Southeast SD vs Iowa

[zmill93]

Anybody out there who hunts public land in both of these areas? I'm wondering if Iowa isn't taking over as far as public land pheasant hunting goes. I'm thinking NW Iowa counties vs Bon Homme, Hutchinson, Yankton, etc. in terms of which produces a better public hunt these days.

Both a lot of fun but Iowa has been putting quality habitat on the map in that area.

 

[waterdog09]

I hunt both SE SD and NC & NW Iowa and I would say they are both comparable. The habitat in Iowa is fantastic! Other states could learn from IA on this one. The only problem with NW & NC IA is you are in the heart of the highest #'s and that means you see the same for hunter numbers.

 

[lockedncupped]

100% agree with water dog. I hardly ever have competition in SD on public land. Iowa I encounter other hunters at probably 80% of the spots I try.

 

[zmill93]

Waterdog09 and lockedncupped - thanks for this insight, it's greatly appreciated. Your responses actually surprise me, from all of my "forum reading" and Facebook group post research it would seem that southeast SD public land is just crawling with hunters everywhere. So I pictured the competition and public land pressure 10x worse than what I was used to in NW Iowa.

 

[jackrabbit]

For the competition on SD Public Land, weekdays vs weekends can also make a big difference. Early season, nice weather, weekend - you'll have competition at a lot of spots but you may also luck out and pick a spot with nobody else in the area. Mid season, weekday, good or bad weather - you may hardly see another person. I like to pick out areas on the map that have a lot of different public land areas within a certain vicinity of eachother. That way if one has hunters on it, doesn't look great, etc., I can quickly get to another.