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What's In Store for the Kansas Deer Opener?

November 30, 2009.

The 2009 Kansas firearm deer season runs Wednesday, December 2, through Sunday, December 13. Deer are considered plentiful, and a good season has been expected.

But, wet weather earlier this fall in the high plains states has caused farmers considerable delays with the harvest. Standing crops have created millions of acres of impenetrable refuge for deer, and the deer have been taking advantage of that cover once the shooting has started.

The late harvest has been cited for its negative impact on hunting success in November seasons throughout Nebraska, eastern Colorado, South Dakota, and Kansas.

Will the late harvest put a damper on the Kansas firearms opener?

Wondering what I should expect on my upcoming Kansas mule deer hunt – in a heavily agricultural area – I reached out to Tom Betz, Editor of the Goodland Star-News in northwestern Kansas, for his observations on the progress of the harvest.

"I am not an expert," noted Betz, "but I have been observing this area for more than 12 years and this is the latest I have seen fall harvest go.  In the last few days, however, the lines at the elevators are not as long as they have been and many of the farmers are reporting they are done or down to that last field or so."

Bottom line: "With the recent nice weather, more of the corn and milo fields have been harvested. I would estimate that 90 percent of the milo has been cut, and more than 75 percent of the corn and sunflowers have been cut."

I talked to Tom on November 25 – hopefully even more progress will have been made by the time the firearms season opens.

As for the deer, all expectations are that Kansas will produce outstanding bucks as usual.

HTW subscriber David Peck shared this example of a gorgeous non-typical Kansas whitetail, captured on his trail cam several times in late October.

Archery hunters in Kansas, who have the advantage of hunting during the peak of the rut, have been reporting worse-than-usual luck due to the standing crops.  But what is bad news for the bowhunters may translate to good news for the rifle hunters, with plenty of big bucks like the one captured by David still in the woods.

I hit the road Tuesday morning for Kansas. Good luck to all the Kansas deer hunters. See you in the field.

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