Kansas public help

[BowBendr]

Im leaving NC around the first of May to give KS my first try. Going to do the public/wiha route. Mostly concentrating on north-central. Don't need anyone to put me on a bird, but if you have any info on what to avoid, unseen pitfalls, or general area knowledge, I could use some help. Have some areas honed down but I really don't know what to expect.
Long time forum member, you can see from my past that I don't blab, but for the sake of cyber-scouters shoot me a pm.
Thanks   -Scott


2015 Old Gobbler contest Champions

[fallhnt]

Set up your hotel early and go have fun. The small overlooked WIHA can be great. Lots of birds in that part of KS. Good luck

[Mike Honcho]

One thing to note is the KS Dept. of Wildlife does not qualify the land that goes into this program.

If you have 50 acres of concrete parking lot you can put it in the program. 

It's totally up to you to research and scout.

[BigGobbler]

Download the WIHA maps and drive and glass the fields. That's the best way to cover ground and find gobblers you will not have any problems finding gobblers.

[hobbes]

Ive been once, but I think the following will hold true.

Google earth or Google Maps is your friend.  Use WIHA maps to locat' e parcels then verify timber with aerial imagery.  Drive, glass, call, glass some more and drive some more.  Big properties probably require some leg work but you can get quite a bit done with glass. 
Rain is the enemy, not so much for hunting as access.  Roads that appear to be "gravel" turn into 2" of snot that will put you in the ditch and ball your truck up so bad you can't drive it.  Learned my lesson on this in Nebraska but Kansas is the same just different color.  If it's going to rain, take note of properties with the best gravel roads so you have access.

Have fun.  They aren't Easterns in the timber, but can still be stubborn (especially if they have a bunch of hens).

[BowBendr]

Thanks for the replies and pm's...great bunch of people on here !


2015 Old Gobbler contest Champions

[RS]

Best of luck. I tried that area of KS last spring.  Did not score but had a good time.  Only had 2.5 days to hunt and really needed at least a week to start to figure things out. I'm wanting to try again this spring, but my family schedule won't allow it until mid May.

[Hooksfan]

Best of luck. I tried that area of KS last spring.  Did not score but had a good time.  Only had 2.5 days to hunt and really needed at least a week to start to figure things out. I'm wanting to try again this spring, but my family schedule won't allow it until mid May.

Mid May would be the best time to hunt that part of the state, IMO.

[BowBendr]

Best of luck. I tried that area of KS last spring.  Did not score but had a good time.  Only had 2.5 days to hunt and really needed at least a week to start to figure things out. I'm wanting to try again this spring, but my family schedule won't allow it until mid May.

If I could stick your nephew Jeff in my pocket Id have it whipped....havent hunted with him in a few years, we're due.



2015 Old Gobbler contest Champions

[Publicland]

I too am from NC, last year me & my brother went to north central Kansas for the 1st time I studied the atlas with Google for months before we left! But after we got there we put a ton of road miles just trying to locate gobblers! Which we did, both of us tagged out in 2 days. We were there around May 10 and every adult bird we seen had plenty of hens!! Oh yeah if it rains you should avoid the black roads! Good luck!!!

[FLGobstopper]

So... other than after a rain what are the roads like? I've heard don't even attempt them in the biggest 4wd unless you want to end up in a ditch and that they also dry out very quick. So, could a regular compact suv with AWD make it ok if it's dry?

Also, anyone ever flown into Denver and rented a vehicle and driven from there. What was your experience and where did you rent from? I'm flying into Denver and making a loop and hitting NE and then KS.

PM's preferred if you have any recommendations on where to rent and or anywhere specific you'd recommend staying in KS.

Thanks!

[fallhnt]

In KS. you'll be fine on the roads that are mail routes. So if there is a house on a road it's safe to drive when wet. It may take a couple days to dry out a road after rain or snow melt. Flying into Denver is approx 4 hours drive depending on where you want to hunt. When the roads are dry anything can make it. Hope this helps.

[nativeks]

Better have ground clearance. A lot of the mud roads have deep ruts. Drop in one and get high centered and it's game over. I remember being north of Russell hunting pheasants. Had mud tires on my truck and we were sliding backwards down a hill and I couldn't do anything to stop it. Never been so glad to see pavement in my life.

One problem with the small SUV types is they only run 4 ply tires. You will have a lot of flats if you end up in this part of Kansas. We had a 4x4 Toyota RAV4. That thing was great in the snow and mud, but I got tired of flats. Put 10 ply tires on it and the flats stopped. Even my new 4x4 pickup had to ply tires. I got to change the first flat 50 miles into ownership. Swapped to 10 ply tires and 30k miles later I haven't had another. Tire shop wouldn't even take my tires with 100 miles on them in on trade, said nobody around here would buy them.

Oh just a reminder your tag isn't valid the same day you buy it.

[hobbes]

If it is dry, an SUV will be fine on the roads I drove.  The passenger tires could be a problem, but they aren't all created equal.   I'd check into what tires they are running.  As far as where,  if I was flying into Denver I'd be renting from one of the fleets at DIA.

[brittman]

Interesting comments on the roads.   It was hot, dry and windy when we were there ... but I seem to remember a lot of the rural roads in the two counties we hunted were paved.

Not sure why anymore (maybe gas prices), but two of us drove down from MN to Kansas and killed three Toms (I shot two) in just a couple days of hunting. 

We hunted out of a HONDA ACCORD.

Friend had family down there, but when we got there the vast majority of his land was enrolled in WIHA (sad, but true, but worked out fine).

I grew up in the Dakotas so I knew how little "cover" is needed by prairie turkeys.