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Priebe pheasant hunting
- Thread starter 870-Lefty
- Start date
Downtown Bang!
Member
I was set up with a one day pay hunt there on my first SD trip back in 1999. I had finished a couple of tough days on public land and the owner of the hotel felt a little sorry for me.
They had great cover back then and a lot of birds. Got my limit in less than 2-hours. They are (or at least then) a preserve operation and keep pen raised birds and being a newbie I didn't understand this until I saw the the pens while hunting.
Because he let me hunt wherever I wanted that day I don't think they put out birds just ahead of the hunters like a standard preserve operation. My guess is it's a continuous release deal. Like I mentioned above the cover and habitat was pretty good too so I'm guessing there was a pretty good ratio of wild birds to released birds.
Very nice people. Can't say anything bad about how I was treated and relative to some of the other trespass fee outfits I saw in the area the price was fair. Just not my thing. Even as a green pheasant hunter with a young dog I didn't want to go all the way to SD and hunt released birds.
I gave up on the Chamberlain area after two years. With the high annual survey numbers out of state hunters flock there and just pound the public land so thats not a good option. There are many fee hunt operations available in the area but you need to be careful where you hunt if you want wild birds only.
FWIW that area is a ditch/road hunters paradise. Far from my favorite way to hunt but in my second year there I did figure out I could make up for a tough day on public land by walking some minimum maintenance road ditches during the golden hour.
Good luck
They had great cover back then and a lot of birds. Got my limit in less than 2-hours. They are (or at least then) a preserve operation and keep pen raised birds and being a newbie I didn't understand this until I saw the the pens while hunting.
Because he let me hunt wherever I wanted that day I don't think they put out birds just ahead of the hunters like a standard preserve operation. My guess is it's a continuous release deal. Like I mentioned above the cover and habitat was pretty good too so I'm guessing there was a pretty good ratio of wild birds to released birds.
Very nice people. Can't say anything bad about how I was treated and relative to some of the other trespass fee outfits I saw in the area the price was fair. Just not my thing. Even as a green pheasant hunter with a young dog I didn't want to go all the way to SD and hunt released birds.
I gave up on the Chamberlain area after two years. With the high annual survey numbers out of state hunters flock there and just pound the public land so thats not a good option. There are many fee hunt operations available in the area but you need to be careful where you hunt if you want wild birds only.
FWIW that area is a ditch/road hunters paradise. Far from my favorite way to hunt but in my second year there I did figure out I could make up for a tough day on public land by walking some minimum maintenance road ditches during the golden hour.
Good luck
Last edited:
SD Pen Raised Birds...
It's interesting how the hunt has changed in SD over the years. I started hunting regularly around Miller, about 20 years ago - no pay to hunt situation's and all wild birds.
Now, it appears one has to pay for good hunting or spend a good deal of your time researching land to hunt - knocking on doors, phone calls et al. Not only is this a frustrating endeavor it can waste lots of time.
Regards the pen raised birds: they seem to fly the same and can be just as elusive, running down the rows and flushing out of range. They are usually a bit smaller, but can be just as crafty. Most pay-hunt farms need to augment their wild bird stock , otherwise the birds are all shot off in a few weekends.
I can hunt all pen raised birds 45 miles west of Mpls, but it just isn't the same. Most of the planted birds stay put and i very easy to hunt; I use that facility to work with the dog et al.
Just my take on the pen raised issue...
It's interesting how the hunt has changed in SD over the years. I started hunting regularly around Miller, about 20 years ago - no pay to hunt situation's and all wild birds.
Now, it appears one has to pay for good hunting or spend a good deal of your time researching land to hunt - knocking on doors, phone calls et al. Not only is this a frustrating endeavor it can waste lots of time.
Regards the pen raised birds: they seem to fly the same and can be just as elusive, running down the rows and flushing out of range. They are usually a bit smaller, but can be just as crafty. Most pay-hunt farms need to augment their wild bird stock , otherwise the birds are all shot off in a few weekends.
I can hunt all pen raised birds 45 miles west of Mpls, but it just isn't the same. Most of the planted birds stay put and i very easy to hunt; I use that facility to work with the dog et al.
Just my take on the pen raised issue...
Uncle Buck
New member
I was hosted by some attorneys at Priebe's once and I would say the take was 70/30 tame to wild birds. The cover was good and the tame birds flew well and held without needing a lot of work to get them up. My dog got a lot of work as there was only one other dog there. Old Red made a lot of nice, long retrieves as a couple of guys from Wyoming were winging them and they went down a hundred yards or more out and he did not miss a one. Better than your average pet shoot and Ive been on a lot of them.