SD Public Land Poll

A5 Sweet 16

Well-known member
Just curious here.....
What percentage of the pheasant hunting you do in SD is on land w/ public access?? (GPA, WPA, WIA, CREP, CHAP, ditches, etc.)
I'm at about 98%.

Update: (after about 1 week) I asked the same question on a pheasant hunting facebook page. The answers on each page were pretty similar. Out of 60 responses:
47% said 100%.
67% said at least 90%.
82% said at least 50%.
The median was 98%.
The average was 77%.
I was just curious.
Basically, I'm going to presume from now on, unless I'm told otherwise, that about 3/4 of your South Dakota pheasant hunting is done on public land.
Seems fair for people who visit this page. 😁
 
Last edited:
Around 90 to 95 percent on public. Depends on when the in laws and friends are done with harvest and what they invite me to hunt.
 
It varies somewhat year to year, but probably 50% of my hunting time is on public. Several of the private farms I have permission to hunt are smaller tracts, less than a quarter section typically, but generally produce more birds. Couple of them are less than 15 acres.
 
50% public 50% private. The private ground we hunt is 1 day at end of october and 2 days beginning of December.

public ground can vary from year to year with farmers being able to hay the ground etc. So it's always a crap shoot on some of the ground.
we see far fewer birds on public ground. i always look at my steps taken at the end of each day. I easily walk twice as far on public ground than private. Dogs are way more tired too.
 
If hunting alone almost all is public. When hunting with others it's almost all private. One guy (that can shoot) and a good dog can still limit quite regularly on SD public, even in the NE corner.
 
I hunt public 7 out of 10 days.
So 70%.
 
100%. Don't see the cost/benefit to working on private access. Do just fine on public....
 
10% but it could be a lot more. Our area has some prime and remote public land that doesn’t seem to be hammered too hard.
 
Back
Top