Kansas public land hunting

[nativeks]

Have you checked on lodging yet? Just asking because the nuclear plant will be in a refueling outage which brings a large influx of people.

[tha bugman]

Best to call the state and see what the population of turkeys are on the WMA.  We went to one in hopes of camping and hunting there only to be told by the manager that the area had very few birds.  You will definitely see plenty from the roads, but don't slow down cause if you do they are going to put it in high gear!  Best bet on WIHA IMO is to obviously try to roost them the night before and then catch them before they get to the bordering private land.  That and knocking on doors.  Good Luck!!!  Alot of the WIHA land I saw was as bare as the moon.  I want to go back on a road trip there and go through Dodge City to sight see.

[Ericbrooks]

Best to call the state and see what the population of turkeys are on the WMA. 

Trust me, the folks you talk to when you call have no idea what the deer herd or turkey flock numbers are.
All they want to do is sell tags.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tha bugman]

Best to call the state and see what the population of turkeys are on the WMA. 

Trust me, the folks you talk to when you call have no idea what the deer herd or turkey flock numbers are.
All they want to do is sell tags.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Didn't make us any difference, we already had our tags..LOL!

[djrcm7]

I will also be headed to Kansas for the first time this year! Going to try WIHA and maybe some door knocking. Headed out for early archery. Hoping the unpressured birds want to work!

[chcltlabz]

I spent a month in eastern Kansas for work 2 years ago and got to hunt the first week of turkey season while I was there.  I had weekends off and 3 weeks to scout, so I really put in my time. 

The online maps of public hunting land are a huge bonus, but beware, not all WIHA are open during turkey season, and some are only open for turkey.  If you do your computer screen homework and cross reference these with google earth, you can identify which WIHA's have timber and which don't.  That's just the start.  I identified about 2 dozen WIHA's to scout before I got there, then found about that many when I got there and never hunted any of them because they were all being scouted pretty hard, so I would assume hunted pretty hard.  All the ones near where I was were small, and I wouldn't want to hunt more than one person, so I moved on if it was apparent it was going to be hunted hard.  Out of curiosity, I did drive by these spots during the season and I was right, they were getting hunted.

I will say this, not a single one of the vehicles I saw hunting or scouting these spots were from out of state.  They all had Kansas tags, so I'm not sure I'd blame the hunting pressure on OOS hunters alone.

I ended up driving about 4 hours west and hunting public land.  Unfortunately, between when I scouted and located dozens of birds, the area had burned, pushing the birds out.  There were a few moving back in, but not the numbers I had scouted.  A month of scouting to devise a plan that completely fell apart and had to be adjusted anyways.  I killed my 2 birds opening weekend, but I worked my tail off to get there.

I did not try and get access to private land, but there were a lot of birds on private land.

[fallhnt]

I spent a month in eastern Kansas for work 2 years ago and got to hunt the first week of turkey season while I was there.  I had weekends off and 3 weeks to scout, so I really put in my time. 

The online maps of public hunting land are a huge bonus, but beware, not all WIHA are open during turkey season, and some are only open for turkey.  If you do your computer screen homework and cross reference these with google earth, you can identify which WIHA's have timber and which don't.  That's just the start.  I identified about 2 dozen WIHA's to scout before I got there, then found about that many when I got there and never hunted any of them because they were all being scouted pretty hard, so I would assume hunted pretty hard.  All the ones near where I was were small, and I wouldn't want to hunt more than one person, so I moved on if it was apparent it was going to be hunted hard.  Out of curiosity, I did drive by these spots during the season and I was right, they were getting hunted.

I will say this, not a single one of the vehicles I saw hunting or scouting these spots were from out of state.  They all had Kansas tags, so I'm not sure I'd blame the hunting pressure on OOS hunters alone.

I ended up driving about 4 hours west and hunting public land.  Unfortunately, between when I scouted and located dozens of birds, the area had burned, pushing the birds out.  There were a few moving back in, but not the numbers I had scouted.  A month of scouting to devise a plan that completely fell apart and had to be adjusted anyways.  I killed my 2 birds opening weekend, but I worked my tail off to get there.

I did not try and get access to private land, but there were a lot of birds on private land.

Good post. I too work my tail off. Like I say.....it's public land not public knowledge. I do give up spots in MO. if I think I can get knowledge in return.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk