eenie meenie miney mo... which state should we go?

If you were me, & had 1 week to take 2 sons and your dog on our 1st Upland trip, where would you go?

  • Kansas

    Votes: 1 2.6%

  • Nebraska

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • South Dakota

    Votes: 36 94.7%

  • Other? Driving from South Carolina so wanted to try states as close as possible

    Votes: 1 2.6%
  • Total voters
    38
wnb5th

wnb5th

New member
Good morning! If you were me, & had 1 week to take your 2 sons and dog on our 1st Upland trip, where would you go? SHOULD ADD THAT WE ARE LOOKING AT EARLY TO MID DECEMBER

Me and my boys driving from South Carolina on our 1st ever Upland road trip. Was thinking KS but keep reading so many scary posts about bird numbers, poor WIHA conditions, crowded land, etc... If y'all are trying to scare me away, it's working : )

I want to make this a good trip for my 12 and 14 year old... it's hard enough prying them away from their sports, school, social lives, phones, etc... that with them expressing interest in the outdoors, I really want to stoke that fire!

I'm open to a mix of public land, maybe 1 guided hunt mixed in, or also hooking up with private land owners and paying them for a day or two on their land.

I SHOULD ALSO ADD THAT WE'D BE OPEN TO A VARIETY OF BIRDS... REALLY WHAT GAVE US THE BEST CHANCE OF SUCCESS SO Pheasant, quail, chuka, ETC...
 
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I don't think you're gonna get a mixed bag of upland in South Dakota. Maybe more in the western half of the state besides pheasants?

But for the most public hunting ground and generally speaking, numbers of pheasants, South Dakota is the answer. A "guided hunt" is going to be flare nares.
 
gimruis said:
I don't think you're gonna get a mixed bag of upland in South Dakota. Maybe more in the western half of the state besides pheasants?

But for the most public hunting ground and generally speaking, numbers of pheasants, South Dakota is the answer. A "guided hunt" is going to be flare nares.
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Thank you, I appreciate the reply!
 
Does the 14 year old have his driver's license? Have him do some driving, bail out early one morning and make it a one day drive. I know SD is about half again as far as KS from SC, but I truly believe that SD would offer you guys greater contacts with wild birds. South Dakota Game Fish and Parks has a free interactive public land atlas and millions of acres of public land.
 
Bbentley117 said:
Why not hit Wisconsin for some ruffed grouse, then Iowa for pheasants, partridge, and quail in the right area?
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I personally would not be opposed to that but the issue is that you'd be required to purchase multiple non-resident licenses to do it. That can get pretty steep if we're talking 2 or 3 states and 2 or 3 people.
 
gimruis said:
I personally would not be opposed to that but the issue is that you'd be required to purchase multiple non-resident licenses to do it. That can get pretty steep if we're talking 2 or 3 states and 2 or 3 people.
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I wouldn't be opposed to that either. It's a trip that we have saved up for (I saved the money) and the boys invested their sweat equity doing work for me. It might also help to break up the trip if there were a few destinations along the route and a variety of species also sounds great. But it also sounds hard to plan for a newb!
 
Between those states you mentioned, I'd suggest SD. That late in the season, mixed bag is unlikely due to prairie birds being tougher to hunt as the season goes on but pheasants won't be as big of an issue to find.

If I could guarantee you a mixed bag hunt like I had in southern Nebraska about 4 or 5 years ago, I'd suggest there. But last time I was in Nebraska, the hunting was poor and made the drive from Minnesota not worth it. A trip hunting is always great of course but hard hunting sucks no matter where you go. Last few years reports in NE and KS have been poor so the itch to go there again hasn't caught me yet.

I'd focus on somewhere in SD and make the extra drive. You'll have more pay hunting opportunities there as well compared to KS or NE if you want to add a day of that in as well.
 
Munster927 said:
Between those states you mentioned, I'd suggest SD. That late in the season, mixed bag is unlikely due to prairie birds being tougher to hunt as the season goes on but pheasants won't be as big of an issue to find.

If I could guarantee you a mixed bag hunt like I had in southern Nebraska about 4 or 5 years ago, I'd suggest there. But last time I was in Nebraska, the hunting was poor and made the drive from Minnesota not worth it. A trip hunting is always great of course but hard hunting sucks no matter where you go. Last few years reports in NE and KS have been poor so the itch to go there again hasn't caught me yet.

I'd focus on somewhere in SD and make the extra drive. You'll have more pay hunting opportunities there as well compared to KS or NE if you want to add a day of that
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Thank you for the reply, I appreciate. Man - I live far away from bird country but as a general hunter and someone who loves the outdoors I hate hearing how some of these states have poorer and poorer conditions and populations.
 
Hardly any birds in KS or NE. But do your due diligence re SD because it has changed too. The wildlife authority now says there are more birds east of the river than west as used to be the case. I interpret that to mean that the population west of the river plummeted, not that the east side went up. An even better choice may be ND.
 
BritChaser said:
Hardly any birds in KS or NE. But do your due diligence re SD because it has changed too. The wildlife authority now says there are more birds east of the river than west as used to be the case. I interpret that to mean that the population west of the river plummeted, not that the east side went up. An even better choice may be ND.
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To be fair, western SD has never had more pheasants than the east side. With that said, the area from Chamberlain to Presho and south down to Winner/Gregory was, and still is, a good spot for pheasants with it's mix of cropland/grassland. Nothing like the peak CRP days, but there are birds around.

After the CRP was removed about 15 years ago, numbers took a big hit statewide. They have been steadily increasing since then, with a couple of down years, but I foresee 2024 to be one of the best years for pheasants since those boom years.
 
Well I would rather spend a day less in South Dakota than to spend a couple days more in Kansas. That said mid to late December can be interesting in South Dakota. With the crops being out you will see a lot of birds for sure but the weather can be brutal this time of year
 
Bob Peters said:
You could plan SD, but do research on Nebraska as well. That way in case SD gets 3 feet of snow and travel is sketchy you have a back up option.
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Good advice from Bob here. It's not uncommon to have a bunch of snow that time of year. Also not uncommon to have no snow either lately. I'd have a backup area in mind just in case so it doesn't ruin your whole trip.
 
The best advice I can give is be prepared to "bundle up" as it can be miserable. Making their first hunting experience less miserable is probably your main objective if I am guessing. In my personal experiences with my kids, having warm boots that don't give blisters after all day hunting (kids feet change really fast at this age) and gloves are the most important things to pack. Always easy to find heavy clothing when traveling, but boots are tough to find.
I live in and hunt primarily in Western Kansas and mid-December is my favorite time to hunt when the weather is tolerable. There is much less hunting pressure, there has typically been enough cold weather to "bunch up" the birds and landowners are more open to letting you hunt because their family and friends have already hunted the spots that they were saving from opening weekend through Thanksgiving. Crops are all out of the field so this pushes the birds to heavy cover surrounding the harvested fields when the weather is adverse, saving lots of walking miles.
Kansas bird numbers are down across the state, but they are up considerably over the past 2 years in the areas that received rain in the summer of 2023 and again this past summer. Western Kansas will add 10+ hours of driving to your trip, and quail numbers fall off quickly once you go east of Hays Kansas so likely it won't be very appealing to you. Paying to hunt is always an option, but you can do that Tennessee, Kentucky, or Missouri. :)
 
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