Planning First Hunt...A few Questions

B

BowHuntr97

New member
Hey guys,

I will try and keep this short. Wanting to plan a trip to SW/SC North Dakota. It will be my dad and I. We are planning on just doing a dyi...public land hunt with our own dogs (springer and lab). We don't have a ton of money to throw to an outfitter to hunt private land. We are coming from central Utah.

We were considering South Dakota at first, but after some online research as well as considering the drive time to eastern SD vs SW ND...we are leaning towards ND.

We want to do a later season hunt (late Nov/Dec), due to the timing of our deer season here. How tough is the later season hunting on public land? Wouldn't mind hunting in some fresh snow either.

What kind of realistic expectations should we have? We like to hunt hard, and go the extra mile to get away from places that see tons of people. Is that a possibilty even? Also, keep in mind that wild pheasants are like an endangered species in our part of the world. The hunting used to be decent, but it has fell off the map the last 10 years. I dont remember the last time i flushed a wild bird here. We rely on a handful of pen raised birds, planted by the state every year.

I'm not expecting to see hundreds of birds every day, but if we have an opportunity to shoot a few roosters everyday, and most importantly get my 1year old springer into some birds...we would be on cloud nine.

Any advice or pointers would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to PM too.

Thanks,

Justin
 
Hopefully I didn't structure my questions, sounding like I was asking for secret spots or honey holes. Was just hoping to get some insight from peoples experiences on diy hunts.

Thx

Justin
 
I dont know where you are used to hunting but , first dont just assume in nd that a town that looks to be a decent size on a map will have a hotel or food. Hunt the obvious good looking cover but dont ignore the cattails around the sloughs , it will feel like you are duck hunting but they will hold birds. Get a p.l.o.t.s. guide (their version of walk in access). A lot of people dont know how to look for the other types of state lands in nd that may not be marked by a sign those are usually marked in the plots guide. They dont seem to get hunted as hard.
 
I did the same thing as you last year for the first time - hunted the nw and the sw, had a great time, saw lots of birds, and by the end of my 8 days down there, was able to kill limits fairly consistently, all on plots or publicly accessible land. Went during the first week of december, only saw one other group hunting the whole time I was there, on a plots piece...

I saw lots of birds, most of them hens, and the roosters will often flush wild - but I'm going back in December this year, hopefully for twice as long. It's a great time, and you should have lots of fun.

With two guys and a young dog, my advice will be to avoid the big huge plots with acres of crp - they hold lots of birds, but those late season roosters will run rings around you and your dog. Focus on little chunks of brush, creek bottoms, cattails, etc... it'll mean a lot more driving, and probably means you'll only be able to hunt a small percentage of the PLOTS listed on the map - but there's no point in wearing out your pup on a bunch of wild flushing birds.

But once you find a good one, you can keep going back - think I killed about 6-8 roosters out of the same creek bottom in a plots over the course of the trip.
 
Thanks a lot guys, for the information and advice. Really appreciate your insight and past experience Shortround. Extremely helpful!

Can't wait to just visit and see some new country!
 
You probably won't see too many other hunters that time of year.

One thing I would recommend is to be prepared for any kind of weather. It could be 50 degrees or it could be below zero. It can swing from one to the other in a couple of days also. Watch the forecasts and be prepared. That goes for your vehicle too. Don't assume there is a gas station in every little town either.

I really enjoy the variety that comes with late season hunting. Been doing an after Christmas hunt for a few years.

Jerry
 
Just returned, my results

Well, before going out to ND (HUNTED Nov.12-Nov.15th) I read a lot of forum on how there isn't any birds, or the birds are way down. I have been hunting ND the last 10 yrs or so and I thought this year was as good as any!!! And here is the "secret". I learned years ago to avoid opening first couple of weeks and go when 90% if not all crop is down. There were 6 of us, 1- 9yr old lab, 1- 7 yr old golden, and 1- 9 month old lab pup. We hit cat tails and places were you would think you were setting up for duck hunting. We wore swamper boots and put up many birds. The first day we must of put up 30-40 birds in a slough. Many shooting opportunities, but we all payed the price. Dogs were barely moving on the third day. Paws were cut up from breaking ice and the constant jumping and bounding over bogs and through cat tail tunnels really took a toll on them, but man did we see and put up pheasants! We would push large sloughs and go very slow and let the dogs work. We would have birds getting up 5 feet from you or 100 ft, but the point is they would just keep running through the tunnels. Just a note, we also tried CRP fields...That was a waste of time. Folks, BIRDS ARE IN THE THICK CAT TAILS! but you really have to work for them and you will find them. Area we hunted was about 30 mile radius around Medina. Just find the sloughs near harvested crop. I believe the best hunting is yet to come. December is always great. Anyway, good luck.
 
LH You pretty much described late season ND pheasant hunting.
GO TO THE THICK STUFF.
Pheasants will feed in the stubble then back to the thick stuff.
Water, cattails and ice.
 
Thanks for the insight into the success of your hunt LH. Sounds like you guys had a good time. We are headed out in December. Cant wait!!!
 
Hey bowhuntr97

Let me know how the early Dec. hunt goes? Like I said before, if you hit sloughs and cattails you should do fine. I may be changing my dates next year to late Nov or early Dec. Good luck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top