A HUNTING STORY

[Wilma]

This is a true story.  It happened in 1949 and features a young Howard citizen.  Young at that time.  I am not naming names, but if he happens to read this or one of his younger siblings reads it, he will know who he is.

This young man had never been duck hunting and my husband was quite the duck and goose hunter.  So we took the young man duck hunting.  My husband's method of duck hunting was to slip up on the pond, raise up slowly to see if there were any birds on the pond and if there were, startle them and shoot as they were taking off.  So we took this young man to a pond that quite often had ducks or geese.  They slipped up on the pond but while doing so, startled a flock of prairie chicken.  The prairie chicken took off flying right over the hunter's heads.  My husband says "shoot", the young man swung his gun up, shot and brought down a prairie chicken.  It was NOT chicken season.  Dilemma.  At the young person's home there were a few younger brothers and sisters who would not understand about duck season and chicken season, but the young man wanted to take the chicken home.  It was also the first bird the young man had shot.  They decided the best thing would be if the bird arrived home minus feathers.  So the bird was cleaned, the young man took it home, presented it to his mother and she served it with the family meal.  The younger children were told it was duck.

This young man, being 58 years older now, still lives in Howard.  As does one of his children.  Only he will tell you who he is.  Wild horses cannot drag it out of me.

[frawin]

Wilma, give me a minute and I will pull up the website that gives the age of every Howard resident that has a driver's liscense.
Frank

[Wilma]

You're on, Frank.  Good Luck.

[Dee Gee]

If my memory has not failed too bad, there wasn't a hunting season on prairie chicken in 1949 the only ones that could shoot at them were the farmers when they were eating his grain and then you just had to leave them for the coyotes to eat.

[Wilma]

I am thinking that, too.  I just remember that it was illegal to shoot a prairie chicken at that time.  There were plenty of them in them thar hills northwest of Howard.

[frawin]

Somewhere around the mid 1950s they started having a Prairie Chicken season again, I think the first 2 or 3 years it was a 1 day season and 1 bird limit. Then they started having a 1 day 2 bird limit then 2 day season and a total of 2 bird limit. Then they began lengthening the season. In the mid 50s I remember hunting on Riley Madisons which was one of the biggest gathering of Chickens in the immediate Howard area, also the Frank Simons place was a big Chicken feeding area. In the early 60s I started hunting on my in-laws (to be) they had huge bunches of Chickens that came in in those days. I even hunted them up there some with my birddogs. There iare no grain or fall harvested crops in the old hunting areas and as a consequence one sees very few Chickens. I have many fond memories of Prairie Chicken Hunting with my brothers and later my 2 sons.  Of all of the game birds I think the Prairie is by far the worst meat, all dark and very dry, worse than Guinea. My Father-in-Law liked it so we always gave him our birds.
Frank

[giester2]

are these the same as Atwater Prarie Chickens?  If it is these are a highly endangered species.  Less than 60 left in the wild.  I volunteered at one preserve in Texas City that is trying to save this species.  Pretty birds!

[Wilma]

Frank, have you found the illegal hunter yet?

[frawin]

No, I am not sure I want to know now. Giester, Kansas has two main species of the Prairie Grouse, the most common is the Greater Prairie Chicken and the other is the Lesser Prairie Chicken. I understand their numbers are down considerably and I think one reason is the big reduction in grain crops in the areas of the Flint Hills and also pasture burning could be a factor. Wilma another hunting spot that had lots of Chickens in the 60s was called the Wabash and it was farmed by Gene and Junior Signer.
Frank Winn

[Wilma]

I know that spot well.  I believe it is still hunted but the chickens are scarce.  We owned the land across the road south of it for awhile.  The last time my husband went hunting he missed the birds that flew directly over his head.  He decided he was too old to be shooting anyway.