Pheasant hunting without a dog in North Dakota

I heard it’s called road hunting.

Yes I know how to do that. Would I be better off in north or South Dakota. I like all day ND hunting hours.

Maybe I could find a guide for a day. Don’t want to pay the big bucks Ranches charge

The clubs that I’ve hunted at (neither of the Dakotas) rented dogs for a day hunt. Something you could check into.

Please send me a few Club names I want to take my nephew next year. Just returned from SD. Hunted in private land with my friend and his dog. Saw and shot many birds

You don’t need a dog. Just alter your tactics. I hunted for many years before I had a dog and harvested lots of roosters. Heck, I’d rather hunt without a dog than with one that isn’t trained properly.

gimruis wrote:

You don’t need a dog. Just alter your tactics. I hunted for many years before I had a dog and harvested lots of roosters. Heck, I’d rather hunt without a dog than with one that isn’t trained properly.

Guess I’m the opposite.
Could give a sheet if I shot a single bird without my buddy bootin it up.
I so much more watching her work than the actual kill. Nothing like seeing that tail going 90.
But that’s just me.

I’ve hunted pheasants many times without a dog also and done well. Dogs are nice but definitely not necessary.

haleysgold wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>gimruis wrote:</div>
You don’t need a dog. Just alter your tactics. I hunted for many years before I had a dog and harvested lots of roosters. Heck, I’d rather hunt without a dog than with one that isn’t trained properly.

Guess I’m the opposite.
Could give a sheet if I shot a single bird without my buddy bootin it up.
I so much more watching her work than the actual kill. Nothing like seeing that tail going 90.
But that’s just me.

That’s fair. A well trained dog is a nice bonus to have, I don’t disagree with that. Not every hunter has the means of owning a good bird dog though. When I hunted without one I was in college or lived somewhere I wasn’t allowed to have a dog. And I’ll repeat what I previously said: I’d much rather hunt without a dog than with a poorly trained one that doesn’t behave. I’ve been on enough hunts when the dog ruined the hunt.

I agree. The dog has to be trained. A dog that isn’t and just running around should be left home to play in the yard. Or just accept that you’re out there for some exercise.

My enjoyment still comes from watching a good dog that knows how to hunt. For me, it’s 80% of the hunt. In fact, and just me but I’ll stay home if I can’t hunt with my dog.
But to each his own.
I live in SE MN and pretty much quit bird hunting a few years ago when the population tanked. My labs now are obedience trained, well kinda ???? and house dogs. I enjoy them just as much but in different ways now.

ND has fewer birds than SD but all day hunting and more public land. Guess we’ll go without a dog but trying to figure out which state and where.

IMO the key to the Dakotas without a dog is trying new places in an area until you build your own “database” of spots that work for you.

You need small, contained spots like ditches with especially heavy cover, disused section roads that have cover, etc, etc.

You can (and I have) done well in small cover pockets because when the cover is surrounded by 10,000 acres of stubble, the birds will fly eventually. It just has to be cover that’s confined enough where flying is their only option.

We had one spot in central SD in particular that produced almost every time. It was simply a wet spot in a ditch that had cattails instead of the usual short grass. The whole spot was 100 yards long, and 25 feet wide. There was stubble on the field side, the road on the other side, so the birds had to go one way or the other or they’d run out of cover and they were very wary of coming out on the road side.

We would also drive section roads and usually, there would be little pockets of cover growing out of the middle of some roads. Find a good pocket of cover that provided wind protection and there can be a lot of birds stacked in very little cover.

Grouse

Just returned from another SD trip. While I would not hunt without a dog, because watching my dog work is 98% of the enjoyment for me, it can be done.

You have to look for cover that is to your advantage – something that limits the birds from running to your side. Something that forces them to get up and fly. If I was dogless, I would almost only walk road ditches. I would zig zag back and forth from gravel road to fence line, hoping to either kick one up, have one exit to the side next to me in no cover, or force them to run ahead of me and fly at the intersection. I would look for ditches that have good cover on both sides of the road, picked field next to it, maybe a lower area or cattail area somewhere along it. If hunting by yourself, I would walk one ditch down, then the other back to the vehicle. If hunting with a group, I would do have one person drop you off, then they drive ahead and block, then repeat.

While you could get birds by walking hundred acre fields without a dog, I wouldn’t spend my time doing it. More often than not the birds are going to run around you and never fly. Look for areas that force them get up. Small waterways within the field, etc. Change of cover may often be their fly area.

I just returned from south central South Dakota and you could absolutely get a 1-2 man limit each day walking ditches without a dog there right now. Lots of birds in ditches and along the roads.