Looking for SD Pheasants~Hunt Swap?

H

HunterRye

New member
Greetings guys, I’m a firefighter from NW Tennessee. A group of us firefighters will be going to South Dakota this fall chasing snow geese (Nov ‘22) and would love to chase some pheasants a couple afternoons while I’m up there. I’m curious as to everyone’s opinions on how I should go about hunting them. I don’t really want to pay for a guide as I’m just not that committed to killing them, I really just want to get out in the evenings with the guys and if we kill a couple roosters that’s just a bonus. How hard would it be for 6-7 guys to kill a few pheasants on public land up there without dogs? We will be an hour or 2 northwest of Sioux Falls I also wouldn’t mind going out with some local guys and tagging along with them. We’ve all hunted all our lives for most every bird/waterfowl in the United States. We just have no experience with wild pheasants at all. Just looking for opinions on if we should meet up with locals, hire a guide, or just get out and make drives and pushes on public land and hope for the best.
If someone with land access and dogs want to do a hunt swap I do have several hundred acres of prime turkey land here in Tennessee I would be willing to take someone on if they wanted to get after an Eastern Longbeard as a trade out. We routinely kill 15 or so longbeards with bows each spring on these farms but you can use a shotgun if you’d like. Could even do some top water smallmouth fishing on some loaded creeks on my farm after you kill a turkey.

Thanks for any help guys! Much appreciated.
 

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Without a dog makes it more difficult, but not impossible. You'll be in a location that has plenty of birds and public land. If you are wanting to kill some time, not spend money, have a chance at some roosters - then go for it. You've got nothing to lose. Will 6 guys get a limit of 18 birds on public land without a dog, absolutely not. Will 6 guys get a shot at a few roosters on public land without a dog, most likely yes.
 
What jackrabbit said. Your odds would increase dramatically if you were able to come up with at least a dog or 2, even if they don't have a lot of experience. Take turns hunting close to the guy who owns the dog (like in his back pocket). November on public land can be pretty challenging, especially if crops haven't been harvested yet. The birds have seen it all by then. In general, you can only EFFECTIVELY hunt as much ground as your dog(s) can cover. But a group your size is bound to run into a few.

It's normal to get excited by videos you see on YouTube, but pay no attention to how they hunt. In many cases, they're on private preserves, shooting mostly pen-reared pseudo-pheasants (PRPPs).
 
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HunterRye said:
Greetings guys, I’m a firefighter from NW Tennessee. A group of us firefighters will be going to South Dakota this fall chasing snow geese (Nov ‘22) and would love to chase some pheasants a couple afternoons while I’m up there. I’m curious as to everyone’s opinions on how I should go about hunting them. I don’t really want to pay for a guide as I’m just not that committed to killing them, I really just want to get out in the evenings with the guys and if we kill a couple roosters that’s just a bonus. How hard would it be for 6-7 guys to kill a few pheasants on public land up there without dogs? We will be an hour or 2 northwest of Sioux Falls I also wouldn’t mind going out with some local guys and tagging along with them. We’ve all hunted all our lives for most every bird/waterfowl in the United States. We just have no experience with wild pheasants at all. Just looking for opinions on if we should meet up with locals, hire a guide, or just get out and make drives and pushes on public land and hope for the best.
If someone with land access and dogs want to do a hunt swap I do have several hundred acres of prime turkey land here in Tennessee I would be willing to take someone on if they wanted to get after an Eastern Longbeard as a trade out. We routinely kill 15 or so longbeards with bows each spring on these farms but you can use a shotgun if you’d like. Could even do some top water smallmouth fishing on some loaded creeks on my farm after you kill a turkey.

Thanks for any help guys! Much appreciated.
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Just a thought. But ..if you have a snow goose set up ..maybe invite a dog guy on that or maybe a land owner with dogsfor him pheasant hunting with you?
on word of caution ..just in case..a paid guide cannot guide on public land!!
 
If it were me, I'd honestly rather hunt without a dog than one that was poorly trained or inexperienced. We've all been on one of those hunts where the dog ruined the hunt. I certainly have. A dog is not a requirement to hunt. A good one will obviously help, but a bad one will make it worse.

Nice turkeys by the way @HunterRye.
 
Awesome guys! I can’t thank y’all enough for the tips. I know people can be stingy when it comes to giving out advice on hunting. I don’t want to get into the shooting preserve side of things I’d rather do some drives and kill 2 or 3 wild birds over shooting limits of pen raised birds. I may look into bringing a couple labs that are good hunting dogs. Sounds like anything may help.
Again thank y’all for helping out a group of dumb firefighters haha!
 
The other option would be walking ditches, smaller size and better chances of not walking past birds. You could drop a couple guys off and drive on, park the truck and then walk on from there. The first guys dropped could then get in truck and pick second set up, just leap-froggin with the truck. Just another way to try and bag a few with out a dog. BTW wildland firefighter here.
 
Miforester said:
The other option would be walking ditches, smaller size and better chances of not walking past birds. You could drop a couple guys off and drive on, park the truck and then walk on from there. The first guys dropped could then get in truck and pick second set up, just leap-froggin with the truck. Just another way to try and bag a few with out a dog. BTW wildland firefighter here.
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Milforester…I was a lead plane pilot…reg.9 call sigh lead 9-1
 
Ok there are a couple questions I have

1 this is the big one . Isn't this a poor time to be hunting snow geese? Seems early ?
 
Weimdogman said:
Ok there are a couple questions I have

1 this is the big one . Isn't this a poor time to be hunting snow geese? Seems early ?
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I will be there in November this coming year. (Next fall) hoping to target snows before they migrate down so far south and get educated fast.
 
Great question Weimdogman,

Never understood why SDFG requires NR to pick
Zone & dates for a draw in June - especially when waterfowl hunting is largely a function of the migration. They could be generating a lot more $$ if we could buy over the counter licenses. We did it a few years and decided it wasn’t worth it. Never saw any resident waterfowlers in the field. On our fall trip, the ducks were around, but not the geese in big #’s.
Don’t mean to discourage you HunterRye, if you go, best of luck! We’ve been there in November when the sky was full of snows, and took videos at two different fields they were using. Timed right, it would be spectacular
 
I've drawn a waterfowl license the last 4 years, and I haven't picked a zone or a date in June. I make a November trip around Thanksgiving and there have been snow geese too hunt, if you can get permission. The first couple of weeks in November could be iffy.
 
BrdHntr said:
Thanks for the update on this 5 Stand
It’s been several years since we bought ours
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I'm sure it came across as pretty blunt, sorry about that. HunterRye do your homework (and I see you're trying) the devil is always in the details.
 
No problem & good to know. I do need to check & see if there r remaining tags, etc. We usually locate waterfowl on our morning scouting trips.
Would love to couple some morning waterfowl with our hunts
What’s your experience with private access?
 
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