WOW. Controversial Article on South Dakota Pheasants.

After reading this article are you......

  • More interested in a South Dakota pheasant hunting trip

    Votes: 2 11.1%

  • Less interested in a South Dakota pheasant hunting trip

    Votes: 16 88.9%
  • Total voters
    18
The part that raised my eyebrow was where they said that SD takes in $14.5 million in small game/fishing license fees but they only spend about $1.5 million of that on habitat improvement and walk in hunting areas. So roughly 10% for those to things.

Makes one wonder where the other 90% is going. I'm sure there are legit expenses but seems like they ought to be able to bump that 10% up a bit.

Habitat is where its at.

Oh, the Poll needs a third option, something like No change in my interest. IMO.
 
Controversial Article

My son and I have been to SD on two different occasions. Both times we primarily hunted public property. We had to work for the pheasants we shot but they were there. We also got the opportunity on one of our trips to hunt two different private properties and I have to admit there was no comparison. The number of birds we saw on private properties was unbelievable. The article was interesting and I had no idea that there was that much supplementing of the pheasant population with pen raised birds happening on private land. It says a lot about how important that this industry is to the SD economy.

I kind of understand the frustration of the one gentleman with the drive-by road hunters shooting birds. I remember seeing this many times in SD. Hunters jumping out of their vehicles guns loaded and blasting away at birds not in the ditch but in the farmers field. Not very ethical in my opinion.
 
Nothing new about the commercial lodges. By law the lodges have to supplement birds taken. In order to get the longer season and the preserve license, owners are requied to replace every bird shot with a release bird. Its not "put and take" where they put birds out in the morning and run the hunters over them in the afternoon. I know one operator who told me he makes about three releases a year. Once several weeks before the season opens, once after the holidays, and one toward spring. I've hunted his land and numbers are good, but after the birds have been out a few weeks, they are pretty wily. I remember one day as we got out of the truck at the end of a cut milo field, one guy slammed the door and a quarter of a mile away at the end of the field it looked like the Kentucky Derby with birds running out the end.
The article does raise an interesting question about how many farmers and lease holders are putting out birds on the QT and claiming all native birds.

+1 on the need for another question on the poll. This is not news to me and has no effect as I go up to SD week after next.
 
Last edited:
I've heard that big operators release lots of birds and in some instances try to "wild" them before their sports hunt. Big business.
 
NC IA Tail Chaser said:
My son and I have been to SD on two different occasions. Both times we primarily hunted public property. We had to work for the pheasants we shot but they were there. We also got the opportunity on one of our trips to hunt two different private properties and I have to admit there was no comparison. The number of birds we saw on private properties was unbelievable. The article was interesting and I had no idea that there was that much supplementing of the pheasant population with pen raised birds happening on private land. It says a lot about how important that this industry is to the SD economy.

I kind of understand the frustration of the one gentleman with the drive-by road hunters shooting birds. I remember seeing this many times in SD. Hunters jumping out of their vehicles guns loaded and blasting away at birds not in the ditch but in the farmers field. Not very ethical in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Chaser,
Don't tell SM lander that there is more birds on private than public. His visions of 1000 bird flushes are still fresh in his memory.
 
I would say neither where that an option. As a lifelong resident of the state, none of this comes as new news or a shock to me. Personally I feel that the only operations or people able to buy pen raised birds are those with preserve licenses. That would eliminate all this put and take nonsense. Also would eliminate the wild vs pen raised conversation. A positive that I could see coming out of this would be that those operations that want huge bird numbers would have to actually have the winter and nesting cover to maintain such bird numbers. Thus making it a positive for all. As to what the guy they interviewed said, I feel he his full of a massive amounts of crap. If he wants, I can pick his butt up at his house in White Lake and drive under a half hour and deliver him a two person limit any given day of the season from public land. If he is willing to work for it. He sounds like a lazy hunter unwilling to work for birds and has his expectations set way too high. Sure if you go hunting with your four sons and their friends. So most likely 10+ people. You're not going to get your limit off of public land. You're delusional if you think you will. Which I believe this individual is. I also feel that the state could do more for the improvement to or obtaining of more public lands. Dugaard had his pheasant summit a few years ago and I have honestly seen nothing come out of it. Which is what I expected. Can't wait to get a new governor that actually gives a crap about conservation and isn't just full of hot air. I believe he has failed us as a conservationist.
 
There are zero pen-raised birds for at-least 75 miles from my spot. And few ranchers charge for pheasant hunting. They tell you to beat it, or tell you that you can hunt. But never ask for money, so I know they aren't buying birds for the coyotes to eat.
As for the joker interviewed in the article, Mr Haines, sounds like entitlement mentality to me.

"The fact that the state provides the birds is more of a hoax than it is a reality. Public shooting areas don't have any birds. It's that simple," Haines said.
Who said this is a fact? Him? If he did, it's his hoax. The State of SD does not buy birds, nor should they. If he is over-using his resource, the solution to that is simple, and not the States issue.

I get birds on public land in December, lots of them, so his statement about "the first two or three trips" is pure BS. I have seen a lot of birds migrate to public land when a big hunting party starts banging on the private side, so it works both ways.

The 40,000 trees he planted, Who do you all think bought them? I bet I know.

But this is the biggest whopper he tells: "They're not shooting the state's bird. They're shooting the farmer's bird. The bird grew up on the farmer's land and we farmed for them," Haines said.

We decided a long time ago who owns the wildlife in our Country, it is the people, not the landowner, this is not the "Sport of Kings" and he doesn't own shit. If he decides to do the right thing for his property, and the result of that is wildlife habitat, I thank him for it, but he doesn't own the wildlife that takes advantage of it. If this were the case, would you be arrested for shooting a pheasant that happened to cross his property line onto public? And who owns the bird then?
 
I don't really see it as controversial. Game preserves all over the country release birds. I personally would not want to travel to SD to hunt released birds and that is why I pay to hunt some private ground.

I am sure some of those released birds end up on state ground or private ground so that is a benefit too.

To say that there are no pheasants on public ground is just idiotic. There are multitudes of members on this site that hunting nothing but public ground and do very well.
 
https://farm.ewg.org/addrsearch.php?search_input_text=haines&=Search


Copy and paste this link. It shows a Wayne Haines from White Lake SD receiving $ 543,155.09 in government subsidies from 1995 to 2014. So while we are paying him his welfare checks, he is lobbying to keep us off "his" rights -of-way, and telling us that he owns the game.

I am in the motorcycle business, I bought thousands of dollars in parts, based on an average of my past sales during Sturgis Bike Week. This to support my local, but mostly my traveling customers. Well, this year I grossed, for the week, about what I usually net in a day. In plain terms, I lost my ass. Funny that no one from the government came around with their wallet out, but my suppliers still want paid.

Don't get off the main point of the thread, which is that this article states that a lot more birds are released than a lot of us realize, but don't overlook the hypocrisy of people like Mr. Haines, who think we owe them a living, while lobbying to keep the peasants out so his sons and his buddies can "shoot" "his" birds.
 
There is a basic societal interest in maintaining a steady and reasonably priced food supply.

Not so much motorcycle parts.

But you're right, there is hypocracy.
 
First, I am not asking for anything from the government, secondly, I would say there is a basic interest in keeping our transportation system running. And motorcycles are an important part of that, esp if you happen to be environmentally concerned. I can run my bike for months on the hydrocarbons a diesel pickup spews while warming up in the morning.

I'm not sure how hiding the real cost of food by forcing me to participate in corporate welfare, makes food cheaper. It just hides the cost. Farmers are getting subsidized to grow corn, not just for human or animal food, but to produce ethanol that we don't need, that destroys fuel systems and lowers our fuel mileage.

That aside, when I am paying those subsidies, I just expect to be tolerated if I want to walk a right-of-way, and not be told by some dickhead that he owns the land and the birds and that I don't deserve to be, nor will I be tolerated to be there.
 
It must be a South Dakota thing. Here in Iowa no one thinks twice about hunting the ditches. Might have something to do with raised birds, which is uncommon in Iowa.

Actually it's a time honored way for folks less mobile to get some hunting in.

Oh, and car loads of kids.
 
Poor article. The numbers are a fraction of what's in the budget. Sounds like a couple guys who wants all pheasants to be released in the state and owned by the landowners.
The entire budget numbers. http://gfp.sd.gov/agency/information/budget-reports.aspx

Anyone who can't find wild birds on public land late into the season isn't trying. Nope you won't see those 100 bird flushes but why does anyone want to see 100 birds flush and know most of them are pen raised?

Tim
 
As long as I'm not hunting Mr. Haines land this doesn't sway me either way.:cheers:
 
Well Quail Hound, tip one to your own statement if you like, but the problem with the logic is there are a lot of "Mr. Haines", these days. I call them the "No Pheasants for Peasants" lobby. They are the ones who want you to keep your mouth shut, pay the corporate welfare and, most of all, stay off "my" rights-of-way, and don't you dare shoot "my" birds. Them's for my four sons and their buddies.

I know where they get the mentality, it's the same as the people who took my health care coverage, priced me out of the market, then fined me, forcing me to pay for Obamacare for crack heads and heroin addicts. All the while telling me how "good" it is for me.
 
Last edited:
Very good discussion. I like the idea of only selling captive birds to licensed preserve owners. South Dakota has a huge brand issue with their state bird.

I have terrible reading comprehension, ADHD and other normal childhood behaviours.

I had not read the whole article. All I had to read was this:

"Kuyper was feeding nearly 20,000 pheasants soon to be released into the wild, which he sees as crucial to maintain South Dakota's place as the pheasant capital of the nation."

Are you kinding me?! Pheasant Capital......Released Pheasants.

I can assure you that 100% of the numerous UGUIDE guests DO NOT come to South Dakota to hunt released pheasants and are QUITE upset if they encounter ANY on their hunts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top