Kansas Beast Roadtrip
- James
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Kansas Beast Roadtrip
Packing up tonight and getting ready for a little NE Kansas road trip. We depart Wednesday. AC Rider and I will be hunting public land we scouted this last spring. I’ll be documenting everything for an upcoming beast show from process to results. Should be different and fun content. So while Dan, Joe and other pro staff are in Ohio we’ll be road tripping Kansas. I’ll be updating frequently as I have service on instagram as well.
I do have a few questions for anyone here that has experience in NE Kansas. Really just last minute advice is always appreciated. We will be relying on our scouting but a few things we noticed and had questions about:
1. We covered a lot of WIHA scouting in the spring... we noticed that the majority of it is pasture but we found buck sign mixed in and well used trails. How do those with experience in the region feel about the pastures? Productive? We are assuming we will hunt a lot of it and just work around those with active cattle in them vs those without.
2. In these particular zones it’s all skinny wood lines along creeks and drainages with ag fields. Very little if no CRP or grassland, everything that wasn’t ag seemed to be pasture. Again, any thoughts on this terrain?
3. Other than a chunk of state land, we jumped almost zero deer in the spring. Keep in mind that the WIHA we walked had decent deer sign but it just felt odd not jumping deer. In the spring when all ag is out and fields tilled under do the deer in this regions yard up heavily?
4. How is the WIHA/public hunting pressure? We talked to locals and they made it sound like a lot of it receives very little but we have heard mixed things. We tried to minimize weekends by going Wed-Wed on our trip. That has worked well for me in Iowa and hoping it does the same for Kansas.
Other tips or comments are appreciated. Hope to bring everyone some fun content updates. I’ll try my best to keep the live from the stand thread updated as I have service. First hunt will be Wednesday afternoon. We have 8 days on the trip.
I do have a few questions for anyone here that has experience in NE Kansas. Really just last minute advice is always appreciated. We will be relying on our scouting but a few things we noticed and had questions about:
1. We covered a lot of WIHA scouting in the spring... we noticed that the majority of it is pasture but we found buck sign mixed in and well used trails. How do those with experience in the region feel about the pastures? Productive? We are assuming we will hunt a lot of it and just work around those with active cattle in them vs those without.
2. In these particular zones it’s all skinny wood lines along creeks and drainages with ag fields. Very little if no CRP or grassland, everything that wasn’t ag seemed to be pasture. Again, any thoughts on this terrain?
3. Other than a chunk of state land, we jumped almost zero deer in the spring. Keep in mind that the WIHA we walked had decent deer sign but it just felt odd not jumping deer. In the spring when all ag is out and fields tilled under do the deer in this regions yard up heavily?
4. How is the WIHA/public hunting pressure? We talked to locals and they made it sound like a lot of it receives very little but we have heard mixed things. We tried to minimize weekends by going Wed-Wed on our trip. That has worked well for me in Iowa and hoping it does the same for Kansas.
Other tips or comments are appreciated. Hope to bring everyone some fun content updates. I’ll try my best to keep the live from the stand thread updated as I have service. First hunt will be Wednesday afternoon. We have 8 days on the trip.
YouTube Channel - https://youtube.com/@JimmyHunts
- backstraps
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Re: Kansas Beast Roadtrip
Excited to be following along James
Hope you and AC RIder have a great time. State of some giants, hope you guys can give a couple a truck bed ride home
Hope you and AC RIder have a great time. State of some giants, hope you guys can give a couple a truck bed ride home
- stash59
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- greenhorndave
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Re: Kansas Beast Roadtrip
Don't overlook Army Corps of Engineers land either. I don't know the exact regulations, but I've been on Corps land around Fall River that's pretty nice. Same for Clinton Lake. Saw the biggest doe of my life at Clinton. (watch out for copperheads tho)
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Sometimes when things get tough, weird or both, you just need to remember this...
https://youtu.be/d4tSE2w53ts
Sometimes when things get tough, weird or both, you just need to remember this...
https://youtu.be/d4tSE2w53ts
- James
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Re: Kansas Beast Roadtrip
greenhorndave wrote:Don't overlook Army Corps of Engineers land either. I don't know the exact regulations, but I've been on Corps land around Fall River that's pretty nice. Same for Clinton Lake. Saw the biggest doe of my life at Clinton. (watch out for copperheads tho)
Thx Greenhorn. I don’t believe either of those areas are in 8 or 9 but I’ll keep my eye out for land in one units.
YouTube Channel - https://youtube.com/@JimmyHunts
- jmaas07
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Re: Kansas Beast Roadtrip
Iv hunted that area and did ok. Didnt draw this year which ticks me off but whatever lol. Spend time driving around and locating the deer before you do anything. Find the food sources, get eyes on the bucks and lay on it. Bottoms of connecting draws are great for cruising so are fencerows
- Liberty-Hunt
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- Kraftd
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Re: Kansas Beast Roadtrip
Good luck! Can’t wait to follow along.
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Re: Kansas Beast Roadtrip
Good luck! Will be following along
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Re: Kansas Beast Roadtrip
best of luck James, really looking fwd to following along!
- seazofcheeze
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Re: Kansas Beast Roadtrip
If you've never hunted the rut in Kansas....its a different world. You will see bucks in places you would never see them normally (like crossing open ag fields in the middle of the day) I hunted a lot I'd the bigger public areas and saw very little deer or deer sign. I had better luck on smaller WIHAs away from population centers.
My best advice is going to mirror what Jmaas07 said. Find the deer first. Standing corn and any remaining turnip fields were king. When you find an area(s) that's holding deer, stay put for a day or two. Speaking of staying put, sit ALL day. I saw most of the big bucks I saw cruising mid-day. It took us a few days to get on the deer, so if you're not seeing sign, pull up stakes and move asap.
I also saw a big buck cross the road on one particular piece in basically the same spot 3 times, so if you see a big buck cruising, I'd move in on that terrain feature right away.
Good luck!
My best advice is going to mirror what Jmaas07 said. Find the deer first. Standing corn and any remaining turnip fields were king. When you find an area(s) that's holding deer, stay put for a day or two. Speaking of staying put, sit ALL day. I saw most of the big bucks I saw cruising mid-day. It took us a few days to get on the deer, so if you're not seeing sign, pull up stakes and move asap.
I also saw a big buck cross the road on one particular piece in basically the same spot 3 times, so if you see a big buck cruising, I'd move in on that terrain feature right away.
Good luck!
- James
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Re: Kansas Beast Roadtrip
Thanks for the pointers crew, we are packed up and ready to take off tomorrow at 4a from western WI. We’ll be in stands by 1p in Kansas!
YouTube Channel - https://youtube.com/@JimmyHunts
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- Jackson Marsh
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Re: Kansas Beast Roadtrip
Good luck to you and AC
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Re: Kansas Beast Roadtrip
greenhorndave wrote:Don't overlook Army Corps of Engineers land either. I don't know the exact regulations, but I've been on Corps land around Fall River that's pretty nice. Same for Clinton Lake. Saw the biggest doe of my life at Clinton. (watch out for copperheads tho)
If it's got Clinton in the name you know it's a kill spot.
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