waterdog09
Active member
Just returned from NC SD, and I must say it was a pleasant surprise. We had heard reports of the bird numbers being up and well we were surprised to actually see them up like people had talked about. I will say the areas we hunted we haven't been to in probably 5-7 years, but it was a drastic improvement from the last time we were in the area. We limited each day and saw plenty of birds at every field with the exception of 1 or 2, we only hunted public the entire trip. I went with a couple friends that love to hunt just as much as I do, only downfall was one of the guys was in a huge slump and missed 16-18 birds within 10 yards and probably another 8-10 in the 20-25 yard range. Needless to say, he needed a hug by the 4th day as he was flat out dejected with himself, and he felt horrible for his dog. My buddy and I each were shooting sub-gauge guns on the trip, he had his A5 16ga and I was shooting my A400 28ga. We had no issues getting our birds and only lost 1 bird each over the trip. They had some much-needed rain a couple days before we arrived, and it was very apparent in the cover as it was easy walking and not the loud cracking under your feet. For the trip we saw easily 400+ birds, and one evening on our drive back to camp we counted 44 roosters in the ditch or on the roads that would have been legitimate road hunting birds and saw another 30-40 roosters that were 10-20 yards off the fence line. All told it was a great trip, we decided to change it up this year after our normal area for the past 7-10 years was rained out this spring/summer, so we decided to go back up north, and tent camp and we are glad we did. I can honestly say the #'s were up, not 20 years ago up but getting there. If they can get another easy winter and good spring/summer, I would say you could have #'s that rival the early 2000's which were amazing to see! Looking forward to our late December trip and capping off my 30th year going to SD.
