dogsandguns
New member
We spent the first week of Nov hunting in South Dakota. Here are the results and my observations.
3 men
2 dogs
5 days of hunting
15 pheasants taken
Lyman County, South Dakota
We have been hunting this area for 20 years and this year was disappointing. Disappointing because we were in the heart of the area with the largest increase in numbers of birds in the entire state.
We didn't see an increase in numbers from last year; quite the opposite 40-50% decrease in numbers. Hunted only road right of ways because the public land we checked out was mowed so low it wouldn't hide a sparrow, much less a rooster pheasant. Oh yeah, every roadside was mowed down extremely low also removing 75-80% of that cover. All that remained along the roads were strips sometimes measuring 4' wide sometimes 8' wide and very rarely somewhat wider grass remained.
Now here is something that has not been discussed on here(at least I haven't seen it). We were told by another hunter who heard this from a taxidermist in a local town that the pheasant numbers were accurate when published. However, an outbreak of bird flu, beginning is confinement turkey and chicken houses in the state spread to the pheasant population killing off a number of wild birds. True or not, I don't know, just repeating what I was told. You can research it same as I did on the Internet and also be sure to read on the South Dakota Game and Parks website what they have to say about "Avian Flu". If the flu story is correct, that could explain the lower numbers.
Also, as others have rightfully stated, we did not see nearly as many birds early and late from the road as we have in previous years. 99% of the crops were harvested in this area. Several other groups of hunters were doing no better than us that we talked to. And no, we are not going to pay a couple of hundred dollars apiece to go out with a group of 15 other people we don't know and chance getting shot in order to get 3 birds.
Hope others have better luck than we did, but I'm doubting it will happen this year. Hopefully next year will be a whole lot better.
3 men
2 dogs
5 days of hunting
15 pheasants taken
Lyman County, South Dakota
We have been hunting this area for 20 years and this year was disappointing. Disappointing because we were in the heart of the area with the largest increase in numbers of birds in the entire state.
We didn't see an increase in numbers from last year; quite the opposite 40-50% decrease in numbers. Hunted only road right of ways because the public land we checked out was mowed so low it wouldn't hide a sparrow, much less a rooster pheasant. Oh yeah, every roadside was mowed down extremely low also removing 75-80% of that cover. All that remained along the roads were strips sometimes measuring 4' wide sometimes 8' wide and very rarely somewhat wider grass remained.
Now here is something that has not been discussed on here(at least I haven't seen it). We were told by another hunter who heard this from a taxidermist in a local town that the pheasant numbers were accurate when published. However, an outbreak of bird flu, beginning is confinement turkey and chicken houses in the state spread to the pheasant population killing off a number of wild birds. True or not, I don't know, just repeating what I was told. You can research it same as I did on the Internet and also be sure to read on the South Dakota Game and Parks website what they have to say about "Avian Flu". If the flu story is correct, that could explain the lower numbers.
Also, as others have rightfully stated, we did not see nearly as many birds early and late from the road as we have in previous years. 99% of the crops were harvested in this area. Several other groups of hunters were doing no better than us that we talked to. And no, we are not going to pay a couple of hundred dollars apiece to go out with a group of 15 other people we don't know and chance getting shot in order to get 3 birds.
Hope others have better luck than we did, but I'm doubting it will happen this year. Hopefully next year will be a whole lot better.
