More pheasants than ever before!!

Ive hunted about all the states that have peasants . Ive been in Mitchell,Huron ,Pierre in SD . Kansas ,Iowa in the good years ,late 90s early 2000s, Nebraska,and I can say that there is nowhere like ND. Ive never seen the amount of birds in any of the other states as ND. They sit in trees like crows . I had a guy tell me for 3 or 4 years that and I thought he was crazy. It was true. You can have your places , I will take ND any day before the others. And I know what we hunt are all wild birds. Plus bunches of Huns and Sharpies too. Might just be the part we are in but I will drive the extra 7 or 8 hours to get to what I have seen is the Mecca of upland hunting. And not to mention ,what I dont partake of , world class waterfowl as well. Its crazy good!
 
Ky Setter man said:
Ive hunted about all the states that have peasants . Ive been in Mitchell,Huron ,Pierre in SD . Kansas ,Iowa in the good years ,late 90s early 2000s, Nebraska,and I can say that there is nowhere like ND. Ive never seen the amount of birds in any of the other states as ND. They sit in trees like crows . I had a guy tell me for 3 or 4 years that and I thought he was crazy. It was true. You can have your places , I will take ND any day before the others. And I know what we hunt are all wild birds. Plus bunches of Huns and Sharpies too. Might just be the part we are in but I will drive the extra 7 or 8 hours to get to what I have seen is the Mecca of upland hunting. And not to mention ,what I dont partake of , world class waterfowl as well. Its crazy good!
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That's the beauty of it. Everyone has his own definition of World Class. And of the 5-6 "top" states, even though their pheasant numbers all pretty much pale in comparison to SD on a large scale, they all have pockets with plenty of pheasants. Not surprisingly, they're the pockets with the most good habitat, which give pheasants options of how to survive a given day in their lives.
 
gimruis said:
I do agree that in terms of opportunity, especially on public land, SD has way more of that. Being limited to 5 or 10 days is was gripes me. When I buy a license, I should be able to hunt as many days as I want, when I want. The fact that it’s now open all through January is a selling point though, if the weather cooperates.
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The license thing has never bothered me. I’ve never bought more than two and some times carry over a date. I wonder what the percentage of people that buy two is. If I lived with in an hour of SD that would be very discouraging. Live in NE and probably hunt in IA more. That’s good money spent.
 
4shot said:
If I lived with in an hour of SD that would be very discouraging.
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I agree. I live a couple hours from the SD/MN border and I don't like hunting for days on end. I prefer to spread my hunting days out and go when the conditions are better. A day here, a day there. A lot of nonresident hunters don't do it that way though. They come for a multi-day trip because they drive from further away.

This is one of the advantages that a state like Iowa has over SD. When you buy an Iowa license, you can hunt as often as you want, whenever you want, during the entire season.
 
Ky Setter man said:
If you took away supplanted birds what do the numbers look like then?
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SDGFP is pretty careful to monitor the numbers of pen raised flare nare pseudoroosters that are released/harvested when it comes to the licensed preserves. Undoubtedly, there are plenty of places that are not licensed preserves, but that have paying hunters and those outfits release domesticated pheasants for their clients. It would be speculation to say how many, but even if undocumented, released pheasants comprised 10% of the annual harvest (which would be insanely high, IMO), SD is still harvesting close to a million wild pheasants. Info from page three from this link - https://gfp.sd.gov/userdocs/docs/2022pheasantstats.pdf

If you search around on the SDGFP website, you can find most information needed to ascertain that while commercial pheasant hunting is big business, there still is no other state in the union or place in the world that has a wild pheasant population like South Dakota.
 
Why would G&F need to supplant birds in a state abundant with them already? This is like an old wives tale I keep hearing that makes no sense. The private operations yes I can see, but not the entire state.
 
Grew up in NE Ohio and as a kid I was happy to see some tracks in the snow, chase tracks around to see the wing imprints on the snow with a flush I didn't even see, and maybe bag 1-2 birds in the season. To me I'm like a kid in a candy store hunting SD gave up on Kansas about 10 years ago too many idiots out there. I make two trips a year stay for 7-9 days each trip and enjoy every minute of the experience. I especially like the late season hunt where you get to see just how many birds are out there - 99% too smart to flush in range and so be it! That, and good folks living there too.
 
I wish Kansas and Nebraska weren't in droughts and didn't have so many private parties hogging all the land with deer leases. I wish Iowa had more public land, more grass public and private, and less field tiles and edge to edge farming. I wish MN didn't have so many people living in it and more native prairie. I wish ND still had open access laws and less posted signs. I think they all could vie for the position of the greatest pheasant state if they had goldilocks conditions in terms of land use. Anyways, as the old saying goes, "wish in one hand...."

Yes South Dakota is gonna rank first in 90% of people's books for pheasant hunting. I know that's where I'd put it.

It's also the only state where you can ride a school bus to the pheasant fields ;)
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Bob Peters said:
I wish Kansas and Nebraska weren't in droughts and didn't have so many private parties hogging all the land with deer leases. I wish Iowa had more public land, more grass public and private, and less field tiles and edge to edge farming. I wish MN didn't have so many people living in it and more native prairie. I wish ND still had open access laws and less posted signs. I think they all could vie for the position of the greatest pheasant state if they had goldilocks conditions in terms of land use. Anyways, as the old saying goes, "wish in one hand...."

Yes South Dakota is gonna rank first in 90% of people's books for pheasant hunting. I know that's where I'd put it.

It's also the only state where you can ride a school bus to the pheasant fields ;)
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I don’t disagree, but I’d take a state or an area with modest bird #’s if I had to in order to hunt solo or with just one buddy…the whole group thing is a major turn off for me…done plenty of it over the years…good news, I can still enjoy SD and hunt small…🍻👍😀
 
I haven't had the experience of a "organized" hunt and frankly, the idea of one is a turn off. I usually hunt solo and maybe with one other person when I find one. Probably rearrange the birds in the field more than flush them but that's hunting, eh?
 
Bob Peters said:
I wish Kansas and Nebraska weren't in droughts and didn't have so many private parties hogging all the land with deer leases. I wish Iowa had more public land, more grass public and private, and less field tiles and edge to edge farming. I wish MN didn't have so many people living in it and more native prairie. I wish ND still had open access laws and less posted signs. I think they all could vie for the position of the greatest pheasant state if they had goldilocks conditions in terms of land use. Anyways, as the old saying goes, "wish in one hand...."

Yes South Dakota is gonna rank first in 90% of people's books for pheasant hunting. I know that's where I'd put it.

It's also the only state where you can ride a school bus to the pheasant fields ;)
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I've done it in western Kansas. Those days may be over, but it used to be pretty common.

I mostly hunt alone or with a small group, but I'm not immune to the joys of a big, social pheasant line though a couple quarter sections of milo or wheat.
 
Occasionally I will get social and put 2 dogs down at once, but mostly just me and one dog. I did a few drives when I was younger but matured out of them maybe 30 years ago. Or maybe it is because I've outlived my friends or pissed all of them off and they want nothing to do with me. I don't think I will ask my wife because I won't like the answer.
 
I just like to hunt birds. Never done a group more than 8, seems like a mess.... Usually just me and another guy, 1-3 dogs. I cant wait!
 
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