Pheasant Hunting

[Guest]

BlackJack, Are you hunting public land? I'm wondering if there is a big difference in the bird population between public and private land?

Paul

[French Spaniel]

We hunt north and south of Miller, SD. The area is just like here...places that had well established habitat will have a lot of birds.
It is fun to see the big flocks of pheasants but it is hard to hunt them because when they get grouped up like that they are spooky. Usually you can't get close to most of them but a few will stay behind to shoot.
Where we were hunting all the crops were gone and the birds were already congregated in a couple fields like they would be in late season.
I hunt on relative's land and there is some public land in the area. The public is hunted very hard. There are some big time pay for hunting operations out there and many other farmers charge to hunt as well. It is hard for a new comer to the area to find land to hunt.

[French Spaniel]

I have a question for pheasant hunters. I a lot in Minnesota and South Dakota. I have seen a covey of Hungarian Partridge in 4 years. Maybe they don't like the CRP or river bottom lands I hunt. Has anyone else seen any?

[Guest]

I used to see quite a few coveys of huns. I haven't seen a one in 2 years. Wonder what's going on. I'm still hunting the same areas that I used to see them so I don't think it's a habitat problem.

Paul

[BLACKJACK]

Pwaldo, are you wondering about Minnesota or SD?

[fishfearme]

There are still some huns around in MN. Deer hunted in Lyon co. kicked up a covey of eight yesterday. Man the pheasants were thick! Saturday morning while on deer stand I counted over 100 pheasants (mostly roosters) go into a corn field. I haven't seen that many pheasants in one place since my last trip to SD.
ffm

[Guest]

Blackjack, sorry about the confusion. Was wondering about Mn.

Paul

[BLACKJACK]

Fishfearme, where did you say in Lyon county that you saw all those pheasants??

Pwaldow123, I hunt mostly public land early in the season. I think that there is probably more pheasants on public land because it has the winter and nesting cover that pheasants need. Its just that the public land gets so much pressure that the birds are thinned out and wised up so fast. By now even the hens run like banshees. On private land, you may be able to run across roosters that act like they've never been shot at.

[French Spaniel]

Lyon Co. ? is that by Slayton? I grew up in Nobles Co. We used to hunt picked corn fields for Huns. When I was 16 (almost 30 years ago) a friend and I got up 9 different coveys up in one mornings. We didn't do a lot of damage to the population. Our legs were strong but our aim was weak. I think those were peak years for Huns. I don't think we will see those days again.

[fishfearme]

I didn't say where, but I will say it is on private land. The thing is that there is more public land within one mile than 4 people could hunt all day. I know these pheasants make it onto the public land. If you get up at the crack of dawn and look and listen you will find them. Stay off the private land, the owner has already called his buddy the warden to ticket people for tresspass. 3 got tickets last week.
ffm

[BLACKJACK]

Slabber, what part of SD were you hunting?? Did you see many other hunters out? I don't envy you hunting in that heat but sounds like you did well!!

[slabberknocker]

We were hunting in Southeastern and Southcentral SD. No other hunters around. The area does get some pressure but not as much as other areas.

[Seabass77]

I am curious about hunting SD next fall but don't have much to spend. Is there a way to hunt SD without spending a ton? What about:

Camping options?

Public Land?

Reasonable package deals?

Any help is appreciated.

P.S. I know the licence is a hondo alone

[French Spaniel]

Seabass,
The Miller area has some good public hunting land both north and south of town. I'm talking within 25 miles. There are also some walk-in areas that you can hunt. Private ground is hard to get on early in the season but you can sometimes get on land later in the season. Miller is in the central part of the state. It is not hunted as hard as the southcentral portion of the state but it gets a considerable amount of out-of-state hunters.
Miller also has a nice public park with free camping. There are two hotels and a couple of real nice houses were you can rent the house or just a room. There are people to clean your birds if you don't want to mess with that. Taylor's cafe offers a morning breakfast buffet and the bests steaks/prime rib you will ever eat.
Remember you must have steel shot if you are hunting public lands in South Dakota. There are a lot of pay-for-hunting places and they charge big bucks. So stay away from those if you are on a budget. Hope this info helps.
I lived there for seven years so I know the area well. The hunting can be hot or cold at times. This year was exceptional.

[Guest]

Seabass, Haven't been out there in 2 years but we used to hunt around Clark S.D. It is about 30 miles west of watertown. Lots of public land to hunt and there is a park to camp at right in town. 2 of us would go out there and hunt. Out of maybe the 50 places that we asked to hunt, we were turned down twice. From the sounds of it that may have changed dramatically but for us it was never a problem. After doing it for a couple of years we found two really great places to hunt. Every year after that when we went out there we mainly hunted public land and those two farms. We would go out there with 2 sets of Viking tickets They were always appreciated and we were always welcome

Paul

[slabberknocker]

Just returned from SD on a three day hunt. We did ok. Saturday was the hardest of the three days. There was 7 of us and we ended up getting 56 birds over the three days. We hunted all private land and could only hunt about five hours a day. The dogs were very hot as well as the hunters. It was 80 degrees yesterday in SD. This weather sure does suck to hunt in. It was amazing to see the dogs able to pick up scent as well as they did considering the hot, dry conditions. As i would walk through the fields, there would be a cloud of dust hovering me. We also got up a really nice covey of quail. It was really neat to see all three dogs lock up in about a 15 square foot place. There were about 15 quail in the covey. Heading back at Thanksgiving. I guess I will have to drop another hundred bucks to hunt some. It is worth it though. Good luck

[BLACKJACK]

I'm heading out to SoDak (by Redfield) on Tuesday the 13th, any recent reports from there? Are all the crops out? Very many hunters? Any luck? Any reports would be appreciated. I'm hoping the weather cools down for the dogs, even a light snow would be good, drive the birds into the cover.

[huskminn]

I can't report on the Redfield area, but I can tell you about the weather.

The 10 day NWS forecast for South Dakota is for higher than normal temps and absolutely no precipitation. Of course, that could change, and I hope it does.

I'm hoping for a little snow for deer hunting over Thanksgiving. Good luck on the birds.

[Guest]

Fishfearme, I have hunted western Minnesota plent of times but never down in Lyons County. Are there any public areas down there that are smaller, say for 1 or 2 guys to hunt, or are they much larger. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Was thinking of going down there the day after deer hunting ends (Tues)

Paul

[fishfearme]

Waldo, there is smaller plots of state land in the same area. In fact the private land I hunt has 10 acres of WMA on the same half section. Right across the road there is about 1 1/2 section area of WMA. My advise is to look for areas that have WMA's and WPA's clustered together. Remember if you hunt a WPA you need to have non-toxic loads, NO LEAD. Western Lyon and eastern Lincoln county is your best bet.
ffm

[Guest]

Fishfearme,

Thanks for the info. I owe you one. Will post results upon return. I gotcha about the steel, use it all of the time as I usually end up hunting mainly WPA's.

Paul

[This message has been edited by Pwaldow123 (edited 11-10-2001).]

[Guest]

Well I hunted from N. Lyon County all the way north to Appleton. Saw maybe 18 birds, all were vey wild. Only had shots at 2 roosters,one in the bag. Most birds were found in heavy slough areas. Look for smaller areas surrounded by plowed fields, or ones well off of the beaten path.

With all of the deer hunting activity the birds are very spooky.

Paul

[Duck-o-holic]

Bump...

Anyone seeing any birds out there? I put on about 120 miles while scouting for ducks today, and only saw 2 roosters, and 2 hens. I'd have thought that with all of the crops out, there'd be more birds around, although I wasn't really out pounding ground for them. I've only shot 2 this year, but again, haven't hunted them hard (too many ducks around, and no snow). I was mainly in the Sunburg area, which I normally see a lot of birds. Hope it was just a bad day, and not a sign of the damage from last winter!! Anyone finding lots of birds??

Duck-o-holic

[BLACKJACK]

Duck, you're hanging out in my home territory! You must be finding the ducks on the big lakes because I'm not seeing any on the ponds around my place.

Haven't hunted pheasants around home since deer hunting started, then I was pleasantly surprised. There were birds around, I followed the corn harvest and picked up a few birds every day. Some of the big WPA's in that area aren't worth a darn for pheasants because there isn't any crop land around. Now with the corn out, we need some bad weather, snow and ice to concentrate the birds.

If you want ducks and pheasants, SoDak is the place!! Just got back from a 5 day hunt in the Redfield area. It was warm and we worked hard for them but we ended up with 52 birds over five days. We'd occaisionally get into a bunch of them where they'd 'wave' ahead of you, then it was fruit basket upset, but we had luck just keeping after them and picking up 2 here, three there. Had luck in the wetter spots, either because the birds were looking for water or the guys with pointers had driven the birds into the wet cover. And the duck watching was fabulous!!! Thousands and thousands! Almost every big pond had ducks on it. Mallards the size of small geese. May have to apply for the duck licence next year!!

[BLACKJACK]

Don't hesitate to knock on a few doors and if you go to the local bars, talk to the locals, a couple of our hunting mates came back with maps drawn on napkins. One of them paid off with waves of birds.

Also, if you have a dog that will go into the water, hit the edges hard. We found a lot of birds where I was in ankle deep water.