A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
Public? If so, that's really not too shabby for a group that large.
Observations
- Thread starter benelli-banger
- Start date
Bob Peters
Well-known member
I once had an old and experienced hunter tell me that 1 bird a day is probably the average for a SD public land hunter.
benelli-banger
Well-known member
Could be, but a bit like saying the average golfer playing at the muni struggles to break 100. A good dog, a decent shooter who knows how to hunt, 5 hours of actual hunting in a decent area, should yield several opportunities or more per day. Some years it could be tougher than others, for sure…and vice versa. A friend of mine just took a guy who rarely hunts or shoots to an area in ND that he’s never hunted, and they averaged about 1.5 per guy per day…could have been higher, the newbie missed lots! But they did well IMO, given the situation…came home with 8 after hunting wed afternoon, thur, and Fri til about noon…just driving from pub spot to the next, eyeballing them, hunting some, passing on some…and not in a “good area”, I believe…S of 94, from MN border West a few hours…
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
I agree w/ B-B. I'd call myself a middle-aged, very experienced public land pheasant hunter. I'd say a fairly experienced hunter (somebody w/ a good basic understanding of where/when to find wild pheasants), with a fairly experienced dog, in a fairly decent part of the state, given 3-4 hours to actually hunt, should be able to get at least 3 good shot opportunities nearly any day of the season on public land &/or ditches. The biggest question, to paraphrase Jimi Hendrix, is, "How experienced are you? I mean really." 2 hunters w/ 2 dogs might take 1.5 times as long on average. 2 hunters w/ 1 dog might take twice as long. I'm not experienced enough with bigger groups on public land to even begin to guestimate. The variables increase exponentially.
Bob Peters
Well-known member
Exactly. And just remember the average includes everyone, including hunters with inexperienced dogs, hunters with dogs that aren't very good, lazy hunters, hunters with crooked barrels etc. etc. I wasn't trying to be negative saying 1 bird a day is the average on public land, just something I heard from an old bird hunter who has walked more miles than most.
gimruis
Well-known member
Lol come on now. There's plenty of hunters with poorly trained dogs, but there can't be THAT many people using a shotgun with a crooked barrel.
Bob Peters
Well-known member
I was using that saying in jest to relate to poor shooting. Also like a buddy of mine says while shooting sporting clays when he misses, "they've got the rubber targets loaded today."if you don't pattern your gun/loads, you might be crooked, actually, and never know it!