Editor’s note: Tanner, head softball coach at Haskell Indian Nations University, kept a diary from his trip on the first weekend of pheasant-hunting season.

Friday

Finally, Friday morning was here, and we loaded everything we didn’t forget into the pickup. The time was 7:45, and our group from Lawrence was about to embark on our annual pheasant hunt out by Salina in western Kansas, thus ensuring our manhood for another year.

Charles Hawkins and his son, Jake, as well as Leonard Martin and David Wade, were among the group of Lawrence hunters.

First, we had to get a hunting license for one of the hunters in our group. We like to go out a day ahead of time to enjoy nature and take pictures and videos of the pheasants we are going to engage the next day. It is our intention to get motivated and even more excited by seeing them ahead of time.

When we arrived at our host location, we unloaded our gear and set out in search of the birds. We found several areas holding pheasant. We took our pictures and videos as planned, then returned and started practicing for the opening morning by shooting clay targets.

To cap off the day, we joined other hunting parties for a cookout and yearly information catch-up session.

Off to bed. As I lay there missing my wife, I thought of the next morning and the wonderful experience that was about to engulf me and my friends. All the reports said this was going to be a very good year for pheasant hunting, as there were multiple hatches and the weather had been cooperative in wildlife growth.

Haskell Indian Nations University softball coach Gary Tanner poses with a pheasant. Tanner took a hunting trip with friends to western Kansas to hunt this weekend - the opening days of pheasant season. Tanner and his friends brought home 126 birds from the two-day hunt.

Saturday

Opening morning found us at our initial hunting location at 4:30. We had to get there early because it is a first-come, first-serve type of public-hunting area.

This year, we had a larger-than-usual group, so we could cover more ground with more efficiency and harvest more birds. Since we were at the hunting location first, we had a choice to make: Either go north into a grassy field and food or go south toward the water. We went north. We saw a couple of birds, while the south location sounded like a war zone with so many shots fired at all the birds that had been predicted in all those reports.

Oh well, it is beautiful out in nature as the sun comes up, no matter what your first field yields.

Our friends from the area, Ron Eberle and his son, Travis, were our main men on this hunt and were unshaken by the uneventful first field. They had this figured out and put Plan B into action.

For the rest of the day, we walked field after field of western Kansas as a well-oiled hunting machine that at times would get us into more pheasant action than we could handle. During the afternoon, the wind got so strong the pheasants that would or could get up and into the strong current would find safe passage into the adjoining field for temporary safety. All we could do was watch them laugh at us when they glided away, as we could not touch them with even our most expensive shotguns.

We kept hunting into the evening as the wind died down to a gentle breeze that cooled us after walking a half-mile-wide field. The excitement of the morning was turning into the soreness and tiredness of dusk. All the physical preparedness that was done before the season had paid off. We made it through Day 1. At the end of the first day, our group returned to the base camp, combined the birds from all the vehicles, added the totals, then cleaned and processed the harvest for the return home.

Sunday

We slept in just a little because we had a good first-day total and were dog-tired from all the walking we had done and from staying up a little too late. Again, we were first at the hunting location and decided to go south toward the water. We walked the field slowly and deliberately so we would not walk over or by any sleeping pheasants. The birds that were in there on Day 1 were either smart and left or were harvested by hunters. Still, we were able to get six or seven from that field on Day 2.

Just as on opening day, Ron put us on the birds, and we had a tremendous morning as the birds seemed to jump straight up before they tried to fly away. This made for some spectacular shooting. We hunted until noon and returned to camp as parts of the hunting group had to leave for their far-off homes, including Ben Baker, a former academic All-America football player for Haskell who now lives in Corpus Christi, Texas.

As the final tally was taken and all the birds harvested were cleaned and processed, one only had to stop and reflect on the past two days to understand why we return each and every year to carry out this ritual. The friendships and camaraderie that accompany this type of outing are strengthened and solidified, and this makes each hunt fulfilling, enriching and successful.

Our man Ron had done it again this year. He had made the opening weekend of pheasant season fun, exciting, and, most of all, he put us in the pheasant.

Our group harvested 126 birds in a day and a half of hunting and that, my friends, is what it is all about. I will be trying a new recipe this year and, as I enjoy the taste of the meal, I will be thinking about next season and the memories waiting for me.