I went to Kansas too. You can see my buck in the Big Game threads. I returned on Wed. My hunt was cut short also.

Just got back from a whitetail hunt in Kansas and like most hunts, had a few surprises, a few problems and a lot of fun. The guy in our group that coordinated the hunt left way too many questions unasked, but suffice it to say that we had to innovate, adapt and overcome. The land we were hunting had way too little wooded area, and didn't hold as many deer as we had hoped, but also was way too small an area of wooded acres in total for 4 hunters with high powered rifles to hunt at the same time. One of our gang had to leave 2.5 days early (known in advance) and he didn't harvest a deer. The other 3 of us did well. After revising strategy advised by the locals, we got to the wooded areas or into them and scored.

Partner #1 scored first on a long tined 8 point that scored 138 3/8. Partner #2 took the last buck, a nice ten pointer that went 147 2/8. I actually scored second of the three of us, he was a grizzled old bugger, 260 lbs. with ten points and charting at 143 7/8.



We saw one monster 8 that would have scored in the 160's, but he was at warp speed in the open ground.



We were hoping for better quality and quantity of deer, but we had a great trip overall, and the landowner who also housed us at his bunk house was an absolutely super guy, with a great family. I am really excited about the potential for Kansas big boys, but I am putting up the radar for other oppurtunities next year. If anybody has any recommendations I'm all ears.



I'm an idiot about photo's, I ended up not even having a camera, but my two buddies who stayed for the whole hunt took a bunch of shots with old school 35 mm camera's. I don't know if I can get them converted to digital's, and if I do I don't know if can get them posted, but if I can I'll try and get them posted.



Handloads did the trick on two of 'em, 140 grain Accubond .270's on top of WSM WW case, 62.5 grains of H-4831 SC, Win LRM primer, both deer shot right behind the shoulders, pass throughs, dropped on the spot. The accubonds have done the trick for me so far.



I shot my deer at 263 yards, so my work over the summer to know where i was shooting at past 200 really paid off.



I appreciate the feedback from those who gave me advice about establishing a personal max distance to take a shot. Several of your suggestions helped me do some work which gave me a lot of confidence in my shot, and my ability at some distance before we even left for the hunt. My Leica rangefinder helped confirm some distances, and reveal some bad estimations as well!



Happy Holidays to all--D.

Fish, Just wondering what part of Kansas you were hunting in, I live in the eastern part of the state and was lucky enough to score a buck and a doe last saturday .

JB, we were hunting in Salina, which I guess is in East Central Kansas, we drove it, (from Georgia--blah...) and it was a few hours past Kansas City and a bit north as well. I guess it souds stupid, but I mostly drove and the other guys navigated and I never even looked at the road atlas--guess I will in the morning. Congrats on your buck.

Doc--I'll look for your other buck in the threads, sorry your hunt got short on you.
Talk to ya'll soon--D.