He asked how we did, how many birds we saw, where we had hunted, but not in DNRish kinda way. More like a curious hunter. We invited him to join us but he had to take care of his dog.
We went back out on Sunday and decided to focus on quail. We'd jumped a few the day before, but nothing like this. We were jumping coveys of 20-30 birds that flew in 25-30 different directions. With 18 guys with shotguns all around, it was pretty exciting. This was honestly my biggest concern, being in a large group of hunters I don't know. I am probably on the overly safe side, if there is such a thing. I passed on a lot of shots because I don't want to rain #8 shot down on anybody. Some guys just view it as an unavoidable hazard of bird hunting. Luckily most of the group though along the same lines as me and were very safe and considerate. Only one guy got mildly peppered with #8s on their downward trajectory, and his son did it to him.
At one point early in the morning our guide, Christian told us to have our hunting licenses ready. He was texting an old college buddy, who just happened to be DNR, who was asking where he was hunting. He told him and we finished hunting that field and moved on before the guy showed up. The DNR officer texted later and apologized for missing him and asked where he was now. He told him to 'eff off, I'll only tell you once. You'll just have to find us on your own now.
As the morning went on, guys started to leave for the trip home. By noon, it was just the four of us, two older guys from Arizona, and our two guides. As we were strategizing our next hunt with greatly diminished numbers and a lack of dogs, I see a grey pickup coming down the road. The area we were had ZERO traffic on the roads. I mean nobody. So another vehicle was odd. I wouldn't have thought about if not for seeing the DNR truck in our hotel parking lot, they're a very distinctive grey color. I told our guide, I think your buddy found us. He said, everybody get your licenses out, here comes the law.
When the guy jumped out of his truck, I didn't recognize him all kitted up but he looked at the 4 of us, laughed and said, you're the tailgaters from last night. I was like, damn. Small world. He checked licenses, asked how we'd done, but never asked to see any dead birds. He BS'd with his old college buddy for while and we were off again.
We ended up hunting until 3. The two old guys from Arizona didn’t want to take any of their birds home, so they gave them to my kid and his buddies. It was nice for them to take home a cooler full. We went to a late lunch together, and hit road around 5 for KC, finally rolling in at about midnight. Then up early for my 10am flight back.
It was the best time I’ve had hunting in a long time. Most of the hunting I do now that my son has moved away is very solitary. Sitting in a deer blind or smoking a few doves or bunnies by myself. This kinda reminded me of when I was a kid and the whole extended family would show up at Grandma and Grandpa’s house for a weekend of waterfowl hunting. It was great.
And just between us, I didn’t kill a single pheasant and I don't even care. I've shot plenty of them in the past. From the first time I took my kid hunting and he bagged a turkey at 10 years old, I decided I really didn't care if I ever killed another critter as long as I could see him be successful. Seeing him and his buddies shoot their first birds is far more satisfying to me than shooting a million of them myself.
He texted later that day and said, uh... It's a 7 hour drive from KC. Hell, I didn't even know there was 7 hours of Kansas west of KC. He added that we really needed to be there Friday night by 5pm. The town has a big party the day before season opens that is apparently a can't miss shindig.
Back figuring from the 5pm Friday target, I'm questioning my enthusiasm for this trip. To make it even feasible requires flying, with a long gun. To me, that means flying out of Indy. I am NOT dealing with a long gun in a Chicago airport. I started leaning no, but my wife laid a mild guilt trip on me. We only see the kid a few times a year. I never get to hunt with him anymore, etc. She's right of course. I am not getting any younger and had a recent, mild health scare, so you never know how many more chances like this you'll get.
It turns out that thanks to a long flight delay on our last vacation, we had some Southwest vouchers in the bank. I could get a flight from Indy to KC for like $30. The bad part is the flight was at 7am and I'm 2-1/2 hours from Indy. Oh well. I can sleep when I'm dead, right?
So I leave home at 2:30am on Friday, park offsite, ride the shuttle to the airport and get there at 6. Checking my gun at Southwest baggage went seamlessly, other than the lady sticking the TSA card on my shotgun's receiver with packing tape. But I refrained from choking her.
After a short 1-1/2 hour flight, and with the time change, I got to KC at 7:30. I hightailed it to the Southwest office at baggage claim to ask where to retrieve my gun. Every airline and airport seem to have slightly different policies. Nice lady at Southwest said it would come out on the oversized baggage conveyor. She'd snag it, check my ID, and I'd be off. No sooner than she said this, the light came and the conveyor started. Mine was the only bag to come out, so I was on my way in no time.
The kid picked me up and we met a couple of his buddies who decided to come along back at his apartment and set off by 9. The drive was uneventful. Just long and boring. Once you get west of Wichita, Kansas is flat, mostly treeless, and littered with small towns consisting of a gas station, a Dollar General, a grain elevator, and maybe a liquor store if they're lucky. We hit the Holiday Inn in Liberal, KS around 3 and left at 4 to make the 45 minute drive west to Hugoton for the pre-opening day festivities.
I had done some googling pre-trip about the town of Hugoton to see what was up with this event. It's a fundraiser for a charity called Pheasant Heaven. In 20 years they've raised 6 million dollars doing 2 fundraisers a year. A golf outing, and the event we attended, their calf fry. For those unfamiliar, calf fry means fried calf balls. 800 pounds of calf balls are sliced, breaded, and deep fried. They are served with a homemade cocktail sauce and are quite delicious. They also serve smoked, pulled beef and pork. The beef was amazing, the pork, eh... It was ok. They have a live auction with many guns, most sold 3x above retail, and a raffle with even more guns.
We met our guides from PQ Outfitters, Zach, who brings his dogs up from Oklahoma City every weekend during pheasant season and Christian, whose family owns the land we'd be hunting on, along with the rest of our hunting party. 18 in total. We had guys from Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Colorado. The plan was to meet back in Hugoton at 6am for breakfast before hitting the fields.
I had seen google maps pics of the area we'd be hunting, it's basically the center pivot irrigation capital of the world. So most every field has 4 untilled corners that only grow prairie grasses. Any unirrigated fields were just mile long stretches of head high grass. Until you get on the ground it's hard to envision the vastness of it all. For reference, the big circles are a mile in diameter.
It kinda looks like this everywhere you look...
At first I thought 18 guys seemed like a lot. Once we got out there, I was like, this ain't nearly enough. Hunting is done with walkers and blockers. For the walkers, we had our guide Zach's 2 dogs, and the dogs several of the other hunters brought with them. My kid is in sales for Garmin and just happened to bring along several of Garmin's latest and greatest dog collars for anybody wanting to test one. The collars are amazing. The remote lets you see the dogs location, tells you the exact distance to the dog, and even beeps to notify you the dog is on point. Of course if the dog isn't following it's orders, you can provide some mild electro-shock therapy to get it back on track, up to a mile away.
And if you choose to be a walker, be prepared to WALK. We logged almost 20K steps on Saturday and and 15K Sunday. Blockers along the road end up walking as the line of walkers reaches them. Those blockers at the end of the field just sit and wait.
Unfortunately, on Saturday birds were very spotty and largely uncooperative in getting themselves shot. We probably jumped 20ish roosters all day and only got 8-10 along with a handful of quail. My son and one buddy did each shoot their first pheasants, so I count it as a win.
Our outfitter was hosting a big dinner at his farm, but with us staying so far away, we passed and headed back to the hotel in the evening. My kid thought that since I couldn't easily take any birds home, it'd be a good idea to bring his Weber to cook on. So Saturday night we grilled bacon wrapped pheasant jalapeno poppers, quail, and deer brats in the Holiday Inn parking lot.
While grillin, and maybe drinkin, I noticed there was a Kansas DNR K9 truck parked at our hotel. Pretty soon the DNR officer came out to get dogfood out of his truck. I was watching him and could tell he was looking for the source of the smell of charcoal. He spotted us in the corner of the parking lot and wandered over. I thought he might not be happy with our open containers of alcohol, but instead he laughed and asked if we were tailgating. I said, yep. Tailgating in honor of opening day of pheasant season. He asked how we did, how many birds we saw, where we had hunted, but not in DNRish kinda way. More like a curious hunter. We invited him to join us but he had to take care of his dog.
We went back out on Sunday and decided to focus on quail. We'd jumped a few the day before, but nothing like this. We were jumping coveys of 20-30 birds that flew in 25-30 different directions. With 18 guys with shotguns all around, it was pretty exciting. This was honestly my biggest concern, being in a large group of hunters I don't know. I am probably on the overly safe side, if there is such a thing. I passed on a lot of shots because I don't want to rain #8 shot down on anybody. Some guys just view it as an unavoidable hazard of bird hunting. Luckily most of the group though along the same lines as me and were very safe and considerate. Only one guy got mildly peppered with #8s on their downward trajectory, and his son did it to him.
At one point early in the morning our guide, Christian told us to have our hunting licenses ready. He was texting an old college buddy, who just happened to be DNR, who was asking where he was hunting. He told him and we finished hunting that field and moved on before the guy showed up. The DNR officer texted later and apologized for missing him and asked where he was now. He told him to 'eff off, I'll only tell you once. You'll just have to find us on your own now.
As the morning went on, guys started to leave for the trip home. By noon, it was just the four of us, two older guys from Arizona, and our two guides. As we were strategizing our next hunt with greatly diminished numbers and a lack of dogs, I see a grey pickup coming down the road. The area we were had ZERO traffic on the roads. I mean nobody. So another vehicle was odd. I wouldn't have thought about if not for seeing the DNR truck in our hotel parking lot, they're a very distinctive grey color. I told our guide, I think your buddy found us. He said, everybody get your licenses out, here comes the law.
When the guy jumped out of his truck, I didn't recognize him all kitted up but he looked at the 4 of us, laughed and said, you're the tailgaters from last night. I was like, damn. Small world. He checked licenses, asked how we'd done, but never asked to see any dead birds. He BS'd with his old college buddy for while and we were off again.
We ended up hunting until 3. The two old guys from Arizona didn’t want to take any of their birds home, so they gave them to my kid and his buddies. It was nice for them to take home a cooler full. We went to a late lunch together, and hit road around 5 for KC, finally rolling in at about midnight. Then up early for my 10am flight back.
It was the best time I’ve had hunting in a long time. Most of the hunting I do now that my son has moved away is very solitary. Sitting in a deer blind or smoking a few doves or bunnies by myself. This kinda reminded me of when I was a kid and the whole extended family would show up at Grandma and Grandpa’s house for a weekend of waterfowl hunting. It was great.
And just between us, I didn’t kill a single pheasant and I don't even care. I've shot plenty of them in the past. From the first time I took my kid hunting and he bagged a turkey at 10 years old, I decided I really didn't care if I ever killed another critter as long as I could see him be successful. Seeing him and his buddies shoot their first birds is far more satisfying to me than shooting a million of them myself.
