Birds '24
Contributors to this thread:Kansas
From: sitO
05-Jan-24
Got my buddy's son out this morning, it was perfect. Two short of a 2man limit, but I ran off a group of 30-40 lesser's that landed in our spread. We wanted to shoot some big birds and got four of them later.
From: Catscratch
05-Jan-24
Oh man, I bet watching them come in with this snow and fog was beautiful! Nothing quite like a lone goose honking into a spread while the rest of the world is muffled by snow. Good job!
From: Ksgobbler
05-Jan-24
I set a spread on my pond. Shot 2 mallards and pulled feathers on a 3rd. Buddy went to hunt public and couldnt believe how many trucks were there on a friday.
From: sitO
05-Jan-24
Nice Matt, we hunted the Ark River Thu morning and didn't get a shot...gotta be in the right place as we know.
Cameron already got the info back on the "cackler" from this morning, it had a long journey.
From: Ksboy
05-Jan-24
We shot one in 2018 from Nunavet as well, it was banded in 2003. It was at least a 15 year old goose!!!
From: be still
05-Jan-24
Good stuff. I would love to take Ella and do that one day. Doubt she would ever be calm enough just to sit there though.
From: Quailhunter
05-Jan-24
2003? Wow
From: Ksgobbler
05-Jan-24
Years ago my brother shot one that was an adult when banded and was banded 22 years prior. Think of all the decoy spreads that thing saw.
From: KsRancher
05-Jan-24
That's looks like a blast. One of these years I am going to have to go on a goose hunt like that. The only geese I have shot were pond jumped
From: Bwhnt
06-Jan-24
Wow great hunts there!! I never realized they got that old. That's insane when you think of the migrations they fly and the amount of mileage on their wings.
From: Dale06
06-Jan-24
I bet those15 plus year old geese are some tough eating birds. I’ve been fortunate to field hunt them many times in Canada. That would be fun even with out shooting, just watching the 1000s in the sky and them responding to calling and decoys then cupping their wings and gliding in to the decoy spread.
From: Ksgobbler
07-Jan-24
My brothers goose popped up in his facebook memories today. Shot in 2015 banded in 1995 and adult when banded. I was wrong it was 20 years.
From: Kansan
08-Jan-24
We have shot a few ducks / geese over 20, over the years. One snow goose almost 30 years old.
From: LTG 11
08-Jan-24
I haven't gotten out as much this year, but when I have it's been good.
From: be still
08-Jan-24
Great pics Logan!!
From: KB
11-Jan-24
Dropped in for a couple weeks to see some family and friends. Really fun first half of the trip so far.
From: sitO
11-Jan-24
Logan, that ol'lab's got an eye on them, and the post rock pic Kaleb, good stuff guys
From: Quailhunter
11-Jan-24
Had a good day Sunday down here in Osage Co… Should've had a limit. Moved 5 coveys.
From: Quailhunter
12-Jan-24
From: Quailhunter
12-Jan-24
I give up on pics. Ridiculous...
From: be still
12-Jan-24
Ha Quailhunter don’t get impatient and let it get you all sideways:?)
If when you take a pic if you hold your camera sideways it usually posts right. If you don’t push edit and rotate the picture a full 360 degrees and then it should post right as well.
From: Catscratch
12-Jan-24
Take a screenshot of your pic, then post it instead of the original. It'll be upright.
From: Catscratch
12-Jan-24
From: Two dogs mobile
12-Jan-24
My Brittany decided we should go out on New Years Day
From: Quailhunter
12-Jan-24
Thank you! I'm thinking maybe you or someone told me that a year ago or so. That sounds familiar now that I'm reading it.
From: Bones
12-Jan-24
From: be still
12-Jan-24
Beautiful pic and dog Bones!
From: Catscratch
12-Jan-24
I'm awfully jealous of all these birds and bird dogs! Well done guys!
From: Quailhunter
12-Jan-24
Picking up a new shorthair pup tomorrow.
From: Bwhnt
13-Jan-24
Very fun hunt by the looks
From: Ksgobbler
13-Jan-24
Chopped a hole in the ice down and the pond and dropped my ice eater in
From: sitO
13-Jan-24
Good luck in the morning Matt, having some withdrawal symptoms here
My brother just sent me this, ol'Chet is into the white stuff in CO
From: Thornton
13-Jan-24
What part of the state are these pheasants being found in? I can't find good habitat anywhere
From: Ksgobbler
14-Jan-24
Lake froze and birds went to the cooling lake. A buddy owns a field right across the road from the cooling lake. He shot 2 snows (1 banded), 3 canadas, and 5 mallards yesterday. Said they were the only 5 ducks he saw. He is headed out right now and said if the action picks up he will call me. Meanwhile struck a deer with my truck for the first time this morning.
From: Catscratch
14-Jan-24
Ksgobbler, I saw a lot of ducks using corn stubble this morning.
Quailhunter, how's your new pup doing? Pics?
From: Quailhunter
14-Jan-24
He’s doing well. I’ll try pics this evening. Internet issues.
From: Quailhunter
14-Jan-24
From: Quailhunter
14-Jan-24
Well what do you know… right side up.
From: Catscratch
14-Jan-24
Cute pup. Spoiled from the moment it went into the truck! Awfully dark. Will it stay that color?
From: Quailhunter
14-Jan-24
Yea solid black GSP except for the little white patch on his chest. I’ve never had one with black markings let alone a solid color. He will sure be easy to tell from the other in the field.
From: sitO
14-Jan-24
Big'ol feet, have fun with him!
From: Quailhunter
14-Jan-24
Thanks I plan on it! Yes he has some clod hoppers. This weather sucks but I won’t complain cause I know you all had it worse up that way. Just cold here. 1” of powder. I just wonder how many times in his lifetime I’ll be asked what happened to my labs tail.
From: Ksgobbler
14-Jan-24
Our younger lab was born with a tail injury that caused it to have to snipped. I get alot of questions about my all black GSP. Her name is Shorty.
From: KB
18-Jan-24
Had to get after the birds one more time before taking off. Warmest day of the week wasn’t very warm, but felt better about it than the few days before for sure! Did find one hen frozen solid. No autopsy so not sure if she was injured or what. Coveys seemed to be weathering it out alright and pheasants were taking advantage of the little warmup to get out and feed. Sure isn’t the good ol’ days by any means, but I was pleasantly surprised after reading the reports all year. Pretty optimistic for next year where I like to play around.
From: Ksgobbler
18-Jan-24
Im afraid around here its harder on the quail. We got ice under the snow, and we have drifts deep enough my SxS got high centered tuesday. And all that snow came drifting in at night. Ive got a big bag of black oil sunflowers I have been pitching in to some thickets and under cedars in an area I know there is a covey.
From: KB
18-Jan-24
I don’t doubt there were some coveys buried in places throughout this ordeal. The counties I spent time in it seemed the plumb thickets and heavy kochia draws did their job for protection and a lot of the birds were close to standing bean fields, which they didn’t appear to have any issue getting around in and lots of food obviously.
From: Ksgobbler
21-Jan-24
Ice is thick...like drove my 38 hp tractor onto it thick. I chopped a hole into a piece I had run the ice eater in early in the week and put it in. The thaw can be a great time to hunt. I want to be the only open pond around when birds start looking again.
From: Ksgobbler
25-Jan-24
Lots of swans in the area.
From: KsRancher
25-Jan-24
Have a couple pair down here in southern Pratt, Co. They are big birds.
From: Catscratch
25-Jan-24
Very cool! We had 18 that wintered on our place for a few yrs. Now we seem to get a couple of pairs that stop by once in a while. I had to id them and look up hunting regulations. I kind of wanted to see what they look like in hand, and what they taste like. No such luck, not the right kind. They are huge and noisy birds!
From: Deerdummmy
26-Jan-24
Are those the ones on wolf creek?
From: AaronShort
26-Jan-24
Looks like the north end of the cooling lake but I could be wrong.
From: Ksgobbler
26-Jan-24
A few birds flying this afternoon. Could only hunt for 45 minutes as LCL started at 1600. Crawled into the blind at 1415. 1420 I hear the jet fighter roar and in comes this drake goldeneye. Worked one other flock then time for bball.
From: Ksgobbler
27-Jan-24
Birds flying around so went for round 2. Set up and didnt even have a chance to get in the blind and 2 drake golden eye came right in. All I could do was video. Later I got a canada. Had 15 mallards coming in and I lost sight. Poked my head up and they were on me dropping vertical. They saw me the same time I saw them and were gone. Action died so I went to go work on fire trucks.
From: sitO
27-Jan-24
Gotta love it, and all on your place?
From: Ksgobbler
27-Jan-24
Yeah. I left the spread out. May give it one last try tomorrow.
From: The Kid
28-Jan-24
Able to scratch out a few on the last day! Fun times!
From: Ksgobbler
29-Jan-24
I like all the cottontops.
From: Stubbleduck
29-Jan-24
Quail came in under my deer stand last fall. They hung around for 15-20 minutes and a few of them rested almost directly under me. This was in the Deep Creek area near Manhattan.
From: Stubbleduck
29-Jan-24
Can't seem to get image edit tool to work. Needs a 90 degree clockwise rotation. How do I do that?
From: Catscratch
29-Jan-24
Save it as a screenshot, then post that instead of the original. Should come out right. Cool pic! I love to listen to quail as they move through. They talk a lot!
From: Stubbleduck
29-Jan-24
Thanks Catscratch......useful hint. One wonders however what the "Photo edit" heading that shows up is supposed to do??
From: Stubbleduck
29-Jan-24
Quail Again
Quail Again
Another try to get the whole photo in
From: Stubbleduck
29-Jan-24
Whoops....didn't work again
From: Catscratch
29-Jan-24
:)
From: be still
29-Jan-24
Come on now Cat if you’re crop…make it look good:?)
From: Thornton
29-Jan-24
Blue geese from last week.
From: Thornton
29-Jan-24
A limit of quail and a rabbit I shot today. The new pup made his first point.
From: Thornton
30-Jan-24
From: sitO
30-Jan-24
Great pic w/the pup JT, nice shootin
From: Thornton
30-Jan-24
Thanks! Tomorrow is the last day of our hunt. So far, my friend Shane (Kshusker)and I have knocked down 13 quail, 1 pheasant, 2 pigeons, and a rabbit. The pup has gotten his first points and retrieves on this hunt. He is learning fast.
From: Bwhnt
31-Jan-24
That dog looks like he is about as happy as a dog can get. Sounds like a fun one
From: Ksgobbler
01-Feb-24
Had geese on the pond the last 2 days. I left em alone trying to get numbers to build. Northward migration has been on full display. Hoping maybe they imprinted and will return next spring.
From: Thornton
01-Feb-24
Northward? I'm still seeing snows headed south. Weirdest year I remember.
From: Ksgobbler
02-Feb-24
Its been a non stop reverse migration with birds headed north here.
From: Matte
04-Feb-24
Finally had a chance for Dakota and I to go with some friends on a Goose Hunt.
From: be still
04-Feb-24
Matt if that’s Dakota second from left it looks like maybe he should be playing DE for the Wildcats…
From: Matte
04-Feb-24
Yes it is and his Qb Avery Johnson from Maize already plays there and trust me we all think the same thing. He was always a beast.
From: be still
04-Feb-24
I remember a couple years ago you were telling us on here about y’all’s QB getting some recruiting attention. Didn’t think much about it until I watched Johnson play last year and I heard he came from Maize…I thought man I’m pretty sure that’s where Matt’s son played and this is who he was talking about. Pretty cool stuff.
I found on YouTube the close game y’all had against the team Dylan Edwards played for and started watching some of it and then I had to go do something. Later I tried to find the same game but couldn’t find it no more on there. I was sure wanting to watch the whole game.
Yep your son outta give it a try. He sure looks like he has the build for it and if he was good enough to start for Maize he might just have what it takes.
From: NCK
04-Feb-24
Wanted to post this sometime back but Pat deleted my account after i made a few comments on this hunt this year
"The oldest known wild Canada Goose was a female, and at least 33 years, 3 months old when she was shot in Ontario in 2001. She had been banded in Ohio in 1969. Generally, wild Canada Geese have a life expectancy of 10-24 years.Jan 14, 2017"
From: Catscratch
04-Feb-24
Got deleted! I kind of had the impression he doesn't give a crap what people post. You must have struck a nerve.
33 seems OLD!
I kicked up quail 3 times while looking for sheds this afternoon (could have been the same birds, dont know). Awful nice to see some birds!
From: be still
10-Feb-24
Maybe just a little off topic here but I didn’t want to start a new thread just for this. About to get a GPS collar for Ella. What’s the best one for the dollars paid? We have a Cabelas here in Waco and I seen where they have this one. Is it any good or is there a better one for cheaper?
From: KB
10-Feb-24
Mike, do a Google search for best upland dog collars or something similar and include “forum”. You’ll get dozens of threads from Rokslide, pheasant forum, gun dog, etc. Lots of info out there.
I think what you’re looking at there is just the remote and the collar bundle is over $1000. Assuming you’re not running cats in Arizona that remote might might very well be a little overkill. There are options that don’t include the screen but still connect to phone/smartwatches for mapping capabilities.
From: crestedbutte
10-Feb-24
Mike….If you need something to just “find” a lost dog from time to time….look into getting an APPLE AIR TAG (less than $50) to put on Ella’s collar.
As long as there is an I-Phone within the range of the lost dog a signal will ping among I-Phone users back to you (as long as you or someone in your family has an I-Phone) and thus tracks the dogs whereabouts until pick-up.
From: be still
10-Feb-24
Thanks KB I’ll do a forum search. Called a bunch of places in Waco and Cabelas is the only place I’ve found that sells these things. They didn’t have a receiver in stock…only a collar and it was on sale for $200.
Crested I just talked to Petco and they had an Air Tag what you are talking about here. Didn’t say the distance on there so he googled it and said it needed to be within 300ft….really? Last time I checked I can still see out to a hundred yards.
From: crestedbutte
10-Feb-24
It is a crowd source beacon….probably a better option for a dog that lives in town or city….not so much if out in remote countryside areas.
From: Two dogs mobile
10-Feb-24
Be Still, I have the Garmin like you have pictured. You need the collar that goes with it. It will do a lot more than I need. It works pretty well. My Brittany is small and if she goes on point in heavy cover it will let me find her. Two years ago I was hunting some heavy CRP and it vibrated telling me she was probably on point. I used it to go to her. It finally said that she was near. I still couldn't see her. Finally about 6 feet from me, I see her under some heavy grass on point. With out the locator I would have had a difficult time finding her. I use the collar vibrate to get her attention to see what I want her to do. Once in a while I use the shock to remind her she has to pay attention to me.
From: Quailhunter
10-Feb-24
Had a good day down here in Oklahoma today. Good way to finish the season. Duke is wearing a Garmin collar here. I have the alpha. Used to have an Astro. If I was two hours from the house and realized I forgot the gps units I’d turn around. Saved this dog a month ago when he got turned around and followed a truck on an oil lease road. Was picking him up at 900 yards and was able to jog to the truck and chase him down. If you’re thinking about whether or not it’s worth it. It is. Period. Point indicator is very accurate.
From: Catscratch
11-Feb-24
Duke doesn't look ready to quit! Nice way to wrap it up Quailhunter!
From: Quailhunter
11-Feb-24
Trying to whoa for a pic. Doesn’t work as well as whoa on a covey.
From: be still
11-Feb-24
I think y’all have talked me into it with the Garmin. Going to check on a place tomorrow my Son-In-Law thinks might have them. If they don’t probably try and order one. There’s a possibility we’re going to be taking her to Kansas to the Convention and try to spend at least a day out shed hunting. I think she’ll have a blast doing that and on some of them ranches up there I don’t want to take any chances losing her. She got after something last year down here and took off running through the trees. Took a good while for her to come back that day and I started sweating on that one. Ever since then I’ve mainly just been letting her run the acreage that’s fence in down there.
Duke is a good looking dog.
From: Quailhunter
12-Feb-24
Thank you! You will not regret a Garmin unit. I have the Alpha 100. It is combined gps and e collar. I seldom need the e collar but do on occasion. The Astro is just gps. They have an alpha 10 that is the most basic and would probably suit the vast majority of hunters. Believe my collars are the tt15. The Alpha will pair with Garmin watches. Just look at your wrist to see where your dog is.
From: Quailhunter
12-Feb-24
The point indicator on both units I’ve had are very accurate. When it buzzes and says they’re on point, they are either pointing or taking a dump. Can’t even describe how useful these are in CRP pheasant hunting when you can’t see the dog.
From: Ksgobbler
16-Feb-24
On the board for the conservation season.
