SD Report

BritChaser

BritChaser

Well-known member
Heading to the SD happy hunting grounds in the a.m. for Friday and Saturday hunting in south central. Always a good hunt with nice huntin' buddies. Will cut the dust after the guns are put away for the day with a nice single barrel bourbon. Life is good! :D

HUNT REPORT: Friday the wind blew steadily 20-25 and it rained intermittently with .40 inch total accumulation. Choked modified and full due to wind. With the wind and rain droplets on our eye wear (or in our eyes), shooting was challenging. Despite a number of misses I managed to bag one that flushed from a cane strip on a slant right to left with 1 1/4 oz. no. 5s thru the mod choke. Others did better. Saturday was near-perfect: clear skies, high 62, light breeze. Back to improved cylinder and modified, no. 6s for the first shot. My first bird was another right to left slant off a point in some grass and weeds. While retrieving, my buddy dropped one and my dog ran over and stood on it with my bird still in his mouth. Good dog. My second went straight off my left shoulder and high out of the bottom of a big pasture draw. My gun was up about 50-55 degrees at the shot. The third was a level straightaway off a point in a narrow pasture draw. My brags: my nine year old dog hunted hard and effectively both days, and I went three shells for three birds on Saturday. All in all a great hunt with two new (to me) guys in the group who were boon hunting companions. Thank you hunt leader.
 
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Good luck, have fun!:thumbsup:
 
I'll be heading up with a group from Denver on Nov. 10 for three days around the Winner area. This will be the third trip for my pointing lab Parker--nicknamed the BirdHorse by one of my hunting friends the first time he saw him jump out of the truck. He's pretty tall and gallops through the field.

Have a great season everyone.

 
Heading out in the morning!!!

Hunted Mn. for last several weeks, with good success, but now heading to central S.D. Really looking forward to spending time with great friends and chasing the wily rooster. Hunting public on Wednesday than to private on Thursday thru Sunday. Will give report when back. There will be up to 20 hunters at times, will see how it goes. My farmer friend said the birds are thick, but he says that every year!!!:cheers:
 
PairOfLabs said:
I'll be heading up with a group from Denver on Nov. 10 for three days around the Winner area. This will be the third trip for my pointing lab Parker--nicknamed the BirdHorse by one of my hunting friends the first time he saw him jump out of the truck. He's pretty tall and gallops through the field.

Have a great season everyone.
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Great looking dog. He'll be busy when he gets to SD.
 
sd report

I brought my pup (her 1st hunt) and my old man (11) to SD and hunted Wednesday the 21st-Saturday 24th. We just did ok. No limits and got dumped on rain on Friday. The bird population in Central SD does not appear to be up the 42% GF&P is claiming. The prior 2 weeks I was driving a tractor/grain cart and did not see all that many coming out of the corn. About the same as last year. Still, it is better than any public lands in Minnesota I hunt.
 
r u dun said:
I brought my pup (her 1st hunt) and my old man (11) to SD and hunted Wednesday the 21st-Saturday 24th. We just did ok. No limits and got dumped on rain on Friday. The bird population in Central SD does not appear to be up the 42% GF&P is claiming. The prior 2 weeks I was driving a tractor/grain cart and did not see all that many coming out of the corn. About the same as last year. Still, it is better than any public lands in Minnesota I hunt.
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. . . and waaay better than Kansas where I live and hunt mostly. I score :10sign: for SD.
 
Back from S.D report

Hunted Wednesday thru Sunday in Central S.D. Weather was interesting to say the least.
Day #1:
Wind was crazy with 30+ mph gusts and snow showers which caused white out conditions. Birds were super spooky, hunted a mix of public and private. Finished the day with 18 birds for 6 guys using three dogs, sounds good but really worked hard and earned our birds!!!

Day #2:
Gang rolled into town today. Hunted public in morning and Private in afternoon, weather was perfect. Struggled to find birds, even on private, finished day with 13 birds for group, not good. My theory is that birds spent majority of day in corn and flowers feeding since the day before they were pinned down due to wind and such.

Day #3:
Weather was clear and nice. Had group of 20 hunters (all friends that get together each year). Hit some of our best stuff and found birds in various spots, finished with 60 bird limit. Great pictures and stories about the missed birds and the amazing shots. Again did this all with 5-6 dogs. This is the greatest training I can get my dogs, tons of flushes and retrieves!!!!!

Day #4:
Wind was blowing like crazy. Group of 18, 5 dogs. 39 birds harvested. Did not see the #'s of birds I was expecting, will talk about that in a minute. Really worked hard for these birds and earned them.

Day#5
Weather was nice, concerned about temp getting to high in afternoon for dogs, wanted to quit hunting by 4:00 so guys could head for home. Hit some of our best stuff that we always save for last day, had group of 20 again with 5 kids included. We pair up an adult with each kid so we can monitor them and make sure they shoot safe and such (try and put them in what we think are the best spots), great experience for kids!!!! Finished with 54 birds, I got lucky and shot two doubles!!!! Dog work was awesome, and saw some amazing retrieves including a 150 + yrd. blind retrieve by my little female lab, what a super star!!!!!

Conclusion: I was shocked at the #'s of hunters in the caf? and at the hotel in town, usually don't see this many even when I have been out on opener, we are not located in the pheasant golden triangle. Every piece of public land got pounded over the last few days, visited with several groups and received reports of 1-2 birds per group, with 6-7 hunters in each group, most said it was their first time in the area, and came because the reports were bird #'s way up around this area, saw plates from Texas, California, Georgia, long way to drive for poor success. Definitely not the case, in my un-scientific evaluation and observation I would say the bird #'s are down from last year, definitely not up close to what the reports are. My farmer friend was still harvesting corn, but I would guess around 60-70 percent is out. Going back out in Dec. for several trips, will get a better feel for it then, mean while, let dogs rest today and hunt Minnesota a few days this week B4 deer opener. Take care and shoot straight!!!!:cheers:
 
Sounds like a good trip. Three of us are headed to the Pierre area this weekend. It's a long drive for us but we are really looking forward to it. This will be our first time hunting South Dakota, hoping the corn is getting cut right now. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post.
 
im worried corn coming down & guys still saying numbers are down??? whats the deal??? are we spoiled or are all the birds still in all the remaining crops??? bird forecast off???

i head back out nov. 10 to SD i hope birds are loaded up in my haunts come next tuesday!!!
 
Been hunting same area for23 years, my 2 trips there this season so far suggest that #'s are higher than last year...40 percent sounds right, which is what gfp said.
 
benelli-banger said:
Been hunting same area for23 years, my 2 trips there this season so far suggest that #'s are higher than last year...40 percent sounds right, which is what gfp said.
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I would agree regarding numbers. The rooster to hen ratio seems to be higher as well. At least it was on our first trip. Heading back out in two weeks for thanksgiving week will see how numbers look then. I would assume they will be a lot better if the corn is all down. Will report mid stream while on the ground.....
 
South Dakota hunting

Rooster Shooter said:
Hunted Wednesday thru Sunday in Central S.D. Weather was interesting to say the least.
Day #1:
Wind was crazy with 30+ mph gusts and snow showers which caused white out conditions. Birds were super spooky, hunted a mix of public and private. Finished the day with 18 birds for 6 guys using three dogs, sounds good but really worked hard and earned our birds!!!

Day #2:
Gang rolled into town today. Hunted public in morning and Private in afternoon, weather was perfect. Struggled to find birds, even on private, finished day with 13 birds for group, not good. My theory is that birds spent majority of day in corn and flowers feeding since the day before they were pinned down due to wind and such.

Day #3:
Weather was clear and nice. Had group of 20 hunters (all friends that get together each year). Hit some of our best stuff and found birds in various spots, finished with 60 bird limit. Great pictures and stories about the missed birds and the amazing shots. Again did this all with 5-6 dogs. This is the greatest training I can get my dogs, tons of flushes and retrieves!!!!!

Day #4:
Wind was blowing like crazy. Group of 18, 5 dogs. 39 birds harvested. Did not see the #'s of birds I was expecting, will talk about that in a minute. Really worked hard for these birds and earned them.

Day#5
Weather was nice, concerned about temp getting to high in afternoon for dogs, wanted to quit hunting by 4:00 so guys could head for home. Hit some of our best stuff that we always save for last day, had group of 20 again with 5 kids included. We pair up an adult with each kid so we can monitor them and make sure they shoot safe and such (try and put them in what we think are the best spots), great experience for kids!!!! Finished with 54 birds, I got lucky and shot two doubles!!!! Dog work was awesome, and saw some amazing retrieves including a 150 + yrd. blind retrieve by my little female lab, what a super star!!!!!

Conclusion: I was shocked at the #'s of hunters in the caf? and at the hotel in town, usually don't see this many even when I have been out on opener, we are not located in the pheasant golden triangle. Every piece of public land got pounded over the last few days, visited with several groups and received reports of 1-2 birds per group, with 6-7 hunters in each group, most said it was their first time in the area, and came because the reports were bird #'s way up around this area, saw plates from Texas, California, Georgia, long way to drive for poor success. Definitely not the case, in my un-scientific evaluation and observation I would say the bird #'s are down from last year, definitely not up close to what the reports are. My farmer friend was still harvesting corn, but I would guess around 60-70 percent is out. Going back out in Dec. for several trips, will get a better feel for it then, mean while, let dogs rest today and hunt Minnesota a few days this week B4 deer opener. Take care and shoot straight!!!!:cheers:
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I would agree bird numbers were not as good as last year. 2 of us hunted 3 days with one dog and ended up with 13 birds. We had to work for them. We would have filled our bag limit each day but my hunting partner was a little rusty and missed some easy shots. The ranch we hunted on had one large sunflower field in harvested and an adjacent milo field that hadn't been picked yet. We saw considerably more hens than roosters and I suspect the roosters may have been using the unharvested fields. I expect to see more roosters when I go back up in the 3rd week of Nov.
 
This will be the third trip for my pointing lab Parker--nicknamed the BirdHorse by one of my hunting

Got love the name. Good luck, be safe and most of all have fun. :):):)
 
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