South Dakota Pheasant Hunting Is Changing, Or Has Changed

So when I was in my twenties and really into bird hunting I had a lot of options. Kansas was good to great west of about Salina, I could be hunting in 3 hours, 1.5 if I went north of Topeka. I hunted North Central Missouri and south central Iowa with decent success in the late 80’s. South Dakota and Nebraska were also in play. As the birds disappeared, many simply stopped hunting. I mean it’s not all about the birds, but spending two days for one shot isn’t appealing to many….

This afternoon I was speaking to my neighbor who after asking me about South Dakota for a few years finally made the trip a couple weeks ago. I gave him a few pointers on what I have done up there and what to look for. He grew up hunting in Kansas as did I, and both of us were out working on our property on the Kansas opener. Anyway he was over the moon with his experience up there. He told me he saw more birds in the first couple hours than he had seen the year before in Kansas. They hunted nothing but public with the exception of a couple private pieces that they got permission on. While it may be changing, it still offers better opportunity than most. Can’t wait for another trip.
 
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Well I see way more out of state hunters that are hunting public ground with dogs. Trailers and vehicles with multiple dog crates are more common then ever. I will say most appear to be older with the occasional college age hunters mixed in.

I know many of the older people I hunt with,guiding for my friend's customers , are just like most lodge hunters. They like to be able to say "OH our group limited out". Perhaps they never shot a bird and they surely don't want one to take home.

Non residents that hunt with us always want the birds.
 
Glock said:
The only time I see anyone in their twenties hunting is for waterfowl. 99% of the pheasant hunters I see have gray hair or are bald.
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Or both!
 
A reduction in bird numbers equals a reduction in the number of hunters. I don’t think hunting lodges take that many hunters away from the small towns, their lodges aren’t that big! What keeps the hunters away is a lack of birds or a lack of public access for the hunters that aren’t going to the lodge.

Where I grew up as a kid every small town had a hunters breakfast at a church or town hall on both days of the opening weekend! In our town the Methodist ladies had the best, those late 60’s early 70’s ladies sure could cook! The last year they had a breakfast it was mainly local people and only a couple groups of local hunters, no outsiders because the bird population was down! There were so few people they didn’t have the breakfast on Sunday.

The other thing is the cost. 40-45 years ago we used to hunt the SD, IA, NE and KS openers, four weekends in a row. I could hunt those four weekends, three of them away from home for way less than $800 and that included licenses, motel rooms, gas and eating. I hunted the IA opener and then went to SD for a few days and spent way over a $1000 and I didn’t have motel expenses since I stayed with friends. It was $350 for the hunting licenses!

I can’t get my two boys, 45 and 42 to come hunt with me, my grandkids are so into sports they have no free time. They have games on Saturdays and Sundays so no time for hunting.😟
 
Just got back from our SD trip. I can't speak to the breakfast cafe's as we get out on the road early to scout, but the hunter pressure was unlike anything I have seen before. Been going to this same area for 5+ years and it was rare to run into another hunter, maybe once over the entire week. This trip, it was daily, and a few times had guys trying to hunt the same area that we were in.

I really hope it was a fluke. I can stay home if I want to compete with everybody and their brother.
 
molliesmaster said:
Just got back from our SD trip. I can't speak to the breakfast cafe's as we get out on the road early to scout, but the hunter pressure was unlike anything I have seen before. Been going to this same area for 5+ years and it was rare to run into another hunter, maybe once over the entire week. This trip, it was daily, and a few times had guys trying to hunt the same area that we were in.

I really hope it was a fluke. I can stay home if I want to compete with everybody and their brother.
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Pheasant hunting has gotten kind of weird.
 
I don’t golf, but I know what it costs…a day pheasant hunting isn’t terribly different…if cost is an issue, hunt as a resident if that’s an option and go explore and tromp around with the dog…some guys go on golf trips, some just play their local muni…sitting in the bar golfing or hunting can be expensive, with all that goes on. I’m more humored by the dogs at this point than anything else…but they like the whole deal, including birds being shot…it’s all priorities and choices, I guess
 
The observation raised by the op of this thread is not that surprising.

I grew up in Michigan. Lived there most of my life. Firearm deer season in Michigan used to see 750,000 hunters participating. It has dropped to about 550,000 in recent years.

A somewhat related observation: Most towns in the Midwest have baseball fields. I cannot remember the last time that I saw a group of kids playing pick-up ball. Something that I did several days per week when I was a kid.

Demographics and interests are changing.
 
What I have found is many farmers that wanted hunters 20 years ago, simply do not want to host hunters anymore, for whatever reason.
 
dawgs14 said:
What I have found is many farmers that wanted hunters 20 years ago, simply do not want to host hunters anymore, for whatever reason.
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Pheasant pheasant hunting has really changed in the last 20 years with the onset of YouTube, these fancy hunting lodges, Farmers charging people trespass fees to get on their land for a day, cyber scouting using GPS maps, yeah, it's really changed a lot in the last 20 years.
 
Hunted South Dakota once. Birds were so plentiful folks didn’t even look for them after they dropped.

Granted that probably isn’t the usual experience. Enough for me.
 
McFarmer said:
Hunted South Dakota once. Birds were so plentiful folks didn’t even look for them after they dropped.

Granted that probably isn’t the usual experience. Enough for me.
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Whether birds are plentiful or not I can never see a scenario of not looking for one. That sounds like more an issue with the folks you hunted with than a geographical location.
 
John Singer said:
A somewhat related observation: Most towns in the Midwest have baseball fields. I cannot remember the last time that I saw a group of kids playing pick-up ball. Something that I did several days per week when I was a kid.
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That's sad but true, we played a lot of softball/baseball when I was a kid at the ball Diamond. Even the girls played.
After I graduated high school I played town team fast pitch and slow pitch softball for 15 years. I played town team basketball for about 10 years and I would occasionally come home on the weekend from college to play on our basketball team.
They don't even have those leagues anymore. It's sad.
 
Bob Peters said:
Whether birds are plentiful or not I can never see a scenario of not looking for one. That sounds like more an issue with the folks you hunted with than a geographical location.
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I’m not totally sure, certainly partially true.

Any time a resource is seen as plentiful and abundant less than ethical persons will engage in wasteful practices.

That same person, I never met him before, most likely wouldn’t do that in Iowa when they have to work hard for a bird. When he dropped the bird and there are still dozens getting up in front of him, it was easier to walk on by. I got a good mark on it and was walking over to help with the search but when I saw him keep marching I said nuts to it.

I think party hunting encourages that kind of behavior in some.
 
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