Start of South Dakota 2025-2026 season countdown

After careful consideration, I know where I'm going. Cleaning out my truck from last weeks hunt and loading it back up. I can't go till the end of the month and if the weather holds, I'll throw my dogs in the back seat and take off. If this doesn't work...I'm moving to Canada.
 
I drive through MN from Duluth to Pipestone, actually to the border West of Pipestone…many, many times per year…I also vary my route, and drive through Montevideo, Dawson, etc, to the border…I see some birds between Marshall and Pipestone, and, see some between Montevideo and Dawson, then to the border…to be fair, I don’t see many in SD until I’m near my hunting area…obviously there are birds that I’m not seeing, but the areas I see birds are areas that look birdy…not enough habitat in many areas, but I’m not crisscrossing every square mile…if there are lots of birds in an area, it’s pretty evident…I do think hunting diligently in W/SW MN will produce birds…there are lots of public areas that are good sources of habitat…
 
benelli-banger said:
I do think hunting diligently in W/SW MN will produce birds…there are lots of public areas that are good sources of habitat…
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That's the problem. Have to hunt all day just to catch a wiff of rooster toots. All those public areas are for song birds. I agree with @That1uncle1776 -- best bet is to head to Iowa. They have oodles of roosters down there. Easy pickin's.
 
Knock it off guys, the fella needs some solid guidance. Iowa has declared the pleasant extinct. North Dakota is the epicenter of pheasant hunting, don't listen to these clowns.
 
When I was driving home last week, I stopped and got a room at a BW in Watertown. There was a group of hunters in the lobby from Memphis. They asked me what I was hunting. They never heard of sharpies or huns. Evidently, never saw a Vizsla before either. One guys asked me if a sharpie was a "rodent". Another guy asked me about snakes and I made the mistake of telling them my dogs have gone through snake aversion training. That got out of control quickly and one guy whispered to another, that my Vizsla hunts snakes. When I asked them how long they've been coming to SD, the one old guy told me over 30 years.....

I want to find a place to hunt where guys like that don't ever go to hunt.
 
If you haven't been seeing as many birds as you want, you need to follow around these incognito trucks owned by SD GF&P. What happens is, after the first big bang ups out there, when the dumb ones are dead, and the smart ones have all the escape routes down pat, SD sends out these trucks at odd hours, and salts all the state land with a fresh crop of dummies. Even a chump can shoot a limit. This is the real reason to the claim that late season is better, the extended January season, and why Kristi ended the road count.
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ArmchairBiologist said:
On a side note I'm almost positive I ran into A5 Sweet 16 one day. It was during the doldrums on a Sunday when all of the public land was tough hunting before we got snow. I easily shot my 3 birds in about an hour. I saw a truck coming down the road and I hid my birds in my trunk. He asked me how I did and I lied through my teeth. I told him I missed one rooster and saw 4 or 5 hens. I acted like a rube and told him I was going to watch football. He didn't buy it and hunted that spot anyways.
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Small car & a lab on a WPA near Ramona? I got my 3 in about 40 minutes that day.😉
 
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