Public Hunting around Winner

wlffmnnn said:
Apology accepted. I do not get offended easily. I am just trying to provide a great trip for my father. You never know how many chances you are going to get to go, so that is why I am here. Is Winner the spot we should be going to or should we look elsewhere. We have found one great tract there, but nothing else to speak of. We are not road hunters. We do not really understand how to do it legally. it is not allowed in Oklahoma. Also my father is discouraged/ bothered at the fact that the landowners want to charge you as much as they do for you to be able to hunt. I can see it from both sides as it is a small part of an income, but like on our land as long as someone asks and noone else in the family is hunting my dad usually lets them. It is the ones that don't ask that ruin it for everyone else. We both have a hard time justifying 33.00 a bird to hunt after all of the travel expenses, nor is it easily affordable with a down economy.
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My father started taking my brother and I pheasant hunting 35 years ago. I was able to spend a week with him every year until he was 79 but the 5 years he has been gone taught me the real joy of the trip was the trip itself. The 8-10 hours driving to the hunt from Indiana helped make my father and I more than father and son. It helped make us friends. For all you, family hunters- cherish the time. Go out of your way to find ways to take the frustration out of the experience. Remember "Welcome Hunters" sometimes means just that and sometimes means "please help us make ends meet". Involve your children. I had planned on bringing my youngest boy with me this year, but unfortunately, he broke his leg at football practice. There will be other years. Hope your trip goes well.
 
TennesseeTraveler said:
My father started taking my brother and I pheasant hunting 35 years ago. I was able to spend a week with him every year until he was 79 but the 5 years he has been gone taught me the real joy of the trip was the trip itself. The 8-10 hours driving to the hunt from Indiana helped make my father and I more than father and son. It helped make us friends. For all you, family hunters- cherish the time. Go out of your way to find ways to take the frustration out of the experience. Remember "Welcome Hunters" sometimes means just that and sometimes means "please help us make ends meet". Involve your children. I had planned on bringing my youngest boy with me this year, but unfortunately, he broke his leg at football practice. There will be other years. Hope your trip goes well.
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Thank you for this post Sir! I hope your son's recovery is a speedy one.
 
There are some WIA's near Presho and toward Chamberlin that I have hunted in the past years with good results. I hope you have good legs and dogs to help you. Some are big CRP fields that get hunted hard.
Sometimes that hunt fee is cheap for some good hunting!
Good luck!:cheers:
 
There are many more suitable areas to freelance on public land in SD than Winner. Look for areas with exponentially more public access and much less hunter traffic. That is the combintion you want for freelance success. Go find the public hunting atlas on the SDGF&P website and it won't take long to identify some good areas for freelance hunting.

Areas like Winner, Chamberlain, Mitchell etc. have just the opposite to offer. They see lots of hunter traffic and don't have much acreage open for public access.

I wouldn't pay much attention to the differences in bird numbers from area to area published by SDGFP. In general if you are east of the river and west of I-29 there will be enough birds around for a decent hunt. It might take some work to identify the good pockets of birds but that is what freelancing is about. Limits shouldn't be expected but with hard work they happen even for first timers.

In general I'm with you on the road hunting. It's not really the hunting experience I seek out. Having said that though a nice cattail filled ditch between a cornfield and roosting grass during the last hour is a pretty hard to beat for harvesting a rooster or two.

DB
 
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