Redfield or Roscoe?
- Thread starter Crim42
- Start date
Miforester
Well-known member
You would do well in either area. Have hunted both and killed plenty of birds in both areas.
My address is Roscoe. If there is cover you should find birds. The nesting season will tell the story. Where are you hunting?
Hmmm - driving 1600 miles and relying on public hunting might be a bit of a gamble. You might consider hunting at least one day on private land and pay a fee.
Just a thought...
A lot of good info and recommendations have been given.
All I can offer is this, it's been my experience that hunting ringnecks in SD is like nothing else...it gets in your blood, so be careful. In either place or both or somewhere else, will be better than working any job I've had and your dog will learn more than you could ever teach him.
Pick a place, have fun, and be safe! Post pics and reports when you get back. Good luck!
All I can offer is this, it's been my experience that hunting ringnecks in SD is like nothing else...it gets in your blood, so be careful. In either place or both or somewhere else, will be better than working any job I've had and your dog will learn more than you could ever teach him.
Pick a place, have fun, and be safe! Post pics and reports when you get back. Good luck!
Just read this post regarding crp; wondering where one finds information on crp - what area of the state has the most, recent, #acres et al.
OK...I did find a USDA publication that identifies the counties with the highest wildlife acres; Stanley, Lyman and Day in that order.
These are not what I expected.
OK...I did find a USDA publication that identifies the counties with the highest wildlife acres; Stanley, Lyman and Day in that order.
These are not what I expected.
Last edited:
benelli-banger
Well-known member
The counties with the most wildlife acres could be a correlation with the worst land for farming. I would pay attention to the drought areas. Also, much CRP has been cut. Maybe look for areas with lots of WPA's and GPA's as well...standing CREP has been good, too...much of that may have been cut...
b-banger:
I looked up the SD counties with the highest crp enrollment as of 10/2016 and here's what I found:Brown, Lyman, Perkins, Marshall,Day, and Haakon in that order. All but Lyman are not typical pheasant producing counties, at least in the past several years. Go figure - high crp = hi pheasant population?? This is true with only one - Lyman County.
Your thoughts?
I looked up the SD counties with the highest crp enrollment as of 10/2016 and here's what I found:Brown, Lyman, Perkins, Marshall,Day, and Haakon in that order. All but Lyman are not typical pheasant producing counties, at least in the past several years. Go figure - high crp = hi pheasant population?? This is true with only one - Lyman County.
Your thoughts?
benelli-banger
Well-known member
Just running out the door, but here is a thought or two; first, CRP isn't public land, so it is important, but only if you can hunt it...yes, it does produce birds which move around, but you know what I mean. Historically, as CRP has come out in favor of farming, say in the last 5 years or so, that trend has taken place where the farmer can in theory make more from farming...lots of CRP came out in the E part of the state, where land is more fertile. Course, $8 corn is $3 now, so CRP may be looking better now. Anyway, 10 years ago I always thought areas around the Missouri were probably hard to beat...Mobridge, Gettysburg, Faulkton, Pierre, Chamberlain...still good. The James River takes you through some areas that have been good...Aberdeen, Redfield, Huron, Mitchell...you know, 30-40 miles either side of the river...lots of land was put into CREP...even down around Freeman, South of I 90....it had done well, it was a newer stand of grass, which helps...old CRP loses its virility after 8-10 years...but here's the deal, the drought this year did cause lots of CRP and CREP to be cut...so that changes things. If I were randomly picking a place to go, and was gonna live with it, I would go up around Lemmon...Grand River National Grasslands...I even spent $15 this spring and bought a map of that through the forest service...hunt sharptail, too...again, impacted by the drought, but so was lots of SD...SE SD wasn't as much, or the I 29 corridor...pretty good precip...Like I said...CRP is private land, and it has been shrinking a lot in the past 5-10 years...and then this year lots of it was allowed to be cut...so it will be hard getting on CRP if you don't have access...look at the SD GFP interactive map that shows public lands...walk-in, GPA, WPA, School Lands, etc...lots in the NE, N, NW...some in the SE...
Interesting observations - thanks. Perhaps you are right about the crp going sort of stale after several years. I also wonder if some of the lesser known counties (Haakon) are heavily wooded or otherwise really marginal crop producers. I've hunted SD exclusively since the early 90's and have not hunted any of the counties that I previously listed in this thread. Lot of years spent in Hand County but now hunt farther west and south.
I believe that the first five years of CRP are the best and then it tapers off. If you can graze it in there every so often you can extend that good time some, but after 10 years it should come out and be replaced.
It will help some but without an additional infusion of biology it will be limited in my opinion.