I am seeing a lot of Chickens in my back road travels this year. It occurred to me, that while I have killed quite a few of them, I have never actually set out to hunt them. So? Other than driving around watching for a flock, how do you HUNT the durn things? Any suggestions?
I find most Chickens hunting hill tops with native grass with a close ranging pointing dog the first part of the season before the family groups split up. After the first freeze when the big flocks have formed pass shooting or hunting the native grass and plum thickets cover near feeding fields will get you some shooting in the latter part of the season.
"Prairie Chicken Shooting In Kansas", Theodore R. Davis in
Harper's Weekly Dec. 21, 1867
"Prairie Chicken Shooting in Kansas" from
American Game-bird Shooting by George Bird Grinnell, 1910
In east-central KS, where there are some trees
it is common to find a sentinel bird up in the branches near a feeding flock; good luck on getting a shot
Some years ago, in the Nebraska Sand Hills, we were told by a farmer/rancher to come by a half hour before sundown, stand in the corn , and the birds will come by. He was very right. The flocks came to us, with both prairie chicken and sharptails flying in the same flocks.
Some years ago, in the Nebraska Sand Hills, we were told by a farmer/rancher to come by a half hour before sundown, stand in the corn , and the birds will come by. He was very right. The flocks came to us, with both prairie chicken and sharptails flying in the same flocks.
That about the only place(Sand Hills) I ever shot them. And then they were incidental to the Pheasants we were primarily after.
Jim
Some years ago, in the Nebraska Sand Hills, we were told by a farmer/rancher to come by a half hour before sundown, stand in the corn , and the birds will come by. He was very right. The flocks came to us, with both prairie chicken and sharptails flying in the same flocks.
That's exactly the way I've shot sharp-tails in Saskatchewan a few times...Geo
Well come to think of it it was wheat or barley instead of corn and the birds were flying in from a community pasture.
Some years ago, in the Nebraska Sand Hills, we were told by a farmer/rancher to come by a half hour before sundown, stand in the corn , and the birds will come by. He was very right. The flocks came to us, with both prairie chicken and sharptails flying in the same flocks.
They same way I used to hunt them in Oklahoma. Large flocks weren't uncommon and shooting was fast and furious. Prairie Chickens are now protected in Oklahoma.
Early season Prairie Chicken is my favorite season. I spend 2 1/2 weeks every year on chickens alone
It is a great tune up for the dog, i hunt the first few hours in the morning and later the last hours before sundown too.
Be careful one don't fly up yer kilts...
They seem to follow very specific flight paths, going out to feed before sunset and then heading back to roost. I hunted with a KS guide who'd been watching a flock. He put me in a ditch, one power pole off from where they flew out to feed. I moved to that power pole and shot one when they headed back to roost.
I've killed piles of them over pointing dogs.
All the way to the end of the Kansas season. Alll over the Flint and Smokey hills. All over the Cimarron, Gove, Logan, Barber counties
Even after the big flocks form.
They sit just below the peak of "hills" out of the wind.
They dig right into the grass on the short grass prairie.
Because of the wind, dogs can find them more than 50 yards away. A flock as far as 100.
The shots are long, but they are easy to kill. An oz of 5's will stone them at 50 yards.
I typically use an Ithaca Flues model with very light 32" barrels, Full and Full.
Pass shooting is the typical social way to shoot them, but there are plenty to be had walking them up.
If you are pass shooting, don't move. They'll land right around you. If you move too quick, they flare.
You'll find Lesser Prairie Chickens in the Cimarron. Kansas is the only part of the range where Lessers are increasing in numbers. They are in decline in Oklahoma, New Mexico, the Texas panhandle, and southeast Colorado. The Greater Prairie Chicken seems stable in the Flint Hills. I've photographed Lessers in southwest Kansas on the lek in the spring. I will photograph Greaters this coming spring in eastern Kansas.
Yep.
I hunted Comanche county, along the OK border and did well also.
People will think you're nuts.
Walking around out there in all that grass, bumbling around in fallow pastures. Side hilling channels cattle can't go into.
Remember, they are always within .5 miles of the lek, and they nest and roost in last years grass.
Meat so purple you'd think all they ate were grapes.
Even the greaters have a relatively limited range, compared to other popular game birds. From KS up to central SD is pretty much it. Sand Hills of NE and the grasslands of SD are also very popular places to hunt them. From NE on north as far as you can find chickens, their range overlaps that of sharptail grouse.
Notice the tight, light colored bands on the flanks. It's really obvious when they flush what you are shooting at. They look buff, or drab, when they flush. That, and lessers are much smaller, more pigeon size than pheasant sized.
Greaters, look more golden, more shiny, and have that distinct shape to their tail.
One year we set blinds at the base of a hill, divided by a ravine. Every evening, until frost killed the hoppers, a large flock of about 200 would glide on down out of the hills across the "butts".
They repeated it every morning, just at daybreak.
Closest thing to red grouse shooting the US has.
I've never seen a prairie chicken but I met a guy while hunting ducks in Saskatchewan who's real day job is for the Nature Conservancy and who runs a prairie chicken sanctuary in Minnesota of all places.
We were both free-lancing and had spotted the same flock of ducks. We arrived at the field owner's house for permission at the same time and agreed to join forces and hunt them together...Geo
Prairie chickens fed the settlers Geo.
Until we broke the sod.
A favorite print.
Thanks all...I have 5 flocks I am watching and they seem to be routinized to the same feed areas ..So We'll attack them there. They are also hanging out in a short grass pasture of about 900 acres..Too much walking for 81 year old legs! Pics later
Yep.
I hunted Comanche county, along the OK border and did well also.
People will think you're nuts.
Walking around out there in all that grass, bumbling around in fallow pastures. Side hilling channels cattle can't go into.
Remember, they are always within .5 miles of the lek, and they nest and roost in last years grass.
Meat so purple you'd think all they ate were grapes.
Concur on the meat it is not the greatest (a Chinese beef with peppers recipe is good for them).
On them always being within 1/2 mile of the leek, yes and no, depends on cover, weather, and pressure.
I have seen chickens fly out beyond the horizon and populations corridors for chickens can easily go more than ten miles long.
I am afraid to talk too much about chickens as I like hunting them and not seeing people out there much doing the same.
Maybe you need some young guy with a spaniel to drive them to you Chuck
Last Dollar-get 4-5 friends together.
Pick the fence post you think has the highest likelyhood of them flying by. Sit by it.
Post your friends along the fence far away from you to either side. 100-200 yds. When someone see chickens flying in, have them stand up and wave a flag.
The flock will swing right over you.
Colonel-
Chickens have several things going against them.
Hard work-Lots of walking.
Poor table fare compared to pheasants.
Totally reliant on landowners wanting chickens on their land for various reasons.
They are never going to be endangered by specimen collectors and eccentrics.
Cattle and spring burning, Absolutely! But not walk them up guys.
Clapper, agree habitat not hunting is their issue, I just like the solitude of early season chicken compared to later seasons on the marsh
A.B. Frost
"Prairie Chicken Shooting", 1895
"Prairie Chickens"
As ground nesting birds, the wind generators are their enemy. Chickens will not (normally) nest within a couple mile radius of a tall object. Their main predators are avian which will rest on a tall object. Put up enough wind generators and there won't be any prairie chickens nesting. The wilder areas of the Flint Hills is great habitat for them because of the vastness without utility poles or other tall objects. Likewise, the Cimarron Grasslands for the lessers in southwest Kansas.
Cimarron Sunset
William Inge screenwriter for 'Splendor in the Grass'
"Violence on the plains exists more in nature than in man. A person lives in this mid-country with an inherent consciousness of the sky. One is always aware of the sky in these states, because one sees so much more of it than in the mountainous regions where the horizons are blocked and the heavens are trimmed down like a painting, to fit a smaller frame. And human life on the prairie is more dependent upon and influenced by the sky and it constant maneuverings than in other regions. Men here look at the sky each morning as soon as they get out of bed, to see what kind of a day is indicated. Life and prosperity depend upon the sky, which can destroy a season's crops in a few hours, by hail or blizzards or tornadoes or a relentlessly burning sun that can desiccate the land like an Old Testament curse."
Hard to believe Drew, but I've been known to just stop my truck, and head aimlessly out into the short grass prairie for entire days. Usually by day 3, the dogs are done.
But I, like the Old Colonel, like the solitude.
Just me, a couple dogs, and my thoughts until we get tired.
I hunted them near Scott City at Christmas time in the snow.
Easy picken's.
This makes it
Sunrise. Thomas Gray "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" - Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife.
Sunset
I sorely miss the prairie this time of year
I decided years ago, when chikin' hunting (really shooting) with a 92 year old man, that I would walk the fields until I couldn't walk them anymore. And then block.
I walked about 12.5-13 yesterday. My hips feel it more every year. Got an ankle wearing out too, it seems.
But if a man is compulsive in his manner, following bird dogs is excellent therapy. One foot in front of the other, over and over, and over.
........................Georgia Prairie Chickens...............
The State of Georgia can't grow pheasants and has never had any grouse but for about three Ruffs which are purported to live somewhere in the Cohutta management area in the mountains at the top of the State. Noting that shortfall, the game dept. decided years ago to import some Red Jungle Fowl as an experiment.
They were stocked at Bowen's Mill hatchery near the City of Fitzgerald. Unfortunately for the game dept., some unscrupulous person sold them bantam chicken biddies instead of wild jungle fowl.
The bantams didn't especially like living in the woods and all migrated into the City of Fitzgerald. The citizens adopted them as the city bird and encouraged their proliferation in the residential areas. They even built raised nesting places in the street dividers. Fitzgerald has a "Wild Chicken Festival" every year to celebrate the birds.
Any time I am driving in that area of the State, I make a point to go through Fitzgerald to see the Georgia Prairie Chickens. There are decidedly more of them in the nicer residential areas than in some other areas of the city...Geo
When I am in company of my dogs they make me a better man. Few men ever went astray following a dog. And I love both the blazing energy of a young dog learning his craft almost as much as I do love watching a senior dog working. It is just sad when you watch an old friend hunt because you can almost feel time running out for him and you know yours is going fast to.
Yeah, it's part of the turning of life.
That part of sitting on a tailgate, being transported to another field is all part of sharing the love.
You guys have me wanting to reload the truck, and head west. I just got back from Sharpie hunting last night.
Maybe stop in the nursing home in Strong City, and see old Paul.
Do you see the glass as half full, or half empty? For me, half full. When I am in the field I never think about how old I am, or how much time I may or may not have left. I just thrill in the moment, thank God above for my blessings and health, and grin like an old mule eating briars. I fully expect to kill a limit of doves on my 100th birthday .......... 35 seasons from now. Maybe even get to shoot a mess of Kansas prairie chickens between now and then.
Life is good, SRH
Amen brother Stan! Half full indeed. I'm nearing 70 and have just become interested in seeing a bear in the woods. Season's over for the year down here, but I still want to lay eyes on one.
I wonder if golfers get that same feeling? We're blessed indeed not to have to find the answer to that question...Geo
Stan, my father hunted Doves until he was 90. Took a limit of doves with a 16 Fox I loaned him, with less than a box of shells and vision which just passes a drivers test. He watched birds for nearly an hour before he loaded the gun. Figured out his area which he could kill and recover birds easily. Then it was slow steady shooting until he had his 15 bird limit with all birds recovered. I hope I am still alive and able to shoot Skeet at that age or better yet drive without scaring the He!! out of my family and passengers.
I remember you telling us about your Dad, and that dove shoot. It is an inspiration to me.
Eddie Robinson was at the game last night in Cleveland. He will be 96 next month, the last surviving member of the '48 Indians team, that won the Championship. Looked like his wife beside him. They both looked really fit.
It's doable!!
SRH
My Grandfather, who was raised in the Nebraska Sandhills, told me "If You wanted to get some "chickens," you just picked up your shotgun and walked the hills."
As a lad in the 1950's..I worked there in the summer, and he would say to Grandma: "Mom, the chickens are ready." What he meant was the young Prairie Chickens were big enough to eat. She would say "Bring me five." So...he would take me as the fetcher, and shoot them with a .22. Then clean them, and we would have "Chicken" for dinner next day. It seemed they were much "tamer" in the '50's. But that is probably an old man talking.
Sam Ogle, Lincoln, NE (Used to live in the Sandhills.)
they are still pretty easy to shoot off the roads with a .22 if that is your thing. I am off this morning to go watch em again. I am seeing lots of roosters as well, looks like this will be a good year overall..
Sam, great account. Thanks for sharing. Gil
Pleased to read of good populations and .22s on the prairies. As nine-year-old in early 40s, hunting with my father northwest of Saskatoon, I'd brace on the car hood and pop them with a bolt Mossberg 46B, which I still have.
Time to shut this off guys...Thanks...
Maybe not Kansas but I was shocked by South Dakota and all the posted land out there.
The central western states from Texas to Canada are 99% private land.
The only difference is in whether they have their hand out before they let you shoot a pheasant or quail.