Quick Trip

Looks like I'll be making an 11 hour run West next week out to the Dakotas from IL, the Prairie State with no prairie. Its a toss up between Central ND and Fort Pierre NG. Both take the same amount of travel time. Ive never been to either and would like to get my griffs, especially the puppy, some sharptail contacts. Any recommendations for one over the other? Drought maps and emergency hayings dont give me the warm and fuzzies, but then again I used to game reserves and pushing fencerows.
 
I hunted Pierre national grassland, September 20th through the 23rd. I killed eight birds in four days and felt fortunate to get those. It was my first trip also. It was heavily overgrazed. Some of it looked like you mowed it with a finish mower. I was driving around scouting trying to figure out how to hunt it. Wednesday afternoon I met a really nice older gentleman and his wife and we had a fairly long visit. He had hunted it on and off for 30 years and told me that it's usually not so heavily grazed. I would not recommend it this year. If you decide to try it, private message me and I'll tell you where I found cover. Good luck!
 
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Morning Sand Prairie,
I just came back from the SE area of ND yesterday. I spent a week working bean harvest. All I can tell you as a person who is a avid hunter and dog owner, there was no way I would be thinking of going out hunting right now as its been so dam hot out there. I can not speak about Central ND , although I do hunt pheasant in that area once in awhile , but its been in the upper 70's and 80's! The good news is it will be cooling down some. I know you are probably pretty excited wanting to get out and hunt, but if you take my advise save your vacation time for just after ND deer season which is done third weekend of November . That way its a lot cooler for the dogs, most if not all the crop will be down, and its a lot easier to get permission on some posted land after their deer hunt season.
 
Made the most of a quick trip with the dogs. While we didn’t come home with much, we did find grouse most everywhere we went, whether it was WMA, school land or private. Also had to make a trip to the vet for quills! I’ll be back with others next year. 78062D3A-B3F7-4108-9D1D-5A4A15E2FE1C.jpegBF037E18-B30E-4F0E-BD85-032DC0E1FA1A.jpeg
 
I pulled all but two and kept hunting. The last two he wouldn’t let me touch and they are still in him. Otherwise having the hemostats in the kit paid off. Vet would have had to cut for those. So he’s on antibiotics and hope they make their way out on their own.
 
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