Start of South Dakota 2025-2026 season countdown

Goosemaster said:
Lol mosby is a guy from the movie The Searchers
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FWIW, I've never been a fan of The Searchers. Mosby is also the name of the "Gray Ghost".. commander of the 43rd Battalion Virginia Calvary...also known as Mosby's Rangers. They operated in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia also known as "Mosby's Confederacy". They fought off horseback. No Confederate uniforms or rifles. They dressed like civilians and carried pistols and swords. They were to be shot or hung when captured by Union forces. My wife's great great grandfather was second in command of Mosby's Ranger.s. His brother Sam fought with the Rangers and was known as the "Fighting Pastor". A Baptist Minister, Sam volunteered when the Spanish American War broke out and was with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders when they charged San Juan Hill. My wife is also related to Jeb Stuart. Mosby survived the war and became friends with a California ranching family. He used to take their son out for horseback rides and talk about battles from the Civil War. You might have heard of the boy.....his name was George....George Patton.

Now isn't that much more interesting than a character from an old lousy movie?
 
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Mosby said:
FWIW, I've never been a fan of The Searchers. Mosby is also the name of the "Gray Ghost".. commander of the 43rd Battalion Virginia Calvary...also known as Mosby's Rangers. They operated in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia also know as "Mosby's Confederacy". They fought off horseback. No Confederate uniforms or rifles. They dressed like civilians and carried pistols and swords. They were to be shot or hung when captured by Union forces. My wife's great great grandfather was second in command of Mosby's Ranger.s. His brother Sam fought with the Rangers and was known as the "Fighting Pastor". A Baptist Minister, Sam volunteered when the Spanish American War broke out and was with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders when they charged San Juan Hill. My wife is also related to Jeb Stuart. Mosby survived the war and became friends with a California ranching family. He used to take their son out for horseback rides and talk about battles from the Civil War. You might have heard of the boy.....his name was George....George Patton.

Now isn't that much more interesting than a character from an old lousy movie?
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Cool story, love the history
 
Mosby said:
FWIW, I've never been a fan of The Searchers. Mosby is also the name of the "Gray Ghost".. commander of the 43rd Battalion Virginia Calvary...also known as Mosby's Rangers. They operated in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia also known as "Mosby's Confederacy". They fought off horseback. No Confederate uniforms or rifles. They dressed like civilians and carried pistols and swords. They were to be shot or hung when captured by Union forces. My wife's great great grandfather was second in command of Mosby's Ranger.s. His brother Sam fought with the Rangers and was known as the "Fighting Pastor". A Baptist Minister, Sam volunteered when the Spanish American War broke out and was with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders when they charged San Juan Hill. My wife is also related to Jeb Stuart. Mosby survived the war and became friends with a California ranching family. He used to take their son out for horseback rides and talk about battles from the Civil War. You might have heard of the boy.....his name was George....George Patton.

Now isn't that much more interesting than a character from an old lousy movie?
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That is interesting, I'll have to Google that I guess and look into it. I had a relative that was in the Confederate Army, he was a private, and was shot in the head and killed at Gettysburg.
 
Another interesting story(at least I thought so).. George Custer was hated in the Shenadough Valley. He burned everything in sight in the 1864 campaign called "The burning". After one skirmish he captured and hung 6 of Mosby's men. It is believed Custer witnessed the hangings. In retaliation, Mosby captured and hung 7 of Custer's men. After that, Gen. Phil Sheridan ordered his troops to stop hanging Mosby's men. Mosby did the same.
 
Goosemaster said:
So what's the south Dakota report?
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I purposely didn't hunt That1uncle's area, because I know there are no pheasants there, as he has also reported. But my area was much like many other resident weekends. Enough pheasants to shoot at & get excited about. But also lots of standing corn & wind, plus a little rain. I suspect numbers will be up where I hunt, a little at least. We'll know more once they're done harvesting corn. Then once we get some significant snow (assuming it happens this year; last 2 years have been meager), we'll see for sure after birds bunch up a bit.
 
Mosby said:
I don't know if I'm going to hunt SD this year. I just cancelled my room reservations for the second week. I am considering a change in venue. The area I've been hunting is SD hasn't been all that great the last couple of years. Too many hunters with twice as many dogs....week after week. Birds get a lot of pressure and I see more in the ditches than the fields. I've been scouting out a new place to hunt that seems to hold more birds and fewer hunters. Going to spend today working out the details and hopefully make some reservations. Much further drive and more remote but I won't know for sure until I give it a try.
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I get that. I used to live in SD and the pressure can be intense. Don't get me wrong, I shot my limit more days than not and I hunted allot, but I wouldn't have had the success I had without the intimate knowledge you can only gain by living in the area.

It was a weird progression. After the crops were out for a few weeks you'd have to find the back corners and hard to reach places, then when those would dry up it was an exercise in covering ground until you found a spot or two that just didn't get hunted allot that year for some reason. It would change from year to year as well. I'd have a couple honey holes that would get overlooked and I'd hit them during the doldrums for 2 years then all of the sudden there would be hunters all over them and former popular spots would get less pressure. The birds would eventually get kicked off public and wouldn't really return until you got snow, then they'd leave again after more pressure.

I'd recommend trying Minnesota. I have better public land hunting here than I did in South Dakota. Granted, I didn't live in the best area for pheasants in South Dakota but it was decent. I routinely see more birds in Minnesota on public land. There's just so much more public land that you can always find birds on public. If you go to the best areas of Minnesota you should be able to flush 20-30 birds in a day, no problem. 50 plus bird days are possible as well. The license is cheap and it's for the whole season. The only downside is a 2 bird limit until December 1st.

On a side note I'm almost positive I ran into A5 Sweet 16 one day. It was during the doldrums on a Sunday when all of the public land was tough hunting before we got snow. I easily shot my 3 birds in about an hour. I saw a truck coming down the road and I hid my birds in my trunk. He asked me how I did and I lied through my teeth. I told him I missed one rooster and saw 4 or 5 hens. I acted like a rube and told him I was going to watch football. He didn't buy it and hunted that spot anyways.
 
ArmchairBiologist said:
I'd recommend trying Minnesota. I have better public land hunting here than I did in South Dakota. Granted, I didn't live in the best area for pheasants in South Dakota but it was decent. I routinely see more birds in Minnesota on public land. There's just so much more public land that you can always find birds on public. If you go to the best areas of Minnesota you should be able to flush 20-30 birds in a day, no problem. 50 plus bird days are possible as well. The license is cheap and it's for the whole season. The only downside is a 2 bird limit until December 1st.

...
He asked me how I did and I lied through my teeth.
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He's a self professed liar. Don't believe him. Keep going to SD. No birds here in Minnesota. ;)
 
Not to be Debbie Downer but I go to MN 4 times a year with my wife to the Mayo Clinic.....that's enough for me.
 
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