First trip/Advice

L

Lointer man

Active member
Let me preface this by saying I know this is a Kansas forum, however I want my native Kansans perspective.. I get to cross off something on my bucket list this year and am headed to SD for my very first upland hunt, have no idea or where abouts I should start looking for public land to hunt, any advice is sure appreciated!
 
Welcome to the site. Not from Kansas so maybe you don’t want my advice? LOL. I would go to SD forum and start reading through old posts. There is some good info there for sure. Also would go to SD GFP website and look at the hunting atlas for Areas with good amounts of public land. There are lots of good options out there for sure. Also keep in mind setting home base in the middle of a fairly large area since driving in the AM 50-80 miles is not too big of a deal. Also watch weather patterns and such for good weather conducive to good hatches.
Good luck on your trip.
 
Matt D said:
Welcome to the site. Not from Kansas so maybe you don’t want my advice? LOL. I would go to SD forum and start reading through old posts. There is some good info there for sure. Also would go to SD GFP website and look at the hunting atlas for Areas with good amounts of public land. There are lots of good options out there for sure. Also keep in mind setting home base in the middle of a fairly large area since driving in the AM 50-80 miles is not too big of a deal. Also watch weather patterns and such for good weather conducive to good hatches.
Good luck on your trip.
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Thank you sir
 
Also not a Kansan but have been to SD 4 times. I'm from MN. If you're hunting public land (which it sounds like) I'll give a cautionary word to temper your expectations a little bit. If you watch those videos where guys are seeing massive amounts of birds flushing, and shooting 8 man limits daily, those are usually at private, pay to play places with a fair amount of planted birds.

With that said, there are birds to be had in SD and depending where you're at in KS, should be a much better hunt than your home state.

To give some more tips and helpful pointers, what time of the year were you planning your hunt? And roughly where abouts in the state?
 
Munster927 said:
Also not a Kansan but have been to SD 4 times. I'm from MN. If you're hunting public land (which it sounds like) I'll give a cautionary word to temper your expectations a little bit. If you watch those videos where guys are seeing massive amounts of birds flushing, and shooting 8 man limits daily, those are usually at private, pay to play places with a fair amount of planted birds.

With that said, there are birds to be had in SD and depending where you're at in KS, should be a much better hunt than your home state.

To give some more tips and helpful pointers, what time of the year were you planning your hunt? And roughly where abouts in the state?
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Thank you for the reply, plan on taking the first week of November and it can’t get her fast enough!
 
Lointer man said:
Thank you for the reply, plan on taking the first week of November and it can’t get her fast enough!
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First week of November should be a decent time. Alot of crops should be out but could be some fair amount of competition on public land still.

My advice would be to find spots that are out of the way or smaller pieces that the big groups of guys may not be pounding all day long. I've always had pretty good luck hunting smaller pieces that most groups think is too small to hold enough birds for their group size so they move to a bigger piece of public.
 
Munster927 said:
If you're hunting public land (which it sounds like) I'll give a cautionary word to temper your expectations a little bit. If you watch those videos where guys are seeing massive amounts of birds flushing, and shooting 8 man limits daily, those are usually at private, pay to play places with a fair amount of planted birds.
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I have an old acquaintance from when I lived in Georgia. He went to SD last fall and posted a few videos of just this thing. A large gang of guys walking through picture perfect food plots, birds getting up everywhere, with constant loud shouts of "rooster" and "hen" in all directions. I said "looks like a game farm." He said "no, we were hunting on private land through a guide service." I'm guessing a large number were pen raised but I didn't argue with him.
 
Bob Peters said:
I have an old acquaintance from when I lived in Georgia. He went to SD last fall and posted a few videos of just this thing. A large gang of guys walking through picture perfect food plots, birds getting up everywhere, with constant loud shouts of "rooster" and "hen" in all directions. I said "looks like a game farm." He said "no, we were hunting on private land through a guide service." I'm guessing a large number were pen raised but I didn't argue with him.
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Yeah I'm sure they were. I mean I'm sure it would be fun to do, but not my sort of thing. I can go to a game farm near my house if I want that sort of experience.
 
Agree! I’m looking for a good experience for my dogs and something new, I have pen raised pheasant and outfits 5 miles from my house, want to enjoy SD
 
Skip the first 2 weeks of season and also the areas with the best bird densities. Hunt middle of the week in lower density areas with a fair amount of public land. Yep the Chamberlin area has the most birds and also the most people.
 
I agree with Alaskan. The last 2 times I've been to SD I hunted about 60-80 miles from Chamberlain. Also, you'll want to stay east of the Missouri River for the best pheasant country. Assuming you knew that but thought I'd mention it.
 
Pick an area with a good amount of CREP spots. (brown in the hunting atlas) Most CREP spots have very good crp grass cover, and there's usually corn or soybeans bordering the property, or right across the road.
 
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