First trip will be in October

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Gspranger2244

New member
I will be staying in Rapid City with family. Wanted to hunt pheasants but from what I saw it's about a 3 hour ride to get into good pheasant country. Can you find a good number of pheasants in the Buffalo Gap grasslands or is that just grouse country? Is there any other pheasant hunting close to Rapid City? Or will I just have to head east to hunt pheasant.
 
The Black Hills Chapter of Pheasants Forever has done a lot of habitat work within 70 or so miles of Rapid City--check out their web site. It's not super prime pheasant country but there are huntable numbers. Try the Hot Springs/Oral areas and Orman Dam near Belle Fouche. Ninety or so miles east puts you into some better country--say north of Philip---some decent walk-in areas--good luck---get a walk-in atlas this coming fall--check out the SDGF&P web site to order one.
 
Thank you for your responses. I will take the advise and get a map, and look into the pheasant forever chapters. I think I'm also going to head out sometime the week before pheasant season opener and hunt sharp tails for a two or three days. Maybe then I'll know if any pheasants around the areas I'm hunting. Plus that will get the dog in shape. Do the sharp tails and pheasants share the same habitat? Also I've heard you may have to deal with snakes is that a problem?
 
first trip

There is also Pheasants between Sturgis and Newell SD best I remember just south of Newell SD and in 2008 one farmer just offered to let me hunt around a cut corn field before they put cows in it. Good luck
 
no matter where you go, areas with corn or wheat stubble will always hold more pheasants than the wide open prairie that sharpies prefer....it's all about the grain for pheasants!
 
So you can have susecces finding a decent amount of pheasants in any county as long as there is good cover, food and water?? Then the sharp tails are more in the native grasslands. Not so much around the grain fields. I was just concerned from that one map on the game and fish website said that 0 pheasants killed per square mile in some of those western county's
 
Gspranger2244 said:
So you can have susecces finding a decent amount of pheasants in any county as long as there is good cover, food and water?? Then the sharp tails are more in the native grasslands. Not so much around the grain fields. I was just concerned from that one map on the game and fish website said that 0 pheasants killed per square mile in some of those western county's
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their tally probably is based on so few pheasant hunters to tally success rates.
just figure on shooting your sharpies out in the hill country, if you run into a few pheasants it is nothing more than icing on the cake.....when you want to shoot pheasants, go east and find them where they are.....
 
It's not that bleak in western SD:D-just takes more effort--yes east is much better and I've found sharp tails at over 5000ft in the Black Hills. All that said if you drive about 2 hrs east of Rapid City your chances will go way up on pheasants. :cheers:
 
I'm from central pa, around here if the pheasants are not stocked and more than 3 weeks go by and you find a pheasant we are happy. I just like to hunt and have my dog out. I thank you all for your information its been very helpful. I know it's a little early to worry about but I'm very excited to get out and see the different county and see some wild pheasants I may hunt east some days and maybe some day we will stay close to were we are staying. Sounds like no matter what I do we will get into some kinda birds for he dog.
 
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