Driving into chamberlain tonight with 2 shooters and my flushing lab. Following the pheasants where ever they are after that until Fri. Any tips would be appreciated. More than willing to link up with hunters in the area if they are looking for another dog or more guns this week.
2+1 going mobile in SD this week.
- Thread starter Thursty
- Start date
in the cattails
just got back after 4 days from huron to aberdeen. cold 4 below with 2 sons. then 15 below this am in huron. birds went out early ate and came back by noon. hunted CREP and got birds every day, shot our limits yesterday on some Cep and private ground. Be very quiet, no talking no whistle, we moved 300 birds on monday in waterfowl production area. Got up everywhere. After first shots they went crazy. Just try to be quiet,best wishes.
just got back after 4 days from huron to aberdeen. cold 4 below with 2 sons. then 15 below this am in huron. birds went out early ate and came back by noon. hunted CREP and got birds every day, shot our limits yesterday on some Cep and private ground. Be very quiet, no talking no whistle, we moved 300 birds on monday in waterfowl production area. Got up everywhere. After first shots they went crazy. Just try to be quiet,best wishes.
carptom1
Well-known member
Go east and south of chamberlain grasshopper
1pheas4
Moderator
Results
Wed it was cold and windy. Birds were super flighty, couldn't even start slowing down to approach certain places, despite my warnings, SD first timer I was hunting with couldn't do anything but stand in awe when we finally jumped about 100 birds out of 20 sq feet of cat tails and I wasn't even out of the truck yet. Weather was more cooperative the next 2 days. Birds held tighter all morning and early afternoon until they went looking for gravel and then basically forget about it. Most of our production came from cat tails on the farm roads either side of 90 west of chamberlain. Even though we were mostly road hunting, got some good opportunities to let my dog work in the bigger patches of cover and a few game production areas when we stumbled across them in our travels. Saw more birds than we could count, probably 85% hens. Missed a couple of shots, and got out smarted a couple of times, but that's why they call it hunting right? Took home 15 roosters and shot 10 rabbits to help fill the freezer now that were at the end of the season. Overall it was a great experience, we were definitely on the back side of the learning curve as it was our first hunt in SD on public land and my first time back in the state in 8 yrs. Burned a couple hours every day getting lost trying to run down new places to hunt so we weren't over pressuring the honey holes we found. There will definitely be a return trip, probably a little earlier next year and try to give our selves the full 5 days instead of 3. Maybe as soon as they have some good snow down. The pictures were the end of day 2. Killed 5 more roosters and stopped shooting rabbits the third day.
Wed it was cold and windy. Birds were super flighty, couldn't even start slowing down to approach certain places, despite my warnings, SD first timer I was hunting with couldn't do anything but stand in awe when we finally jumped about 100 birds out of 20 sq feet of cat tails and I wasn't even out of the truck yet. Weather was more cooperative the next 2 days. Birds held tighter all morning and early afternoon until they went looking for gravel and then basically forget about it. Most of our production came from cat tails on the farm roads either side of 90 west of chamberlain. Even though we were mostly road hunting, got some good opportunities to let my dog work in the bigger patches of cover and a few game production areas when we stumbled across them in our travels. Saw more birds than we could count, probably 85% hens. Missed a couple of shots, and got out smarted a couple of times, but that's why they call it hunting right? Took home 15 roosters and shot 10 rabbits to help fill the freezer now that were at the end of the season. Overall it was a great experience, we were definitely on the back side of the learning curve as it was our first hunt in SD on public land and my first time back in the state in 8 yrs. Burned a couple hours every day getting lost trying to run down new places to hunt so we weren't over pressuring the honey holes we found. There will definitely be a return trip, probably a little earlier next year and try to give our selves the full 5 days instead of 3. Maybe as soon as they have some good snow down. The pictures were the end of day 2. Killed 5 more roosters and stopped shooting rabbits the third day.
1pheas4
Moderator
Nice. You did just fine for someone who's never been out there before
. I see you did okay on rabbits too!
Your observation on hen-to-rooster ratio (85% hens) is about right for this time of year. From what I've seen it's typically around 9 hen flushes for 1 rooster flush.
As you saw first hand, those roosters like to get up and out of there really quick. At this point they're experienced with the game.
Nick
. I see you did okay on rabbits too!Your observation on hen-to-rooster ratio (85% hens) is about right for this time of year. From what I've seen it's typically around 9 hen flushes for 1 rooster flush.
As you saw first hand, those roosters like to get up and out of there really quick. At this point they're experienced with the game.
Nick
Thanks Guys. It was a great hunt. The roosters seemed to be the ones who wanted to hold. Didn't see them grouped in with the hens very often, when they were one hen would usually break early and kick the chaos. When we did get into roosters, there were usually 2 or 3 with no hens and they would make her work to get them to bust, which surprised me for how small of an area of cover we were working sometimes. Really learned to trust her instincts out there once she figured out the road hunting routine. After the first day, she would let me know with in 30 sec of getting out of the truck whether we were wasting her time haha. She would start looking across the street or down the ditch for a different piece of cover. If she went right in I would let her work until she wanted to come out and more often than not she would find a couple hold outs. Whether they were running around on her under there or she was stepping over them holding tight I can only guess.