First time Pheasant Trip SD

Went to sd for first time last year on first week of November, we were staying in a Small town east of river. There was only one spot in 5 days that we pulled up to that had a vehicle, after day 2 I had to check the regs to make sure we didn’t mess up the dates. There was sign and tracks from other hunters and it felt a couple times as if we were walking a field someone else had been in. Saw a lot of hunters on private, public was ours. It was a blast and going back this year!
 
30 degrees, overcast, 4-5" of fresh powder snow, slight breeze constantly shifting so as to always be oncoming.
 
I've gone all times of the year; I honestly didn't notice a lot more pressure on opening weekend compared to the 2nd-3rd weeks when we used to go. If someone is in a spot just go somewhere else, it really isn't all that complicated. If a field has good habitat and there are crops nearby there will probably be birds there. Save your best spots for late in the day, but I've filled many limits from 10-12 without any corn being harvested yet, there are still plenty of birds loafing in the grass mid-day.

If you can figure out taking work off, I personally love the late season as well. I always go in early January, sometimes the hunting can be tough, but when it all comes together you can find pockets of birds and the hunting can be great. I also rarely see another boot track that time of year.
 
If you don't have it already and you're a smartphone owner, I highly suggest the OnX Hunt app. Buy the state of SD for $35 and worth every penny. This will show all the public ground in the state layered over the Google maps satellite images. All the public hunting borders are highlighted and it also gives the landowners names and addresses so you know which door to knock on if you are hoping to get permission. It works like a Garmin of any navigation, as it shows you as a blue dot as you move down the road or walk through a field.. You can't get lost in the field or on the roads as long as you have your phone and a signal. I believe it's the greatest thing to come along for the out-of-state freelancing hunter since availability of online licensing.
 
gimruis said:
Good way to slowly kill a dog if you ask me.
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Yes. Impossible to carry enough water for dogs. We would hunt an hour, or maybe 2 first thing in the am for grouse. Later in the day, for phez, we hunted close enough to Pass Creek or one of its offshoots to let the dogs get water & wet whenever they wanted. Setters in the early day, English pointers later on. Dogs were mostly white. It seemed like the phez wanted to be near the water too. White fiberglass dog trailer with a blower for each side. One day a tstorm came thru in the pm, & the temp dropped to 60 in a few minutes.
 
UplandHntr said:
as mentioned there isnt a bad time to go. You will never hit it perfect. You might hit a particular spot under perfect conditions but rarely an entire trip.
You will be amazed at the amount of hunters you will see at diners etc in the morning and how few you actually see in the fields. There seem to disappear. Maybe 90 % of them are at private preserves etc and not public land like I hunt exclusively.
First trip - be prepared to be humbled...
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I can't believe people want to pay to hunt.We never did that.Maybr a 6 pack of hamms.
 
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