Any Ideas on S.D. Duck Hunting

[Bird Dog]

My nephew got a liscense to hunt ducks in S.D.and I want to try to help him out.I would rather try to give him some imput rather then for him to go out there blindly.
could any of you guys give him any input on a good place to headquater out of with decent hunting opportunities nearby. any input suggetions or ideas would be appreciated.I am more of a pheasant hunter than a waterfowl hunter so I am not much help for him

Thanks Bird Dog

[Benny]

Birddog, I would say to start by buying both the South Dakota Gazzete and the South Dakota sportsmans guide.These are available over the counter at Gander Mountain and most sprting good stores in S.D..Then locate a consentration small potholes and large bodies of water some where like Wabay(sp?) or even further west.Then get out there and scout, and knock on doors.I have found the S.D people real open to let us hunt their land.Also the state has a open hunt law where it is legal to hunt unless posted.But it is highley recamended to ask first, as some times they are farming the fields and will start tilling when your there.We went out there this opener and had great success, hunted mainly public land, as there is lots of it and most of it is posted well so you know your on public land.
But our best day came off private land even with other hunters who asked and recieved permission after we had asked.
Good luck, Benny

[hunt4food]

I hunted some public land about 30 miles north of Huron. We did fantastic. Ther is very little competition for duck hunting. we also obtained permission on private property very easily for duck hunting. The farmer laughed at us when we asked. he said "go ahead, just no pheasant hunting". That was fine with us. We found other property to hunt pheasants. It was fun pulling in to the motel with a limit of ducks just as the Pheasant hunters were rolling out of bed.

Good luck! There is a nice mixed bag of birds waiting for you out there. I did this 3 years ago and just haven't taken the time to do it again. I need to get my priorities straight!

[Bird Dog]

Thanks for your help Guys I think that he found a place to stay around the De Smet area and he is going to branch out from there to do his hunting.

Good Luck Hunting
Bird Dog

[Guest]

I hunted snow geese in the spring in De Smet, SD and got to know a lot of the local farmers there. There are some great potholes with lots of ducks! The farmers are great, and the nicest people I have ever met. There was one farmer who let us hunt snow geese who said "no pheasants, (yeah right!) but if you don't kill at least 100 d@%$ snow geese, you're not welcome back!" He was joking. We hunted his umpteen thousand acres for three days.

Benny, I don't think SD has the open hunt law (but, if I'm wrong please forward the info where it states so because I would really like to see it). North Dakota does. From what I understood SD is like MN, ask first or you are trespassing. That was one of the reasons we may never hunt snow geese in SD again. Too tough to find the owners, BUT with a cell phone it was cake! Bring a cell phone because all the locals know everyone and they all knew each others phone numbers. (One farmer had never seen a cell phone or even heard of the word "vacation" to chase snow geese!)

[Benny]

CD,Ya know I could be mistaken.I will ask my buddy tomorrow at work, maybe I was thinking of N.D and not S.D.
I do know you can have an uncased gun with shells in the mag BUT NOT in the chamber.We got checked by the Sesiton Wapaton Tribal warden, as we were on private land beloning to a trible member.She said it was legal to transport a firearm in this manner, and it was legal to shoot from the ditch but not on the road it self.You have to be in the ditch to shoot at ducks.
We tried it one time but found this to be dangerous and the ducks flew before we could load a round any way.
I will post a note tomorrow about the open trasspass law.
Benny

[Benny]

CD you were correct, you can not hunt any land in S.D with out owners permition.It is N.D that has the open tresspass law.We didn't have any problems getting permission from any one we asked , not even for Pheasents.I was surprised on that one as the news has been so negative about non residents, but when asked the residents said they don't care at all.Their beef was with the slob hunters who never ask and shoot every thing they see, but not with there rest of us who take time to ask.The land owners just want to know who is on their land so they can keep an eye on their equipment.
Benny