The numbers in SD really appear to be down this year. I can verify…My personal experience has been the same. Just not many birds around.
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The 2013 report indicates an index of 1.52 pheasants per mile, down from 4.19 pheasants per mile last year.
IA too. I almost feel like I am wasting my money going down there for opener.
I live in north east ia. have not seen 1 bird in 6 months.
good luck
Losing more and more CRP=No birds/or very few eventually. Looks like we are on our way! 
There will still be some pockets of good hunting, but I wasn’t surprised at all when this came out a couple weeks ago.
Same here. Greed will take up all the grasslands needed which is funny because greed is what created much of it in the first place. Public hunting lands will shrink. More resources will be removed from them. I’ve always thought we were on our way to the European style where only the wealthy will be able to hunt. Glad I chase Grouse. At least they live where there’s land to support them longer than farm country.
My dog is now 10 and gets tuckered out after 1 1/2 hours . After going to Webster in June and Redfield in May I will not be going to SD. I am contemplating not getting a new pup when Greta can’t hunt. They were pulling the fence rows out cutting groves down, tiling sloughs plowing right up to house and the out buildings. Relatives in Redfield have told its not worth coming out. All the neighbors have quit the cattle business and tilled the pasture and hayfields. He said a winter with no snow and its going to be a black desert out there. People have paid the penalty and taken land out of CRP. In Webster every slough used to have a buffer zone of grass. Not any more, they have literally planted rows in the water. They were also tiling and plowing up crp and pasture land. We did not hear very many rooster crowing while fishing. We were on the water as the sun came up in early June and usually it is amazing how many roosters are cackling. Sad times for the bird hunter for sure. I am lucky that I have a cabin in NW WI and try to switch over to grouse but my dog tends to bump them but is death to woodcock. May have to become grouse hunter.
Mwal
I’ve said it before, if we are allowed to, man will ruin this planet.
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I’ve said it before, if we are allowed to, man will ruin this planet.
Absolutely. That’s all we do. Private land owners, mostly farmers, are in control in the farm states and they are going to make a dollar long before they give animals a break. With the government broke, the funs over. Glad I grouse hunt. Human greed (logging) only makes it better.
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