Change your plans

niceshot

niceshot

New member
Seriously, if you are a non-resident planning to hunt South Dakota, Minnesota, or Iowa before Thanksgiving, you need to consider changing your plans. I realize many will not have this flexibility, but if at all possible come after Thanksgiving, and even that may be to early this year. I need to be careful here because moellermd does not want me sending negative waves into the universe, but it is what it is, and this is going to be the latest corn harvest in my memory. Exceptions of course, if you can get far enough west, into winter wheat country that may change the game, or a preserve where 80% of the harvest will be released, but if you traditionally hunt in or around corn it will be standing in the field unharvested. I wish it were not so.
 
Yep, already changed by license dates to late Nov and mid Dec. Have seen this before, can still get birds but for us that only hunt a couple of guys and dog we need crops to be harvested. Will still be plenty of road hunting opportunities.
 
We are on the fence right now. We want to change dates but the only option is late December before Christmas. I know the hunting will be much better then but the weather can come into play as well. I have my 70 year old father hunting with us and the cold, blustery winds and snow takes its toll on him. He mainly blocks now. We are scheduled for 11/2 - 11/5.

Bob
 
Well we hunted last year with the same conditions no corn out and most of the beans still in and still did ok. Limits or close to every day but it took us all day to get our birds. The one good thing with all you guys changing your plans there will be less competition for the girls in Cavour,SD trying to pay there way through college.:
 
I agree with niceshot. If at all possible I would change plans. Toughest opener I have ever seen.

If you cant change plans and are hunting in the Clark area I can probably point you in the right direction on public land or private pay land.
 
I managed to get a few on Sat but they all were in one spot. Other than that it was a lot of walking for nothing. On Sun we did not get any birds only saw 3. The dogs did manage to kill a couple of coons. Later would be better.
 
duke5577 said:
The one good thing with all you guys changing your plans there will be less competition for the girls in Cavour,SD trying to pay there way through college.:
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Think I saw them gals in Winner awhile back. Should be graduating by now ;)
 
Leave in a couple of weeks for my first trip which is West of Mobridge at Firesteel, which should be ok, not much corn that way. Then Southwest of Mitchell a couple of weeks later. Can't change them so will hope for the best.
 
Here is how it works.
If you get on land set up for hunting, small food plots in some grass not surrounded by oceans of corn, you will kill birds before sunset.The further you get west, the better it gets for the early part of the season, given the conditions in SD this year. More milo aka sourgum which is shorter, not as much corn, and more huntable plus wheat stubble west of the River.
If you want to hunt east of the River and do not have a "set-up", you had better be an experienced hunter with a good dog, not a shooter who hunts a week a year.
There will always be exceptions but the hunting east river will get better as the corn gets out and we are not even at 5% yet. Oh. By the way--three days of rain starting today.
________
Babimac
 
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Hunted the webster area Sat. Sunday and Monday. Alot of corn standing and alot of grumpy hunters complaining about the crops. We'd hunt from noon until about 5 and get a few roosters in range then about 5 start hunting thick cover near beans or corn and then have alot of shooting. Occasionally we'd find pockets of 3-5 birds in the middle of the afternoon. If you don't mind working for your birds for most the time and then having 1- 1.5 hours of good hunting I'd not cancel any plans. This was my first time in South Dakota and we hunting public land.
 
Working for the birds just makes em all that much better. Here in Wisconsin hunting public land none put and take birds we have to work hard all day to get shots at roosters no matter what part of the season or how the crops are looking. Maybe I just have lower standards for what a good hunt is but I can't imagine guys changing there season dates because you have to work for birds.
 
wisturkeyhunter said:
Working for the birds just makes em all that much better. Here in Wisconsin hunting public land none put and take birds we have to work hard all day to get shots at roosters no matter what part of the season or how the crops are looking. Maybe I just have lower standards for what a good hunt is but I can't imagine guys changing there season dates because you have to work for birds.
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I agree completely. U2 Moeller.

I still like hunting ALL day and then if it works picking up your last bird at end of day or coming up short is OK too.

I mean think about this. Most of time ALL the birds are in the corn but they ALL come out of corn to roost. If you understand this, accept it, and can strategize around it, you should have some good action. With 10am start on Sat you might catch some on roost in am too.
 
UGUIDE said:
I mean think about this. Most of time ALL the birds are in the corn but they ALL come out of corn to roost. If you understand this, accept it, and can strategize around it, you should have some good action. With 10am start on Sat you might catch some on roost in am too.
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Chris, I know you and Webguy are disciples of the Carl Spackler School of Pheasant Hunting and I know it gets overplayed at times but I think we can all benefit from Carl's simple philosphy:

License to kill pheasants by the government
of the United Nations.
Man... free to kill pheasants at will.
To kill, you must know your enemy.
In this case, my enemy is the pheasant,
and a pheasant will never quit.
Ever. They're like the Pheasant Cong.
So what you have to do,
you have to fall back...
...on superior firepower...
...and superior intelligence.
I have to laugh...
...because I've often asked myself...
...my foe, my enemy, is a pheasant.
In order to conquer him...
...l have to think like a pheasant
and whenever possible...
...to act like a pheasant.

And that's all she wrote.

-- Carl Spackler
 
JMBZ71 said:
Chris, I know you and Webguy are disciples of the Carl Spackler School of Pheasant Hunting and I know it gets overplayed at times but I think we can all benefit from Carl's simple philosphy:

License to kill pheasants by the government
of the United Nations.
Man... free to kill pheasants at will.
To kill, you must know your enemy.
In this case, my enemy is the pheasant,
and a pheasant will never quit.
Ever. They're like the Pheasant Cong.
So what you have to do,
you have to fall back...
...on superior firepower...
...and superior intelligence.
I have to laugh...
...because I've often asked myself...
...my foe, my enemy, is a pheasant.
In order to conquer him...
...l have to think like a pheasant
and whenever possible...
...to act like a pheasant.

And that's all she wrote.

-- Carl Spackler
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It's high time we started seeing some classic JMBZ71 posts for crappin sakes.

BTW, I did see some northern california sensimilia growing in one of my food plots.....this nice thin about that is you can pull a limit of pheasants out of there in the morning and get higher than the bujeezes in the afternoon off it.......so I got that goin' for me.
 
I am keeping my plans of hunting Oct 31st till Nov 3rd. I enjoy the all day walking, hunting, dog work, and seeing new terrain. I am not driving 15 hours one way to just hunt a few hours each day. When it takes you all day to get a limit or close to it, that is more like hunting to me. :)
 
jmass said:
I am keeping my plans of hunting Oct 31st till Nov 3rd. I enjoy the all day walking, hunting, dog work, and seeing new terrain. I am not driving 15 hours one way to just hunt a few hours each day. When it takes you all day to get a limit or close to it, that is more like hunting to me. :)
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So true, well said.
 
We decided to change our plans and go in December. Talked to the farmer and opening weekend 15 guys shot 25 birds in 2 days. All crops are up for miles and miles. If I'm paying $150.00 per gun per day, driving 650 miles one way, $200 per night to rent a bad house, my gun better be a burning.
For SD residents, anytime is a good time to be in the field but for us NR and the money it costs us, we need birds and lots of them to make it worth the trip.
 
It's tough to weigh what is a quality hunt versus cost. I've seen the hunting where it's too easy and driving 9 hours to only hunt a couple hours a day isn't really hunting. On the other hand, a few years ago 3 of us came out during a bad drought year to hunt hard for 4 days and shoot only 10 roosters. That was disappointing to say the least. It was more like back to the days of my youth in SE WI when shooting one rooster on a Saturday morning was a successful hunt. SD is a long way to go to shoot one bird a day. My last trip out 2 of us explored around the state for 4 days. We hunted hard, saw lots of great country and came out with a couple birds short of our limit. A really successful hunt in my opinion.
 
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