Not So Wild SD Pheasants

Thanks U-Guide. I had fun on both my SD trips and my labs had even more fun. On the last trip my younger lab Logan was the only dog for 8 hunters so he got a lot of flushes and retrieves.
PairOfLabs
 
JPH said:
UGUIDE, I have never shot a pen raised bird, so I guess I don't know. :cheers:
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Well, I have not shot alot either but just from the TV shows I have watched I can tell a difference. Some breeder/raisers go to more lengths to have "wilder" birds. Also, some hunters mistake early season juvenile birds for pen raised birds because they are less wary and not excellent at flight yet.
 
You know, there may be some farmers/ranchers that release some birds. So what! I know several farmers that have hunting operations (not preserves) and they farm their land for pheasants. They monitor the birds harvested and provide excellent cover & food sources for the birds to survive these harsh winters. With the number of wild birds that they have they would have absolutely no reason to release any additional birds. But even if they did. So what!

I fail to understand the direction that this thread has taken. It's like South Dakota and it's landowners are being taken to task. Does it really matter if there are some birds released around the state? Who gives a rat's a$$!

I think we've lost focus here. Shouldn't our main concern be the fact that there are an adequate number of birds for everyone (resident and non-resident)to hunt? Do you really care if that rooster that flushes from under a good point was raised in the wild or in a pen? Mox nix to me.
 
Hats off to Dakotazeb

Couldn't agree with you more!!!!!!! I drive 23 hours, spend 10 days in motels, eat at local diners, buy gas and have a blast hunting birds in SD every year. If the farms I hunt put birds out before I get there, I could care less, I've shot wild birds who've held for a dog and pen raised birds that ran to the sunset -it's all about the dog, the friends in the field with me and the memories that are created.
 
Dakotazeb said:
Do you really care if that rooster that flushes from under a good point was raised in the wild or in a pen?
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Oh yes Big Time! On not so much me but more than just a few of the UGUIDE hunters have told me in no uncertain terms that they are not driving 25 hours one way to shoot a bird they can shoot in their home state 1 hour from home. The would be pissed as all heck to find that out. That was kinda the original intent of the thread in the first place.

Caveat Emptor! Let the buyer beware.

If you don't care then no harm no foul but if you do then look at your harvest and make sure what you are getting is the real thing (USDA Organic Rooster).
 
Preserve License - SD - 2010

I believe the "season" preserve license is $85. You can purchase a 5-day preserve license for $65.

The preserve license limits one to the confines of the preserve - the regular state license does not limit, per se, the land you hunt. The preserve is defined by contiguous land of the owner.

All the preserve regulations and costs are outlined in The SD Game and Fish web site.

Regarding pen raised birds and their wild tactics: I find them very wary towards the end of the season and will run to the end of fields just like the wild birds. And they seem to fly like wild birds!

Jon
 
There is also a difference between pen raised birds and "planted" birds. If you release roosters in August they flush and fly pretty wild by the middle of Oct. A planted bird that is set out in a spot 1 hr before you hunt is an entirly different animal. You can count on him to be there when you get back. Also on a $500 a day bird hunt when you have customers who can't hit a wild flushing Rooster to save their life, smart business says spend a little money on some pen birds and give the guy footing the bill a chance to shoot a bird. Nothing frustrates me more than to watch a group of 10 -12 hunters each burn up a box a shells and still be 10 roosters short of a limit. Then they want to go walk more fields when they have already flushed 10 times their limit of birds and just can't hit them. Some people need to hunt pen raised birds.
 
Pen raised birds released in August are about 75% repositories of some predators digestive system. Reality is it's not cost efficient, so those birds are getting released within days or hours of the hunting. Nobody who expects to stay profitable is releasing birds that cost 10-15 dollars apiece loose months ahead of time, in order to recover 25% of the cost months later. Absolutely true that about any pheasant which survives the first two weeks, is a worthy opponent, and a trophy. Darn few make it that long. Cursory research will bear this out. I have no problem with pen raised birds, as long as there is full disclosure, heck almost every state used to have a game farm and stock birds, Nebraska, (Sacremento-Wilcox), quit about 15 years ago, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania still do. Kansas gave up in the 1960's, trying to establish Pheasants in SE Kansas. I don't care how many acres you have in a commercial hunting program, you cannot pound the same ground day after day, and maintain a satisfactory experience, or game population, without supplemental periodic stocking. What will work in SD, an area with a large wild bird population, is resting superior habitat, as the Uguide program, which allows pheasants to move from marginal cover to the superior cover, repopulating the hunting property, without need of stocking. Just like the old "honey hole", where every time you get birds out of a certain cover,because the birds keep refilling the preferred habitat, as you harvest one, another moves in. You SD guys seem awful defensive, and riled up about this issue, as one said, " so what", I agree. I won't be patronizing the preserves either here or SD. But that is personal preference, not an indictment of those who choose to, and are happy with the choice. 140 years ago every bird in America came out of a pen anyway, even if only the 4-8 week voyage from the orient.
 
Wirehairs said:
There is also a difference between pen raised birds and "planted" birds. If you release roosters in August they flush and fly pretty wild by the middle of Oct. A planted bird that is set out in a spot 1 hr before you hunt is an entirly different animal. You can count on him to be there when you get back. Also on a $500 a day bird hunt when you have customers who can't hit a wild flushing Rooster to save their life, smart business says spend a little money on some pen birds and give the guy footing the bill a chance to shoot a bird. Nothing frustrates me more than to watch a group of 10 -12 hunters each burn up a box a shells and still be 10 roosters short of a limit. Then they want to go walk more fields when they have already flushed 10 times their limit of birds and just can't hit them. Some people need to hunt pen raised birds.
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Wirehairs, you are right in that some hunters can burn up alot of resources but in my case if they are not harvesting the birds, better for me. If the birds are there and they cannot harvest them then they got what they came for, the ultimate wild bird challenge. And I will say this, as many birds as are released in SD you will not find a state that has a more hunted population of native wild birds and that is why it makes SD one of the greatest destinations for the ultimate wild bird challenge. Come week 10 of the season and you will not find a more cagey rooster that has escaped 10 weeks of hunting pressure and survived.

My money is on the roosters. I give them a lot of credit.

We have more business people bringing clients and they say they want the "real deal" but that ain't good for business when they get a taste of getting there asses handed to them by a bunch of cagey roosters. They say they wnat that but what they really mean is that they wnat what you are talking about, a more staged hunt assuring success and that is "smart business". Just like hunting preferences smart business is depenedent on what your business is.

oldandnew also makes some excellent points. no pun intended.
 
We know preserves release birds and many non-preserve operations release birds to supplement numbers and to get limits on the ground quicker

My thoughts are that people who go to preserve operations or operations that promise quick limits don't care what they are shooting. A big part of the experience for them is being away from the wife with a bunch of guys, drinking beer, and enjoying the nightlife. Why else would commit so much time and money to go hunting for 5 days when the hunting only lasts 2-3 hours a day. They don't want to slug it out in a cattail slough for hours. Good for them ,personally I enjoy drinking beer with my wife and enjoying the night life together.

Others who want a more wild" experience gravitate to hunting operations and hunting areas that offer that.

And yes I am a SD "hater." Because they took $880 from me in non-resident small game license.
 
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We need those pen-raised birds for men/women/kids that can't shoot, overpaid exec's that can't walk over 50 yards, and former VP's that need to shoot 66 birds in a day. Obviously, they couldn't have that kind of success on wild birds.

There are high-fence game farms where you can shoot a 400 B&C elk too, and pay "by the inch".
 
Wild Birds?

One of my friends told me of the story of going to SD to one farm and the farmer had almost the whole season booled up w/ 2,3 and 4 day hunts. He would let some of the fields rest in between groups. He would raise and release birds to suppliment the wild ones or the ones that flew out or were shot out. All the hunters were happy to have a lot of birds to shoot at. And after a few days of hanging around the wild birds they started to act like a wild bird and would flush and run just like the natives. They went out there for years and could never tell which was which at least at the flush. They would fly but mabe not sail as far as the wild ones which was still pretty far. Late in the season when they got up they all got up one just following the others. These raised birds get use to being around the wild ones. These are not the half dead ones you usually get at the clubs or state release areas where you have to kick them up to get them to fly. There is a difference.
 
delahunter834 said:
I've hunted SD the past 5 yrs,found a lot of wild pheasants but where are the Strippers?
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Dallas SD or Mitchelle would be two of the better probably
 
Strippers

Brad Lhotak said:
Dallas SD or Mitchelle would be two of the better probably
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Opening day 2008 were had just returned from our 1st field and were taking pictures. The main house is right on the hiway and its just 50 miles or so to Dallas. As I'm working the camera I hear a car stop and then back up and put in to the yard.

Yep you got it--- a couple of Detroit strippers on the way to Dallas.
 
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Dakotazeb said:
And the rest of the story is..................... ;)
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Well it involved a quick minn show a lost camera card--seems I have the only pictures. One of the ladies who was hunting that day finished taking care of her dogs, turned around and was heard to comment "OH MY GOD".

You could have asked me to give you a 1000 possible things to have happed that day and there is no way anyone would have come up with this one. LOL
 
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