SD Arrival- SNOW, SNOW and more SNOW....

Well made the trip out from Wisconsin yesterday morning at 6am. We knew we were going to deal with the extreme weather that was coming out of Nebraska heading east. We ended up driving through the middle of the snow storm for 220 miles before we came out of it west of Sioux Falls. It was stressful but we were determined to get to SD if it took two days.

Once we arrived at the house I was really surprised to actually how much snow had fell. I haven't seen this much snow this early in quite a while. I think we have possibly up to 10-12" on the ground at the house. Waiting to get this morning to see how the hunting going to be. This will change the game plan somewhat. If we can find birds they should be starting to group up with these conditions.

I will report later on conditions and bird numbers.
 
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Mitchell area on the way by.
 
I drove out to aurora county yesterday starting about noon. What should have been a 21/2 hour trip morphed into a 4 hour trip. It's just the dogs and I .no license or even a shotgun in the truck. I hit the gravel roads south of Mt Vernon at 4 pm. Sun was shining and it was beautiful. Scouted for deer. Seen 9 roosters (6 in one group) and countless hens in the ditch between 4 and dark.
 
First snow of the year. It's a Saturday night. And no one has put in a report for several days...crickets chirping...
 
Report Day #1

Well day one is on the books and it was interesting after the Nov blizzard 2015. Snow and lots of it was the normal all day yesterday. It was tough hunting or I should say tough walking for myself and for the dogs. Enough snow that the dogs were pushing through it and filling their vests up regularly along with having your pants iced up almost to the knee- great conditions!

We ended up with 8 birds for the day. We hunted a combination of public and ditches. We ended up doing some ditches just to get a break from pushing snow in the public areas and hoping to corner birds in smaller areas where they would hold. We ended splitting 50/50 on birds between public and ditches for the day.

But the most important info from day one. There are birds galore from what we seen. I figured we seen 400+ birds throughout the day. Mind you a lot of these groups we ran into flushed wild out ahead of the dogs with no shots fired. But there are birds and a lot of them. We also ran into multiple fields of standing corn which was very surprising. These fields are holding a ton of birds and if they cut this corn there will be even more birds looking for cover.

We will be back at it pushing through the snow today for as long as we can take it. It's just going to be a slow day like yesterday from what I see right now. But seeing birds should hopefully keep us motivated and not thinking about the hunting conditions.

I will report again later. Good luck to everyone! Have a great Thanksgiving.

:)
 
Well day one is on the books and it was interesting after the Nov blizzard 2015. Snow and lots of it was the normal all day yesterday. It was tough hunting or I should say tough walking for myself and for the dogs. Enough snow that the dogs were pushing through it and filling their vests up regularly along with having your pants iced up almost to the knee- great conditions!

We ended up with 8 birds for the day. We hunted a combination of public and ditches. We ended up doing some ditches just to get a break from pushing snow in the public areas and hoping to corner birds in smaller areas where they would hold. We ended splitting 50/50 on birds between public and ditches for the day.

But the most important info from day one. There are birds galore from what we seen. I figured we seen 400+ birds throughout the day. Mind you a lot of these groups we ran into flushed wild out ahead of the dogs with no shots fired. But there are birds and a lot of them. We also ran into multiple fields of standing corn which was very surprising. These fields are holding a ton of birds and if they cut this corn there will be even more birds looking for cover.

We will be back at it pushing through the snow today for as long as we can take it. It's just going to be a slow day like yesterday from what I see right now. But seeing birds should hopefully keep us motivated and not thinking about the hunting conditions.

I will report again later. Good luck to everyone! Have a great Thanksgiving.

:)

too much snow really hurts, birds bunch up and flush wild in droves, but its good to hear you are seeing them.....it's been a rough year for some, hunting thru deep snow will curtail a lot of guys now, carry over should be good, unless snow keeps stacking up.
 
I wrote a report on our trip to Winner that seems to be appearing elsewhere ..."Pheasant Hunting Forum."

We were south of Winner, first time hunting in this area and found the area is mainly pasture and ranch country, but with some birds. Lots of deer and observed several large flocks of sharptail.
 
Days #2 & 3

Well day one is on the books and it was interesting after the Nov blizzard 2015. Snow and lots of it was the normal all day yesterday. It was tough hunting or I should say tough walking for myself and for the dogs. Enough snow that the dogs were pushing through it and filling their vests up regularly along with having your pants iced up almost to the knee- great conditions!

We ended up with 8 birds for the day. We hunted a combination of public and ditches. We ended up doing some ditches just to get a break from pushing snow in the public areas and hoping to corner birds in smaller areas where they would hold. We ended splitting 50/50 on birds between public and ditches for the day.

But the most important info from day one. There are birds galore from what we seen. I figured we seen 400+ birds throughout the day. Mind you a lot of these groups we ran into flushed wild out ahead of the dogs with no shots fired. But there are birds and a lot of them. We also ran into multiple fields of standing corn which was very surprising. These fields are holding a ton of birds and if they cut this corn there will be even more birds looking for cover.

We will be back at it pushing through the snow today for as long as we can take it. It's just going to be a slow day like yesterday from what I see right now. But seeing birds should hopefully keep us motivated and not thinking about the hunting conditions.

I will report again later. Good luck to everyone! Have a great Thanksgiving.

:)



Well day#2 was a little more work for us we ended up shooting 6 birds and should of had our three limits. Terrible shooting was the cause for only 6 birds. The dog work has been absolutely amazing. Been hunting behind my setters for years. It never gets old watching one lock up on point and the second come in and honor. There is not a better sight as far as I am concerned.

Day#3 brought our friend SDJim over to hunt with us. It was a wonderful day to say the least. Jim wanted to see some new country and we exposed him to it with eight birds in the bag for the day.

We have hunted a mix of public and ditches. Some public ground still has a lot of snow believe it or not. But things seem to be getting better daily. Road conditions are a lot better than they were.

Well we will see what day #4 will bring. I know the weather will be great. Good luck to everyone!
 
It was a great hunt yesterday with Chad and Deb, should have had that last bird but I don't move very fast anymore--lol.

I did get some work in for my new pup-- it was great and she learned a lot for the Chads older and much wiser dogs.

PHOTOS BY DEB BEIRL





 
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Looking at the first picture waiting for the flush that we didn't get to see ! Great! Be there Sat for 5 days. Can't wait.
 
Quick report Nov. 21-24

Had my first hunt in South Dakota with my first bird dog and my wife. Will definitely be back.

Day1: Arrived at public land south of I 90 around 4 pm from Arkansas. Within 15 minutes after getting out of the truck Jasper, my 2 y.o. Brittany, locks on point at the edge of a corn field. Flushed and killed my first SD rooster. Not long after Jasper was on point again. I was going to let my wife do the honors to bad it was a hen. While we were finding birds on the edge of the corn field, at least ten flush from the middle. Ended up with another rooster and called it a day.

Day 2: Went back to the same game production area. Started to push the cornfield kind of hard to do with 2 and 15+ flushed wild into the woods and grass field close by. Went to the grass fields in hopes to find the birds that flushed earlier. Had great dog work. I'd say over 10 points and flushes...to bad they were all hens. My foot found a rabbit hole in the snow and I fell and got mud in my barrel. Jasper goes on point and the wife does the honors. Finally a rooster...she misses.(at least she's out hunting with me). Went to hunt the woods and found several more hens and a few roosters. Bagged one rooster.Overall good day. Dog saw a lot of birds.

Day:3 decided to head west towards kimball on public land. Hunted that morning for 2.5 hours with one rooster flushed wild out in front of us. Went back south of I 90 at a different game production area. Hunted some cat tails and other water fowl habitat. Had a limit in 2 hours.

Day 4: headed north towards Huron to hunt public. Same story as kimball...saw one hen flush ahead of us dogs beeper stopped working. Made it a little more difficult.. Went back to public land where we started the trip. We hunted the grass fields and I got my limit of roosters in a little over 2 hours. Walked through the corn, a rooster flushed at our feet, and my wife finally bagged her first rooster.

Great experience! I think the snow on the ground helped a lot. Seems like most of the birds are south of I 90.
 
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The cold is coming now to join that snow.
If the corn is not picked, and there is a foot or more snow, chances are it will be unpicked next spring.
And yes, to the uninitiated, the birds are smarter now, and they know what hunters sound like...people talking, dogs barking, doors slamming etc......
 
Friends and I wer out after the snow, 12 of us. We limited by 1 both sat and Sunday and probably saw 2500 to 3000 birds in the 2 days. All the birds are due to my habitat work the past 3 years and will continue to do more habitat improvements every year. The work is paying off and was glad to see the results.
 
Final Trip report......

Well day one is on the books and it was interesting after the Nov blizzard 2015. Snow and lots of it was the normal all day yesterday. It was tough hunting or I should say tough walking for myself and for the dogs. Enough snow that the dogs were pushing through it and filling their vests up regularly along with having your pants iced up almost to the knee- great conditions!

We ended up with 8 birds for the day. We hunted a combination of public and ditches. We ended up doing some ditches just to get a break from pushing snow in the public areas and hoping to corner birds in smaller areas where they would hold. We ended splitting 50/50 on birds between public and ditches for the day.

But the most important info from day one. There are birds galore from what we seen. I figured we seen 400+ birds throughout the day. Mind you a lot of these groups we ran into flushed wild out ahead of the dogs with no shots fired. But there are birds and a lot of them. We also ran into multiple fields of standing corn which was very surprising. These fields are holding a ton of birds and if they cut this corn there will be even more birds looking for cover.

We will be back at it pushing through the snow today for as long as we can take it. It's just going to be a slow day like yesterday from what I see right now. But seeing birds should hopefully keep us motivated and not thinking about the hunting conditions.

I will report again later. Good luck to everyone! Have a great Thanksgiving.

:)

Well we ended with a three man limit on our trip. We had some tough days during the week but all was good. After a week's worth of hunting and covering a lot of ground I would say overall birds numbers are up and comparable to what the GFP reported. We hunted a combination of public, ditches, and private. All were good to us all week long.

We dealt with a lot of snow the first half of the trip which made for tough hunting condition for not only us but the dogs as well. By the end of the week the snow had all but went away and the best hunting we had was the last two days.

Next trip is over xmas and can't wait for it to get here. Good luck to everyone!
 
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