Stocked pheasants

N

Nasty-G

Active member
A friend recently told me thousands & thousands of pheasants are stocked in South Dakota with Game & Fish approval. Seems like the wild strain would be compromised. Can anyone confirm or deny this ? Thanks
 
It will not hurt the wild birds at all. It will in fact work well to boost the population and help the economy. It has been going on for a very long time out there and has benefited SD greatly. My take on it any way.:thumbsup:
 
I going to play DNR guy this time.:D I strongly disapprove of this tactic:mad: We are the only ones that know wildlife and no one else:mad: These birds will do nothing but DESTORY PHEASANT HUNTING IN SD:mad: They will destory the natural birds wild instinct so bad the won't know where to do there chores if you know what I mean:eek:. Thus causing the EXTINCTION of the wild SD pheasant. God help us all:thumbsup:
 
niceshot said:
When does a released bird become a wild bird?
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After about a week they get pretty dam cagey. That is what I see with training birds that get away here. I know one place you hunt wild birds where a Lady has to deliver in the dark, and another that has let go over 4,000 roosters this year,:D. They have played people for years. Smart or dumb?? I flush these birds with our tags still on and you will never know. Fat happy and crops full of corn. They are now wild and will do just fine... Actualy, medicated so will do better, LOL
 
only a pointer said:
more like a million a year
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No worries. Quoting Pheasants Forever and the Fish anf Game Guru's, none of those birds live for more thn a few days, maybe weeks. Only PF and certain Fish and Game departments can stock pheasants successfully, theirs live do to some magic mojo, that us peasants aren't capable of. The rest are wasting their time and resources. The birds which are released by the commercial operations, and other well intentioned nimrods are just target practice which increase the harvest, if you can run fast enough to get there before the predator buffet, or follow the release truck. Hard to imagine how we ever got pheasants in the first place! Please spare me the fairy tale that we stocked only "wild" strain birds shipped from China, to spread this fantasy, is to deny the logistics of 1800's transportation. Some crafty Chinese merchant saw us coming and had pheasants all caught up and domesticated for the trip. Doubt this? Parakeets thrive in Florida, Sparrows and Starlings are released cagebirds from Europe, found a niche and here we are. The real truth that matters, is you can release pheasants, they will survive, in at least small numbers, might even flourish, but ONLY if the habitat requiremnts, including, nesting, brooding, food sources, and a certain amount of predator control exist at the release sight. South Dakota has traditionally had those.
 
"Stocked Pheasants"

If a farmer has a preserve license, he/she is mandated to release 600 roosters per year...or more. Obviously this has the Game and Fish approval.

It's been my experience that some of the released birds are very savvy post release, but not all. After a few weeks, they adapt and seem to mirror the wild birds - running vs flying and flocking with their wild counterparts.

They do seem to fly the same!! Most aren't as large as wild birds and seem to die easier. They tend to hang out near food plots and don't stray very far from their source.
 
The pricey outfits in SW ND release pheasants as clients show up.
For the most part only roosters in the Fall. After Spring snow melt some hens are released. Hen pheasants lay a lot of eggs if their not allowed to nest so only enough hens are kept for next years egg supply.
Surplus hens are dressed and sold to suppliers for restaurants etc. Good market for smoked pheasant to.
 
I would argue there is absolutely no issue with SD operations throwing out released birds as long as they don't claim all wild birds. Most guys visiting these places on guided hunts don't notice the difference and most really would not even bother to look even if they knew what to look for. I assume most are paying that $500+ per day for more than killing three roosters. They want the dinners, the brandy ...

I have visited two Minnesota preserves over the past month. There is a shortage of pheasants especially roosters in the MN pheasant propagation industry.

Mild weather has extended their season somewhat and even operations that raise their own birds are buying because no one wanted the inventory they had last winter, but both operators noted that:

South Dakota operations have purchased every rooster available in the state of Minnesota. They were cleaned out on just a few big, big orders. One MN preserve was trucking their roosters in from further East. Said they hope the SD people don't find 'em.
 
Thousands and thousands on private groun, 99% preservs, yes.

BUT--- MILLIONS AND MILLIONS WILD ON PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LANDS.

SEEMS LIKE THIS POST COMES UP EVERY YEAR TO PROMOTE A RURAL MYTH.
 
Uncle Buck said:
Thousands and thousands on private groun, 99% preservs, yes.

BUT--- MILLIONS AND MILLIONS WILD ON PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LANDS.

SEEMS LIKE THIS POST COMES UP EVERY YEAR TO PROMOTE A RURAL MYTH.
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I don't think it is far fetched at all. Those birds do move around from the release area. And it was way way worse this year. Call any grower here in MN for birds right now. We have for training birds. All say the same thing, gone to SD... It is a fact. Heck call any in the US right now.
 
Uncle Buck said:
Thousands and thousands on private groun, 99% preservs, yes.

BUT--- MILLIONS AND MILLIONS WILD ON PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LANDS.

SEEMS LIKE THIS POST COMES UP EVERY YEAR TO PROMOTE A RURAL MYTH.
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I agree Buck. The only pheasant vbeing released in SD are by preserves and hunting operations. I have never seen any proof that the GFP releases any birds.
 
I owned 80 acres of excellent pheasant ground south of Fedora for ten years plus. A guy released birds a mile north of me. In that ten years I only know of one penraised that made it to my ground. We have ten million birds average years and the Minnesotans are telling me they are all pen raised? I know where the penraised birds go as I see them in the early morning when I go duck hunting, but what % of the overall numbers do you think that amounts to?
 
I have hunted SD since the late 70's. My dad, before he died, hunted there since the 50's. I have hunted in ks since the 70's, Iowa in the 80's and early 90's. Iowa had times for me when it was close. There is no place like it for pheasants. I was there 2 times this year, and hunted everywhere in the state with the exception of watertown. ( sorry Zeb) Even in a down year we saw more birds than most years in kansas. One of the places we hunt is in close proximity to a " put and take" place. We saw no birds there this year. Occasionaly you will shoot a pen raised bird on this place, but not this year. We all know there are a bunch of commercial operations in SD that buy a bunch of birds. Those birds do not last long after attempted harvest. Even if they do they do not venture far from there release point, as most of these places have supreme cover and food sources. People who think SDWP makes a large whosale purchase of birds for release are uninformed. Most of these people have a hard-on for SD for whatever reason, and have never hunted in SD. I spoke to a guy a couple of weeks ago where i buy training birds. He assured me that SDWP purchased 6 million birds this year for release. 6 million! He said because the numbers were so low they had to purchase that many. I asked him where they got the money. I mean think about it. Let's assume they got the best deal ever from all the bird guys and bought them for an average of 6 bucks apiece. That's 36 million dollars. 120 thousand out of state licenses is only 14million give or take. So where did the other money come from? Think the hotel chains chipped in the other 20 plus million? I told him 2 weeks ago i was in Pierre, in the middle of phucking nowhere, on a private farm and saw a flush of a 1000+ wild assed pheasants. He assured me they were all pen-raised. This topic is old. Will you occasionally harvest a pen-raised hunting next to a preserve? Sure. There are always hater, conspiricy theorists that want to believe all kinds of crap. Let them believe. As for me I will continue enjoy the best pheasant hunting in the world twice a year.
 
carptom1 said:
I have hunted SD since the late 70's. My dad, before he died, hunted there since the 50's. I have hunted in ks since the 70's, Iowa in the 80's and early 90's. Iowa had times for me when it was close. There is no place like it for pheasants. I was there 2 times this year, and hunted everywhere in the state with the exception of watertown. ( sorry Zeb) Even in a down year we saw more birds than most years in kansas. One of the places we hunt is in close proximity to a " put and take" place. We saw no birds there this year. Occasionaly you will shoot a pen raised bird on this place, but not this year. We all know there are a bunch of commercial operations in SD that buy a bunch of birds. Those birds do not last long after attempted harvest. Even if they do they do not venture far from there release point, as most of these places have supreme cover and food sources. People who think SDWP makes a large whosale purchase of birds for release are uninformed. Most of these people have a hard-on for SD for whatever reason, and have never hunted in SD. I spoke to a guy a couple of weeks ago where i buy training birds. He assured me that SDWP purchased 6 million birds this year for release. 6 million! He said because the numbers were so low they had to purchase that many. I asked him where they got the money. I mean think about it. Let's assume they got the best deal ever from all the bird guys and bought them for an average of 6 bucks apiece. That's 36 million dollars. 120 thousand out of state licenses is only 14million give or take. So where did the other money come from? Think the hotel chains chipped in the other 20 plus million? I told him 2 weeks ago i was in Pierre, in the middle of phucking nowhere, on a private farm and saw a flush of a 1000+ wild assed pheasants. He assured me they were all pen-raised. This topic is old. Will you occasionally harvest a pen-raised hunting next to a preserve? Sure. There are always hater, conspiricy theorists that want to believe all kinds of crap. Let them believe. As for me I will continue enjoy the best pheasant hunting in the world twice a year.
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:thumbsup: Right on, carptom1. Boy, the guy you visited with has a severe case of "anal crainal inversion". I'd like someone to just once show me proof that the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks releases any pheasants.
 
carptom1 said:
I have hunted SD since the late 70's. My dad, before he died, hunted there since the 50's. I have hunted in ks since the 70's, Iowa in the 80's and early 90's. Iowa had times for me when it was close. There is no place like it for pheasants. I was there 2 times this year, and hunted everywhere in the state with the exception of watertown. ( sorry Zeb) Even in a down year we saw more birds than most years in kansas. One of the places we hunt is in close proximity to a " put and take" place. We saw no birds there this year. Occasionaly you will shoot a pen raised bird on this place, but not this year. We all know there are a bunch of commercial operations in SD that buy a bunch of birds. Those birds do not last long after attempted harvest. Even if they do they do not venture far from there release point, as most of these places have supreme cover and food sources. People who think SDWP makes a large whosale purchase of birds for release are uninformed. Most of these people have a hard-on for SD for whatever reason, and have never hunted in SD. I spoke to a guy a couple of weeks ago where i buy training birds. He assured me that SDWP purchased 6 million birds this year for release. 6 million! He said because the numbers were so low they had to purchase that many. I asked him where they got the money. I mean think about it. Let's assume they got the best deal ever from all the bird guys and bought them for an average of 6 bucks apiece. That's 36 million dollars. 120 thousand out of state licenses is only 14million give or take. So where did the other money come from? Think the hotel chains chipped in the other 20 plus million? I told him 2 weeks ago i was in Pierre, in the middle of phucking nowhere, on a private farm and saw a flush of a 1000+ wild assed pheasants. He assured me they were all pen-raised. This topic is old. Will you occasionally harvest a pen-raised hunting next to a preserve? Sure. There are always hater, conspiricy theorists that want to believe all kinds of crap. Let them believe. As for me I will continue enjoy the best pheasant hunting in the world twice a year.
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Great post Carptom! I've yet to harvest a pen-raised bird in SD that I know of (we used to raise pheasants so I should know one when I see one). Those birds act no different than the educated birds in W KS. We did see a few pen-raised birds loafing in a road ditch and that got me thinking for a minute....less than a mile down the road there was a pay-to-hunt operation w/ a huge pen full of birds.
 
CARPTOM is spot-on. SDGFP doesn't have the budget to buy the couple thousand birds I saw today. Let alone 6 mill? Delusional.

One thing I have not seen mentioned here,maybe it's well-known or not. SD Commercial operations that are licensed preserves are typically located in the highest quality habitat and have PLENTY of wild birds. Where the pen-raised bird fits into their operation is in being able to offer two additional birds per day,per hunter at an additional price. Limit 5 on preserves, three on non-licensed. Now it may be true they have bought up all the birds but believe me I get around right in the heart of pheasant country a lot. I know where the preserves are. I'm tellin' ya, they ain't letting even a fraction the number of birds go that I see. Not this late in the season when biz really tapers off.And not at $12 a copy. Remember,these are folks who,for the most part are SD farmers and ranchers. Now I'm not gonna say they are cheap,but,does a Jewish carpenter come to mind?
 
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