Game and Fish stocking pheasants

Nasty-G

Active member
Lets put this to rest. Does the South Dakota Game & Fish stock/release pheasants ? I have heard both ways. Suppose I should just call and ask.
 
Lets put this to rest. Does the South Dakota Game & Fish stock/release pheasants ? I have heard both ways. Suppose I should just call and ask.

ugh.........this is a movie we have all seen before.........let's talk about the weather.
 
I can assure you they DO NOT. They don't need to and they have no budget for it. So many other non-licensed-preserve outfitters do. An article last fall detailed some 700,000 pen raised birds came into or were created in the state and were "unaccounted for". If you think about it that is as many as 1 out of every two supposed fairchase pheasants harvested in the state. This does not include any birds harvested at licensed preserves. I think it is bad for the brand, bad for the state, bad for the species and something should be done about it. When CRP acres declined the stocking increased.
 
Thanks Drake & Uguide for the civil reply's. That's pretty much what I've been hearing. Was just out there last week & it was REALLY dry. I'm not real optimistic for the upcoming season. Might have to fish & party with friends.
 
When it comes to released birds what do you think the percentage would be if any that make it through winter to breed? I have heard they will not survive but have never read any factual info on it. I do think some must survive because if they didn’t there wouldn’t be pheasant hunting since they are native to north America.
 
There's a ton of factual data out there on this. Many states have done their own studies as has PF. Survival rates in general are so low they usually don't even make winter. If you used a general 5% or less survival rate that would be generous but also tell you it is a waste of money compared to habitat investments.

The guys that spend a lot on releases are generally low on acres or are not big habitat players.
 
first try in a long time

We raised 250 this year, haven't raised Pheasants in a long time but this year with how crazy the spring weather was we thought we would give it a shot. At 9 weeks 220 survived in the pen. We started releasing 5 a day at the 9 week mark due to size limitations in our pen. We didn't do anything fancy on our release since around the barn yard we have natural water sources 4 foot tall canary grass, a good tree belt along with some crops and a good pasture that isn't over grazed. We also had pretty good numbers of mature pheasants in the 640 acres around the barn yard. Not sure how many have made it but we see good numbers on the road, and racing across the barn yard in the morning and night. I hope the raised birds would mix in with the wild birds and increase their chance of survival. Time will tell. We still have about 40 birds in the pen that are doing great. Fingers crossed so far. I guess our thinking was if 10% make it that would be 20 or more birds next year, or 10 setting hens which would help.

So I figure it cost us about 1000 dollars and about an hour every day to raise these birds. Time will tell if it was worth it, but to me, yeah a couple of good days hunting with the family and their kids, plus the smile I get seeing more birds around, is worth the cost.

SDViking
 
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