Lower Brule south Dakota

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Walkers Run

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I'm planning a trip with my sons to hunt South Dakota this fall. Driving from south Florida. We want to make the effort worth it. A friend has suggested hunting the Lower Brule Sioux tribal land. Curious if it's worth it. We a completely new to South Dakota hunting.
 
The Native American reservations can be real sleepers in that they have the habitat and may not get as much non resident pressure as in other parts of SD. We haven't hunted Lower Brule but have hunted Ft. Thompson (right across the river to the east) and found roosters, sharptails and prairie chickens there. You must have a TRIBAL license; reservations are "sovereign nations", so to speak, and your SD state license is no good there.
I believe the reservation requires a native guide--At Ft. Thompson they do--and if there could be a weak spot in the hunting it could be in the quality of the guide. We had a good one the first trip, but a bummer in the second (during deer season, which I'd try to avoid if possible).
We stayed in the tribal casino hotel at Ft. Thompson, Lower Brule has one too. Rates were reasonable (as of 2014). Unless you want to drive to Chamberlain or Wessington Springs for meals, you can eat at the casino too. I remember we went to the Lower Brule casino for supper one night and they served a good prime rib.
Just a word of caution: These reservations are close to poverty-stricken , and most have not forgotten Wounded Knee. They're cordial enough, most of the time, but apart from your money, many of them would just as soon you weren't there. Lock your truck and don't go roaming around at night. We have hunted the Rosebud for prairie dogs; same things apply there. Despite all this, we have found the hunting to be good to very good.
As in most situations in life, just use common sense.
 
I hunter Brule for 6 years or so and had a great time
The way the state license periods are structured. It made more sense for me as a non resident, as I could hunt the whole season instead of increments of 5 days.
I had no problem with the residents, other than 1 Sunday morning when I drove one block into what was a walkin area the year before but changed I guess that year. It was 8 am. I wasn’t even going to hunt it, just let the dogs air out and listen to the sunrise. It was not pretty.

I haven’t hunted it since. Not because of the incident, but because I became a resident of SD and it doesn’t make sense for me right now.
I do plan on returning though. It’s beautiful and wild country!
 
I have a friend that has hunted Lower Brule for the past three years. Has not had any problems except made the same mistake as 91Reddog, driving up a short road to a walkin area. Got a stern lecture from a Tribal Warden. Other than that the hunting is good and he limits each day.
 
Let's assume you're not interested in paying to shoot pen reared pseudo roosters. What's your level of experience putting yourselves on truly wild pheasants? What experience level is(are) your dog(s)?

Honestly, I'm not experienced with hunting the rez, but my take on much of it is that they're big pieces of land. Some REALLY big pieces of land, that lend themselves well to hunting that resembles trying to find a needle in a really, super huge haystack, especially for relatively inexperienced hunters.

I feel most people are bound to see more pheasants (& probably shoot more) if they hunt east river in an area with many WPA, CREP & Walk-In Areas. Much smaller spots that may not be as beautiful/scenic, but offer better chances of bumping into some birds, either accidentally or by employing a little strategy. Consult the online SD Public Hunting Atlas.

That's my opinion. If your goal is to wear out your boots, go big out west. To see pheasants, go small out east.
 
A5 makes a good point about experience level, and it can be relevant because of the size of the reservations and to add to the complexities, the rez land is not always one solid block of real estate with clear boundaries; there can be tracts of privately owned "non-rez" land interspersed with the tribal land. So, as previously indicated, there is the practical need in many cases for the Native guide. When we've hunted Ft. Thompson, the benefits of a GOOD (ie, motivated to get you into birds Vs. take you on a long walk) guide are evident. How do you pick a good one? Don't know about Lower Brule, but the Tribe at Ft. Thompson has a list with names and numbers. You call, talk with the guide, and take your chances. Besides his daily fee, be prepared to: buy your guide breakfast ( possibly other meals as well); pay for his gas if he drives (and you may want him to-that real estate is hard on vehicles); pay for his services in cash--our guides demanded it. We got into birds we never would have found without him in the time we had allotted to hunt. But it is not necessarily a sure thing--other guides have client parties out there too, looking for the same thing you are. It may be worth it if you want to get into prairie chickens and sharptails as well as roosters.
 
No guide needed on the Brule. I had good luck asking permission anywhere I went with the exception of one tenant who turned me down several times for one reason or another, yes, it’s for the most part, big, big land. But if you scout the tracts, and know how to read pheasant cover, you’ll be fine. For the most parts, pheasants are generally around the crop ground, not the wide open range land.

I enjoy being there, for more reasons than just pheasant hunting,
 
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