Spur of the moment, Chamberlain area

R

RichS

New member
I am heading out to Chamberlain area for a spur of the moment pheasant hunt 12/4 - 12/7. Normally make 2 SD trips a year around the Watertown/Webster area, but job changes, auditors :eek: , etc, messed up the regular group this year. Since it looks like it will be just me the wife and the dog this year, thought I would experiment try a different area, (higher bird pop) this year. Anyone have any suggestions/words of wisdom they would like to share for the Chamberlain area, hunting, lodging, restaurants, etc???
 
Do you have private ground lined up to hunt? There is not a lot of public acres available in that area compared to hunter numbers.

Like you mentioned the bird counts from the GF&P are always high for that area and draws in a lot of out of state hunters. This means lots of competition for the public hunting that is available.

I hunted that area for a couple seasons 10 years or so ago and experienced those issues in November. Maybe December will be a little better.

Cedar Shores on the Oacoma side is a good suggestion for lodging and also a decent restaurant. When I was there Allen Hill on the Chamberlain side was a privately owned motel that also put together hunts. They preferred working with larger groups though.

DB
 
Don't have private lined up. I was hoping being one guy and a dog, I'd be able to find some thick road ditches that bigger groups wouldn't waste their time with... Do you remember if it is mostly crop land in that area, or more ranch type land?
 
RichS said:
Don't have private lined up. I was hoping being one guy and a dog, I'd be able to find some thick road ditches that bigger groups wouldn't waste their time with... Do you remember if it is mostly crop land in that area, or more ranch type land?
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I ended up getting many of my roosters while there hunting road ditches late in the day.

It's been several years but most of my road hunting was on a line between Kimball & Plankinton and then south of I-90 about 20 miles or so. This area was a lot of crop fields with a good mix of cover types for the birds.

Once you get near the river and certainly west river the topography begins to change.
 
I am heading back to that area soon myself. Please post your results.

I know that this report is too late for you, but maybe someone else will benefit.
We hunted Chamberlain in mid November, with great results on private land (Dakota fish and Pheasants) http://www.dakotafishandpheasants.com, out of Reliance. They had about 500 acres of good land, very casual and low key. Not fancy, but good habitat and nice people, and they worked hard to help us get our birds. Reasonable price. We had 2 people one day and three the next and it was perfect for us. Limits both days, but we worked for it. (we also missed alot) We hunted ditches on the way there and on the way home. Only got one the first day of ditch hunting, but we missed quite a few. I did good the last day, before we drove back. (I hunted by myself and got three in 2 hours; my companion would drop me off and I would walk entire ditch side, then she would pick me up at the end). We did not try public land, just ditches. I was amazed at how many birds we flushed when we walked entire ditches.
Great lodging at Americaninn in Chamberlain. Very nice rooms, reasonable price,and dogs allowed in the rooms. We ate dinners at Charlies Bar, which was great.
 
Myself and two buddies hunted on public land approximately 10 miles north of Chamberlain on 12-3-10. We got up early and drove seven hours straight to the area and hunted for about three hours. We managed to take six birds and could have had a couple more with a little better shooting. I've hunted south dakota numerous times but this was our first time hunting the chamberlain area. We were very impressed with the number of birds this late in the season. We hunted south of Huron the next couple of days and had a great time. How can a guy and a lab not have a good in south dakota?
 
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