Road Survey

UGUIDE said:
Looks like a little STML going on here (short term memory loss).

Was the pheasant hunting in 2013 as bad as the 64% down number from last years report indicated?
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No Chris last year was just fine :D and as to numbers down 64%--so what--5 years ago a new CRP planting (in it's second yr and just 17 acres) Had more birds in it on opening day than most people can believe--best guess 300 plus--:eek:last year just about 80 to 100--Darn bad yr-- no good-- not worth hunting.
How spoiled we have become :confused:

Come to South Dakota and enjoy pheasant hunting at it's best--lots of public land with lots of birds for those willing to work for them.

Operations like U-guide for those who want a more structured hunt ---still all wild roosters

Or even the top of the line operations with your every desire taken care of, Yes South Dakota has it all. See ya all mid October :cheers:
 
After taking last year off because of low bird numbers, our group is heading back with a 76% increase this year. I just booked the rental house and lined up our treaspass fee farm! 10/25 can't come quick enough!

Bob
 
So SoDak probably will not be running a second survey this year ??:rolleyes:

An increase is great news and hopefully all neighboring states will show similar trends.

By the way if you have 1 million birds and the population drops 50% in one year to the next ... you have a population of 500,000 birds ... then it increases 75% over that new base the next year ... your population would be 875,000 birds (still below two years prior).

Minnesota hunting was fine if not excellent in 2013. Lack of hunters made most trips even more enjoyable.
 
SD Jim is right on. What is a "bad" year? Depends on your perspective. I live in Wisconsin and have to hunt put and take birds, which after they get poked at a little, can be tough little buggers. I made the decision last year, good reports or terrible ones, that I was going to South Dakota. Lots of bad news last year, widespread reports of guys cancelling trips, etc.

Me...I still went and I had the time of my life. I hunted three days and took home 6 roosters. Figure my single dog put up somewhere around 40 to 50 birds total in those 3 days. I was happy as I could be, to the point that I'm coming back this year and and am bringing my older dog that didn't go last year, and my wife as well. She won't hunt but it will be neat for her to see some of the sights and sounds that I did.

Enjoy it for what it is. Not everyone needs to flush 50 or 100 or 500 birds and limit out every day to have a great time and enjoy the land around them.
 
519vx
You are right, not everyone needs to see 50 or 100 birds per day. However, there are many many guys like me that do need to see that many birds to travel 14 hours to pheasant hunt. I also will say the state of SD needs lots of birds as well if they want all that NR liscense $$$ as well as Hotel and Tourism Dollars.
Birds are up, lots of hunters will be coming to SD this year!
 
hockypuck bob if you dont go or didnt go to sd last yr how do you know what you missed??? by just relying on good reports or surveys u missed great hunting last yr is everybodys point..

i doubt you will see many 50+ bird flushes this yr like mentioned earlyer it was 64%-65% down last yr it 75% up this yr it kinda puts us back to 2012 #s ??? i think that was a yr when many guys who need to see big #s of birds stoped coming or lowered there expectations for 2013..

i seen what 519 seen in sd on a few if my mn hunts last yr bagged my 6 bird limit in m in 3 days its not all about numbers i agree but when i go to sd i want to see more birds pound 4 pound then i do here in mn??? especially if u have a larger group...???

sd was great hunting but i didnt see a 6-7 man limit in gun range daily a 2-4 man limit i did see daily when i had to walk all day... i think guys were used to bag n a 6-10 man limit in sd in hours if not min of hunting sd maybe on private lands farmed for pheasants guys do that daily not so sure on public lands u can expect the same results...

but like mentioned b4 the fair weather only come on up year guys will be back in sd full force this season im sure... hope they all focus on the opener and with corn standing we all no how openers are...

lets hope this is the 1st of many up pheasant numbers in sd and the other pheasant states that are hurting population and habitat wise...
 
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Our group of 7 hunted second week last year and we shot a limit 4 of 5 days. Missed several more limits:rolleyes:. All of us had a blast. No it was not like previous years and we had to hunt all day a couple days. It was actually nice not to limit in first hour and enjoy the time in the field "working" for the birds. The people of SD are great and have always treated our group well. Now let's go hunt and support what we all love!! :cheers:
 
I got a horrible report from one of my guy's up in SD tonight.........He said he is having trouble driving around in the evenings because of all the pheasants on the roads.:). In his words " they are running around everywhere, I am seeing groups of 15-20 on the roads every night. " He also said crops were going to be late again, but that December could be something special. He also said that they got about 3 inches of rain the last few days, and the cover is awesome.
 
Guys,

Just returned to Wisconsin after a long holiday weekend out at the house in SD. I will have to say it looks like GFP is on the money this year with the survey. I have been going out to hunt SD for 20+ years. I have spent the last six summers out there over the 4th and Labor day.

I will sum up the bird numbers this year with one word- WOW!:10sign: If you have any doubts about going to SD this fall stand firm and make the trip. This could be a year to remember the way it looks.

Good Luck and have a safe hunting season!
 
Leave it to someone to make a smart#%! comment. But I will translate it- Seen more birds in four days than I have seen in the last four summers of scouting. Hopefully someone will appreciate the information and it will help them make there final decision.

Try to provide information to help people out and this is what you have to deal with. It isn't worth effort.... Half the reason I drive 450 miles one way is to get a pulse on the bird population prior to the season. I can see I should just go back to being tight lipped.

Out......
 
birds

Hey BeirlSetters! There really are people out here that pay attention to posts such as yours so it is very much appreciated. I drive out annually 16 hours one way to South Dakota. I am not inclined to skip a year due to a poor forecast but it is always nice to see the good reports, such as yours. I live in northern Michigan where pheasants are non-existant and so even a poor year in SD is much better than here. Thanks to all the contributors to these reports. John
 
Birdman,

I see you are from northern Michigan. I am in northern Wisconsin not to far from the border by Ironwood. I just want you to know that I appreciate your response.

I myself will go to SD no matter what the bird numbers are, 20 plus years and still counting. Owning a house out there I guess you could say completely invested in SD no matter what the numbers are.

I have been there when you were lucky to put up enough roosters to at least shoot a bird a day. For myself its about the experience and the dog work, everything else is second.

I figured posting what I saw last weekend would help some people who might be having second thoughts. I believe this could be a year that we haven't seen since the mid 2000's.
 
Up 60%, down 60%, above/below 10-year average bla bla bla....
This is nothing more than SD GF&P talking points to get hunters here to spend their $$ to save all of those small towns from going extinct. One-day surveys by postal carriers is not much of a valid survey, but the GF&P runs with it every year. In fact, has the SD GF&P EVER said that the forecasted birds counts were awful???

Those of us who live here will likely hunt no matter what the surveys are. However, whether we hunt most of the season or not really depends on what we see opening day. For instance, in good years, there are always lots of birds on opening day. Opening day 2013 was pretty bad, and most hunters didn't get close to a limit the 1st weekend, and didn't hunt much the rest of the season.

The 2014 opener is coming up quick, and most reports from "actual landowners" seem to be more birds seen than last year at this time. I hope its true. But, as others have stated, hunters need to make sure that being in-the-field is fun and enjoyable, no matter what the results are. That being said, before I drove 12/14/18 hours or more, I'd like to have some pretty accurate bird counts than what a 1-day postal carrier survey indicated.....
 
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After your post I'm depressed. For you guys that live in SD it probably won't be worth your while to bird hunt this year. Be sure us out of state guys will let you know how the season went in January
 
I re-read that post, and I guess that because I'm only driving 11 hours (instead of 12/14/18 hours) to SD (again), it really doesn't apply to me.

Maybe I should be spending more time trying to make contact with one of those rural carriers. They know all the hotspots, for one day anyway... :rolleyes:
 
CRP said:
Up 60%, down 60%, above/below 10-year average bla bla bla....
This is nothing more than SD GF&P talking points to get hunters here to spend their $$ to save all of those small towns from going extinct. One-day surveys by postal carriers is not much of a valid survey, but the GF&P runs with it every year. In fact, has the SD GF&P EVER said that the forecasted birds counts were awful???

Those of us who live here will likely hunt no matter what the surveys are. However, whether we hunt most of the season or not really depends on what we see opening day. For instance, in good years, there are always lots of birds on opening day. Opening day 2013 was pretty bad, and most hunters didn't get close to a limit the 1st weekend, and didn't hunt much the rest of the season.

The 2014 opener is coming up quick, and most reports from "actual landowners" seem to be more birds seen than last year at this time. I hope its true. But, as others have stated, hunters need to make sure that being in-the-field is fun and enjoyable, no matter what the results are. That being said, before I drove 12/14/18 hours or more, I'd like to have some pretty accurate bird counts than what a 1-day postal carrier survey indicated.....
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i think you are missing the point, the count is conducted the same way, every year....so you either go with it or not....like most everyone else.
 
CRP said:
Up 60%, down 60%, above/below 10-year average bla bla bla....
This is nothing more than SD GF&P talking points to get hunters here to spend their $$ to save all of those small towns from going extinct. One-day surveys by postal carriers is not much of a valid survey, but the GF&P runs with it every year. In fact, has the SD GF&P EVER said that the forecasted birds counts were awful???

Those of us who live here will likely hunt no matter what the surveys are. However, whether we hunt most of the season or not really depends on what we see opening day. For instance, in good years, there are always lots of birds on opening day. Opening day 2013 was pretty bad, and most hunters didn't get close to a limit the 1st weekend, and didn't hunt much the rest of the season.

The 2014 opener is coming up quick, and most reports from "actual landowners" seem to be more birds seen than last year at this time. I hope its true. But, as others have stated, hunters need to make sure that being in-the-field is fun and enjoyable, no matter what the results are. That being said, before I drove 12/14/18 hours or more, I'd like to have some pretty accurate bird counts than what a 1-day postal carrier survey indicated.....
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Since when did postal carriers start doing the bird counts? I've been in SD for 36 years and this is the first I've heard of it. My neighbors son works for the GFP and he goes out and does the road surveys. I'll talk to him and see what he has to say about postal carriers. GFP has been doing these surveys for many years and while I'm certain they are not 100% accurate they do give an idea of bird numbers. I believe the 2012 estimates were overstated and that the 2013 estimates were not as bad as they said. From everything I've heard and everyone I've talked to I would say the numbers this year are better than 2013.
 
Dakotazeb said:
Since when did postal carriers start doing the bird counts? I've been in SD for 36 years and this is the first I've heard of it. My neighbors son works for the GFP and he goes out and does the road surveys. I'll talk to him and see what he has to say about postal carriers. GFP has been doing these surveys for many years and while I'm certain they are not 100% accurate they do give an idea of bird numbers. I believe the 2012 estimates were overstated and that the 2013 estimates were not as bad as they said. From everything I've heard and everyone I've talked to I would say the numbers this year are better than 2013.
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my understanding is the routes are pretty much the same, no matter who makes the count....its not meant to be scientific, merely a random survey...if an individual is so inclined, i suggest you drive and make your own survey!:cool:
 
hunter94 said:
my understanding is the routes are pretty much the same, no matter who makes the count....its not meant to be scientific, merely a random survey...if an individual is so inclined, i suggest you drive and make your own survey!:cool:
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years ago, in Nebraska, the mail carriers did make the counts...not sure now.
 
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