SD no better than IA

Vet_WingChaser

Vet_WingChaser

Member
Hello all, I'm fairly new to this forum and I can tell you I'm already addicted. I just got back from a 5 day trip to SD. I'm from Cedar Rapids and we hunted NW Iowa on the way out and on the way back. it was myself and one other guy with my rookie brittany and his well seasoned lab (she is a machine). i'm proud to say that my brit performed amazing... i was one proud papa. here is the issue though. we shot 6 birds in that 5 days. two of them being in iowa. one on the way out and one on the way back. we hunted all public in SD and we covered a very large area. this was the first trip for us so i did a ton of research. lets just say that lack of birds shot was not from lack of effort or skill. we saw a crap ton of hens, so that was great for the dogs, it was cold, so they were sitting tight. we hunted hard, i mean really hard.
The point of this little rant is that i can hunt just as hard in iowa and get just as many birds. and here's a pic of Lucy and her first few birds.
 
lucygoosey said:
Hello all, I'm fairly new to this forum and I can tell you I'm already addicted. I just got back from a 5 day trip to SD. I'm from Cedar Rapids and we hunted NW Iowa on the way out and on the way back. it was myself and one other guy with my rookie brittany and his well seasoned lab (she is a machine). i'm proud to say that my brit performed amazing... i was one proud papa. here is the issue though. we shot 6 birds in that 5 days. two of them being in iowa. one on the way out and one on the way back. we hunted all public in SD and we covered a very large area. this was the first trip for us so i did a ton of research. lets just say that lack of birds shot was not from lack of effort or skill. we saw a crap ton of hens, so that was great for the dogs, it was cold, so they were sitting tight. we hunted hard, i mean really hard.
The point of this little rant is that i can hunt just as hard in iowa and get just as many birds. and here's a pic of Lucy and her first few birds.
Click to expand...

you were not in the right area then !! it doesnt get any easier than in south dakota
 
only a pointer said:
you were not in the right area then !! it doesnt get any easier than in south dakota
Click to expand...

I don't know about that. The preserves were you have to kick the white box that the birds were transported to the field in order to get the last one out is pretty easy.
 
moellermd said:
What area of SD did you hunt.
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stayed in mitchell, hunted 1/2 hr north and a little west of mitchell the first day, then we went further north to get into the snow, bout 1 hr north and then about 1/2 hr west. we were hitting 3 to 4 spots a day. the last day we went for broke on a random tip in the bar. we drove all the way west of the river to Tripp county. guy told us we would limit out by noon by just driving around. there wasn't much for public ground in that area. we hit a couple nice ones that had food plots and we walked about 10 miles of road ditches on roads that looked like cow paths. when i say we hunted hard, i really mean it. we saw about 15 hens that day. did notice there was a ton of pay to hunt places out there with beautiful cover. guess i just have too much Tred Barta in me to pay 200 a day to hunt tame birds. Thankful for all the hens we saw as this was the first time out for my brit pup.
 
lucygoosey said:
Hello all, I'm fairly new to this forum and I can tell you I'm already addicted. I just got back from a 5 day trip to SD. I'm from Cedar Rapids and we hunted NW Iowa on the way out and on the way back. it was myself and one other guy with my rookie brittany and his well seasoned lab (she is a machine). i'm proud to say that my brit performed amazing... i was one proud papa. here is the issue though. we shot 6 birds in that 5 days. two of them being in iowa. one on the way out and one on the way back. we hunted all public in SD and we covered a very large area. this was the first trip for us so i did a ton of research. lets just say that lack of birds shot was not from lack of effort or skill. we saw a crap ton of hens, so that was great for the dogs, it was cold, so they were sitting tight. we hunted hard, i mean really hard.
The point of this little rant is that i can hunt just as hard in iowa and get just as many birds. and here's a pic of Lucy and her first few birds.
Click to expand...

Welcome !

I used to work for a company out of Cedar Rapids. What areasof NW Iowa did you hunt.
 
lucygoosey said:
stayed in mitchell, hunted 1/2 hr north and a little west of mitchell the first day, then we went further north to get into the snow, bout 1 hr north and then about 1/2 hr west. we were hitting 3 to 4 spots a day. the last day we went for broke on a random tip in the bar. we drove all the way west of the river to Tripp county. guy told us we would limit out by noon by just driving around. there wasn't much for public ground in that area. we hit a couple nice ones that had food plots and we walked about 10 miles of road ditches on roads that looked like cow paths. when i say we hunted hard, i really mean it. we saw about 15 hens that day. did notice there was a ton of pay to hunt places out there with beautiful cover. guess i just have too much Tred Barta in me to pay 200 a day to hunt tame birds. Thankful for all the hens we saw as this was the first time out for my brit pup.
Click to expand...

not far enough north
 
Hit or miss

Hunting public ground in any state is hit or miss. I've been to SD twice and hunted public ground 4 of the 10 total days. All 4 days we limited out. It's taken as long as 6 hours and as little as an hour.
I know each time I go out I learn one new spot or one new way to attack a spot to make it easier each time out. I bet the same would be true for you. If you take the experience you gained from this trip, your next trip will be more productive. Going a little earlier in the season problem wouldn't hurt as well.
On the bright side if you give up SD that will be just a few more birds that I will get to find next year. :D :cheers:
 
shorthairs4life said:
Hunting public ground in any state is hit or miss. I've been to SD twice and hunted public ground 4 of the 10 total days. All 4 days we limited out. It's taken as long as 6 hours and as little as an hour.
I know each time I go out I learn one new spot or one new way to attack a spot to make it easier each time out. I bet the same would be true for you. If you take the experience you gained from this trip, your next trip will be more productive. Going a little earlier in the season problem wouldn't hurt as well.
On the bright side if you give up SD that will be just a few more birds that I will get to find next year. :D :cheers:
Click to expand...

I used to live in Waukesha when I was younger. How old are you?

On topic...I haven't ever been to SD to hunt, but plan on making a trip around Xmas to hunt public. Hopefully I find some birds as I haven't found much here in Iowa.
 
Lets just say that you were in the primest of areas in Iowa, and as far as South Dakota... not so much....
 
I'm sorry your first trip to sd didn't meet your expectations. You say you did your homework, which you may have, but obviously not well enough to put you in birds. We all know how the surveys, counts, etc. work. Areas with good population may have poor pockets or the other way around.
I made my first trip to sd last November. I went with someone who had been there before because I didn't want my first experience to mirror yours. Much of the info and help you get from this site is invaluable. I started by building a hunting trip. Got help and info from a number guys and ended up going with shorthairs4ever. Go to sd forum, glean from the guys that live there, or the regulars that post. While you're there you might stumble across a few of mine to find out how I did.
I used to hunt Iowa, have 80 acres in crp s.e. Iowa. Replanting this spring.
I put off going to sd because of the distance and expense. I went out of necessity, a last resort, to put my dogs on wild birds. Glad I did!
 
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