?What is "good" Pheasant hunting to you?

W

watermen

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With the bird counts being down, from not so great numbers to begin with, I'm doing some adjusting to fall plans all ready. A guy needs time to schedule time off and so on. The reason so many go to the Dakota's is for good bird hunting! I can travel a couple of hours here in MO and kill 1-2 roosters most any day of the season. Might hunt all day and get my shooting in the last half hour before roost, but we have those numbers on public. I don't pay to hunt birds. I lived an now travel to the Dakota's and Montana to get good hunting. Even when I lived there and had good ground to hunt I hunted a lot of public to not wear out my welcome. You could most years figure a bird an hour, small linear cover with just you and the dog, big crp field with four guys and four dogs, good hunting was one bird, per guy per hour of actual hunting. This was pretty much agreed upon by everybody I hunted with. More than this and hunting was really good, less and it was tough hunting. This does not include opening weekend, the first snow or busting a honey hole late in Dec. 90 minutes per bird is still good hunting I would say. If it's not about numbers fine, I can still have fun standing on a frozen perch lake, jigging walleye, or heckling some goof I know in a duck blind. With numbers like these good hunting will be hard to come by in a lot of areas this fall. What is good hunting to you? just curious what the consensus is.
 
I've always defined my good hunting as having the opportunity at my three roosters. If I missed, it was on me. I can go on and on about being with friends and family but over half of my hunts are solo middle if the week with just me and the dog while most people work. Watching the dog I trained work and do her thing brings me lots of joy. I can say in the six years we've been hunting together we've had some great days. A limit in a half hour. Another day we got three roosters up and brought three down in 45 mph winds. Great days. That's how I define good and great days.
 
I walk daily most of the year...when fall rolls around, my daily exercise includes my dogs and a gun...and grouse, pheasants, etc...so those walks are "good", compared to just a walk in April or July or February...but, I would be lying if I said that a day of hunting in SD that didn't include shots at least 4-6 birds was a rarity, I would be lying...even in bad years....but I am ok with whatever the good lord gives me!
 
"Good Hunting" to me is SD in a normal year. I hunt pheasants a lot. At my club and state run facilities here in Illinois.
I come to SD for the birds! Lots of birds! It's very exciting pulling up to field your about to hunt and see 15-20 birds already flushing. It's a lot of money and time to travel to SD. This year we have a tough decision on what to do. It appears that the majority of our group still wants to go but they don't hunt pheasants as much as I do.
Numbers are way down but will come back next year. I think we will go as a group and try to duck hunt in am to make the trip worthwhile.
 
I've heard the "it's not about the numbers" thing for many years but what we have learned it that in the end it does come down to numbers. We would say a 2 bird per person average or better is what constitutes a good day of hunting. And I mean that is on average over the long run.
 
UGUIDE said:
I've heard the "it's not about the numbers" thing for many years but what we have learned it that in the end it does come down to numbers. We would say a 2 bird per person average or better is what constitutes a good day of hunting. And I mean that is on average over the long run.[/QU

Is it really an epiphany that most hunters who travel to SD want decent bird numbers? Driving hundreds or thousands of miles? Spending fairly high amounts of money to do so? They can stay home and walk around on public land in Illinois or Wisconsin or Indiana or wherever they come from if that is all they want to do. Kind of like fly-in fishing trips to Canada...pretty obvious. They want to know that the opportunity exists to score some birds...you know exactly what they want, you have built a business catering to them. When guys don't have the time or the ability to find ground to hunt, it is good to know that there are options, and I mean that.
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And don't forget, for lots of guys, SD represents the "wild west". Where else can you drive around with a loaded, uncased shotgun in a vehicle? Where else can you legally hunt ditches? Where else is the legal hunting time noon, or ten am, providing a perfect opportunity to not worry about what time your head hits the pillow? Lots of states don't allow party hunting, SD does. And group sizes up to 20. They get off the plane, and the machismo is flowing! And they don't know, nor do they want to know, that the birds they are shooting are released...they just want to be able to show their coworkers or buddies back home pictures of the big kill. This is a big draw for lots of guys...most of whom have never heard of this website, and never will.
 
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Good pheasant hunting to me is being done less than an hour on public land. 99% of the time the public ground I hunt takes me 2 hours to get my 3 birds. Every year I hear the numbers are down and every year this area is polluted with pheasants.
 
Any day that I get less than 100 emails an less than 25 calls on my cell. Yes Im serious so when guys say I dont need to get my limit, believe it.
 
A good day for me is seeing a few birds, and avoiding idiots. I hunt public land in Iowa. I have had days where I have seen very few birds (2 or 3 hens and no roosters) and think of them as good days. When I think back to days that I recall as not being good they all were what I considered poor days afield because of morons cutting me off, running their dogs into mine, etc.
 
Sharing the feild with like minded hunting partner or two , and getting some good dog work in , seeing the dogs put together a scent trail and outwitting or catching up to a running rooster .
 
KSBrittman said:
Sharing the feild with like minded hunting partner or two , and getting some good dog work in , seeing the dogs put together a scent trail and outwitting or catching up to a running rooster .
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Good is a relative term, compared to what. Compared to 2005 or to the hunting in a five mile radius around my place. I am fortunate to live in a place where I can have good hunting. Any last half hour of daylight is good hunting.
 
spending time with my hunting buddy of 24 years is the best part. we go afield with our dogs and a plan for each of our places, enjoy the midday meal together, and cut the dust with some bourbon after the guns are put away at the end of the day. we often enjoy the sight of other wildlife such as a flock of starlings that was miles and miles long, three jakes trailing a bobcat, or a prairie falcon hunting. we would be disappointed if we didn't bag anything, but usually we each have some luck, all of which makes for a great day of pheasant hunting.
 
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benelli-banger said:
And don't forget, for lots of guys, SD represents the "wild west". Where else can you drive around with a loaded, uncased shotgun in a vehicle? Where else can you legally hunt ditches? Where else is the legal hunting time noon, or ten am, providing a perfect opportunity to not worry about what time your head hits the pillow? Lots of states don't allow party hunting, SD does. And group sizes up to 20. They get off the plane, and the machismo is flowing! And they don't know, nor do they want to know, that the birds they are shooting are released...they just want to be able to show their coworkers or buddies back home pictures of the big kill. This is a big draw for lots of guys...most of whom have never heard of this website, and never will.
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Well said! I know my world changed when I stopped hunting in Iowa and started in SD. It is the wild west. You never know what nature will deliver.
 
BritChaser said:
spending time with my hunting buddy of 24 years is the best part. we go afield with our dogs and a plan for each of our places, enjoy the midday meal together, and cut the dust with some bourbon after the guns are put away at the end of the day. we often enjoy the sight of other wildlife such as a flock of starlings that was miles and miles long, three jakes trailing a bobcat, or a prairie falcon. we would be disappointed if we didn't bag anything, but usually we each have some luck, all of which makes for a great day of pheasant hunting.
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Of course I laughed hard at Chip's comment about not getting shot. I also like the one I heard from hunters that said "We have had plenty of hunting.....now we'd like to have a little shooting...."
 
I admit to having chased a coyote or two across a picked bean field, with my buddy literally "riding shotgun", getting off a few shots at the 'yote out of the window of my 'burb...yes, quite a bit younger when that happened...and it was fun! and I think it was legal...I think you can shoot out of vehicles at varmints...maybe I am wrong about that point...but there is a definite "vibe" in South Dakota!!!!
 
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