2023 Trip Planning Help

ManUpNorth

New member
Looking to try and hit the trifecta of harvesting a pheasant, grouse, and prairie chicken all on the same trip. I've already gone through all available data from the SoDak DNR page and started my own spreadsheet to track and formulate a plan. Planning on most likely a mid-to-late November (possibly early December) 5 day period, staying East River (driving from SE MN). Going off of all available resources is this doable? Have plenty of experience hunting pheasants, but have never hunted grouse or prairie chickens. Just really looking for tips/tricks or habitat to focus in on. TIA!

(pic for attn)
 

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Very tough that late in the season. Growing up in ND, I would say nearly 100% of the sharptails I have killed after mid-October are pass shooting as they fly by ... Sometimes when we are waterfowl hunting and sometimes when we are walking for pheasants.
 
Nothing is impossible but late in the year it is tough. We have done it but to be honest it was purely accidental. That would have been early November. Wasn’t pass shooting on the chickens or the sharptails but they also obviously hadn’t been hunted hard. Good luck in your search.
 
I'm no help at all regarding grouse and chickens. But my first thought was what kind of weirdo makes spreadsheets to help him analyze hunting? But then I remembered I'm that kind of weirdo. 🤣 Good luck with your planning/hunting. You should add a partridge to your list & make your goal a QUADfecta!
 
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Prairie chickens will be near impossible once they covey up when it gets cold unless you have time to pattern their flight paths. If you get within a couple hundred yards it would be a victory.
 
I have shot pheasant , sharptail , chickens and huns in the same field on the same day twice, the trifecta ( minus the huns) quite a few times but not that late in the season.....might take a 22-250 to get the chicken that time of year lol.
 
I have shot pheasant , sharptail , chickens and huns in the same field on the same day twice, the trifecta ( minus the huns) quite a few times but not that late in the season.....might take a 22-250 to get the chicken that time of year lol.
What are people thinking then for timeframe? October? Thanks!!
 
I had dogs point & I shot phez, sharps, chickens & quail N of Basset NE, in the same field, same day, the first week of Dec., but I had several thousand acres of exceptional private ground to hunt. I had the same experience N of Dodge City, but no sharps, NewYears Day. Again I had over a thousand acres of private ground to hunt. I believe that that area is now closed to chicken hunting.
 
We got pheasants, a sharpie, and a chicken out of the same field Saturday. The bonus birds were just flying in over us. Chicken was flying with the flock of sharpies, but there was already at least one chicken in the field because it kept playing leap frog with me the whole field. Just couldn’t get close enough.
 
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