My son and I are going to South Dakota pheasant hunting. We are not going to do the guided thing. We are looking for any tips on our trip. We are going to stay in a motel and hunt public land. Anybody got any advice for us. Thinking the Aberdeen area. anybody got any tip for that area?
Sand Lake Wildlife Refuge is near there I think and it’s not open for public pheasant hunting until deer gun season is open. So it will not receive pressure until November. I don’t know when you plan to go but that would be an area to try.
I’d avoid the first week of the season. It will be a zoo.
There’s generally less hunters as the season progresses and their season goes all the way through January. That’s when I’d go if the weather allowed it.
I should of stated first week in November
I wish there were more secret tips for pheasants, but there’s not. Hunt around corn fields, find good cover within a mile of them. You can drive and scout in the mornings, looking for birds out and spots to hit at 10. If your trip is longer, hunt in the AM, then knock off for a big lunch or scout some more. This will give the dog a rest. If it’s shorter then you can hunt all day. The last 2 hours of the day are best, so make sure to line up a spot for them. Some people say to hunt far away from towns, but once I found my best spot really close to a good size town. If it’s really cold hunt cattails and shelter belts. If it’s warmer hunt crp grass.
Sand Lake is a tall grass jungle most years. It actually does not open to pheasant hunting until December.
Brown County (Aberdeen) has the highest number of NR pheasant hunters of any SD County. Largely because there is quite a bit of public land and Aberdeen’s ability to host quite a few people.
One thing I didn’t know about SD first time I went was the types of public land they list. I looked at the map and saw an area with tons of spots and went there. Well, a lot of it was leased private land and it might be 640 acres of plowed dirt with just a ditch to hunt or some little spot where it’s too wet to plant or maybe it’s a field full of cows. The little spot in the plowed field will have like 20 pheasants in it but it’s a 5 minute hunt instead of what I imagined on the drive. I just said “wtf?” and moved on with the cows, wasn’t sure what to do there 
still found plenty of places to hunt but did a lot more driving around than I thought I would.
I’ve been going to SD a minimum of 2X/yr the last 10 years. Here are some pointer’s I’d offer based on my experience:
– Wait until after the crops come out if you can. The timing of this will vary from year to year. Usually mid Nov is a safe bet. Its a completely different ball game if you are there when the crops are still in.
– Public birds are smarter than private birds. They’ve been hunted over and over, day after day, since mid to late Oct. Try to hunt the field differently than everyone else. 99% of people will pull into the parking spot and start hunting from there. For example, if the parking spot is on the north end of the field, they will hunt north to south and that’s what the birds are used to, so do something different. Drop everyone but 1 guy off at the south end of the field and have that 1 guy drive back to the north end parking spot and block from the north, so I’d have the group push south to north (in the above example).
– BE QUIET! when you get to a parking spot, imagine you are deer hunting a big buck. You have to be incredibly quiet or else the birds are just going to run out the other end of the field. Don’t slam car doors, don’t talk loud, don’t have dogs barking. Stop a mile away from the parking area and have everyone get ready, put their vests on, grab their guns. So all you have to do when you get to the parking spot is step out and start hunting. Public birds are very aware of noise and that it means they’re about to get hunted
– find food and cover, find the birds. If you go after the crops are out, we focus on cattails and grass. The harder the cattails are to get to and walk thru, the better. Birds love to hold in the nastiest of cattails
– if you’re there right after things freeze up for the first time, hunt the sloughs. No one has been able to hunt them all fall yet because they’re water/mud that you can’t walk thru until its frozen
– well trained dogs are a must. If you have a half trained dog, leave it at home. Nothing worse than setting up the payoff end of a field for an hour only to have some dumb dog run up way out of gun range and bust the field. Also, you don’t want Jim Bob yelling at his dog “HERE!!”, “COME!!!”, “HEEL!!!” the whole time you’re walking the field. The birds will hear it and dip out.
– an e-collar is a must for all dogs
– have blockers and flankers. Play the wind. Birds like to use the wind to their advantage. If you’re walking a field south to north and there’s an east wind, have a flanker on the west side because the birds will more often than not want to dip out to the west because they’ll use the wind to their advantage. If you don’t have blockers, birds are for sure going to run out the end of the field and you’ll never see them flush
– if you’re hunting public, know the different types of public and what it means. There’s also different regs for different types of public. You need to use steel/non-toxic on GPAs and WPAs. The rest of public you can use lead. Make sure you aren’t using lead on GPAs and WPAs. https://gfp.sd.gov/faq/detail/32/
– we pretty much only hunt GPAs and WPAs. GPAs will almost always have food on them (usually corn). WPAs will have the nasty cattails that are hard to walk thru and they will hold a ton of birds.
– walk slow! and zig zag (don’t walk in a straight line) its easy to get excited once birds start flushing and want to get up there, but walk slow. Pause often. Lots of times birds will flush when you pause for a second – they think they’ve been spotted.
– if you’re hunting public, scout the night before and have a game plan ready. You can’t start hunting until 10 AM, try to get to the spot at least 30 min early. I’d be there 60 min early if you’re within an hour of a big city.
– lastly. if you’re hunting with dogs, have 2X as much water on you in the field than you think you will need. Also make sure to have a full first aid kit in the truck and some basic stuff in your vest. Dogs get beat up hunting out there. Flush all the dogs eyes with saline every night after you’re done hunting. They accumulate stuff in their eyes like you wouldn’t believe.
You can get status updates on the harvest here. There’s a new report every week
I’ve been going to SD a minimum of 2X/yr the last 10 years. Here are some pointer’s I’d offer based on my experience:
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Spot on post above.
I have been going out yearly for 2 trips a year for close to 20 years myself.
I will say this, a smart hunter can get his birds very quickly if they hunt the right times of the day and spots that you can pin the birds down.
You surly don’t need to jump into an 80+ acre grass field and waste all of your dogs energy to allow the smart birds to run circles around you.
Keep it simple put some miles on and stay away from the heavy hunted educated birds and you will do fine.
Certain parts of the state are looking real good this year so have fun…
Good advice by Gitchi above.
I would argue that much of that should be followed regardless of where and when you’re hunting too.
Very good advice thank you.
I did look for a hotel his weekend. Most places are booked through December. I checked Airbnb and found one north east of Aberdeen. It’s a different setup, big kitchen, big living room with a place to clean birds. this is all shared with 4 bed rooms. We have two of the bedrooms all have locked doors with a tv and recliners and couch.
It should be interesting
We are going Saturday to Tuesday hoping Monday and Tuesday will be less people.
good luck! PM me if you have any specific questions. I’m happy to help.
Chasing SD roosters in late fall/early winter is one of my favorite things to do
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