Miforester
Well-known member
Just returned home from a 4 day trip to SD and boy did my son and I have a great time. For us it isnt about harvested birds but more about the experiences on the trip, don't get me wrong we like to shoot our limits. This trip was special cause we were able to hunt a couple of days with Dakotazeb and Bree. George and I have been trying to hunt together for 3 years and we finally made it happen. George is a pretty good shot and just a great person, my son and I really enjoyed our time spent with him and look forward to many years of hunting with him to come.
This year was a little frustrating with several of the properties we hunted or wanted to hunt were hayed, burned or maybe mowed in early spring and didn't grow cause of the drought. However, that is hunting and we just moved on to the next spot. I feel lucky to be able visit a state like SD to hunt pheasant on some pretty good public land regardless of what program they are managed under. Also forces one to find other areas to hunt which is always good thing. We do hunt some ditches and each one always gets named first year my son and I went we named two, one was bird piler as we found a pile of 20 breasted out carcasses and the other is "the limiter" cause if we needed a couple birds to hit our limit most of the time the ditched paid off. This year we added another to the list call "the chase", this one we winged a rooster and for about 5 minutes 2 guys and 2 dogs chased the bird around the ditch, nearly grabbing him twice, finally the dogs pinned him. I wish I had a drone filming it, at one point i was in my baseball fielding position anticipating my rooster grounder only to have side set me, i'm not a youngster anymore.
Our dogs did a another great job this year. My Britt is coming into her prime and works the fields very well and is turning into a great tracker of winged birds. My young setter really progressed by leaps and bounds this year with several productive points and some good finds on winged birds her retrieving is lacking so things to work on. My lab also pointed 3 birds this year and did a good job retrieving. My dogs are still learning on how to deal with running birds, but when your pheasant exposure is only 5 -10 days a year it is hard for them to figure it out.
Lastly is the evolution of my son as a hunter, his younger years were consumed with travel hockey during hunting season and now he is in college so his time afield has been limited. We came across 2 roosters fighting on the roadside I asked my son if we should stop and get out and he said no that wouldnt be right lets just watch them. We sat there and watched them for what seemed like 10 minutes and the roosters didnt even know we were there, when they finally did they flew off in a rush. That was a great moment to share with him.
First day of our hunt we killed 2 and could of had a few more, second with Zeb we killed 4, 2 for Zeb and 2 for my son and again should have killed a few more. Third day with Zeb we got skunked. Our last day we got our limit. All i expect is to have the opportunity to shoot alot of birds and we got that chance this trip just missed a few birds and that is why it is called hunting.
Lastly one of the many great things about this forum besides making new friends is the suggestions and help other offer you to make a trip a good one. I was looking for lodging suggestions and several of you reached out to help me out and I thank you for that! My pheasant season is done for 2018 and was a great one even if it was only 7 days of hunting.
This year was a little frustrating with several of the properties we hunted or wanted to hunt were hayed, burned or maybe mowed in early spring and didn't grow cause of the drought. However, that is hunting and we just moved on to the next spot. I feel lucky to be able visit a state like SD to hunt pheasant on some pretty good public land regardless of what program they are managed under. Also forces one to find other areas to hunt which is always good thing. We do hunt some ditches and each one always gets named first year my son and I went we named two, one was bird piler as we found a pile of 20 breasted out carcasses and the other is "the limiter" cause if we needed a couple birds to hit our limit most of the time the ditched paid off. This year we added another to the list call "the chase", this one we winged a rooster and for about 5 minutes 2 guys and 2 dogs chased the bird around the ditch, nearly grabbing him twice, finally the dogs pinned him. I wish I had a drone filming it, at one point i was in my baseball fielding position anticipating my rooster grounder only to have side set me, i'm not a youngster anymore.
Our dogs did a another great job this year. My Britt is coming into her prime and works the fields very well and is turning into a great tracker of winged birds. My young setter really progressed by leaps and bounds this year with several productive points and some good finds on winged birds her retrieving is lacking so things to work on. My lab also pointed 3 birds this year and did a good job retrieving. My dogs are still learning on how to deal with running birds, but when your pheasant exposure is only 5 -10 days a year it is hard for them to figure it out.
Lastly is the evolution of my son as a hunter, his younger years were consumed with travel hockey during hunting season and now he is in college so his time afield has been limited. We came across 2 roosters fighting on the roadside I asked my son if we should stop and get out and he said no that wouldnt be right lets just watch them. We sat there and watched them for what seemed like 10 minutes and the roosters didnt even know we were there, when they finally did they flew off in a rush. That was a great moment to share with him.
First day of our hunt we killed 2 and could of had a few more, second with Zeb we killed 4, 2 for Zeb and 2 for my son and again should have killed a few more. Third day with Zeb we got skunked. Our last day we got our limit. All i expect is to have the opportunity to shoot alot of birds and we got that chance this trip just missed a few birds and that is why it is called hunting.
Lastly one of the many great things about this forum besides making new friends is the suggestions and help other offer you to make a trip a good one. I was looking for lodging suggestions and several of you reached out to help me out and I thank you for that! My pheasant season is done for 2018 and was a great one even if it was only 7 days of hunting.