South Dakota

D

Deweybagger

New member
Laying in bed and all I can see is pheasants flushing, crazy out here....
Can't believe how many birds are out here, going to be hard to hunt around home after this.
Two days down, two left...75 roosters in two days for our group

I can see how people think they have good dogs if they only hunt out here! Think you could hunt them with a goat and still limit out! They are like mosquitoes out here.
 
He must be hunting the private camp n. e. of Pierre; there's a video of this farm that was circulating a few year's ago - Warne Ranches. Looks like you could shoot several birds with one shot!

Imagine having that kind of success on public land!
 
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Glad someone is having great success this year. Guess that's how it goes. I've been on the other end this season. It's been the worst year of pheasant hunting I've had in a long, long time. :(
 
jonnyB said:
He must be hunting the private camp n. e. of Pierre; there's a video of this farm that was circulating a few year's ago - Warne Ranches. Looks like you could shoot several birds with one shot!

Imagine having that kind of success on public land!
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You can see the same on public land. Late season. They bunch up by the hundreds, flush by the hundreds:). Drive the field right and up they go. It's an awesome sight.
 
Deweybagger said:
We are hunting all private, cattails and cep.
Everyone has to work tomorrow so we're heading home now.
97 roosters in 2 1/2 days!

I'll post more when I get home, going to start the 8 hr drive
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Wow. That's a lot of pheasant meat.;)
 
First afternoon we hunted a 160+ acre crp field with a pond in the middle, thick cattail edges. The posters headed around the back side of the field, I watched as 200+ birds flushed away from the direction the poster were coming from!

I've never hunted SD, I've heard of this but never seen it, so we started hunting into the field and I was thinking most of the birds spooked and it was going to be just a walk with the dogs, 17 dead roosters later we were back in the trucks heading to the next field.....blown away to say the least!

We hits few small pieces with no luck, then the craziest field to that point!
We watched hundreds if not a thousand birds randomly get flushed by our dogs, 1, 2, 10+ at a time, bird flying in from standing corn....anywhere there was snow on the ground it was solid pheasant tracks.

Then the honey hole, first giant field of the day with 5' cats and thick swamp grass, crp edges. Est. between wild flushing birds, dogs, birds flushing from gun fire, sneaking out the back door birds....not even trying to stretch the truth, everyone's best guess was around 2000 birds, F'ing unbelievable!!! Sounded like a war! Dogs retrieving birds from every direction it seemed....

So that was the good parts, the bad is I'm feeling muscles I forgot I had! Definitely a different pace from what I normally hunt.

I'll be back again as long as I'm welcome, I bet I seen more birds in 1 hour out there than in all my hunting years combined. I'm Guessing most on here have hunted SD, if not don't put it off any longer. I was a "next year" guy, now I'm going to be a every year guy!
 
Looks like the question, "Is this Heaven?" just got answered for you. :D

Glad you had the glory days. That snow looks like the inside of a pheasant farm pen.

How'd the dog do with all that scent?
 
Kismet said:
Looks like the question, "Is this Heaven?" just got answered for you. :D

Glad you had the glory days. That snow looks like the inside of a pheasant farm pen.

How'd the dog do with all that scent?
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The snow picture is on the edge of crp and a cut bean field, the snow in the crp looks exactly like that.

Probably the hardest pard with all the scent was the winged down runners, hard for the dogs to pick up a specific track with that much scent on the ground.

For me trying to call my 10 month old puppy back when he'd see a bird going down, you know how they want every retrieve. If he got there first or about the same time they all came back to me. I was worried about the possibility of dog fights over birds, we did witness it twice but luckily neither one of my dogs we're involved.
 
Man your dog looks like he has been in a fight. It amazes me that our dogs will go through that and still be ready for more. Cool snow picture. There is nothing like seeing all those wild birds in one spot.
 
carptom1 said:
Man your dog looks like he has been in a fight. It amazes me that our dogs will go through that and still be ready for more. Cool snow picture. There is nothing like seeing all those wild birds in one spot.
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Some big spurs and bloody heads, lots of retreives! sure made the wife unhappy when she seen the picture "that better not be his blood!"

My dogs were ready every time the doors opened, they did however sleep extremely well on the drive home!

I'm glad my 15 yr old son was able to be with on my first trip, hope it becomes a life long adventure from last weekend on. Seeing all those wild birds was everything I've heard about SD and more, I might sneak back out before the end of season!



Carptom, how'd you do? Thought I read on here somewhere you were going around Murdo somewhere...we shoot p-dogs between Murdo and white river most every spring on the edge of the rosebud, traded my trip last year for my new puppy but I'll be back this spring.
 
In october it was fair, hunted in 80+ degree heat. It is an adventure that I shared with my dad, and now share with my boy's. I lost my father when I was 18, so hopefully I will last a little longer than that. Your son will be hooked for life after seeing that.

Man those are some spurs. SD makes bird dogs. My lab is 5 and he gets a lifetime of bird exposure every year up there. He really has become a good dog.

I am leaving at noon tomorrow and heading up again for 4 days. Looks like it will be about 60 on thursday. Although I am a little disappointed with no snow, it will be kinda nice.
 
carptom1 said:
In october it was fair, hunted in 80+ degree heat. It is an adventure that I shared with my dad, and now share with my boy's. I lost my father when I was 18, so hopefully I will last a little longer than that. Your son will be hooked for life after seeing that.

Man those are some spurs. SD makes bird dogs. My lab is 5 and he gets a lifetime of bird exposure every year up there. He really has become a good dog.

I am leaving at noon tomorrow and heading up again for 4 days. Looks like it will be about 60 on thursday. Although I am a little disappointed with no snow, it will be kinda nice.
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Good luck, a lot of snow was melting when we stopped hunting around 2:30 Sunday, field entry's were getting very muddy.
We cancelled our first trip because of the snow and cold early November.
I guess we could say it was perfect last weekend, 25-45 degrees with a light breeze.

I lost my dad about a month ago, never got to share this with him. This is something any hunting family should try at least once together...but don't think it will stop at one time.

Good luck again, let us know how it goes
 
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