Miforester
Well-known member
Recently returned from my annual SD trip, this year was a little different as I'm brought a good hunting buddy of mine and we decided to do a combo hunt of both waterfowl and pheasants. We were weather watchers and became nervous with the extreme cold proir to our trip for fear all ponds would freeze up and make waterfowl more difficult. As our departure grew closer the weather was changing in our favor to 50/60's as highs and close to freezing at night. We anticipated both the snow and ice would melt making for an almost perfect weather trip. We arrived at the house I rented on Halloween night and we scouted for ducks in the early morning and decided to start our pheasant hunt early on the 1st of November. We had 4 dogs,1 brittany, 2 setters and a 1 yr old lab.
Here is a brief summary.
Day 1 - 11/1/2020 - We hunted several new properties and a few of my old spots, all public lands. This was my buddies first time hunting wild pheasants, his setter is stellar on grouse so we were excited to see how he would do on pheasants. This day we duck scouted and bird hunted spent approximately 4 hours in the field chasing pheasants we had 24 bird contacts, 17 roosters to 7 hens. We combined to kill a rooster together and I missed another 6, needless to say all things were safe from me this day. Dogs did great for the first day as several points/trackings from my brittany that added to my frustration when I missed. My setter bulled her way through some barbed wire and sustained a nice gash on her front leg so she was put on the IR. My first chance my newly acquired 20 lt 1100 didn't cycle, I'm blaming it for the rest of my shooting issues. New spots we hunted produced birds which was great and my buddies setter was learning the game. Weather was about ideal in the 50's with acceptable winds.
Day 2 - 11/2/2020 - We started the morning duck hunting and before we could get settled had ducks coming into our decoys, action was pretty good early on and we managed to kill 8 ducks. Had a blast with ducks as we were seeing and harvesting species we don't see here in Michigan. We pheasant hunted the rest of the day we ended up having 28 bird contacts, 13 rooster, 15 hens and killed 4. My shooting improved some but still slow. Temps were starting to creep up into the 60's with mild winds. Dogs were doing well, my brittany had several points as well as a great find on a winged bird.
Day 3 - 11/3/2020 - We hunted another pond in the morning and killed 7 ducks. Just amazed at the waterfowl opportunities in SD, the sky was always full of snow geese. Snows were on our pond and when they lifted off the sound was deafening from their wings. My brittany also made a 70 yard duck retreive this morning which was probably the best part of the trip. All morning roosters were cackling and just teasing me as I could see them running/flying all around us. We hunted a postage stamp sized area after the morning hunt and put up 8 birds in 15 minutes, I missed another easy shot. The weather forecast changed from 60's as hi's to mid 70's, it didn't take long for the day to jump into the 70's. With my setter on the IR I was only running my brit, my buddies setter was not handling the heat well. We didn't hunt nearly as hard because of the weather. I did manage to scratch a couple of roosters. We started talking about shutting the trip down early if the temps continued to climb.
Day 4 11/4/2020 - Had made plans to hunt with Dakota Zeb south of Redfield, we didn't duck hunt in the morning. Had a good hunt with Zeb but temps soared quickly taking a toll on the dogs we were running. Our first spot we saw roughly a dozen birds and I missed an easy chance once again. As we traveled to the next stop we decided to end our trip and head back after todays hunts. We got to our next field to hunt and my buddy managed to collect a nice rooster, we only hunted about an hour at this spot and our dogs were done. We parted ways with Zeb and headed back to pack up. We did decide to duck hunt in the evening and we were successful and harvesting 8 ducks. My brit made another water retrieve.
Any trip to SD is a success as was the case with this one, the weather certainly was not the greatest but you make the best out of the situation. My dogs deal with the heat very well and unfortunately my buddies didn't. We enjoyed great dog work both afield and in the water. Saw a great number of birds and had my shooting been better we should have doubled out take, but for me that is not my top priority. I was able to leave the work cell and pc at home and not worry about anything other than how terrible my shooting has become.....It was great to introduce a great hunting buddy to SD bird hunting and I'm sure he will join me again. Didn't get to spent the time with Zeb that i would have liked but there is always next year. Since we cut the trip short I was able to preserve my second 5 day period in hope I might return later in the year. Thanks to all the SD landowners who cooperate with SD GP to enroll your properties into public access and to all the farmers for your tireless work in helping to feed the world! Farmers were working nonstop harvesting their crops.
Here is a brief summary.
Day 1 - 11/1/2020 - We hunted several new properties and a few of my old spots, all public lands. This was my buddies first time hunting wild pheasants, his setter is stellar on grouse so we were excited to see how he would do on pheasants. This day we duck scouted and bird hunted spent approximately 4 hours in the field chasing pheasants we had 24 bird contacts, 17 roosters to 7 hens. We combined to kill a rooster together and I missed another 6, needless to say all things were safe from me this day. Dogs did great for the first day as several points/trackings from my brittany that added to my frustration when I missed. My setter bulled her way through some barbed wire and sustained a nice gash on her front leg so she was put on the IR. My first chance my newly acquired 20 lt 1100 didn't cycle, I'm blaming it for the rest of my shooting issues. New spots we hunted produced birds which was great and my buddies setter was learning the game. Weather was about ideal in the 50's with acceptable winds.
Day 2 - 11/2/2020 - We started the morning duck hunting and before we could get settled had ducks coming into our decoys, action was pretty good early on and we managed to kill 8 ducks. Had a blast with ducks as we were seeing and harvesting species we don't see here in Michigan. We pheasant hunted the rest of the day we ended up having 28 bird contacts, 13 rooster, 15 hens and killed 4. My shooting improved some but still slow. Temps were starting to creep up into the 60's with mild winds. Dogs were doing well, my brittany had several points as well as a great find on a winged bird.
Day 3 - 11/3/2020 - We hunted another pond in the morning and killed 7 ducks. Just amazed at the waterfowl opportunities in SD, the sky was always full of snow geese. Snows were on our pond and when they lifted off the sound was deafening from their wings. My brittany also made a 70 yard duck retreive this morning which was probably the best part of the trip. All morning roosters were cackling and just teasing me as I could see them running/flying all around us. We hunted a postage stamp sized area after the morning hunt and put up 8 birds in 15 minutes, I missed another easy shot. The weather forecast changed from 60's as hi's to mid 70's, it didn't take long for the day to jump into the 70's. With my setter on the IR I was only running my brit, my buddies setter was not handling the heat well. We didn't hunt nearly as hard because of the weather. I did manage to scratch a couple of roosters. We started talking about shutting the trip down early if the temps continued to climb.
Day 4 11/4/2020 - Had made plans to hunt with Dakota Zeb south of Redfield, we didn't duck hunt in the morning. Had a good hunt with Zeb but temps soared quickly taking a toll on the dogs we were running. Our first spot we saw roughly a dozen birds and I missed an easy chance once again. As we traveled to the next stop we decided to end our trip and head back after todays hunts. We got to our next field to hunt and my buddy managed to collect a nice rooster, we only hunted about an hour at this spot and our dogs were done. We parted ways with Zeb and headed back to pack up. We did decide to duck hunt in the evening and we were successful and harvesting 8 ducks. My brit made another water retrieve.
Any trip to SD is a success as was the case with this one, the weather certainly was not the greatest but you make the best out of the situation. My dogs deal with the heat very well and unfortunately my buddies didn't. We enjoyed great dog work both afield and in the water. Saw a great number of birds and had my shooting been better we should have doubled out take, but for me that is not my top priority. I was able to leave the work cell and pc at home and not worry about anything other than how terrible my shooting has become.....It was great to introduce a great hunting buddy to SD bird hunting and I'm sure he will join me again. Didn't get to spent the time with Zeb that i would have liked but there is always next year. Since we cut the trip short I was able to preserve my second 5 day period in hope I might return later in the year. Thanks to all the SD landowners who cooperate with SD GP to enroll your properties into public access and to all the farmers for your tireless work in helping to feed the world! Farmers were working nonstop harvesting their crops.
