South Dakota Pheasant Hunting

[rundrave]

hunted friday all around Huron on public land. Wasnt seeing any birds at all, but lots and lots of hunters, not sure if they were still out trying to get deer or just pheasants.

I was getting frustrated not seeing any birds, so drove a littler further west over into hand county and the first walk in area I walked I got my 3 birds.

Birds are really starting to get bunched up so if you see one your bound to see many more. The one area I walked with just my 2 dogs and myself was fairly large. We walked the out side of it into the wind and when we got to the end about a dozen birds flushed wild about 100 yards ahead of us. We then made a large U turn back towards the truck with the wind at my back.

Both dogs were working a running bird and finally after a lengthy game of chess they were able to pin it and I was able to get a shot off at a nice rooster. Had a great point, back and retrieve to hand so definately a rewarding bird in the bag. And glad to see my younger dog figuring out those running roosters. Kept working and got my other 2 birds the same way. And I never missed on all 3 lol, now thats a first.

Saturday hunted on private land with a few guys and probably should have had a limit but we all shot terrible. Lots of birds, some sat really really tight and others were wild. Probably could have had our limit but didnt hunt long or put much effort in to trying.

Getting easier to get out to the birds now that most of water is finally froze. Ice seemed to be pretty thick in most places.

[rundrave]

Hunted yesterday around DeSmet on a mix of both public and private land. Started with working larger areas but it was too hard to surround the birds or get close to them as we only had 4 guys and my 2 dogs and had mixed results.

If you can get close to them it makes for some fun shooting otherwise it was hit or miss and usually if we got close or got a bird to hold for a point it was a hen.

So we shifted our focus to small potholes that we could surround with 3 guys and have 1 walker and the 2 dogs move the birds. This made for some exciting scenarios because the birds had no where to run out of, and if they chose to fly they were done and if they sat tight it was even funner. We worked one finger into some stubble and were ready to call it quits when one of my dogs locked up. There was litteraly no cover there whatsover and all 4 of us would have walked right by and headed back for the truck. But it was a rooster who chose to stick around and he ended up in the bag.

I wouldnt say birds are in any specific cover, we hunted trees, grass and sloughs and they were in some and not in others.

Good luck to everyone, just a couple weeks left.

[Bryce]

Tough season. Very Skittish birds. Just back from Aberdeen-Redfield area. Forget about ditch hunting. They bust out as soon as the vehicle is in hearing distance, let alone stopping to let a dog out. Our pay to play payed out this trip but only because of our previous knowledge of the property. One walk netted me 5 in vest and 2 in hand. First trip in Geddes area first week of Dec. was a bust. Less than half the birds we normally shoot. Expect jumpy birds with the time of the year I get to hunt but these birds were exceptionally wild. Maybe bad economy has led to less birds being released? Be interesting to see states harvest estimate. Seems to get larger every year but I have yet to talk to anyone that had a banner year.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

punched a small cattail slough this afternoon...no dog...no problem. 3 birds in 4 shots in about 10 minutes. I love this time of year.

[rundrave]

Tough season. Very Skittish birds. Just back from Aberdeen-Redfield area. Forget about ditch hunting. They bust out as soon as the vehicle is in hearing distance, let alone stopping to let a dog out.

[Bryce]

Been doing SoDak for about a decade now and have always been able to ditch hunt (do NOT infer that I road hunt) with good success. The birds were more skittish this year and I covered a pretty wide variety of areas. Also were not seeing nearly as many groups of birds out in open fields or unhuntable groves.

As far as released birds being a small percentage... SoDaks little secret. I talked to one game producer that had shipped out 7 semi loads by the second weekend.

Pay to hunt argument is a whole other topic. I'll watch my bobber, you watch yours. It most surely better not be an accusation that I don't put effort into getting birds without knowing me.

[reddog]

Well, The season has wound down..

I would like to thank the fine people of South Dakota for letting me come to hunt.

I bought two licenses this year. I get 4 days from the first shift, 4 days out of the second shift, 1 day out of the third, and none out of the 4th shift. Mother nature took her toll on my hunting opportunities this year, but I dont regret anything.

My schedule was to leave Wednesday last week and hunt the last 5 days. but didnt go because of weather. I shouldve probably took off this morning and at least got one day day out of my last license, but I didnt.

I still have a muzzleloader and a rifle license, and hope to fill one of those.

Cant wait till I can retire there!