Week 3 how's everyone doing?

Not getting out as much as I usually do. So can't speak much to numbers. Only made it out a handful of times so far. Had the stomach flu opening week so didn't make it out then. Then got a couple days in. It was tough going then. It was the second weekend and you could tell the public I usually hunt got hit hard. So spent the next day searching for new places. Then got a sinus infection which cost me last week. Now my one year old future hunter got hand, foot and mouth. So no hunting this week. I leave for deer hunting next week for 10 days. I'm gonna have to hit it hard after that with some days off coming in late November and early December. My dog is looking at me wondering what we are doing because we aren't chasing roosters.
 
Now that more crops are starting to come out in my part of SE SD I believe the numbers look to be about the same as last year. Not great but plenty good enough to make for fun hunting.

Tim
 
Oct 31-nov 2 pheasant hunt success

Two of us hunted Lyman county. Saw more birds than I have in 4 years. Two hunters 13 birds. We should have filled our limit but our shooting could have been better.
 
We will be hunting Lyman Co next week. Did you all hunt public or private land? Sounds encouraging on the number of birds you saw!
 
Lyman county

Private land and this guy farms for pheasants. Did not have any luck on public land.
 
Including residents-only weekend on public land, I've been out 8 times so far, all on public land, CREP & WIA's in the southeast part of the state. Averaging 2.5 birds/trip, but here's the tell-tale stat......just over 1.5 birds/hour (of active hunting time of course). That's pretty good for me. I'd say in the areas I've been, bird numbers seem up slightly, and of course hunting should get better as the corn continues to come out. (before it gets harder again when the birds realize they need to find new digs)
 
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Just got back from Brown County for 5 days of hunting and it was tough. Hunted public lands and a few ditches. Warm weather didn't help as the dogs tired out quickly. Birds are around, but we really had to work for them.
 
Limited yesterday and today, two of us, on WIA that's roughly half drainage, half standing corn, found them hanging a few rows in, right on the edge of the heavy cover. It's pretty good now, but there are a lot of birds in the standing corn that we are not seeing. They were at the road last night by the dozens, but we were done, already. Suspect a big whitetail is in the area, too. He better keep his head down here in a couple weeks, cause I have a license to lay him down and intend to do so.
 
Two guys, private land in central SD, limited all 4 days. Far more birds than we have seen the last two years.

The state pheasant forecast has been completely off for us the last 4 years. 2013 was supposed to be down but we had more birds than usual. Last two years were supposed to be up but we found fewer birds. This year was supposed to be down but was up by a huge number. Really shows that predicting locally is very hard to do.
 
Forcast high for Platte today is 76 degrees it was 43 at sunrise.

Myself and one other hunter with one dog are taking a bird each with several other chances per day--can only hunt limited time due to the hot temps. The birds are scattered and in all kinds of cover. Mostly single birds --hunting is hard hot work right now.:(

On a good note --the harvest is almost complete.:D
 
Good grief, SDJim! It was colder than that here in Durham, NC this morning! Maybe there's something to the global warming! ;-)
Coming out there next weekend; one advantage--if you can call it that--of not having any dogs, is we don't need to worry about the heat exhausting them; just exhausting us!
Look forward to seeing you again; maybe with the crops all harvested, we can find a few birds; it doesn't take many to make me very happy.
 
beach004 said:
Good grief, SDJim! It was colder than that here in Durham, NC this morning! Maybe there's something to the global warming! ;-)
Coming out there next weekend; one advantage--if you can call it that--of not having any dogs, is we don't need to worry about the heat exhausting them; just exhausting us!
Look forward to seeing you again; maybe with the crops all harvested, we can find a few birds; it doesn't take many to make me very happy.
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Finding a lot of value in the safari hat that would usually freeze your ears off by this time of year.
 
Another great day in the field, good dog work, poor shooting. I guess I shouldn't have bragged about the last three days.
 
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