North Central South Dakota Report 11/20 - 11/24

Goosemaster said:
I drove from Minneapolis to Mitchell,there must be pheasant in that country in that drive.
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Minneapolis to Mitchell brings you through the best numbers in the state, no question about it. Past a certain point on 94 in MN, you enter a dead zone with few birds. Once you get close to the ND border you'll start getting into them again. But everyone in MN knows that SW of the Minnesota River is full of roosters.
 
Wind River said:
Limitless, thanks for your story. Do you have a traveling secretary?? I’m more of a Cliff Notes guy. Enjoy your adventures.
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It is easy to forget some details. Heck, even immediately after a flush, I sometimes forget how it went down.

Cliff notes version of the trip:

- Found birds
- Shot at birds
- Hit some
- Bagged some
- Good dog
- South Dakota does have pheasants

But more to the point, for people looking for birds, I have shot pheasants in NE, EC, and NC SD in the last 12 months.

In order of highest rooster numbers to least rooster numbers:
- EC January 2024
- NC end of November 2024
- EC beginning of November 2024, NE early December 2023 (about the same for each area)

I have either gotten at least one limit before noon, or had the chance to get a quick limit, in each of those areas. But most of the time, these are all day hunts. I would say, from memory, my most common outcome, of bagged birds, is 2 birds, then 3 birds, then 1 bird, then 0. I would say I miss about half the roosters flushed, on average (not counting when more than one flushes at the same time), within 30 yards. I have a dog that is good at finding them, so that helps make up for my shooting sometimes. I do handicap myself on short shots with a full choke, but there is more than that causing the misses.
 
Limitless said:
It is easy to forget some details. Heck, even immediately after a flush, I sometimes forget how it went down.

Cliff notes version of the trip:

- Found birds
- Shot at birds
- Hit some
- Bagged some
- Good dog
- South Dakota does have pheasants

But more to the point, for people looking for birds, I have shot pheasants in NE, EC, and NC SD in the last 12 months.

In order of highest rooster numbers to least rooster numbers:
- EC January 2024
- NC end of November 2024
- EC beginning of November 2024, NE early December 2023 (about the same for each area)

I have either gotten at least one limit before noon, or had the chance to get a quick limit, in each of those areas. But most of the time, these are all day hunts. I would say, from memory, my most common outcome, of bagged birds, is 2 birds, then 3 birds, then 1 bird, then 0. I would say I miss about half the roosters flushed, on average (not counting when more than one flushes at the same time), within 30 yards. I have a dog that is good at finding them, so that helps make up for my shooting sometimes. I do handicap myself on short shots with a full choke, but there is more than that causing the misses.
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Well you have probably heard it a 100x already but there is almost no need for a full choke. Today's shells just perform well . I shoot ic and have hammered birds at 60 yards. I don't like to shoot that distance but sometimes a second shot is needed. I have found a huge difference in shells but when I shoot Kent Fast Lead,Fast Steel, or bismuth it's on me.
 
Weimdogman said:
Well you have probably heard it a 100x already but there is almost no need for a full choke. Today's shells just perform well . I shoot ic and have hammered birds at 60 yards. I don't like to shoot that distance but sometimes a second shot is needed. I have found a huge difference in shells but when I shoot Kent Fast Lead,Fast Steel, or bismuth it's on me.
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I first started using full when hunting with my daughters. I would let them shoot once or twice before I would shoot. I decided to stick with it, even when hunting alone, to reduce cripple numbers. But I am 100% fine with others using IC.

My main problem is with my gun that I started using the 22-23 season. My sight picture is weird, and the gun is also close to a 0/100 pattern (shoots low). I am going to attempt one more change before I admit defeat and get a different gun.

I am not saying I was a perfect shooter before this gun, but my hits definitely went down after I started using it. Other than how I shoot with it, I love it. :ROFLMAO:
 
Limitless said:
I first started using full when hunting with my daughters. I would let them shoot once or twice before I would shoot. I decided to stick with it, even when hunting alone, to reduce cripple numbers. But I am 100% fine with others using IC.

My main problem is with my gun that I started using the 22-23 season. My sight picture is weird, and the gun is also close to a 0/100 pattern (shoots low). I am going to attempt one more change before I admit defeat and get a different gun.

I am not saying I was a perfect shooter before this gun, but my hits definitely went down after I started using it. Other than how I shoot with it, I love it. :ROFLMAO:
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I have a Browning 20 gauge auto I can't shoot pheasants with. Out of 20 shots I hit 2 and neither were good hits. I can pass shoot doves just fine with that same gun.

I have a cheap 12 gauge o/u that I shoot almost as bad as the Browning. My old 870 and my newest gun a Benelli 12 auto i shoot just fine. I am going out in a hour so I won't jinx myself by telling exactly how I have been shooting.
 
Weimdogman said:
I have a Browning 20 gauge auto I can't shoot pheasants with. Out of 20 shots I hit 2 and neither were good hits. I can pass shoot doves just fine with that same gun.

I have a cheap 12 gauge o/u that I shoot almost as bad as the Browning. My old 870 and my newest gun a Benelli 12 auto i shoot just fine. I am going out in a hour so I won't jinx myself by telling exactly how I have been shooting.
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I jinxed myself once in this thread by saying I hadn't lost any birds yet on the trip, and then all heck broke loose 2 days later! Even the power of knocking on wood didn't save me.

I have backup guns, and I shoot really well with one of them, but it gets dirty easy and I don't like cleaning it all the time. It isn't as weatherproof as my main gun either.

Honey has a love/hate relationship with my misses. Pretty sure she gets upset when she does all that hard work, and I blow it. On the other hand, if I were to drop every bird, she wouldn't get to hunt nearly as long each day, and she loves hunting. I might also end up with more stone cold dead birds. She is always disappointed when there isn't any life left in them.

Let us know how the evening hunt went and which state and species!
 
gimruis said:
Lol when I went last Friday it was almost no challenge at all. Everyone thinks you have to head west. You don't.

The primary issue is the lack of public hunting. Its all private land that you have to ask permission to hunt.
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Maybe you are just that good?

Private land does change the equation a bit.
 
Evening hunt went like this.
I ran 2 dogs and my buddy ran 3. My weims are going on 7 and know what is expected of them. My buddies draghts are 6,2,and 9 months. They get a little wild in the thick cover but he runs peepers and they are mostly steady so it's alright. A third guy was with us a 26 year old who has been on the ground we were hunting 1 time before with us.

We hunted the great crp first and got 5 birds. Good dog work and everyone shot well. Then we spread out across the pasture which has a lot lighter cover and 2 winding creeks thru it. Got a solid point and bird came up at my feet. Was a simple shot until it got to a appropriate range and it hooked with the wind. I nicked it and the dogs chased it over the hill. Over the hill a bird flushed wild and and then a pointed hen. I kept the dogs moving and Delio back tracked down the ditch and my wounded bird flushed from behind a tree and flew away. Pretty sure it was it because it was loosing feathers and moving slow.
I had another chance on a bird pointed in the fenceline that surprised me and I jerked a round off as I caught myself not wanting to shoot the bird where it would be coming down at. You know starting to pull the trigger and deciding not to shoot the bird .

The other guys went a different way and picked up the rest of our 3 man limit. Buddy dropped 1 long shot into a disked field and it was cool to watch the dogs run that bird down.
 
Weimdogman said:
Evening hunt went like this.
I ran 2 dogs and my buddy ran 3. My weims are going on 7 and know what is expected of them. My buddies draghts are 6,2,and 9 months. They get a little wild in the thick cover but he runs peepers and they are mostly steady so it's alright. A third guy was with us a 26 year old who has been on the ground we were hunting 1 time before with us.

We hunted the great crp first and got 5 birds. Good dog work and everyone shot well. Then we spread out across the pasture which has a lot lighter cover and 2 winding creeks thru it. Got a solid point and bird came up at my feet. Was a simple shot until it got to a appropriate range and it hooked with the wind. I nicked it and the dogs chased it over the hill. Over the hill a bird flushed wild and and then a pointed hen. I kept the dogs moving and Delio back tracked down the ditch and my wounded bird flushed from behind a tree and flew away. Pretty sure it was it because it was loosing feathers and moving slow.
I had another chance on a bird pointed in the fenceline that surprised me and I jerked a round off as I caught myself not wanting to shoot the bird where it would be coming down at. You know starting to pull the trigger and deciding not to shoot the bird .

The other guys went a different way and picked up the rest of our 3 man limit. Buddy dropped 1 long shot into a disked field and it was cool to watch the dogs run that bird down.
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That sounds like an exciting end of day hunt! Congratulations!

Those birds curving in the wind are something else.

Which state?

You may have had enough dogs to find birds. 👏
 
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