Is South Dakota just hype?

benelli-banger said:
I find that I spot game birds more often than whoever I’m with, or whoever is in other trucks
Click to expand...
Your right you get better with expereince & you prolly do see more birds then other guys, but i have to say it sounds like Goosemaster saying stuff like that. And thats not really a bad thing. Do you run a old farm truck & hunt with a buddy who's not right in the head too??;)
 
hyresmack said:
Your right you get better with expereince & you prolly do see more birds then other guys, but i have to say it sounds like Goosemaster saying stuff like that. And thats not really a bad thing. Do you run a old farm truck & hunt with a buddy who's not right in the head too??;)
Click to expand...
Nope. But I’m in good company if I’m talked about with the Goose! 🥳🍺☮️❤️👍
 
Bob Peters said:
This is always something I wonder about. And I'm not disagreeing with you. But sometimes if you are hunting a large parcel and there are good pieces of cover spread about it, I have a hard time leaving it. Should I stay or should I go?
Click to expand...
Question: are you alone? If you’ve got a buddy, or other hunters are in the same public spot, you’d know if birds are being contacted. If alone, and you’re in a ginormous sea of grass without obvious spots that should hold birds (cattails, food sources, water, tree belts), then I’d move on after 30-45-60 minutes. Hunting near those aforementioned bird-magnets is what I would do, and if you’re not seeing sign, like pheasant poop, and the dogs aren’t birdy, move on. I have a buddy that looks for poop, and let me tell you, I’ve started to…works great! If the spot you’re in is public and it appears hard hunted, move on if no contacts…the parking spots are a dead giveaway many times. Again, snow tells the whole story as well.
 
gimruis said:
Oh yes. I love hunting after a fresh snow and you start to see bird tracks. You KNOW there's activity in the area.
Click to expand...
Thats pretty cool. I don't seen much snow down here in central and southern cerntal Iowa but sounds like a pretty cool way to peep on some phez. Can you tell if them tracks are fresh and stuff too?
 
The hype depends on expectations and being realistic. If you see lots and do well I'm guessing SD lives up to the hype, if not then a unrealistic person says no to the hype. I've hunted SD for 25 plus years and have done well and not so well but always had fun and will keep coming back. That said, I've hunted MN most my life and can say the same thing. I say, just get out and hunt and try as many spots and states as you can. Its all good.
 
Smasher said:
Thats pretty cool. I don't seen much snow down here in central and southern cerntal Iowa but sounds like a pretty cool way to peep on some phez. Can you tell if them tracks are fresh and stuff too?
Click to expand...
I hunt further north than most hunters on this forum. There are maybe a few in North Dakota that hunt at the same latitude as I do regularly. Snow is a regular part of my hunts in December. Every few years we get too much of it and it becomes extremely difficult to walk more than a couple hours in it. I'm always shocked to see people post photos of their birds in December and January and its completely void of any kind of snow.

I can usually tell if they are relatively fresh or they are old by the crust that forms along the edges. That's the same with any kind of critter tracks out there in the snow. Additionally, although I only hunt private land, foot prints from other hunters is always something to look out for too. If I hunted public land, I would avoid any location with fresh human foot prints, obviously.
 
Smasher said:
Thats pretty cool. I don't seen much snow down here in central and southern cerntal Iowa but sounds like a pretty cool way to peep on some phez. Can you tell if them tracks are fresh and stuff too?
Click to expand...
If the snow is fresh, you know…other than that, some are fresher than others based on how tracks change if some snow had melted a bit..hunting in fresh snow is awesome, the birds act very differently…hold very tight in my experience, new situation for most of them…
 
gimruis said:
Additionally, although I only hunt private land, foot prints from other hunters is always something to look out for too. If I hunted public land, I would avoid any location with fresh human foot prints, obviously.
Click to expand...
Ideally, yes. Once in a blue moon I suspect the reason for not seeing birds is because someone was recently in "my" spot. But most of the time, human tracks were made in "my" spots at a time when most pheasants were someplace else, frequently safe in a private shelterbelt or out feeding somewhere. As a public land hunter, if I let pressure determine whether or not I could hunt, I'd never be able to hunt. As it is, I'm successful enough. It's important to remember that pheasants move throughout the day. This is especially true of late season public land birds, as many of them only use public land to roost or shelter during extreme weather.
 
HS Strut said:
Come on man....I'm gonna put this to rest right now. I hunt or have hunted SD, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska.
South Dakota is the only place I've ever hunted that when you're out in the fields at sundown, you hear THOUSANDS OF roosters cackling IN EVERY DIRECTION. THOUSANDS. Doesn't matter what road I'm on. When we finish our day and are standing around telling stories....it's absolutely crazy how many birds are out there.
It's not all hype. There's no place like it.

Now, is it easy? NO. More birds means more eyes and more ears to see and here you coming. Also means more hunters which means birds getting educated real quick. I would say we shoot as many in other states because there aren't as many and they're easier to get close to? But there's no place like South Dakota
Click to expand...
That is no doubt. I cannot tell you how many times we have plowed through some huge public area with limited success and thinking there were not many birds there, only to hear them laughing at us right before dark in every direction.
 
So 6 or so years ago I was going to do a mid December hunt over by Murdo on a private family farm of about 15k acres. One of the sons started planting some food plots and letting a group hunt 3-4 days every week. We did throw him a little cash to make it viable for him, but it was by no means a commercial operation and he did not supplement the birds. I put the word out on here that I was going and a few guys ended up going. We saw some birds around a frozen pond in the open and thought maybe we would bust them out and hunt them out of some manageable cattails across the road. We ended up flushing a couple hundred out and true to form they headed to that cover. Well we knew there were some in there but were not prepared for what we found. The patch was maybe 250 yards across kind of like a big bowl. It was cold and the water was up and frozen so they were waist deep at most. There were seven of us total so no way to surround it. We decided to place four guys at the end and three of us would walk with 4 dogs. In the first few minutes a few came out, but towards the middle it was like a tornado. I have trouble guessing numbers but the farmer was watching on the hill and said it was one of the biggest bunches he had ever seen. He figured 1000 or better.

A few years earlier Jonny B and I watched a flush of 1500+ in the same area out of a scrub brush draw.

I was in the middle of an abandoned feed lot in Pierre in 98 and we flushed at least that many. Six of us had shot three birds all day and got 15 there in 10 minutes.

I doubt I will ever see that again, but after hunting pheasant for 45 years in seven different states I have never seen it anywhere else.
 
I once shot 8 in about 12-15 minutes blocking in a slough; my best day ever as part of a large group was 15…I knocked down 18…I missed 7…shot at 25, knocked down 18, recovered 15…again, part of a large group…but not marching like an army…kind of doing our own thing but all of us on the same 1/2 section or section…loosely organized, but definitely together and visible to each other…’97. I had an 11 bird day 3 years ago…December…bounced around in a few groups, I get calls from farmers when they have hunters and need dog power. Late season they want to thin the roosters…and they need to be thinned! Lots of birds…
 
Last edited:
I hunted this general area for the first time in October,’93…couldn’t believe it…I knew when I saw it that my life had been forever changed…and it had. Been my primary area for 30 years as of this fall. Fewer birds now, but I’m way over the limit with friends there! Beautiful thing…
 
benelli-banger said:
I once shot 8 in about 12-15 minutes blocking in a slough; my best day ever as part of a large group was 15…I knocked down 18…I missed 7…shot at 25, knocked down 18, recovered 15…again, part of a large group…but not marching like an army…kind of doing our own thing but all of us on the same 1/2 section or section…loosely organized, but definitely together and visible to each other…’97.
Click to expand...
That’s a pretty good day for sure. I used to bring along a few guys from KC that didn’t hunt much and didn’t have dogs. They would often have me shoot their birds so they could get back to the bar and drink. Eight or so in a day is the most I got to. When I was 15 in Western Kansas we hunted with 16-18 guys. Mostly my dad’s older friends. It was 79 and I was on fire with that Ithaca 20 gauge feather weight. We had a couple good dogs and I always seemed to be in the right spot and they were thick that year. In two and a half days I shot 23 or 25. Seemed like I couldn’t miss. We would end up with 150 + opening weekend. I used to sell the tail feathers to a neighbor lady that did floral arrangements for a buck apiece
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top