Hunted private land in Faulk county the 22nd - 25th. Numbers are definitely down but still had a great time actually hunting pheasants rather than just shooting into a sky filled with roosters...All beans were out (at least in our areas) and most of the corn was out (probably 80% out).
Sat - got a late start (12:00ish), hunted with eight guys, four dogs and had 20 - 21 roosters by 5pm - called it a day after a long night of driving to get out there.
Sun - started around 10:30, hunted with three guys, two dogs and had our limit by 3PM!!! Mostly swails out in the middle of some fields. Nice 15-20mph north wind made easy work for the dogs (E-Pointer & my Lab). Roosters were sitting tight and our shooting was actually on -
, that was a nice change!Finishing at 3pm was a great, but made for a long night of :cheers:
Mon - started at 10:00, hunted with three guys, three pointers and had our limit by 5pm. A little tougher hunting, wind was down, temps were up and the roosters seemed to be hanging in the little bit of corn that was left standing. Found most in/around some watering holes, tree lines and finished the day walking some ditches.
Tues - started at 10:00, hunted with four guys, three pointers and it was ROUGH going! Weather was finally getting more like hunting weather (40's, windy, little drizzle) We hit the swails, trees, ditches, and came up with one rooster by 3pm. Two of us were hitting the road by 4pm so we called it a day. The others stayed and ended up with five roosters for the day.
Like I said, the numbers are down but it's all relative and a 'down' year in SD still beats anything I can get back here in the midwest. Saw a lot of small, young roosters - like the size of a chukkar type small. We refrained from taking any of those but not sure we did them any favors, gonna be a rough winter for them I am afraid. A side note, what was lacking in roosters seemed to be made up in skunks - saw/pointed/smelled probably four or five of them in the four days we hunted, nasty varmints.
Well, sorry for the looong post - hope everyone has a great/safe hunting season!
Sat - got a late start (12:00ish), hunted with eight guys, four dogs and had 20 - 21 roosters by 5pm - called it a day after a long night of driving to get out there.
Sun - started around 10:30, hunted with three guys, two dogs and had our limit by 3PM!!! Mostly swails out in the middle of some fields. Nice 15-20mph north wind made easy work for the dogs (E-Pointer & my Lab). Roosters were sitting tight and our shooting was actually on -
, that was a nice change!Finishing at 3pm was a great, but made for a long night of :cheers: Mon - started at 10:00, hunted with three guys, three pointers and had our limit by 5pm. A little tougher hunting, wind was down, temps were up and the roosters seemed to be hanging in the little bit of corn that was left standing. Found most in/around some watering holes, tree lines and finished the day walking some ditches.
Tues - started at 10:00, hunted with four guys, three pointers and it was ROUGH going! Weather was finally getting more like hunting weather (40's, windy, little drizzle)
We hit the swails, trees, ditches, and came up with one rooster by 3pm. Two of us were hitting the road by 4pm so we called it a day. The others stayed and ended up with five roosters for the day. Like I said, the numbers are down but it's all relative and a 'down' year in SD still beats anything I can get back here in the midwest. Saw a lot of small, young roosters - like the size of a chukkar type small. We refrained from taking any of those but not sure we did them any favors, gonna be a rough winter for them I am afraid. A side note, what was lacking in roosters seemed to be made up in skunks - saw/pointed/smelled probably four or five of them in the four days we hunted, nasty varmints.
Well, sorry for the looong post - hope everyone has a great/safe hunting season!