Hows the hunting?

K

KansasHunter25

New member
Ive hunted in kansas my whole life. The hunting here hasnt been the greatest so I was wondering if there are any hot spots or just generally good locations in SD. We usually hunt with 6 people (including me) and 2 dogs. Any leads would be very helpful.

Probably wouldnt be able to make a trip up there until next year but I wanted to do some research early. Thanks in advance!
 
This is just my experience, so your mileage may vary. ;)

I started hunting SD in 2006. Where I was it was little short of amazing. Easy to limit out without getting 100 years from the truck. In order to get more hunting in we restricted our take per field. We didn't shoot every bird we could. We'd shoot one bird per dog so all the dogs got work. It went on like that for several more years.

The last three years my spots have seen a marked drop in bird numbers. Now this isn't a catastrophe; it's still pretty amazing in respect to other places I hunted pheasant. There have actually been days in the past few years that I have not limited out after hunting all day. That's not a whine; I actually enjoy hunting all day with my dogs. So I'm a happy guy. But clearly bird numbers in the places I hunt are significantly down. It's not like 2006+.

Now...that said...my "worst" days in SD have been pretty much the equal of my "best" days in Kansas. I pheasant hunted Kansas for 35+ years before I ever went to SD.

Like any place at any time, SD can be spotty. You'll read reports here from this year of guys that found lots of birds and guys that had a hard time finding birds.

I still would suggest you give SD a try sometime. It can be simply amazing pheasant hunting.
 
Well... where do I start.

About 50ish miles West of the Missouri River doesn't have much for pheasants, the east half of the state has the birds. The best bird concentration is near the middle of the state, somewhat along the Missouri River. Big cities and places that are easy to get to has the most hunting pressure (Chamberlain, Mitchell, etc.). There are birds in all parts of the state. I've limited off of public land in the NE part of the state (generally not known as a hotspot) and been disappointed in private land in the golden triangle (Winner, Gregory, Chamberlain, known as a hot spot).

Public Land. Lots of it, if you want to do some driving and look for the best areas, do some walking, you can have a good hunt. I think you can reasonably expect to get a 1 man limit off of public land birds with a full day of hard hunting. If you come to the state with a group of 8 guys only to hunt public, I think you will be disappointed.

Private Land. Expect to pay $150+ per gun. Most private operations are filled with the same groups coming back year after year, but if you make phone calls you will find somebody with openings. Look at local Chamber of Commerce's or even on this website somewhere for a list of locals that would take you.
 
Jackrabbit is 100% correct if u go I'd suggest split your group up into groups of 2 & a dog or 2... Hunt smaller strips or cattails big groups can't & maybe meet up once a day for the big army marches or after u guys locate birds...

Hunt late in season...

Don't expect limits of trophy pics daily & when u do its that much better...

Move around till u find bird's... Don't get locked into 1 town 1 spot... If u don't know if the area just was hunted give it a second & take a break birds mite be moving back into the area... Be out early & late in day scouting not eating breakfast or in bar...

Don't ask for hot spots doing the home work is the fun hunt from the MO river east to MN u will find birds avoid ez lodging & or towns with bird cleaning facilities probably lots of hunters there lol
 
It kinda sounds like the hunting is hit or miss everywhere lol Might have to just bounce around towns like you said. Ill definitely update on where were planning on going :cheers:
 
KansasHunter25 said:
It kinda sounds like the hunting is hit or miss everywhere lol Might have to just bounce around towns like you said. Ill definitely update on where were planning on going :cheers:
Click to expand...

Yes it can be very spotty, I was out over election week, just me and my pack of 3 dogs, we limited every day and should have been done in under 2 hours each day. Hunted all public, creep, wpa and wia. I didn't see see large amounts of birds, rooster to hen ratio was great 3 to 1. Had co workers who hunted about 40 miles west of me they hunted 10 days and killed 9 birds. The owner of where I stayed had a group of 8 and they hunted just after turkey day for 6 days, they killed 98 birds all public land, but like mentioned above they broke up into groups of 2-3.

Research the sdgfp website they have stats per county on harvest numbers. I hunt the area around red field and have for the past 4 years and have always done well. Good luck and keep us posted.
 
Miforester said:
Yes it can be very spotty, I was out over election week, just me and my pack of 3 dogs, we limited every day and should have been done in under 2 hours each day. Hunted all public, creep, wpa and wia. I didn't see see large amounts of birds, rooster to hen ratio was great 3 to 1. Had co workers who hunted about 40 miles west of me they hunted 10 days and killed 9 birds. The owner of where I stayed had a group of 8 and they hunted just after turkey day for 6 days, they killed 98 birds all public land, but like mentioned above they broke up into groups of 2-3.

Research the sdgfp website they have stats per county on harvest numbers. I hunt the area around red field and have for the past 4 years and have always done well. Good luck and keep us posted.
Click to expand...



Was out there in SD same week about same Ares as yr buddy hunting sucked big time back towards MN border had better numbers it seemed herd 10+ roosters crowing the last day there... Spotty was the word of the trip... Hunted all public... Herd reports from same time frame south of me small group limited daily all public... We had 6 guys who did not want to split up...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top