South Dakota Question

CO_Weimar

CO_Weimar

New member
So my wife is trying to bribe me into taking our 20 month old, Blitz, to a dog show ... :laugh: She is devious and found a show in Rapid City, SD which runs October 18 - 20, which happens to correspond to the beginning of pheasant season there. Is Rapid City anywhere near the pheasant action? Is there walk in access in SD? I know nothing about SD or pheasant hunting up there ... can anyone offer some guidance?

Thanks,

Chuck

PS - Dog shows only take about an hour. Weimaraners and other short coated sporting dogs typically go early, since they don't require grooming.

Finally, Blitz is one of those really rare "show dogs" that can actually do what he was bred to do. If I end up taking him to the show, I can say without a doubt, that he will be the only dog there that will actually be hunting after the show. :cheers:
 
That is pretty cool they you have a dog who can do both. As a lab owner, you don't find that very often anymore.

I am not an expert on SD, however my son (13yrs old) and I (with our two labs) went up there last year for the first time and hunted around Platte.

We shot one bird :eek::eek:, and we didn't see very many, not what I had imagined for SD. Where there were birds you had to pay $$$$$:mad:

Unless you know someone or are willing to pay, while they do have alot of public areas to hunt, if may be a little difficult.

I do not know the area you are going to, so you might want to post on the South Dakota forum and ask. From what I was told, the drought has hit the southern part of the state like it did eastern Colorado, parts of Neb and KS.

Also, everything is commercialized now in SD. Due to various reasons, the good ole days are gone. :(

Greg
 
Thanks for the info retrvrman. That is somewhat what I was expecting. My wife may have to foot the bill for access as part of the "deal". ;-) I'll poke around on the SD forum as well. It isn't too far over to Montana ... so, maybe I will have to take a detour and a couple of days off.

As for the show dog / field dog separation that makes me crazy mad. IMHO, they shouldn't be in the show ring if the dogs haven't done / cant do what they were bred to do. Weimaraners are a really good example of this craziness ... there are the field Weims and show Weims and only a handful that can do both.

****
If we go hunting, I'll have to take along my big blue boy, Dakota, as well.
:cheers:
 
I think a 2 1/2 hour drive East will put you in some good country!!!! PM me if you want!!!!:cheers:
 
i've hunted SD several years up around the Aberdeen area and have found plenty of walk in property that held birds. it's not a game perserve so you have to hunt for them but i would rather not get my limit knowing that the ones i did get were due to my GSP and me. You can down load the walkin atlas from the SD hunting website to give you a start on places to hunt. The thread for the drought has shown much of SD has not been hit as hard as other states giving you a better chance at finding birds. i have hunted opening day several years and was very surprised that i had several fields to myself or shared it with one other small group, but i do prefer a little later in the season when most of the crops are down concentrating the birds in the CRP areas, also because the first week of the season you can't start hunting until 12 noon after that it is 10 am.

I would take advantage of the opportunity of being in the area and spend sometime letting you hunting partner (dog) do what they do best.
 
Local PF (Black Hills Chapter) has been working hard on habitat in western SD. There are several state game production areas about 60 miles south of Rapid City plus several PF projects--there would be lots of other hunters but it is possible to get into birds and at least the dog would get some work--you might check out the web site for the PF chapter. Also order a walk-in book from the SD GF&P when they come out this fall. Good Luck:D
 
Thanks for the info guys - really appreciate it!

We'll see what happens - I might get off the hook if my wife takes him to a show later in the summer and we can get all of the "pretty boy" stuff out of the way. =) Then we can make a trip - for hunting only! :cheers:

If I do end up making the trip, the noon start would be perfect since I could get the show business out of the way by 9:30 and head out for hunting from the show. Which sure beats hanging around the hotel watching TV.
 
in the middle of the state ,at the top had a lot of birds 10 yrs ago
and yes ,everybody knows its a commodity
it was 50 bucks a day to hunt somebodies land, so 250 dollars for the 5 day half of the license.
there was some public grass lands with some birds on it but the heavy concentrations were on private land, where they grow oats to feed the cattle
good luck
 
I live in Rapid and typically have to drive a couple hours east to get into good pheasant ground. GFP and PF have worked hard down by Hot Springs on habitat and some stocking, but it remains a far cry from the hunting in the central part of the state. We do have some sharptails out here, but our pheasant hunting still has a long ways to go to catch up with the rest of the state.
 
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