In the Kansas City area one place is synonymous with dove hunting. James A. Reed Memorial Wildlife Area will host several hundred hunters on opening day. They have some hunter-to-acre ratio that allows them to pack in a bunch of guys over quality habitat. The result is that on opening day alone they will often kill several thousand doves.
I’ve tried it twice, once each of the last two years. Once I had one of the best shoots of my life, once I felt like the area had been shot out. Both years it was the second day of the season. Like most public areas, if you don’t get to them in the first few days you’re wasting your time. To get a prime spot for noon on opening day people start arriving at 2:30 am!
Anyway, the Kansas City Star had an article in today’s paper saying that the kill was way down because of the weather. 620 hunters and only 1900 doves is not the type of kill they are used to. I sure didn’t notice lower numbers 100 miles to the west on my opening day… The article can be found here.
Last year a couple of guys got my email address off a comment I made over at The Outdoor Smorgasbord offering to help if dihardhunter had any questions before he came to Kansas to deer hunt. I admit I was somewhat surprised that my comment even showed up, much less the #3 hit on Google for Kansas Unit 11!
But I had a great time working with a group of guys from Florida and another group from Wisconsin. I offered my thoughts where I had hunted in the past and where I might try now, mostly on public ground. It was also fun to hear from these guys when they returned with pictures and stories to share.
So now I’m extending the offer again… If you’re looking for ideas on hunting Unit 11 or 19 in Kansas drop me a line at dukkillr@hotmail.com
Still not convinced? I shot this buck after he walked off of Unit 11 public ground a few years back…
So hw many of you actually applied for a Kansas Special Hunt like I advised you to do here and here?
Well maybe not enough of you did apply because I drew my first choice upland hunt. That marks the first time in the history of the program that I’ve drawn anything, and only 12 applicants were drawn! Now if I could have chosen to focus my luck perhaps I’d have an Arizona elk tag but beggers can’t be choosers.
It always seems like the last few weeks of August just crawl by, but this year is worse than normal. I’ve now got 3 dove openers, the teal opener, a Colorado elk bowhunt, and the arrival of my first child all scheduled to occur in the next 5 weeks!
If you took my advice and applied for a Kansas Special Hunt you need to make sure you don’t want to change your mind. The deadline for applications WAS August 1st but apparently the information booklet didn’t include all of your possible choices… Ugh…
So, take a look at the private land options in the newly revised booklet and see if you want to change your choices. Now you have until August 8th. If you still haven’t applied you should do so…
If you’d like to have a chance of drawing any of the early season Kansas Special Hunts you’ll need to get your application in by August 1st. They split the draw into two parts this year and the later hunts will be drawn on October 1st. The information for the draw is here and the application is here. The only way to apply is online.
I was fortunate enough to be invited on a special hunt for waterfowl last fall. I wrote briefly about it here. Unfortunately we didn’t have the type of cold weather you’d need to do well there, but it was still a neat opportunity to see a new place. I have never drawn a special hunt but I’ll apply again this year. There is no cost or downside.
A cool opportunity to those with some cash laying around…
Tennessee’s first elk hunt in 150 years will be a unique one. One fall elk hunting tag will be auctioned off to the highest bidder on eBay from July 16-25.
So apparently everyone drew. If you applied for a Kansas Non-Resident Deer Tag you won! Congrats!
I believe all 4 of the bucks in that video will be available for any of you non-residents to chase this coming fall. I passed the tall 8 and screwed up a great opportunity on the big 9. I passed the broken beam buck several times. Now as to where you should go to find these guys… That’s a bit more complicated…
There’s actually a great deal of resentment among Kansas hunters for our current system that allows basically any non-resident who’s willing to pay $350 to hunt deer here. This year it was a 100% draw with leftovers in each unit. Last year it was very close to a 100% draw with leftovers in most units. I believe some of the units never sold out. The locals, particularly those prone to whining anyway, are up in arms. They don’t like others killing “their” deer. They don’t like others leasing, “their” ground. They don’t like anything new. They firmly believe that they can turn the clock back to 1960 if they howl and moan about every change that happens.
I see it a bit differently. I’ve been extremely fortunate to hunt a few states each fall. I hunted 4 states and a province last fall. I respect the opportunity that those states provided for me to chase their deer, elk, pheasants, antelope, or whatever. I’m willing to provide those not fortunate enough to be born in Kansas the opportunity to chase some of our big deer. I want to return the favor. Plus, frankly, I’m just not really into complaining.
I’m also part of the problem. I’m excited about two friends from Arkansas and a friend from Southern Missouri joining us in early November. We’ve had a 50% success rate with the Arkansas guys over the last 2 years, and I’ve really enjoyed the adventure they bring with them. I hope they take three monsters this year.
Good luck to those of you who have tags. Don’t worry about all the bluster from “The Locals”. Welcome to Kansas and good luck. I hope you enjoy your hunt, but I hope I get the big 9 before you do!
You only have a few more days left to apply for your 2009 gator tags in Florida. The last day for the first section is June 15th. They split the application period this year into 3 parts with the second and third parts being first-come first-serve. The best tags will go in the draw.
