Pheasant hunt a joy for cancer survivor
Posted on Thursday, November 13, 2008
DOWNS, Kan. — There were days when Doyne Elliott wondered if he would live to see another Kansas pheasant opener.
Just two years ago, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. And the prognosis wasn’t good.
He underwent major surgery, had part of his stomach removed and later lost 104 pounds.
But there he was Nov. 1, ready to greet another pheasant season at the Glen Elder Wildlife Area in north-central Kansas.
No pity, please, he requested. He felt great, ready to get after the birds, share more good times with family and add to tradition.
“After what I’ve been through, I’m even more grateful for days like this,” said Elliott, 64, who recently got a clean bill of health from doctors. “This is a big day for us.
“ Our family looks forward to the pheasant opener all year. This is family tradition.”
Indeed, when Elliott showed up for the Kansas pheasant opener, it looked like a family reunion.
He was joined by his brother Russell, his sons Ed and John, his daughter Angela Kidwell, and three grandsons, Mike Kidwell and Adam and Noah Adcox. He also greeted longtime friend Russ Reynolds and one of Mike’s friends, Chad Jarratt.
“We have a hunting family,” said Elliott, who lives in Oskaloosa, Kan. “We come out here for the pheasant opener and the firearms deer season, and we have a great time.
“ When it comes to hunting, this is like our home.”
The family hoped to add to those memories when they showed up on the public land that early Saturday morning.
Reynolds was the first to arrive, at 4: 30, to establish squatter’s rights for a field the family had hunted in previous years. An hour later, most of the others were there, sitting in trucks with the heaters blowing, anxiously awaiting the 7: 30 a. m. start of shooting hours.
As the darkness lifted, they formed a line across the field and made a sweep through the grasslands with Reynolds’ Weimaraner, Graycie, leading the way.
When the hunters reached a stretch choked with thick cover, cackling roosters burst into flight, far out of range. But that changed when Graycie went on point and Reynolds kicked up a bird. Mike Kidwell fired and dropped the pheasant, then ran into a field full of hay bales to retrieve it.
Minutes later, Elliott got in on the action. Blocking the field with his brother, he watched as the line of approaching hunters pushed a pheasant into flight. He wheeled, fired, and connected on his first shot of the year.
Conditions weren’t the best for this opener. Glen Elder Reservoir was 7 feet high, flooding areas groups such as the Elliotts normally hunt. And the temperature soared into the mid-70 s by afternoon, hardly the type of conditions that stir pheasants. But there were only mild complaints from the many hunters who showed up.
This, after all, was the pheasant opener, the equivalent of a holiday in north-central Kansas.
For as long as anyone can remember, the Glen Elder Wildlife Area has been almost like a state capital when it comes to pheasant hunting. It offers some of the best, if not the best, public hunting in the state.
Intensively managed by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, it has the type of landscape pheasants like — a mix of crops, cover and grasslands. The birds thrive in that setting, and so do the hunters.
The Elliott family, most of whom live in the Kansas City area, is one of many groups that makes a tradition of traveling to Glen Elder for the pheasant opener. They have been showing up for the opener for 15 years.
They have memories of days when several of their hunters took limits of birds by noon. It wasn’t that way Saturday. They took five roosters, although they downed several others but weren’t able to find them in the thick cover.
That mattered little to the group, though. They were just happy to be back hunting.
“It isn’t all about how many birds we can take,” Angela Kidwell said. “It’s also about building memories.
“ When we get together on the Fourth of July, we’re talking about the pheasant opener. We can’t wait for the next opener.”
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