Thanksgiving Hunt

IdahoCountryBoy

Active member
My dad and I left Friday 11/18. I honestly didn't think we were going to go but we ended up going. We hunted Saturday to Wednesday and got home Thursday morning in time for Thanksgiving. We ended up staying at the Americ Inn in Chamberlain on 90. Left Friday morning around 8 and got there around 9 with a time change it took 12 hours for us. Can't complain. I do have to say, there were a lot of pheasant hunters. We're used to it being extremely quiet. We were talking to some guys in the hot tub that were hunting around Platte and they said there were hunters all over the place. They didn't get any birds and said every public area had 2 vehicles on it.

Saturday we hunted south of 90 between Chamberlain and Mitchell. We ended up with 6 roosters and done around 2:00. It was a good day. Found 5 roosters in one area and went to another area and found one more rooster. I have a young lab pup that is about 2 right now. For the last bird I just took her out and it was awesome. She found 3 hens by herself and then got up the rooster and we were done. She's a good little hunter but still figuring things out. I have her mom and she is a hunting machine. So its hard to give the pup chances when she's always hunting behind mom so that was good.

Sunday we hunted north of 90 between chamberlain and Mitchell. We ended up with 6 roosters but didn't get the last one until about 10 minutes before shooting time was over. Little longer day hunting but those are the days I don't mind. We lost 2 roosters for some reason and couldn't find them and I also missed 3 roosters in a row. What do you do? We went through Mitchell and had dinner and on way there we saw a lot of trucks and hunters in the field.

Monday we hunted north of 90 between chamberlain and Mitchell again and ended up with 5 roosters. Tried a new area that have never hunted and nice to see some different country. We probably could've found a 6th rooster but we wanted to drive to Presho for a prayer service for a farmer friend that passed away.

Tuesday we got permission to hunt some private ground but only had about 2 hours to hunt since needed to go to a funeral. We saw 3-4 roosters and got easy shots at 2 but just flat out missed. Not sure what was going on. We knocked one down but never found it. Needless to say 0 birds today.

Wednesday we usually head to LaCreek National Wildlife Refuge and hunt for the morning and then head to Idaho. We hunted til about 12:00 and ended up with 2 roosters. It's usually a 10 hour drive from there to Idaho for us. Made it to Riverton, WY and roads were snow covered so decided to spend the night and finish drive in the morning when could see. Ended up with 19 birds in 5 days. I was happy.

I didn't make it to the restaurants you guys recommended in Chamberlain. We were leaving and somebody said go to Club Vega in Kimball so we went there Saturday night and it was good. Sunday we were in Mitchell and ate there. Hopefully we can go at Christmas again and try the pizza place and the bar people said.

I got home to Idaho and was able to shoot my elk Friday morning and my deer on Saturday afternoon so overall a good week of Thanksgiving hunting.
 

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Some of them may have been deer hunters but in the lobby for breakfast it was packed with pheasant hunters at 8:00 AM in the morning. When I say packed, at least 6 groups of 4-8 hunters each. Deer hunters were long gone sitting in the fields by then. Dad and I go every year the weekend before Thanksgiving and in the past 10 years it has been empty at the hotel this time of the year. We think it was either nice weather that got people out hunting or the report that bird numbers were up. Probably both.
 
My dad and I left Friday 11/18. I honestly didn't think we were going to go but we ended up going. We hunted Saturday to Wednesday and got home Thursday morning in time for Thanksgiving. We ended up staying at the Americ Inn in Chamberlain on 90. Left Friday morning around 8 and got there around 9 with a time change it took 12 hours for us. Can't complain. I do have to say, there were a lot of pheasant hunters. We're used to it being extremely quiet. We were talking to some guys in the hot tub that were hunting around Platte and they said there were hunters all over the place. They didn't get any birds and said every public area had 2 vehicles on it.

Saturday we hunted south of 90 between Chamberlain and Mitchell. We ended up with 6 roosters and done around 2:00. It was a good day. Found 5 roosters in one area and went to another area and found one more rooster. I have a young lab pup that is about 2 right now. For the last bird I just took her out and it was awesome. She found 3 hens by herself and then got up the rooster and we were done. She's a good little hunter but still figuring things out. I have her mom and she is a hunting machine. So its hard to give the pup chances when she's always hunting behind mom so that was good.

Sunday we hunted north of 90 between chamberlain and Mitchell. We ended up with 6 roosters but didn't get the last one until about 10 minutes before shooting time was over. Little longer day hunting but those are the days I don't mind. We lost 2 roosters for some reason and couldn't find them and I also missed 3 roosters in a row. What do you do? We went through Mitchell and had dinner and on way there we saw a lot of trucks and hunters in the field.

Monday we hunted north of 90 between chamberlain and Mitchell again and ended up with 5 roosters. Tried a new area that have never hunted and nice to see some different country. We probably could've found a 6th rooster but we wanted to drive to Presho for a prayer service for a farmer friend that passed away.

Tuesday we got permission to hunt some private ground but only had about 2 hours to hunt since needed to go to a funeral. We saw 3-4 roosters and got easy shots at 2 but just flat out missed. Not sure what was going on. We knocked one down but never found it. Needless to say 0 birds today.

Wednesday we usually head to LaCreek National Wildlife Refuge and hunt for the morning and then head to Idaho. We hunted til about 12:00 and ended up with 2 roosters. It's usually a 10 hour drive from there to Idaho for us. Made it to Riverton, WY and roads were snow covered so decided to spend the night and finish drive in the morning when could see. Ended up with 19 birds in 5 days. I was happy.

I didn't make it to the restaurants you guys recommended in Chamberlain. We were leaving and somebody said go to Club Vega in Kimball so we went there Saturday night and it was good. Sunday we were in Mitchell and ate there. Hopefully we can go at Christmas again and try the pizza place and the bar people said.

I got home to Idaho and was able to shoot my elk Friday morning and my deer on Saturday afternoon so overall a good week of Thanksgiving hunting.
Great report and hunt. Tough balancing act when you have a young pup and want to get them experience, but also want opportunities. Thanks for sharing and great job on yiur muley and elk, great week of hunting for sure.
 
Great report and sounds like a great week of hunting. Would like to hear more about the LaCreek refugee. I live in Wyoming and would like to make it out to South Dakota again this year, but probably don’t have time to make it back to the eastern part of the state. Martin is only about a 5 hour drive, and the LaCreek area looks interesting. Would appreciate any info you are willing to share.
 
My dad and I left Friday 11/18. I honestly didn't think we were going to go but we ended up going. We hunted Saturday to Wednesday and got home Thursday morning in time for Thanksgiving. We ended up staying at the Americ Inn in Chamberlain on 90. Left Friday morning around 8 and got there around 9 with a time change it took 12 hours for us. Can't complain. I do have to say, there were a lot of pheasant hunters. We're used to it being extremely quiet. We were talking to some guys in the hot tub that were hunting around Platte and they said there were hunters all over the place. They didn't get any birds and said every public area had 2 vehicles on it.

Saturday we hunted south of 90 between Chamberlain and Mitchell. We ended up with 6 roosters and done around 2:00. It was a good day. Found 5 roosters in one area and went to another area and found one more rooster. I have a young lab pup that is about 2 right now. For the last bird I just took her out and it was awesome. She found 3 hens by herself and then got up the rooster and we were done. She's a good little hunter but still figuring things out. I have her mom and she is a hunting machine. So its hard to give the pup chances when she's always hunting behind mom so that was good.

Sunday we hunted north of 90 between chamberlain and Mitchell. We ended up with 6 roosters but didn't get the last one until about 10 minutes before shooting time was over. Little longer day hunting but those are the days I don't mind. We lost 2 roosters for some reason and couldn't find them and I also missed 3 roosters in a row. What do you do? We went through Mitchell and had dinner and on way there we saw a lot of trucks and hunters in the field.

Monday we hunted north of 90 between chamberlain and Mitchell again and ended up with 5 roosters. Tried a new area that have never hunted and nice to see some different country. We probably could've found a 6th rooster but we wanted to drive to Presho for a prayer service for a farmer friend that passed away.

Tuesday we got permission to hunt some private ground but only had about 2 hours to hunt since needed to go to a funeral. We saw 3-4 roosters and got easy shots at 2 but just flat out missed. Not sure what was going on. We knocked one down but never found it. Needless to say 0 birds today.

Wednesday we usually head to LaCreek National Wildlife Refuge and hunt for the morning and then head to Idaho. We hunted til about 12:00 and ended up with 2 roosters. It's usually a 10 hour drive from there to Idaho for us. Made it to Riverton, WY and roads were snow covered so decided to spend the night and finish drive in the morning when could see. Ended up with 19 birds in 5 days. I was happy.

I didn't make it to the restaurants you guys recommended in Chamberlain. We were leaving and somebody said go to Club Vega in Kimball so we went there Saturday night and it was good. Sunday we were in Mitchell and ate there. Hopefully we can go at Christmas again and try the pizza place and the bar people said.

I got home to Idaho and was able to shoot my elk Friday morning and my deer on Saturday afternoon so overall a good week of Thanksgiving hunting.
Thumbs up on the bird hunting. Thumbs down on big game hunters.
 
My dad and I left Friday 11/18. I honestly didn't think we were going to go but we ended up going. We hunted Saturday to Wednesday and got home Thursday morning in time for Thanksgiving. We ended up staying at the Americ Inn in Chamberlain on 90. Left Friday morning around 8 and got there around 9 with a time change it took 12 hours for us. Can't complain. I do have to say, there were a lot of pheasant hunters. We're used to it being extremely quiet. We were talking to some guys in the hot tub that were hunting around Platte and they said there were hunters all over the place. They didn't get any birds and said every public area had 2 vehicles on it.

Saturday we hunted south of 90 between Chamberlain and Mitchell. We ended up with 6 roosters and done around 2:00. It was a good day. Found 5 roosters in one area and went to another area and found one more rooster. I have a young lab pup that is about 2 right now. For the last bird I just took her out and it was awesome. She found 3 hens by herself and then got up the rooster and we were done. She's a good little hunter but still figuring things out. I have her mom and she is a hunting machine. So its hard to give the pup chances when she's always hunting behind mom so that was good.

Sunday we hunted north of 90 between chamberlain and Mitchell. We ended up with 6 roosters but didn't get the last one until about 10 minutes before shooting time was over. Little longer day hunting but those are the days I don't mind. We lost 2 roosters for some reason and couldn't find them and I also missed 3 roosters in a row. What do you do? We went through Mitchell and had dinner and on way there we saw a lot of trucks and hunters in the field.

Monday we hunted north of 90 between chamberlain and Mitchell again and ended up with 5 roosters. Tried a new area that have never hunted and nice to see some different country. We probably could've found a 6th rooster but we wanted to drive to Presho for a prayer service for a farmer friend that passed away.

Tuesday we got permission to hunt some private ground but only had about 2 hours to hunt since needed to go to a funeral. We saw 3-4 roosters and got easy shots at 2 but just flat out missed. Not sure what was going on. We knocked one down but never found it. Needless to say 0 birds today.

Wednesday we usually head to LaCreek National Wildlife Refuge and hunt for the morning and then head to Idaho. We hunted til about 12:00 and ended up with 2 roosters. It's usually a 10 hour drive from there to Idaho for us. Made it to Riverton, WY and roads were snow covered so decided to spend the night and finish drive in the morning when could see. Ended up with 19 birds in 5 days. I was happy.

I didn't make it to the restaurants you guys recommended in Chamberlain. We were leaving and somebody said go to Club Vega in Kimball so we went there Saturday night and it was good. Sunday we were in Mitchell and ate there. Hopefully we can go at Christmas again and try the pizza place and the bar people said.

I got home to Idaho and was able to shoot my elk Friday morning and my deer on Saturday afternoon so overall a good week of Thanksgiving hunting.
 
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