Buzz & I "wasted" 1 hr., 15 min. in South Dakota on Saturday (plus 20 minutes back to the car). Picture below. I've hunted 11 times this season, about 1/2 on public land & the other half on WIA's & CREP (also essentially public). I understand that occasionally "public" land gets grazed, disked, burned, replanted, and sometimes reverts to pasture or crops. In most cases, that's land management & is for the better. But I think that in general, the cover open to everyone this year is as nice, or nicer than usual. Bird numbers are definitely UP somewhat in the areas I've hunted (roughly the Salem area, up around Howard & then toward Arlington). With the warm weather, it's led me to hunt more around water (for the dog's sake), & lo & behold, there have been birds near the water. Success (shooting birds for Buzz) has come a little more easily than usual. We've probably hunted on average 1 hr., 40 min. per outing, averaging over 2.5 roosters, and we've seen plenty of others. I just think that if anyone thinks trying to hunt pheasants in SD a waste of time, they're simply not in the right place at the right time, or their expectations are unrealistic.
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