Thanks for the info

I

INbirdhunter

New member
Thanks Paintbrush!!
Thanks for the information. Do you hunt public ground or private when you go. This is my first trip to South Dakota, I am a long time Iowa goer, but the birds are way down in the SE corner. Any advise from anybody if you don't mind will be greatly appreciated.
 
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I hunt both. Public land is spread out thru the area. Some are better then others of course. You have to work for the birds on most days, but thats fine by me. Look for crops, perferrably harvested, which could be tough to find right now, next to heavy cover and you will find birds. I do just as good on public as I do on private most of the time.
 
INbirdhunter said:
Thanks Paintbrush!!
Thanks for the information. Do you hunt public ground or private when you go. This is my first trip to South Dakota, I am a long time Iowa goer, but the birds are way down in the SE corner. Any advise from anybody if you don't mind will be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...


Welcome hoosier. Former hoosier myself here.

I'm not exactly narrowing it down too much but look at the area North of Highway 14, East of the Missouri River and West of Interstate 29. Get out the SD public hunting atlas and look for good concentrations of public land access not too close to a major highway or larger town. There will be plenty of roosters and hopefully they will be a little less pressured and educated.

Hunt during the week if you can. I find the birds less jumpy and I have less competition on Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays. Hunt quiet and hunt smart. As said above good roosting and/or thermal cover near food will hold birds.

If you have a decent dog(s) you may not kill a limit everyday but I bet you have the opportunity to do just that everday. Like anything there will be more shoulda, woulda, coulda stuff the first time around but after a couple trips it can be dialed in pretty easy.
 
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Thanks for the info. I am sure the directions will get us there. On the dog part I have a 6 month old Vizsla (my first), but showing some promise. My friends have a couple good shorthairs, so we are covered there. I think you are accurate on the Woulda, coulda Oh missed again!!
 
jfreeman

The highest bird counts were in the Lyman and Brule county area, close to
Chamberlain and there is several thousand acres of public land, and a lot of
this land has crops planted for harvest and for the birds, I was there the
second week of the reg. season but the crops were still in and it was tough
hunting.
 
Hunted on public land in and around Huron. Not too much public land within 10 miles of Huron. Need to travel 25 to 50 miles outside Huron to get on public land with very little pressure.

On every piece of public land we hunted, we say birds. Most of the birds flushed wild and out of shooting range. With only two hunters, we looked for areas for windbreaks and small pockets were we could trap them (e.g. corner of a field, fence row, cattails, etc.) Unfortunately, the birds were very skitish and flushed early. However, we were successfull in busting up some birds and having them stay within the field and hunting them as single birds. The single birds seem to hold longer than a group of birds.

Dakota Inn is an acceptable motel with exterior doors in Huron. Nothing fancy. Unfortuntely, the quality of service seems to being going down hill over the past 8 years. Prime Time is a good resturant for a $6 filet. Not too bad.

Good luck....
 
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