More public land for North west SoDak

I seen a large chunk of CHAP land up there. Only restriction on it was no upland game hunting. Seemed odd to me. I asked the ranch wife about prairie grouse and she said there was a horrible winter up there a few years ago and the population is slowly gaining. Maybe that was the reasoning,
 
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Looked at that area on the map - Ziebach County. Looks like it is largely moonscape high country. Few crops around. Would expect sharptail grouse, but anyone think there will be significant pheasant numbers around there? There are a few areas of crops, but not sure where this land is located in the county.

I'm all for more public ground, just getting used to the inflated numbers SD likes to publish on public 'hunting' acres. 95% of the public ground (by acreage) is not worth walking: Crops, hayed or grazed grass, moonscape high ground, standing water... The remaining 5% is great though!
 
Looked at that area on the map - Ziebach County. Looks like it is largely moonscape high country. Few crops around. Would expect sharptail grouse, but anyone think there will be significant pheasant numbers around there? There are a few areas of crops, but not sure where this land is located in the county.

I'm all for more public ground, just getting used to the inflated numbers SD likes to publish on public 'hunting' acres. 95% of the public ground (by acreage) is not worth walking: Crops, hayed or grazed grass, moonscape high ground, standing water... The remaining 5% is great though!
Do you ever shoot waterfowl or fur bearers?
 
Do you ever shoot waterfowl or fur bearers?
No - I don't. My comment is directed at when SD is speaking within the context of pheasant hunting and cites how many acres are available for pheasant hunting. Which is true technically - you can hunt tens of thousands of acres of picked bean fields, grazed pastures, or barren rocky hills - but very misleading since the vast majority of the public acres are not worth hunting (for pheasants).

I think they (PF, SD) could get more bang for buck by improving what they have vs getting more cheap acres way out in 'fugawe' to pad their stats.
 
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