2017 South Dakota Pheasant Opener

Heading out Sunday and wondering how everyone did and how the harvesting is going.

I also heard a second-hand report from a guy that just got back and said it was the worst season their group has had in years out there.

I’ve been hunting W MN with my new pup with some limited success. We were slated for a SD trip this coming weekend, but our contact who lives out there said they’ve barely seen any birds and with the standing crops told us to wait a couple weeks.

Both the SD Fish and Game and MN DNR have reported big drops in bird numbers (again) this year. Tough times for pheasants. Need a new farm bill and acres to start going back into CRP.

Went out by the river opener…usually a good number of birds..2 days of hunt our group of 6 shot 7 birds…its even worse the farther east u go towards the Watertown Clark area…they just aren’t around this year

Thanks for the reports don’t sound to promising.Hopefully harvesting helps.

I can’t remember exactly where my friend hunts, but I know it’s towards the western side of SD. He has family with a farm there. They were not expecting to do well, but they ended up with 41 birds for their group on opening weekend.

My neighbor just got back from the Mitchel area, he said they (2 guys) limited out every day in a couple hours. He hunts there multiple times every season and knows the area well. He said others were struggling.

eelpoutguy that’s the area we hunt we stay in Plankington. This will be my 26th year going out. Thanks for report.