Rooster33, I'm not familiar with the Aberdeen area, but I've been hunting public land in SD for many years & rarely have problems finding a spot to myself. The majority of my hunting is within a weird-shaped quadrilateral with corners at Humboldt, Spencer, Brookings & Lake Thompson, for the most part within an hour +/- of Sioux Falls. The reason I don't fight crowds is, first, because in the first few weeks I don't even try to be first to a spot. Second (don't tell anybody this), noon is usually a tough time of day to find pheasants in public CRP grass & cattails in October & early November. It's usually a lot easier to find a few birds if you wait until everyone else has had a whack at them (if you have a decent dog). I understand that some guys, and especially kids, may really, really, really want to be hunting when shooting hours open. That's fine. Go find the lightest cover possible & walk a little. But concentrate on these 2 times: 2.5 to 4 hours before sunset and the hour before sunset.