Is there any public hunting land thats worth making a trip for to pheasant hunt?

Don't know of any in Texas. There are several in SW Kansas around Liberal. However the bird populations are way down and pretty tough hunting.

Most of the communities in the Panhandle host pheasant hunts. They are generally sponsered by the local Lions club chapter, high school ag program, etc.. Hunts range from opening weekend only, to the entire season. We go every year, and have a great time. Hunting has been pretty bad the last 3 years, but we always seem to find a few birds even with the terrrible conditions. Hopefully the rain they have been getting up there isn't too late to help this years pheasant hatch. Hope that helps.

Buffalo Lake NWR near Umbarger used to have a hunt, my brother got his first RNP there years ago.

I have not posted in the bird section since I started on this site..but had to ask, many pheasant in Texas? I figured the panhandle had hunting spots. I have never hunted, hell.. never seen a pheasant before (other than stuffed). Always wanted to try them as I heard they were good eating.

We used to train Setters in West Texas on blues, then bobs as the fire ants took out the blues. Lot of years ago... have not hunted quail in 20 years due to not living in west Texas anymore.

Almost bought another LLewellin from King LLewellin a while back before he retired.

Russ

I own a Llewellin that I got from Kings. I hunt him in the Tx panhandle often. The pheasant there aren't what they used to be. With the rain the panhandle region has received the last few weeks that should help with this years pheasant hatch.

Kings still produces litters of Llewellins. Richard passed away a couple years ago. His wife runs the operation now.

I just saw they are still going. My dad used to get his pups from there only. He once got a deaf dog from them and then turned around and trained him with hand signals.. heh

I have a Golden now, but have only hunted dove in the past 20 years or so, and then only last year. I sure do miss hunting quail.

Sorry, did not mean to hijack the thread.

Back to public land talk!

R

The combined bad droughts of 2011, 2012 and 2013 probably reduced the wild panhandle pheasant population down by 60 to 70% and maybe even 75% in some areas. I got this information from people that live in the area. That shows us how important moisture (timely spring and summer rain) is to a good pheasant hatch and chick survival.

The good news is that they are seeing a few wild healthy pheasants (they keep a low profile) and with normal moisture green vegetation and insects those few pheasants can bounce back. This will not happen over night, it may take 2 or 3 good hatching years, maybe more before they get back to normal.

Lets hope and pray that the summer showers continue to fall the rest of July, August and Sept.