Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game South Dakota Opener Saturday!

Alright lets put some more life into this forum. South Dakota pheasant season starts on Saturday for the non residents. Anyone making the trip up? I will be there for opening day and plan on getting some good walking in. I will be hunting all public land so hopefully get the new dog onto some pheasants? Good luck to all wherever they are hunting.

Yes, NRRepeat and Gunning the 10AM Week w/ BeastMaster...

Have fun, I envy those of you making the trip. Be sure and post some pics!!!!

Headed for SoDak on Nov 5 . We have a group of family and friends converging near Miller from Michigan, Fla and Kalifornia. Bringing my pair of field Cockers and a pack of Labs. Hoping most of the corn is down by then but a good time is a slam dunk!!

Made the drive today. Up here now and saw a lot of standing crop in fields. Did manage to see 1 hen sitting on side of highway and 1 pheasant flying, guessing a rooster? Said population is up with Chamberlain being the highest at 147 percent....Guess we find out tomorrow.

Thanks Battue. Try to get some pics of this week. 1 hunter and a new pup (1yr old) with not much experience so it will be more of training week for the GSP.

Corn harvest is behind this year, statewide at 13% per USDA, and the focus is on getting beans in. What happens next depends on the weather. Corn up here at least isn't dry enough. Supposed to be stable/dry next week but towards November we can get a series of cold fronts passing through almost daily which brings enough rain to slow things up. Good for ducks though.

We managed 3 birds today even with all the crop. Saw a few roosters near the standing corn. Hope to run into some prairie chickens, grouse, or even quail although I have never seen them in SD?
The duck hunting must be awesome here. I heard it was lottery based and not sure if they allow non residents? But seen plenty ducks, geese, swans the years previous while hunting SD.

Glad to hear it! Duck hunting can be good - big prairie pothole production - not so much competition and property locked off by commercial operations, a big problem in North Dakota. That's behind the limited non-resident waterfowl licenses. Quality waterfowl hunting opportunities for residents would diminish dramatically if it was wide open. Same for deer. With pheasants there's enough to share.

One thing about waterfowl here, cold fronts tend to push northern flocks through quickly. There have been years when they're here and gone in about a day though that's rare. Then there was that one very weird year where the local birds disappeared but the northern flocks held in North Dakota. Then bang, a cold front moved them to Nebraska.

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The corn for the most part is still green or slightly so and way to high of moisture content for harvest. Wheat is gone and they are working over the beans, saw no activity on sunflowers yet( they hold a pile of birds). Went last weekend for the resident opener shot a couple roosters 1/2 doz grouse and 1/2doz ducks. Better than last year but nowhere good as the GFP turkeys say, it's all about harvesting nonresident dollars with those yahoos. Magnum Man

Did the SD turkeys learn from the KS turkeys or the other way around? There might be 3 birds within a 100 mile radius, and Kansas Department of Wilflife, Parks & Tourism (KDWP&T-they added &T a few years ago) will put out the annual report- "not historical levels, but pockets of birds". Gotta get the tourism dollars in. That is what it is all about.

The GF&P brood survey numbers are honest but they are only an indicator. Bird count was by rural mail carriers, don't know now, so it's birds along the road. How accurately that reflects the population is hard to say though it should be fair for year-to-year comparison, they run the same routes. GF&P and Dept. of Tourism do tend to put a rosy gloss on it but you'd expect that. But they want hunters to come back so they're not going to piss them off with fake numbers and unreasonably high expectations. Actually they promote the whole hunting experience not just birds to be taken.

Wish we had sunflowers around here, tough walking but all God's creatures love sunflowers.

Not finding them "around" the sunflowers, do see a few around the corn. Saw 3 go across the road to meet with the other dozen or so on private land. Neat to see though. Managed 3 birds today but 20 gauge using steel shot does not "kill" them always. Ended up losing 2 birds even with the young pup. Not happy about that aspect of it. Lead shot definitely kills better!

Yes it does. We can still use lead on Walk-In Areas which is land leased by the state. Steel on state lands. I have bismuth for that but hunt mostly Walk-Ins or private. Had a friend who in 20 ga. steel used BB of all things for pheasants. Had a great dog and in hunting CRP shots were close so pattern density wasn't too bad. I thought it was a little screwy but man, the birds just dropped.

Some preliminary results: KELO TV

Nighthawk, I gotta laugh at that Kelo survey notice the elevated deer blind in the photo? One can assume they surveyed hunters on primo leased lands or pay to hunt operations period. Birds are not near as plentiful on public access. The GFP said 147% increase in the Mitchell area based on it being 80-90 % of what it was in the past? some increase. Long as corn alcohol is being pursued we can expect a greater decline in bird numbers private access or public period. Magnum Man

Well, at least the weather is nice, clear and 75 in Pierre today with a light wind.

Yup it was out here in the west end of the state also. They are starting to harvest the corn here. Worked some pretty good areas for grouse and pheasant coming up skunked. Did manage jump some mallards on stock dams so the dog got some action anyway. At sundown I saw 2 different coveys coming out of corn so there is hope yet. Magnum Man

Hunted Agar and Onida today, lots of walking, lots of wind, lots of dust, and 2 hens. Saw more birds road hunting than walking. Fires abound around SD. Could see smoke miles out? Well last day tomorrow. Pheasants won today for sure. Not finding any grouse or prairie chickens, thinking of swinging down towards the Nat. Grasslands?

Had another great hunt this year up by Hitchcock. Bird numbers definitely higher than last year. Even attended the Pheasants Forever banquet in Huron, made for a fun evening.

Haven't had the heart to go back home and hunt pheasants since my Dad passed away in 1994.

That's cool. Were you hunting public or private. We stayed with public hunting and spot and stalk via vehicle from 5:00 p.m. til sunset most days. I saw as many or more birds driving than walking. Probably put in 3-5 miles a day depending on the land we hunted this week. Good exercise and great time. Still hoping one of these times up to find some prairie chickens, never had a chance at hunting them.

Pheasant numbers are low in southeast North Dakota. Not much to see around here.

Esox best place in SD for prairie chickens is the Ft Pierre Grasslands. The NR license is for 10 days in a row or 2 5 day increments come out on the grouse opener hunt 5 days go home and then come out later for 5 days of pheasant hunting, simple as that. MagnumMan

Esox - we hunt private land there. Didn't see any prairie chickens either.

Thanks guys, ended up with 5 birds total for the hunt. At least have a pheasant dinner tomorrow and look forward to going back next year. Have a good rest of the season up there! Getting geared up for Nebraska deer in November.

Leaving now.....

How did you fair?

Great pic!!!!

Leaving now..... as in I'm in SoDak now (and first ever Posting from a Phone) .
SoFar, 3 Days and 3 Limits.

Post more/ Pics on return...

So yeah, ...Hunted Four Days and Shot 4 Limits, w/ 5Hours being the longest Day.
All Wild/ Mature Roosters, ...Hunting massive Tracks of just-cut Corn, w/ almost every PotHole or CreekBottom holding Birdz.
Flushed around 40-50 a Day, on average, at varying Distances.

We hunted 5 days starting on the 25th...2 hunters with limits each day.
Starting at 10,the latest that we hunted was 1:30.
Two days we were finished before noon.
I've been wanting to shoot a rooster with my 28ga so I took it along with the thought that if we had an easy day then I would use it for my 3rd bird...I ended up shooting 7 of my roosters and 1 sharptail with it. Winchester 1oz 6s improved and modified.
Lots of corn still in the field.
On Monday we had a little rain but there were a few combines running again on Tues. It should get even better as more corn is picked.
Saw one covey of Huns but did not get a shot.

One of the best Pheasant hunts that I've ever had and I've been going up for about 30 years or so.

Glad you guys are having fun. Come again, bring money!

Seriously, we're happy you're enjoying your time in our state.

Hunted near Kimball last THUR-SAT, great hunt, weather cooperated, limited out each of the three days. My first trip to SD for pheasant, won't be my last.