Butch Cooley Worldwide Hunting and Fishing

December 13-17:  Kansas Pheasant Hunt

Chris Butz, from Grand Junction, Colorado and I were joined by my very good friend, retired cardiologist and author, Dr Joe D Goldstrich. for several days of really good pheasant hunting in Quinter, Kansas.  We hunt at least once a year at FantasyFlyers.com, owned by my friends Phil and Sherry Mann.  They operate a pheasant preserve and raise in excess of 100,000 pheasants, chukars and bobwhite quail each year.  They ship all over the country.  They have approximately 1300 acres under Kansas controlled hunting regulations.  But there is a lot more open land for wild birds also.  And this year there was just a ton of birds.  We saw birds everywhere, in almost every field.  There were simply too many places to hunt.  

And the weather was brutal.  Kansas can be a very cold place.  Our first morning out we were probably near  -15F with wind chill.  And -30F at night.  We hunted with labs and our new puppy Stella.  She is only 5 months old.  I have her retrieving pheasant wings, but she still is a bit young to fully comprehend what the seasoned dogs are doing.  But she works along side of them when she can, and is really good around a gun.  And she doesn't quit.  But she is a puppy and it is still "playtime" to her.  We had several days where the wind was tough.  And the birds were tough also.  When they would flush and turn on the down wind, it was really hard shooting.  But we did take many birds nonetheless.  The pointers had a bit more trouble with the winds, and we only used them a short time and went back to the flushing dogs.   

The farm was hit this spring by a 1/2 mile wide tornado, and it all but destroyed the place.  I have some favorite spots I like to hunt and one of them is a creek bottom about a half mile from the bunkhouse.  I was amazed at how the cottonwoods had been just ripped from the ground.  Some of these trees had to be 100+ years old.  What a tangled mess.  But of course there were birds in  that mess. 

Despite the cold temperatures, we are planning on returning sometime following Xmas.  The regular season runs until the end of January 2009 and the preserve is open through the end of March 2009.  

We got there the last day of deer season, which proved to be a great season on the farm.  Many really nice bucks taken.  And you can get doe permits too.  Phil and his son, Brack, do guided deer hunts during the regular deer season.  We saw many deer while bird hunting.  

Our last day was our best day.  The winds stopped completely, it was sunny, but still cold.  But with the wind gone, it was great hunting.  I don't know for certain how many birds we put up, but it was near 30 pheasants.   

 Chris and Stella

Phil and the pointers and his little "rat dog".  She goes in and flushes.

Phil and Chris with the results of a morning hunt.  Phil has icicles on his moustache!!

 

Chris wit a decent Kansas buck

Butch Cooley with two hands of nice birds.

Tornado damaged cottnwoods

Doc kicking back

On point