I lived in SD 2008-2012 and MN 2013 - Present and hunt both states. For the last several years I do a few short outings a week around MN and two 3 day trips to SD, the majority all public land but there is some private. So many variables to this, but the short answer is that yes - SD is better and worth it. I also think that MN is greatly underrated... SD just has more land that is productive to holding pheasants, whether that's private or public. There's a lot of land to hunt when you start factoring in ditches as well. That said, I've had days I've gotten zero in SD and days I've limited in MN, but in general there is a reason that SD is the pheasant capital of the world and I go back 2x a year. My take on SD is that anybody who is willing to work hard, has a decent dog, hunts from 10am - sunset without wasting much time, can reasonably expect to get a 1-3 person limit on public land in SD most of the time.