Am moving to Kansas in retirement for health reasons and will be on a very limited income. What can I expect as far as big game hunting in this state and the available public lands? Thanks ... Tom Purdom

Lots of BIG deer. Good mulie hunting to the west of the state. If you like predator hunting, welcome to heaven. Need a fur bearer license for bobcats. More yotes than you can shake a stick at and they respond real well to howling.

The state has tons of public land and you can actually find some spots that are not overrun with other hunters. I've hunted unit 15 in Sedgwick County with great success. I've also hunted around Humboldt.

You will be living in land of the giants for whitetail depending on exactly where you are going. When can I come?

The way I remember it, there are dam few public lands in Kansas..when I worked there, there were some parks and Corps of Engineer lake properties, but over all these are small pieces of land (and heavily used...as for deer huntng, I think even residents have a tough time getting the tags they want, non-residents, well, are SOL, with a few exceptions. NR can hunt pheasant and maybe turkeys and ducks, but not deer. Not easily. Kansas does have big deer, but it will probably be a cold day in hell before a NR could hunt them and only marginally easier for residents. But Kansas is not a bad place if you don't mind tornados, low cost of living, and like to shoot pheasants out west. If you are lucky, the surrounding states, which have lots of good deer (and elk and antelope), will allow you to hunt their deer.

You need to get a copy of the hunting regualtions for Kansas and look a that...I use to shoot the piss out of pheasants near Ulysess (I loved it!).

rwj,

While at one time there was no non-resident whitetail hunting in Kansas, there is now and there have been some exceptional bucks taken by non-residents. I've wanted to hunt there for whitetail, but it's so much easier to hunt Canada for me. Robert, do you think we might be in heaven if we had big whitetails here in AK?

Joe

Hello Joe! Absolutley!...thing must have changed in Kansas...but I do like hunting deer! And I have always wanted to shoot one of those Alberta or Saskatchewan monsters... .

7x57mm

For your perusal http://www.kdwp.state.ks.us/

Cheers
/ JOHAN

Hey guys, Kansas opened their doors to nonres several years back. There is plenty of public land and private land that is in cooperation with Kansas Dept. of Wildlife and parks.

The deer hunting is phenomenal, lots of big deer. You do have to put in for a draw. BUT, landowners can apply for nonres tags also and sell them. It is no big deal to get a tag in Kansas to hunt.

Obviously things have changed quite a bit since you remember Robert. You are right though, it used to be very hard when the state first opened its doors to nonres hunting. But, Tom will be a resident after 6 months, unless they've changed that too.

Doc is much more current on his information.

I just moved from Kansas a year ago & am doing all in my power to get back there, it may not be heaven but you can see it from there. Stay away from Wichita & watch the tornados on TV just like the rest of the world!!

Western Kansas:
Big whitetails, big muleys, some speed goat, coyote & prarie dogs, dove, pheasant, quail, ducks & geese, turkey.

I better quit, it is just making me more homesick.

Mike

Robert (rwj) must have been in Kansas a LONG time ago. There are litterally millions of public land acres as well as several hundred thousand acres of public "walk-in" land where the landowners want hunters but don't feel the need to have to talk to them. They go to the state and designate their land walk-in and you just go hunt whatever the landowner allows without having to stop at the house. I personally like to chat, but under this program, it is not allowed. As ibexebi said, it isn't heaven, but you can see it from here.

For residents, there is only sort of a deer draw. If you want to hunt whitetail either sex, just walk in to most any dealer and buy your either sex whitetail tag. If you want ANY deer including mulies, that does take a drawing, but chances are real good for residents. I keep applying for elk tags on Fort Riley and maybe someday I will draw. The small bulls there are 6x6. ALmost any kind of bird hunting you could want is here including quail, doves, pheasant, prairie chicken, sandhill cranes, ducks and geese. Small game is also great. Rabbits have no closed season, nor do coyotes. If you are really into pests for fun, there is no closed season or bag limit on starlings, pigeons, sparrows and such. This is a very good way to get a landowner's attention. "I'll shoot those pigeons out of your barn for you with my pellet gun" goes a long way.

OK, yes I like living in Kansas.

larrys: You are right. Kansas is virtually full of public land, basically it is all public land, as you and Doc say. So is Texas and Oklahoma, as I recall. I apologize for my mistake on geography and land ownership. All the free range you have to hunt down there, it boggles the mind.

Thank you all for the replies. It makes me feel a whole bunch better about my move there. Looks like there may be some good hunting there and the lower elevation (from 6,500 feet where I live to 900 feet in Eudora) will be a lot better for my health, I'm sure. New Mexico is a very beautiful state, at least the part in which I am now, but the hunting here has been anything but good, except for some p-dog shooting. It has been almost an impossibility to draw a tag and when you do, the seasons are screwed. We have a five day season for elk, then five days off where there is no hunting, then five days of hunting in the second season, and usually five days in the third season. You can't hunt bow, then muzzle loader then rifle, you have to pick one type of weapon, and one of the hunts and hope for the best. By the time rifle season rolls around the bow hunters and muzzle loader hunters already have run most of the elk out of the country. All deer are draw now too. Most of the hunters I know are convinced that the state caters to the large ranchers with the landowner tags, who sell the coveted bull elk tags for $1,500 on up. The game and fish department abides by the regulations established by the game and fish commission and for the most part, the commission is appointments made up of large land owners and ranchers. Still, the land is beautiful and I will miss that when I leave. Oh well, enough of my bitching. Again, thanks to all who responded. Tom Purdom

Tom, email me when you get to Eudora. There is a rifle club (Mill Creek Rifle Club) east of you a little bit that I can help you with membership, if you like. It is maybe 15-20 minutes.

Kansas is a sportman's paradise. Not just wheat fields. Friendly people and pretty ladies too.

Thank you one and all for the replies. I hope to be moving on-or-about July 2. I do not know what my e-mail address will be yet, but have already signed up to go through the local telephone company's system. I am getting more and more excited about the move and really hope that it will be more beneficial to my health there. Larrys, as soon as I get there and get hooked up on the internet I will e-mail you. Again, thank you one and all. Tom Purdom