Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting I'm Not SKANE but I Did Hunt Kansas Last Week

Good stuff 'Woody !

Did you do a Sioux Lookout moose hunt this year ?

99,

No moose hunt this year. I'm on a waiting list with my outfitter but it will be 2020 or 21 before he has room again.
I did take this whitetail at home with my 1957 Savage 99 F. I suppose I should post it on the Savage forum.

Another view of my Indiana 99 buck. An hour before I shot him I blew a chance at a bigger buck when his doe busted me. The one I took was the third biggest buck I had seen during bow season and had pictures of.

Ruger77,

As you can see by the map skeen shared there is a lot of WIHA around the state. We hunt in the East half. I stumbled on this program in 2016 when I was hunting the area with an outfitter and saw the signs. For the 2017 hunt we used OnX maps to look at several WIHA properties then went out a day before the season opened and walked a half a dozen properties. Some are wide open pastures, some have creek bottom cover, some are cultivated. Hunting pressure varies by location and day of the week but we haven't had any interference other than the silly German bird hunters this year.

Cheers, yeah, the whole moose tag situation up here is totally messed up !

Outfitter tags have been reduced significantly too.

Haven't hunted them myself in 4-5 seasons, since the quota was seriously reduced.

Keep your good season rolling !

Well done, 54Woody.

Great hunt there Woody and thanks for the information.

Don't listen to the WIHA lady. She has told that crop damage doe story to 100 other hunters as well. Congratulation to both of you on your deer.

LNF,

I'm sure she told others about that property, it's her job to promote the program. She said she usually just leaves the survey card on vehicles and doesn't get to talk to many hunters. I had told her Brad and I didn't intend to doe hunt but she really wanted to report to the land owner that she sent hunters there. Anyway, when we ran over there to check it out there was one truck pulled over on one field. When we went back that evening to drop my cousin off there wasn't anyone else there. Lots of deer sign but cuz didn't see any. I saw a buck and doe across the road on neighboring property. Still it was worth a look and good to remember for the future.

In addition to the over 1 million acres enrolled in the WIHA program, Kansas has another 300,00 acres of US Corps of Engineer lands open to hunting.

There is no shortage of public hunting opportunities in Kansas.

I did her WIHA job years ago for the state of Kansas. Contracting with the landowners, drawing the enrolled lands on county maps, posting all the properties in the counties for my area (and helping other biologist with their WIHA lands), talking to hunters and passing out the survey cards. But since I had been on all the properties at least twice or more; I knew what they held, their hunting potential and what I had seen. So when I'd talk to hunters; I'd steer them to where I had seen upland game or big game and get the groups spread out for success, not stack them on top of each other on one piece of property for safety reasons and because those deer will split the scene, come back the day after hunting season ends and the crop damage continues.

LNF,

Good insight and great approach to the job.

Great trip Woody, and great bucks!

Woody, well done!
Did you see a bit of rutting activity just prior to the season?

We certainly did on our trip, then the switch got flipped on the last bit of rutting activity the day the season opened.

I arrived about 2:00 pm the day before the opener so no time to get much observation in, especially since my buck was the first deer I saw opening morning. My buck was traveling alone and feeding. Brad saw two bucks traveling alone and one following two does. On Friday afternoon I saw a buck dogging a doe from the road. I think the rut was winding up fast. Talked to one hunter over lunch that said the rut was cranking just before Thanksgiving when he was taking his son out bow hunting but it was like a switch was thrown at the end of that week shutting it down.
Looking forward to your report.

Woody

breakfast AND fresh donuts.... I like your style.

54 woody, you done good man. Nice Bucks and Nice Shootin' on your and your partners part!

That's a cool pic