Trip Report

A

atbrdly

New member
Hello,

So it took me a week or so to get the time once back from SD to get on here and report on my trip so here it goes. We started hunting on Monday Nov. 3. The weather wasn't bad but not great 20 to 25 mph winds and rained late afternoon. We hunted a few GPA areas south of Chamberlain near Academy with no luck at any birds. We decided to hunt the road sides and flushed a few missed shots. No birds

On Tuesday we hunted near Platte. What a great and awesome day 50 degree weather light breeze. The reason I came to SD!!! we had a wild flush of about 60 to 70 birds then later on in the day we flushed up about 12 or 15 within shooting range. Not used to the wild birds we didn't quite get our limit but did well.

On Wednesday we hunted the same area didn't see quite as many birds but ended up with a few. Winds were awful at 30 to 40 mph sustained all day but the temp was up in the 50's.

On Thursday we headed East toward Mitchell and hunted two CREP areas and saw birds and was able to connect on a few to end out the week. This day was also a beautiful day temps were 40's 50's light breeze.

My dog GSP 1 1/2 years old done excellent. I thought he performed awesome especially how the pheasant run in SD. He had some excellent points and retrieved nicely. I couldn't asked for anything better from him in his first real pheasant hunt. Part of my hunt is the enjoyment of seeing him work so I really liked that!!!

I absolutely loved the trip and the hunt!!! I am already planning on another trip next year.....

The only thing I was a little disappointed on was the public land. I guess I was expecting to see enough birds to limit out every day.(I figured bad shooting would be the reason we didn't get our limit)However, we did not see the birds. Only a few both days of public land hunting.

With that said....on planning next years trip.....would you come earlier in the season if you are hunting public? go to other areas? or wait until later in the season? Any thoughts or is that just the way it is???

Keep in mind....IMO we put in the work to find the birds...we walked from 10 am until sunset everyday we hunted with only a ham sandwich break at lunch for 30 to 45 mins.

Obviously our first time out I think we did great and am well pleased. I want to thank everyone on here that helped me along the way to plan this trip we had an absolute wonderful time and SD is a great place. We visited all the tourist attractions in Western SD and even made it over to Devils Tower in WY.

The trip wouldn't have been a success without the folks on here helping me....again Thank You!!

Sorry for all the pics but was so thrilled at the trip I had to share.
 
Distance yourself from the I90 corridor would be my suggestion. There's a lot of state there that doesn't get the pressure of the corridor.

Nice dog! What is the pedigree if I may ask.. (Pm me if you want)
 
I see you hail from the great state of Ohio. An Ohio native myself, I always calibrate my high plains pheasant hunting to my experience growing up in Ohio - and it helps me to appreciate that a few birds each day is about a season's worth of work in Ohio. Older and more mature now, I realize what a privilege we have in this country for the ability to own firearms and hunt without major limitations - a privilege we must ardently guard for sure. I'm returning to SD this weekend and can't wait.
 
Here's my recap...

Saturday, Nov 1...drove from Chicago to Mitchell, SD. Stayed in the Coach Light Motel. Nice and clean, low budget place. Lots of other hunters staying there. Dog friendly.

Sunday, Nov 2...this was a self guided hunt on public land. We used SD GFP app for locating public land. Our first stop was a few miles north of Mitchell. It was just me and one other hunter plus his springer spaniel...a Master Hunter. Walked into a field of CRP at 10:00 and bagged my first rooster at 10:15. The field was too big for us and after 45 minutes of not seeing another bird we decided to work our way north and find smaller strips of land suitable for 2 guys. We hit a field of CRP just outside Huron. This field had a narrow strip of trees with heavy cat tails nearby and cut corn too. Flushed and bagged another rooster just before finishing a complete loop of the field. Our dog got real birdy as we came out of the cat tails by the corn. We new he was chasing a bird and I got in front of the bird and trapped him. No choice by to flush. Bad choice. We tried a few other places and saw many birds. But they all flushed out of range. Most of the public land we hunted was east of route 281.

Monday thru Wednesday were hunting with an outfitter just outside Redfield. We bagged our limit two out of three days. ATBRDLY's description of the weather was dead on. It was so windy on Wednesday the birds were in narrow tree lines. They were so hunkered down the dogs got 4 birds pinned under deadfall. No shots fired.

Thursday we decided to do a self guided hunt on public land as we worked our way south from Redfield to I-90. This time we stayed west of route 281. We learned a little from our earlier hunts. The birds were sitting on the edge of tall grass or were mostly in the trees. They seemed to like corner areas just off the corn. We looked for fields with tree rows and corn. We saw many birds but with two guys they mostly flushed out of range. But our best luck came at the end of the day. Pheasants like gravel to help digest their food. They come out to the roads at the end of the day to get it so ditch hunting was productive. We got two roosters just driving on the road and looking ahead. We'd see them cross the road. We stopped and stalked them. They were hunkered down along the fence line. The last field we hit around 4:00 was a large GPA. We flushed three roosters after 5 minutes of walking into the tall grass. One was in front right, the other in front left, and the third behind us. They had us surrounded and we got none of them. We saw two other roosters later in that field but they flushed too far away.

There were only two fields where we ran into other hunters. I was surprised and thought there would be more competition for these fields.

All in all there were plenty of birds. But it's hard to work some of these fields with just two guys. Still, I'd do this again. Maybe try my luck a little closer to Chamberlain and Pierre. Expect to hunt a full day to get your birds. Bird counts are better, but still not close to several years ago.
 
Mustang GT. Nice report. I too noticed as being a rookie that only having two people and one dog hurt us on our hunt alot. We had to hunt hard all day to see the birds. I noticed also that the public land (atleast the areas we hit) has alot of cover almost the entire area. I mean ALOT. to much cover for two guys one dog. You really have to search for those narrow strips of ground/shelter to hunt. We found ourselves hunting acres of cover and the birds just run away and we never get them up.

We probably should have done a little more road hunting toward the end of the days...

Next year i will probably try my luck hunting half a week with an outfitter and half public self guided.

hunterofbirds - I agree 100% that this one trip beat ALL ohio hunting adventures combined!!! What an amazing place SD is....
 
I've been going to SD for 5 years now, but it was always with an outfitter. This year we decided to enhance our hunt with a self-guided hunt on public land. We're calling it our hybrid hunt now and plan to do it each year.

I was prepared to join up with some other hunters if we ended up seeing them on the same plot of land. But the few times we saw anyone they already were in the field and out of sight.

I agree the cover was thick and the birds love to run. One or two more guys and one more dog would have been perfect.
 
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