Today’s results

As far as road hunting goes as a South Dakota resident who spends all day working and putting on miles in the country and spends any free time sitting in a deer stand watching I can say the huge majority of people hunt in a way that gives all others doing it right a bad look. There’s three ways that road hunting gets done around my land. 1. Guys drive along and see a bird and jump out and start shooting at anything that moves whether it’s 100 ft into private and stays over private when it gets up it doesn’t matter, then move on. 2. They let one guy out or a few if there’s more than two and they walk along side the vehicle as the driver drives along most times holding down the horn again shooting at anything that moves until they get to the end of the slough then all get in and leave. 3. They park then let the dog out as they stand in the middle of the road they send the dog into my slough to stir it up and fire at anything and everything that moves. Boy, I think if I saw a bird hunter hunting legally I would congratulate and pay them to hunt my land.
 
Got to the farmhouse today, waited for the snow/sleet to stop...we walked out the door and hunted some grass...30 minutes, 6 roosters...done deal...good bird #’s it seems where we’re based...at par after day 4, key is hunting small patches near corn and larger fields of grass...just two of us...5 dogs...
 
Deli roast beef and Virginia ham with provolone on 12 grain bread. No cheap shells or sandwich fixings allowed on SD trips.

High winds yesterday and the snow this morning kept them in the cattails all day. Really early we found a few standing on barb wire or first spruce tree branch. Then it was 6:30 before they came to the road. Made a wild hunt trying to move fast on the slimy roads to get the last couple birds.
 
Sdbowhunter said:
As far as road hunting goes as a South Dakota resident who spends all day working and putting on miles in the country and spends any free time sitting in a deer stand watching I can say the huge majority of people hunt in a way that gives all others doing it right a bad look. There’s three ways that road hunting gets done around my land. 1. Guys drive along and see a bird and jump out and start shooting at anything that moves whether it’s 100 ft into private and stays over private when it gets up it doesn’t matter, then move on. 2. They let one guy out or a few if there’s more than two and they walk along side the vehicle as the driver drives along most times holding down the horn again shooting at anything that moves until they get to the end of the slough then all get in and leave. 3. They park then let the dog out as they stand in the middle of the road they send the dog into my slough to stir it up and fire at anything and everything that moves. Boy, I think if I saw a bird hunter hunting legally I would congratulate and pay them to hunt my land.
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We're coming in from western NY to hunt in early November. We always walk the ditch with no vehicles near us. We love watching our dogs work and would be happy to hunt your land and you wouldn't even have to pay us!
 
PeteRevvv said:
Birds everywhere. Spots that had few birds last year but not enough to hunt now have good numbers and are producing. Spots with high numbers have huge covies that just explode left and right. 3 hunters, no dog this year, hunting ditches and we've filled out with 9 each day, hours early before sunset the first two days. Few hunters on roads or walkins but preserves and family fields have biggest groups we've ever seen. Many farmers have far less paid hunters coming and have been offering ground to hunt on the weekdays.

Came across one field of corn being combined near Frankfort. Was about 40 rows left of half a quarter so about a half mile long. We stopped to watch and he waved us over and pointed to the rows he was going to run. We booked it to the other end in the truck and blocked. Most birds lifted up and went back in the corn behind him but he was slowing down and letting them get ahead of the combine. A few got up and we got 1 or 2. He point the next rows and we booked it to the other end and got a couple more. He was down to 2 separate strips of 8 rows and got a flat tire. We made him a sandwich and brought it out to the combine. He told us to walk them so we cleaned out the rest with the perfect setup for the three of us and got 6 birds in the "private land" type experience for the cost of a sandwich.
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What’s the best way to connect with these farmers looking for hunters on a weekend?
 
Sdbowhunter said:
As far as road hunting goes as a South Dakota resident who spends all day working and putting on miles in the country and spends any free time sitting in a deer stand watching I can say the huge majority of people hunt in a way that gives all others doing it right a bad look. There’s three ways that road hunting gets done around my land. 1. Guys drive along and see a bird and jump out and start shooting at anything that moves whether it’s 100 ft into private and stays over private when it gets up it doesn’t matter, then move on. 2. They let one guy out or a few if there’s more than two and they walk along side the vehicle as the driver drives along most times holding down the horn again shooting at anything that moves until they get to the end of the slough then all get in and leave. 3. They park then let the dog out as they stand in the middle of the road they send the dog into my slough to stir it up and fire at anything and everything that moves. Boy, I think if I saw a bird hunter hunting legally I would congratulate and pay them to hunt my land.
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I don't disbelieve you....but this is truly surprising to me. And too bad. If it's really the norm (& I've always assumed these slobs were the EXCEPTION), then no wonder road hunting gets a bad rap.
Now...this isn't finger-pointing & I have no preconceived notion. But do you pay enough attention to license plates to say if you think these poor practices are mostly by residents, non-residents, or about equal??
 
Every now and again a resident will come by but not shoot, for the most part locals know who lives where and if they like to hunt so out of common courtesy they find other places. There’s tons of good areas away from houses and deer stands but in general most birds hang where they feel safe and have what they need so generally that’s around a farm and or deer hunting setup. All my issues are out of state plates generally Minnesota and Iowa but have seen several other state plates. Problem for me is even if they are illegally hunting and spraying me with bbs I’m sitting still and don’t want to be calling and texting any warden or running out of a stand to try catch them so just let it go so it’s a (is what it is) thing I guess, don’t see it stopping. I know there are plenty of good people out there hunting and plan on having bird hunters to thin them out at some point as they are way out of control but want to kill my deer first and doesn’t ever seem to happen. Early afternoon the commotion has run off a few deer but for the most part they will lay low and stay but the road hunters coming by at sundown has ruined a couple chances in the past years.
 
Sdbowhunter said:
As far as road hunting goes as a South Dakota resident who spends all day working and putting on miles in the country and spends any free time sitting in a deer stand watching I can say the huge majority of people hunt in a way that gives all others doing it right a bad look. There’s three ways that road hunting gets done around my land. 1. Guys drive along and see a bird and jump out and start shooting at anything that moves whether it’s 100 ft into private and stays over private when it gets up it doesn’t matter, then move on. 2. They let one guy out or a few if there’s more than two and they walk along side the vehicle as the driver drives along most times holding down the horn again shooting at anything that moves until they get to the end of the slough then all get in and leave. 3. They park then let the dog out as they stand in the middle of the road they send the dog into my slough to stir it up and fire at anything and everything that moves. Boy, I think if I saw a bird hunter hunting legally I would congratulate and pay them to hunt my land.
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When I lived in Iowa I hunted a lot of road ditches but always away from buildings and livestock. I liked places where I could park and walk a long way then walk the other side of the road back to my car. As far as peppering people with shot, I don’t shoot unless the bird is surrounded by sky. I pass up a lot of shots but I haven’t shot anything I didn’t want to.
Be safe out there.
 
Bump said:
The way we usually hunt the roadsides (with 2 hunters) is we let hunter 1 out of the truck and he starts walking the roadside, hunter 2 drives the truck up the road 1/4 to 1/2 mile and parks on the side of the road. The truck acts as a blocker for the hunter 1. Hunter 2 (the driver) gets out of the truck and starts walking the road side. When hunter 1 reaches the truck he drives 1/4 to 1/2 mile and parks. Repeat until both have a limit or get too tired to continue.
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Shot a lot of birds this way before I had a dog(s). Never did it anywhere NEAR anything remotely civilized or inhabited areas, usually just out in the middle of nowhere, preferably a picked field on both sides.

Can count the days on two hands until I get there now! Getting the dogs ready and starting to pack is almost as much fun as the hunt itself! Good luck and be safe everyone!!
 
when there is only 2 of us, first guy and dog, drop off. the driver moves the truck up a half mile, bails out and leaves the keys in the seat.
the first guy loads his dog and jumps in the truck and picks up the other, done and gone to the next ditch, fair and enjoyable.
 
gonna be a lot of birds shot this weekend with the snow coming. It's like it's December already out there. I'll be arriving some time between Friday and Monday. Unsure as of right now, suppose to duck hunt first in North Dakota then swing down for 3 days of hunting. May be more like 5 days of SD with the cold predicted.
 
Fallfreak said:
We had 20 guys and 2 dogs. It was cold and windy but ended the day with 51. It's been quite awhile since we have had that good a day. A bunch of happy hunters here.
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Do you think you had enough guys or did you split up into several groups.
 
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