SD Hunt

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Pheasantphan

Member
Well, we are out here hunting public ground (SD). Seeing several birds but they seem to leave the public to go feed. We hunted cattails, CRP type grass and some thickets today with limited success finding birds, not even many hens. After seeing all the birds, it seemed that we could not find them. There are two of us and we are using two labs and one brittany that have very limited pheasant/upland experience. My brittany did point and hold a couple of times today, all hens.

Any advice would be appreciated as far as cover to hunt, time of day, or any other tips.

We have seen several small groups of birds that sit in open fields and then have a tendency to gain altitude quickly then have a slow flight with few wingbeats - are those prairie chickens. Also saw the first badger I have seen in the wild. Having a great time.
Chuck
 
You might have some luck hunting the waterfowl production areas Usually we hunt the rushes or thick cover first and then the crp or walk in areas in the late afternoon. Good Luck!
 
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Yup, the birds you see are probably Sharptail.
Pheasants leave the heavy stuff to feed early morning and late in the day under normal conditions. As the weather gets cold birds will spend more and more time in the feeding areas. And if not disturbed will spend the whole day in feeding areas such as grain or corn stubble. You be surprised how pheasants will disappear in stubble. Most of the heavy cover stuff by now has been hunted and hunted, probably take a storm or strong winds to get the birds back to the heavy stuff.
Sounds like your having typical late season hunting. If you get into good cover that hasn't been hunted for a week or so, you'll find the birds.
Got to just keep working at it, good luck.
 
What I have done is ask the land owner where the birds are sitting, then just walk at em till they fly back to cover, then go after them, after flushing twice, the third time they hold tight 90% of the time.
 
Thanks again guys. We kinda did the Fcspringer tip today. We found some birds bunched up and flushed them and they got out in some CRP/cattails and we got a few of those. Worked hard today and had another good day.

Saw another flock of the aforementioned unidentified birds today but not close enough to get a shot at. Again - having a great time.
 
Also had a meeting with a local landowner today. He was on the side of the road rolling up electric fence and stopped to talk. He asked if we were hunting and we said yes. We visited for a few minutes and then he offered (without us asking) to let us hunt a slough on his place. Nice folks up here.
 
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