First pheasant road trip about to begin

T

TheWanderer

New member
Really excited and having trouble focusing at work tonight (although I should since I work in an ED)...

When I'm done here at 1a I'm picking up my bags and the dog and starting out for central SD. Stopping to pick up my dad in NW PA and then my uncle who's flying in to Aberdeen. We'll have our waterfowl license and pheasant license and will be hunting whatever's plentiful.

The dog is a rookie (she's 1 as of 2 weeks ago), but I'm hoping to get her into some wild ones.

Been to SD in the black hills for deer and turkey, but never taken a pheasant trip. Been looking forward to this for 3 years.

I strongly suspect I won't have service (ATT), but I'm hoping to take pics and post updates as I go rooster road trip style (Twitter: @DackJillon)
 
I'm from PA, but for now am living and working in south jersey. Long drive coming up. 6 to pick up my dad, 19 to aberdeen, and 1 1/2 more to the motel.
 
Happy travels,you are correct about ATT,pretty spotty.
 
Man! I'm wishing your guys the best of times. Hope the weather is right also.
Dakota blizzards tend to be a pain.
 
Man good luck we were out their almost a month ago, we are also from Pa. Everything is huge in SD the fields go on forever.We went with eight people and two dogs and I wish we had eight dogs. Most of the potholes were iced over and the public hunting land was hard hunting for pheasants and waterfowl. You may want to consider trying to get on some private ground. None the less we had a great time just seeing the wild birds, mostly where you couldn't hunt them. best of luck to you. You may want to consider boots for your dog mine still has an infection in her feet.
 
Almost into La Crosse, WI. Using my dads iPad and trying to show him how awesome this thing is. This is the best travel electronic thing I've seen. He's got verizon on it so maybe I can upload some pics as we go.

The plan (I know to be really flexible) is to field hunt waterfowl if we find em and can get access. Were picking up a plat book for that. My understanding is folks are more likely to say yes to us hunting their property for ducks/geese.

Pheasants will be public access hunting. Called to confirm at the motel a couple days ago and the co-owner said the season is going pretty well and guys have been fairly successful.

Weather report says snow tomorrow and then out sunny/clear/cold. But it's SD and a weather report... So it'll prob be balmy overcast and 70 :)
 
Are you there yet? You guys are going to have some nice weather for SD in Dec.
You are going to need to find some open water for waterfowl. Ducks and Geese won't hang around an area without open water to roost in. Bigger rivers and outlets mostly by now. Find a spot and waterfowling ought to be good.
Let us know how it's going.:thumbsup:
 
I was pheasant hunting yesterday NE of Aberdeen and west of the Sand Lake Refuge. Thousands of geese and also a lot of ducks around. Pheasant hunting was so-so. 3 of us got 4 birds in about 3 hours of hunting. With a little luck could of had a few more.
 
I just got back this am. This was my secound trip this season. We only hunted 4 days vs 15 my first trip out. We had 2 guys and 2 dogs. We shot the limit each day and done early a couple days. Lots of birds around yet. We saw ducks and geese , thousands of them. The ponds were freezing over as mentioned. I am thinking of squeezing one more in this year but the work and florida fish are calling. I do enjoy hunting in the snow. Good luck.
 
Sitting here in the motel about to pass out. Been uploading pics via twitter. That was one long drive. Bad weather thru MN had us doing 35-40 the whole state.

We're staying in the country side motel in Hoven. Scouted around a bit today. Missouri river seems about the only open water. Tomorrow AM I'm going to watch for birds coming off the river and try to track them down before we head out for pheasant.

Already missed one bird hunting a ROW this pm as we were scouting. Wow these birds go when they decide to get up. Excited for tomorrow but it'll be cold.

At what temps do u start to worry about ur dogs and what tips do u have for them in that weather?

Already scheming how my wife and I can manage a second dog (lab vs Boykin vs springer). After all I'll need another buddy if this becomes as annual occurrence as I hope. :)
 
At those temps your dogs will be fine. That's pretty balmy for northern sd in december. I have hunted the second week in december up there for years. 2 years ago it was -18 the day we got there, with a wind chill of -30. Makes you feel alive. Make sure they get plenty of water to drink.
 
The weather should be fine for the dogs. Make sure they don't get chilled after the hunt or during rest times. Yup plenty of water to even in the cold weather.
Good thing having 2 dogs, they get to be real pals.:thumbsup:
 
Sitting here in the room about to go to breakfast. Yesterday was awesome. Warmed up to ~10-15 and that was perfect with walking all over. We certainly found the birds. By the end of the day I think we saw about 100 (conservatively). The last push we did thru a shelter belt all he'll broke loose and birds were pouring out in every direction. 40-50 on that one alone. The dog didnt know which way to go.

We should've all had our limits. Bad shooting. But as my dads buddy says. Bullets is cheap when you're shooting em it only hurts when you buy em.

Really hard with just 3 people. Almost all the birds leaked out unblocked areas. Happy to say my dog started picking it up mire as we went. She's only one and had limited in field experience on NJ stockies. Had a few good flushes on birds that held pretty well.

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I love SD.
 
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