Rural roads - how well are they marked?

519vx

519vx

Member
Can anyone tell me how well the avenues and streets are marked in the rural areas or if they are marked at all? I'm doing online research and with marked maps and the hunting atlas it doesnt look like Id have much trouble finding the areas I'm interested in, but are there signs at intersections to note roads and avenues or are most unmarked? I'm looking in the areas north and east of Pierre.

Thanks for the help! This probably seems like a simple question, but I've never hunted SD and am trying to do my homework before the trip.
 
I have a county map that indicates streets are east/west and avenues north/south.

The map I obtained from the county seat in Faulk County and is produced by Countywidedirectories.com. The map names the landowners and the name of the resident.

Section roads are indicated and have no street/ave. distinction.

This map was invaluable on the one trip made to Faulk County; they are a bit pricey at $30 but a very good resource.

Names are listed in the back of the directory with twp. and section listed and the number of acres.

This directory could save you $ in gasoline and time wasted!
 
That helps...but what I'm asking I guess is literally are there "street signs" at the intersections that say what street or avenue you are on? The atlas and overlay maps are pretty good, but I will have to hope for a good GPS signal or rely on mileage from known points to find the intersections near where I want to hunt.

Thanks again.
 
519vx said:
That helps...but what I'm asking I guess is literally are there "street signs" at the intersections that say what street or avenue you are on? The atlas and overlay maps are pretty good, but I will have to hope for a good GPS signal or rely on mileage from known points to find the intersections near where I want to hunt.

Thanks again.
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A good answer would be sometimes:). I have traversed that area for years and some are and some are not. I trust my odometer more than anything, and sometimes it still doesn't help. The best roads are the ones where you are not even sure there is a road anymore:)
 
I can't speak for the whole state but where I live there are signs along the hiway but once you turn off the hiway you are on your own. The land is divided into one square mile sections so just keep track of them and you should be OK.
 
Thank you Tom! That's kind of what I figured. I'm working on a tick sheet of spots that I'd like to try and will go with the odometer and will just write in distances to intersections on my spot sheet. Appreciate it. :cheers:
 
haymaker said:
I can't speak for the whole state but where I live there are signs along the hiway but once you turn off the hiway you are on your own. The land is divided into one square mile sections so just keep track of them and you should be OK.
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More good info...thanks. In wisconsin, just about everything is very well marked with signs, even in the rural areas. Doing some of the legwork now will save me some more time for hunting once I get there if I have a pretty good idea of how to get where I want to go.
 
jonnyB said:
I have a county map that indicates streets are east/west and avenues north/south.

The map I obtained from the county seat in Faulk County and is produced by Countywidedirectories.com. The map names the landowners and the name of the resident.

Section roads are indicated and have no street/ave. distinction.

This map was invaluable on the one trip made to Faulk County; they are a bit pricey at $30 but a very good resource.

Names are listed in the back of the directory with twp. and section listed and the number of acres.

This directory could save you $ in gasoline and time wasted!
Click to expand...


This brings up one more question...if section roads are not streets or avenues like I can see on maps, can I still hunt the right of ways on those, or are those off limits?
 
I use my plug in Garmin GPS...it displays all the road numbers and avenues.
I put in on the dash and never have to look for signs....if I am driving down a street or avenue, the ditch is fair game.:thumbsup:
 
You better read the rule book so there is no misunderstanding. The roads are still streets and avenues but there are no signs out in the middle of nowhere telling you that you are in the middle of nowhere. You can hunt the roads and ditches which in the case of township roads are 66 feet wide. If you shoot at a bird it is supposed to be in the ditch when it took flight. If you get the bird you shoot at and it lands on my land then you can lay your gun down and go get it. I think I have told you correctly but again read the rules.
 
519vx said:
This brings up one more question...if section roads are not streets or avenues like I can see on maps, can I still hunt the right of ways on those, or are those off limits?
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It's usually pretty obvious where the road used to be, many times they are marked " minimum maintenace" . It is not uncommon to get to the end of it and it gets pretty wooly. A couple I hunted last year, you could tell they were old roads as they were raised and seperated the two fields. You could even see the old gravel beneath. Those are the good ones:)

That is where the problem lies. What do you do when a bird lands over the fence. If you are goin in, make sure you leave your gun. That is why this kind of hunting stresses me out a little. Good Luck! Like Haymaker said read the rules. No bird is worth a big conflict, or worse.
 
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The street signs were installed years ago to help with emergencies - fire response et al.

The maps will help with public hunting land; what about private owners??
 
carptom1 said:
That is where the problem lies. What do you do when a bird lands over the fence. If you are goin in, make sure you leave your gun. That is why this kind of hunting stresses me out a little. Good Luck! Like Haymaker said read the rules. No bird is worth a big conflict, or worse.
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Same here. I'd been to SD before and didn't bother with the ditches/road hunting. The last time dad and I were there, we had to travel 2hrs between hunts. We discussed trying road hunting, since we'd never been in a state where it was legal. We had several opportunities where we didn't get out of the truck. Finally, 3 roosters were in a ditch and sat as we drove by. We got our guns and proceeded to walk 'em up. They flushed and we killed one dead, right by the fence. However, the 2nd one was only wounded, so he went running across a private field. I set my gun down and the dogs and I went after the bird. I had a sick feeling in my gut, so I turned 'em around after about 100 yards....all I could think was that some farmer was gonna drive up and shoot my dog, or me:eek:

That was my first and last road hunting experience. Call it what you will, but I decided it was not worth the risk or the guilty feeling of trespassing on someone's land w/o talking to them first.
 
First, there are street signs at the majority of the intersections. It's all part of the 911 emergency program making it easier for first responders to locate a place. but you will find some places that wont' have signs.

Second, what haymaker said is correct regarding walking the ditches. But you do run the risk of running into the occasional landowner that is a SOB. It happened to me and a few guys I was hunting with a couple years ago. We were hunting a GPA (public land) and pushing it towards the road. One of the guys dropped a rooster that landed in the ditch on the other side of the road. He took his dog over to find it, just then the landowner of the adjacent land drives up and proceeds to chew butt for 10-15 minutes and demanding to see hunting licenses, etc. We had done absolutely nothing wrong so we finally just walked away. When I got home I called the local CO and reported the harassment we had received from this landowner. As soon as I gave him the landowners name he knew him well. There have been many complaints about this guy. It's too bad there has to be a few out there like him but that's the way it is. BTW, this guy lives between Redfield and Faulkton. 3 miles south and 1 1/2 miles west of Miranda. Be careful in that area.
 
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Dakotazeb said:
Second, what haymaker said is correct regarding walking the ditches. But you do run the risk of running into the occasional landowner that is a SOB. It happened to me and a few guys I was hunting with a couple years ago. We were hunting a GPA (public land) and pushing it towards the road. One of the guys dropped a rooster that landed in the ditch on the other side of the road. He took his dog over to find it, just then the landowner of the adjacent land drives up and proceeds to chew butt for 10-15 minutes and demanding to see hunting licenses, etc. We had done absolutely nothing wrong so we finally just walked away. When I got home I called the local CO and reported the harassment we had received from this landowner. As soon as I gave him the landowners name he knew him well. There have been many complaints about this guy.
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Dakota, we bump into the same kinda acts every few years too:(

Last year I posted two beat-up older gentlemen at the front edge of some very nice public land. The idea was they could try their luck at pass-shooting birds flying from a corn field and back into the public lands to roost.

Anyway, as the birds started moving in, a guy drove his truck into the picked corn field across the street from the public land, parked at the top of the hill where the birds could see him, then just sat there until shooting hours were over. Obviously the birds went around the truck and came in on the other side of the public land.

It really bothered me that someone could do something like that to someone else. Thankfully the older guys enjoyed watching the sunset and listening to the roosters cackling too much to let it get to them. To this day, it still bothers me though.
 
road hunting

We have hunted the roads in SD and have never had trouble when the bird landed on the other side of the fence we either just lay the gun down, or let the dogs do the retrieving. we hunt the Charles Mix area and have never had a land owner complain. I know there are SOB's out there that prob will but we have never run into them. Some of these roads are in the middle of no place and well grown over so that may be the reason. but with the cutting of the ditches last year there wasn't a whole lot of road hunting. You can usually tell which land owner will bitxxh because they have the ditches around there land cut even during good hay years, or they have the no Trespass Tires hanging on the fence posts. There are pleanty of roads or use to be roads that are not marked on either end you just have to guess using the maps.:thumbsup: Good luck everyone heading out this year----be there the 4th week of the season
 
Just get the map book from the SD DNR site. If you can't figure out where you are with that map book. You shouldn't be out roaming around.
 
SD hunting atlas is a must for road hunters. I have an older copy I take along year in /year out. I have some sweet ditches marked on the old maps that we go back to every year. We sort of hybrid road hunt. We drive until a promising stretch of ditch presents itself then we get out and walk. Sometimes we see a pheasant run across the road and we stop and try to ambush. Rarely do we run up on them and jump out on the birds. On a side note, last year there were so many road hunters out that we didn't even bother. Just too many vehicles on the roads to make ditch hunting worth while.
 
Thanks Thor!

Retiredcsm - welcome to the forum. The SD maps you suggest are alrwady referenced multiple times. Thanks for trying to help. You'll notice most of the posters try to help one another out and share info.
 
there are more then a few WIAs that are on the SD atlas map but there is no road on the map that leads to them that does suck when you come across i got chased down well ran after & then kinda yelled at for driving down a road a DNR officer told me was OK to drive on??? it was the only way into the WIA i think the land owner was just trying to bluff me & scare me off the area cuz they were there pet turkeys but it was confusing to get to that WIA to say the least!!!

yes look at the SD atlas map count the intersections till ur turn use ur odomiter & u dont need road signs or GPS units the best areas are the 1s that dont have great roads leading write to the parking area if the roads washed out or iffy its probably a good area u just mite have to walk aways to get to it in the worst case situation???

if anybody has been to MT or western KS the SD roads are marked 100 times better then those roads used to be even 5-7 yrs ago...
 
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