Pheasant Outlook – central SD

I was “home” recently for the archery opener. While sitting on the deer stand and doing some “scouting” from the pickup with a spotting scope, I could not believe all the birds out there. Our particular land was hayed this year, so we lost a lot of cover. The pastures that were lush with grass the last couple summers are gone, now either hayed or grazed off. This has the birds quite condensed. It was nothing to see pods of 20-30 birds at a time in 4 different directions as I sat on the stand. I’d be lieing if I thought we had less than 1000 birds on our small little parcel.

The bird hunting in SD should be as good as it gets this fall. Just be careful if you head out there, it’s SO very dry. Don’t park hot vehicles in tall grass, throw cigarette butts out the window etc…

Good luck if you can make an SD trip!

Interesting……

Heading out on the 19th! Can’t will. I will be sure to post a report.

I’m taking my girls back for their first pheasant opener also. I won’t be hunting the birds, but will get some time in the stand hoping for a buck.

Thanks for the post. We’ll be heading out the 21st and hunt 22nd to the 26th and hunt the Plankington area. Look forward to it every year. Are the crops being harvested early out there as they are here in central Wi. As we always say the birds are just a bonus.

Yes, you won’t have any/many crops to contend with by then. I would say the harvest is 65% – 75% complete in the central SD area by now. 3 weeks from now, I doubt there will even be any sunflowers left in the country.

I dated a gal in college from Plank/White Lake. The birds in that area back in the 90’s were the best I’d ever seen. I’ve seen some pretty good bird hunting growing up out there too.

Good luck boys!!

One other thing, keep an eye out for dead deer. The area around White Lake has been reported to being hit hard by Blue Tongue disease. I’ll be curious what you stumble across.

Ok thanks for the report.We’ll watch for the deer, we saw alot of them last year and a couple of nice bucks.

Anybody hunt the S.D. resident pheasant hunt last weekend ? What’s out there for birds this year?

I’m seeing quite a few friends with pictures on Facebook. Sounds like the numbers are decent and the pressure from locals was hit and miss.

I’m heading out on Friday with my 3 daughters. Should be a fun weekend of bows and shotguns.

Here is some info for you to review also.

2012 Pheasant Outlook

Thanks for the info. I downloaded the public hunts into the GPS tonight. They help alot to locate new areas.

Yes, lot and lots of school ground out there that never gets touched. The trick is getting to it legally.

What area do you guys hunt?

Well, I just purchased my SD license. Now all I gotta do it watch the clock. Bow hunting in the mornings/evenings, roosters during the day with two old high school buddies. Should be a great weekend.

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Yes, lot and lots of school ground out there that never gets touched. The trick is getting to it legally.

What area do you guys hunt?

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The only school grounds we found were so heavily grazed, there was ZERO cover.

What am I missing?

I wasn’t always blessed with private land to hunt. Growing up we primarily hunted public ground. There are a lot school grounds that are utilized by the cattle ranchers, especially this year. Heck, even many of the walk in areas are grazed off. That is one complaint I’ve got with the Walk In program in SD. If the tax dollars are being spent to rent the ground, I’d like to see the ground left in it’s natural state.

It was nothing for me to put on 200-300 miles a day scouting when I lived out there. Of course, each field changed from year to year also. Hunting fence lines with agriculture or CRP was always a nice trick, but it was primarily a one man/dog hunt. The real trick out there is hunting sections lines that aren’t mowed down along ag land and finding those public walk in areas that are remote. Anything within 20 miles of any given town tends to get worked pretty hard.

This year is going to be phenomenal shooting when you get into the birds. It’s so dry and the hay prices are forcing everyone into mowing everything they can. Normally guys would run their cattle on grass into November. This year, many will be feeding by then simply because there isn’t any grass left in the pastures. Any areas with cover will be boom or bust for birds I predict. Add a little water to this cover and I think you’ll be amazed how many birds you’ll find.

We are staying in Plankington. Hunting Monday to Friday.

Got back today after our 5 day hunt. 9 to 10 hunters and we shot 51 birds. Thursday was very windy cold and 2″ of snow on the ground.It was fun hunting in the snow, hav’nt done that since the opener blizzard a few years back. Hunted private land one day and shot 16 birds that day. The rest came from public ground between Mitchell and Chamberland. Heard some hunters at restraunt that they didn’t see a bird on Thurs. Had a great time hunting and seeing old friends again. Can’t wait to go back next year.

I was north of mitchell last weekend and bird numbers are WAY down. Worst hunting I have had in over 15 years there.
year after year I come home with my 5 day limit or a bird shy.

This year I limited out on days 1 & 2. Day 3 I got one. Day 4 and 5 = 0

This is why we are renting a cabin at a game farm this weekend. Hate to do it but we need to get our young dogs in front of some birds.

Suzuki,

You are doing the right thing. If the game farm will let you, ask them to leave the birds in the bird carrier. That way you can plant them yourself and mark where they are so you can focus your dog on that area.

If they plant them ask them to mark em for you too.

It is just nice to know where the birds are so you can keen the dogs skills and make it click with their brain more rather then actually have to search both you and the dog for the birds.

Kooty, We didn’t see any dead deer (blue tongue disease) but we seen more deer than ever and some really nice bucks.

Thanks for reporting back. Always good to hear about “home”.

I only spent a couple hours last week focusing on pheasants. My aim is still poor and my reflexes slow, but I got one confirmed kill.

It was a lot of fun sitting in the box blinds watching wave after wave of birds pass by. After deer season, they better look out. We are going to be putting the hurtin’ on some of them.

I noticed an abundance of deer on my trip as well.

it wasn’t uncommon to kick up a buck here and there, or a couple does. This year however, seemed to deem a lot more deer. We were kicking them out of every place imaginable!

Something tells me that the numbers will be going down though this weekend… I think it is east rivers opener?

Yeh I would love to make 2 trips out Pheasant hunting. I am hoping to retire in three years and make that happen.

Yup, east river opens this Saturday.