Kansas 2026 Pronghorn

[kansasdad]

KDWP now has WIHA for the fall active online. This plus any private land permissions will be what I’m working with later this fall.




Geographically unit 17 is the largest of the three firearms zones. West and north of Garden City will be areas to concentrate to find pronghorns.

 

[kansasdad]

A friend who grew up in the Garden City area asked his brother about finding pronghorn…… And now I have my first pin for OnX. Going with a “green for go” color scheme for 2026 antelope (with any and all suggestions welcomed).

I will also be using this adventure as scouting for a future mule deer hunt as well as seeing for the first time some pretty good pheasant country.

 

[Valley1320]

A friend who grew up in the Garden City area asked his brother about finding pronghorn…… And now I have my first pin for OnX. Going with a “green for go” color scheme for 2026 antelope (with any and all suggestions welcomed).

I will also be using this adventure as scouting for a future mule deer hunt as well as seeing for the first time some pretty good pheasant country.

I pheasant hunt some in the Ulysses area see alot big muleys!

 

[Lmartin5]

A friend who grew up in the Garden City area asked his brother about finding pronghorn…… And now I have my first pin for OnX. Going with a “green for go” color scheme for 2026 antelope (with any and all suggestions welcomed).

I will also be using this adventure as scouting for a future mule deer hunt as well as seeing for the first time some pretty good pheasant country.

Good luck!

 

[kansasdad]

For the first time in forever, the forecast called for cooler temperatures after a strong front rolled through Saturday. I was going to drive out to lay eyes as a hunter on the unit. From my home to the Colorado border it’s about 260 miles as a bird flies. And the further west you go, the antelope population is supposed to increase in density.

Friends have given me several pins on OnX, with one decent population of antelope between Dodge City and Garden City to be explored first. This area has little WIHA lands, so I would hunting these pronghorn at the generosity of the landowners.

Eccentric sculpture artist in Mullinville






As I was out of the SUV glassing a far off hillside, I had a nice lady
slow down and stop, asking if everything was ok. I replied that I was looking for the antelope, she said she had not seen them for weeks, but where she does see them they are close to the highway (redacted).

Reminders of olden days….school buildings like this one dot the prairie.

 

[kansasdad]

Once back on the highway I continued west.

My low tire pressure warning would go on and off all day, with the driver side rear tire being the lowest. I pulled over and added air with the 12 volt air pump (Scout moto: Be Prepared!) and motored onward.

I had some intel about a chunk of private land that usually saw antelope on it, and where a friend and his friends had been successful on the farm or on nearby WIHA lands.

Doves were everywhere, while I saw a fair number of teal sitting on farm ponds and state lakes, with a fair amount of quail and of course pheasants crossing the road, but still no antelope. There were several times I got fooled by shrubs shaped like a head/sheaths sticking up in a long ago cut wheat field, but the binoculars proved that I had been tricked again.

A large part of the local economy resolves around cattle. Feedlots occupy high ground, and next to the feedlots are huge piles of silage. These mounds are covered, with old tires used to hold the covers in place.

 

[kansasdad]

Heading back to Syracuse I debated heading directly west for 10 minutes so that I could say I went all the way to Colorado. Instead I decided to go north of town to check out the WIHA spots that come November will see long lines of orange clad hunters walking across the land awaiting the rise and cackles of a pheasants taking off.

With recent heavy rains, some of the county roads got a little bit slippery, but nowhere as slippery as Great Basin bentonite roads that I’m more accustomed to be driving while searching for antelopes.

As the evening light began to soften the shadows, I still held out hope that I would still see an antelope or two before I had to turn east and home. With very little topography to work with on most of the WIHA lands, I really felt how difficult this coming week might be. When I locate my buck (it’s an “antelope tag” with no requirement to be gender specific) how am I going to close the distance? Knee pads and heavy gloves will help should I be forced to crawl (hundreds??) of yards. Patience will be a must. Any buck found on accessible land will need careful stalking to prevent spooking the quarry.

 

[duckhunt]

Heading back to Syracuse I debated heading directly west for 10 minutes so that I could say I went all the way to Colorado. Instead I decided to go north of town to check out the WIHA spots that come November will see long lines of orange clad hunters walking across the land awaiting the rise and cackles of a pheasants taking off.

With recent heavy rains, some of the county roads got a little bit slippery, but nowhere as slippery as Great Basin bentonite roads that I’m more accustomed to be driving while searching for antelopes.

As the evening light began to soften the shadows, I still held out hope that I would still see an antelope or two before I had to turn east and home. With very little topography to work with on most of the WIHA lands, I really felt how difficult this coming week might be. When I locate my buck (it’s an “antelope tag” with no requirement to be gender specific) how am I going to close the distance? Knee pads and heavy gloves will help should I be forced to crawl (hundreds??) of yards. Patience will be a must. Any buck found on accessible land will need careful stalking to prevent spooking the quarry.

View attachment 417789

View attachment 417792View attachment 417793

Beautiful landscape

 

[kansasdad]

Things I must do before wheels up this weekend:



Verify the muzzleloader is shooting correctly, verify shotgun is clean and ready

Find my bino/rangefinder harness…it’s in the garage somewhere

Clean glass on above plus camera and cell phone lense

Add KDWP flight survey data pins to OnX

Pre-chill the big cooler (sacrificial bag of ice goes in a couple of days before leaving)

Double check long term weather predictions and pack accordingly

Oil change for the Highlander

Get the grass cut and replace the broken sprinkler head in prep for overseeding after the hunt

Find the cheapest motel (Mrs kansasdad would not approve) and get reservations made ?? Sleeping in SUV is way cheaper, and I’m frugal

Premake burritos (both breakfast and lunch/supper options, shopping list made and stock the “safari box”)

Get the fold down seats ready for a sleeping place in the SUV. (A couple of inflatable mattresses over strategically cut cardboard to flatten the slightly irregular surface

 

[kansasdad]

Things I must do before wheels up

Double check long term weather predictions and pack accordingly

 

[LCH]

Looks like good car camping weather to me. Good luck!

 

[pointingdogsrule]

Keep the story going!!!!

 

[kansasdad]

It’s Fair Week in Hamilton county. Steer competition goes off this afternoon.

And they’ve had 5 inches of rain over the last couple of days.

Permission granted on a significant stretch of unroaded breaks land that almost always has antelope present. But because of the above sentences, I hadn’t heard back from the landowner until just now.

STOKED

 

[kansasdad]

The gear pile groweth (King James olde English addeth the luck, although spell check hateth it)

I found my bino harness bidding in the grandkid’s bouncy bassinet (right where I left it a month ago). I had thought it was on the garage hunting shelves somewhere, and it was starting to really bother me.

Oil change scheduled for this afternoon

Coolers filled with ice

I found that some of the canned/dried foods in the camping food box had expiration dates going back to 2020! Trash bin will be heavier than normal on Tuesday.

I added to the gun case the KDWP mailer that is a combo tooth envelope and a hunt report/survey.

 

[kansasdad]

Ruhroh
Hurricane aftermat this week








This will be on top of the 5 inches last week (region averages less than 25 inches per year)

 

[vanish]

Whoa, that's a brutal sonar image!

 

[kansasdad]

 

[kansasdad]

Had breakfast with landowner where we ate and chatted. He is quite a progressive thinker, and into rotational grazing. The cows are collared much like a fenceless dog situation and don’t have to be driven from one adjacent portion of a pasture. He whipped out his cell phone and showed me how he moved 45 cow/calf from their current plot to the next one over.

He is getting better growth on his steers, the grass is better even with the last several years of moderate to severe drought and the weed percentage of biomass is dropping.

After breakfast I drive out to the ranch hq, and got to meet the family patriarch. He told me where he had last seen antelope, and even offered the use of the Polaris to get around the ranch. 10k of open grasslands. There has to be less than one tree per 50 acres, but on the flip side, yucca is king.

He suggested that if I sat down next to a yucca patch to be wary of rattlesnakes.

I set off to drive the periphery of the ranch, and as I neared the NE corner I saw my first antelope in my unit. Doe/fawn pair, out in the middle of a large flat sea of grass. Way off in the distance I spotted two other white butts right along the northern end of the ranch.

As I neared these antelope they scurried across the road, only to immediately stop and start feeding. Glassing them from less than 150 yards away I could see one doe, one buck with horns barely taller than his ears.

I look up and see a silver truck beating feet towards me, and it turns out it’s a Resource Officer (game warden) who is filling in today on opening day. He tells me that I am the first hunter he has checked today, and is quite surprised when I tell him that we are close to a buck and doe feeding, that he passed by to get to me. He says he has already driven several hundred miles and not seen one antelope.

I get closer to his window so I can hand him my phone to check the app. Spotty cellular connection has the phone freaking out. Using my cell phone number he verified that I’m good to hunt.

He is also the RO that was consulted by the newly incoming RO regarding my question regarding hunter orange requirements. He originally told his colleague that there is a requirement for wearing as if deer or antelope hunting with muzzleloader or rifle. He checked again and had to admit
That this isn’t in the regulations. As shown in my last post, I’m wearing a NAPF blaze orange

 

[typhoon916]

Had breakfast with landowner where we ate and chatted. He is quite a progressive thinker, and into rotational grazing. The cows are collared much like a fenceless dog situation and don’t have to be driven from one adjacent portion of a pasture. He whipped out his cell phone and showed me how he moved 45 cow/calf from their current plot to the next one over.

He is getting better growth on his steers, the grass is better even with the last several years of moderate to severe drought and the weed percentage of biomass is dropping.

After breakfast I drive out to the ranch hq, and got to meet the family patriarch. He told me where he had last seen antelope, and even offered the use of the Polaris to get around the ranch. 10k of open grasslands. There has to be less than one tree per 50 acres, but on the flip side, yucca is king.

He suggested that if I sat down next to a yucca patch to be wary of rattlesnakes.

I set off to drive the periphery of the ranch, and as I neared the NE corner I saw my first antelope in my unit. Doe/fawn pair, out in the middle of a large flat sea of grass. Way off in the distance I spotted two other white butts right along the northern end of the ranch.

As I neared these antelope they scurried across the road, only to immediately stop and start feeding. Glassing them from less than 150 yards away I could see one doe, one buck with horns barely taller than his ears.

I look up and see a silver truck beating feet towards me, and it turns out it’s a Resource Officer (game warden) who is filling in today on opening day. He tells me that I am the first hunter he has checked today, and is quite surprised when I tell him that we are close to a buck and doe feeding, that he passed by to get to me. He says he has already driven several hundred miles and not seen one antelope.

I get closer to his window so I can hand him my phone to check the app. Spotty cellular connection has the phone freaking out. Using my cell phone number he verified that I’m good to hunt.

He is also the RO that was consulted by the newly incoming RO regarding my question regarding hunter orange requirements. He originally told his colleague that there is a requirement for wearing as if deer or antelope hunting with muzzleloader or rifle. He checked again and had to admit
That this isn’t in the regulations. As shown in my last post, I’m wearing a NAPF blaze orange

Myself and my bro talked to a GW back n first part of Sept and he told us the same thing about the orange for hunting speed goats