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PrairieDog, I think maybe you should share your road hunting spots with him. If you're going to encourage him to come out here on his own with no dogs, and expect to have the same success you enjoy after having put in all the time and the miles, the least you can do is give him the full benefit of all that experience. wink

I myself do not think a guy or guys, with no dogs, can come out here for the first time and expect to shoot five day possession limits of roosters, for free. Some will. Most don't.
Some guys shoot six point bulls every year. Most don't. Same general proposition. Can they still come out here and have a good time? Absolutely. Unquestionably. Its up to them.

For what its worth, the state finally today released the pheasant numbers for 2017. The counts are down statewide and the average is -65% below the 10 year average. Good luck men!


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Originally Posted by BKinSD
PrairieDog, I think maybe you should share your road hunting spots with him. If you're going to encourage him to come out here on his own with no dogs, and expect to have the same success you enjoy after having put in all the time and the miles, the least you can do is give him the full benefit of all that experience. wink

I myself do not think a guy or guys, with no dogs, can come out here for the first time and expect to shoot five day possession limits of roosters, for free. Some will. Most don't.
Some guys shoot six point bulls every year. Most don't. Same general proposition. Can they still come out here and have a good time? Absolutely. Unquestionably. Its up to them.

For what its worth, the state finally today released the pheasant numbers for 2017. The counts are down statewide and the average is -65% below the 10 year average. Good luck men!


BK, there are no magic year after year spots but a hunter can use his head and find spots with birds... my first trip in the early '80s, two first time MO. hunters watched, learned and killed our 15 roosters each... first pheasants for both of us so it can be done. We're not afraid to drive, most trips for us run around 2200-2300 miles from home to home( central MO.)... we might drive 10-15 miles between spots that we want to walk.
Myself I hate to see someone pay big money for a deer hunt where the buck was in a pen a few weeks earlier and I hate to see someone pay big money to shoot roosters that most were in a pen a couple of days earlier... you know it and I know it that the lodges turn many, many 1,000s of pen raised birds out... I see more and more of the big pens every year with hundreds if not thousands of roosters in them... what a crock.
Now I'm retired and if I was coming up by myself I would offer to show the OP how to do it but I don't think my buddy would approve so how about this... I'll tell the OP a water fowl production area( and it's a specific fence row on opening day) and a road that I've killed many birds on AND a specific spot that I've killed my limit on numerous times if you, being a local, will guide him for free one day on YOUR spots not mine. I'm not saying his party is going to limit every day... the way it sounds this might be the toughest season I've seen and we may not limit every day but they will be birds we found not some guide. Now if the OP doesn't mind paying $$ for pen raised birds so be it and I'll STFU but if he wants to do it himself.... Balls in your court. Should be a win for everybody.


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Prairie dog, you win. I can't imagine that the OP or anybody would want to go hunting with me and my dogs for a day, when he could opt for the ultimate day of road hunting. After all they would "be birds he found, not some guide." Its a win for you.

I asked if the OP had dogs, in an attempt to steer him toward realistic success for what he's looking to accomplish. YOU might like to drive around road hunting, in order to fill your freezer. HE might like to walk up his birds over his own dogs, or someone else's. There are thousands of acres of public land to hunt for free, and thousands of people hunting it. There are lots of other options also. The various reservations can be excellent places for DIY hunters from out of state. Lower Brule is fantastic, and the Cheyenne River reservation was full of birds last year. The tribal licenses are somewhat reasonable and buying them often gives you access to land that isn't pounded day after day. Some fantastic places are operated by farmers with converted farmhouses, converted farm dogs and wild birds.

The OP also doesn't have to choose only one manner of hunting for his whole trip. He might like to do a shorter trip on preserve or he might like to spend a day or two with someone and then go DIY for the rest of his trip. I don't know, and it doesn't matter to me. Its HIS trip. It might surprise folks to know that I hunt many different places each fall, in many different ways. I hunt in big groups, small groups, duo's and solos. I hunt big preserves, I hunt small preserves, I hunt private land, I hunt public land. I hunt standing crops, cut crops, grass, sloughs, tree belts, CRP. I take my dogs, I hunt over others' dogs, I don't go without dogs. People who can choose to hunt with dogs will make that choice because people without dogs shoot birds, but they don't flush as many and they don't find as many of those they do shoot. < period. I also don't shoot 12 gauges for pheasants but that is another post.


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BK, the OP started this thread about pheasants on a budget which is what I was trying to help him with. Some people's budget doesn't mind $200-$300 per day to hunt but some people don't want to spend that much. Just offering a different option from paying for a preserve hunt also since the OP lives in Alabama and has never hunted pheasants I took the liberty of assuming that he does not have a dog accustomed to hunting pheasants.
We walk our birds up and we do cherry pick the cover we hunt, that's why we put so many miles on.
I don't care whether someone hunts with dogs or not... could not care less. You hunt your way and I'll hunt my way.


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My dad took us to South Dakota and Nebraska more than once on DIY pheasant hunts when we were kids.

Didn't have any dogs. It was fun. We killed birds.

That being said if you could find something in the panhandle of Texas that allowed trespass or daily rates, you might be miles ahead. Some of the best COCK hunting in the country believe it or not. But private access is the name of the game.




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Dogs or not should never be the determining factor in pheasant hunting. If one doesn't have a good dog, then they'd be far better off hunting without one than putting an dumb dog on the ground in a good pheasant field.

Having kept track of this over the past decade or so, visiting dogless hunters have an ever so slight advantage in birds bagged per day. Most people's dogs are a disadvantage to actually getting wild birds.

Fun and enjoyable, yes. Even close to necessary, no.

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Originally Posted by DakotaDeer
Dogs or not should never be the determining factor in pheasant hunting. If one doesn't have a good dog, then they'd be far better off hunting without one than putting an dumb dog on the ground in a good pheasant field.

Having kept track of this over the past decade or so, visiting dogless hunters have an ever so slight advantage in birds bagged per day. Most people's dogs are a disadvantage to actually getting wild birds.

Fun and enjoyable, yes. Even close to necessary, no.


Do tell us more, DD.


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Between the drought beating up chick production and emergency cutting of CRP allowed due to drought as well this isn't an optimum year. Chick production or lack thereof is fairly self-explanatory. Emergency cutting of CRP however will really concentrate hunters which is a HUGE detractor (it is for me anyway), way more so then low bird numbers. It's a rescipe for a fairly impressive crap-show. Think "busy boat ramp" on fishing opener or Mem/Labor Day/4th of July weekend and then add shotguns.


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Originally Posted by BKinSD
PrairieDog, I think maybe you should share your road hunting spots with him. If you're going to encourage him to come out here on his own with no dogs, and expect to have the same success you enjoy after having put in all the time and the miles, the least you can do is give him the full benefit of all that experience. wink

I myself do not think a guy or guys, with no dogs, can come out here for the first time and expect to shoot five day possession limits of roosters, for free. Some will. Most don't.
Some guys shoot six point bulls every year. Most don't. Same general proposition. Can they still come out here and have a good time? Absolutely. Unquestionably. Its up to them.

For what its worth, the state finally today released the pheasant numbers for 2017. The counts are down statewide and the average is -65% below the 10 year average. Good luck men!


^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^

For sure, PD should offer to guide him for a day, at the minimum. And then show us the pics to prove his "uber" pheasant hunting prowess and expertise. crazy

THANKS for keeping it Real World, BKinSD. cool


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Ok, this thread is getting good! Who's gonna be my guide on day number 1? I'm ready to get this hunt rolling! I can taste those brazed pheasant legs! Robinhedd

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North Dakota summer brood counts are out now. In a nutshell, the entire state is down by 60% or more over recent years, which weren't all that high to begin with. Not good. Sharptails and Huns are down also.

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I drove 200 miles yesterday through the heart of pheasant country and saw exactly two birds. One mature rooster, and one chick which could just barely fly. I did see two hens flying night before last, just at dark. I would say 60% down is a very optimistic number. I presume there are pockets of birds here and there, there always are, but the lack of birds is very widespread.


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Originally Posted by robinhedd
Ok, this thread is getting good! Who's gonna be my guide on day number 1? I'm ready to get this hunt rolling! I can taste those brazed pheasant legs! Robinhedd


I'm still waiting to hear whether or not you have dogs. Are you going with dogs or not? If so, are your dogs trained for birds? I was wondering because of so much debate here and I might want to try this sometime.

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Originally Posted by DakotaDeer
Dogs or not should never be the determining factor in pheasant hunting. If one doesn't have a good dog, then they'd be far better off hunting without one than putting an dumb dog on the ground in a good pheasant field.

Having kept track of this over the past decade or so, visiting dogless hunters have an ever so slight advantage in birds bagged per day. Most people's dogs are a disadvantage to actually getting wild birds.

Fun and enjoyable, yes. Even close to necessary, no.


Even though I've never hunted wild birds, only release birds, I can see where an inexperienced dog might become a problem. I used to do a lot of rabbit hunting. Every time we took dogs, even though they were trained for running rabbits, it became a pain in the ass. We'd spend more time F-ing with the dogs than shooting rabbits. I always found it better and funner to just put on the brush pants and plow my way through it myself.


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If you can get your dog on A LOT of wild birds at a young age it really helps. I hunted along side a number of guys with high dollar professionally trained dogs( it was obvious they themselves did not spend much time training with them) and I witnessed again and again their dogs failing to deal with running roosters, sharpies or birds sitting tight and doubling back between hunters. . Most would just chase running birds a few hundred yards out, ignoring their owners, and kick them up way too far away. In the meantime the owners yelling, swearing, blowing their whistles and shocking them to near death on the ecollars. It was obvious they were trained on pen raised birds. Of course these professional dogs would do well on pen raised birds.

I put my most recent dog on 100's of wild birds the first year in the Dakotas and after a week or so she picked some of the tricks used by roosters, huns, sharptails.( I try and do this with every dog I have owned if possible and there is no substitute for wild wary birds) As soon as she picked up scent she would immediately run ahead in a wide circle a 100 yards or so, and using the wind work her way back to me. Stopping ocassionally to make eye contact with me to see I was involved. In high cover she would pogo to see my location. Both of us moving quietly, no constant yelling or tweet tweet tweet on a whistle. Does she managed to find every smart rooster? If i needed to nudge her in another direction a quick vibrate on her collar. Of course not but each time she learns more and more. Fun to watch. I see a good deal of guys whose dogs, even the very expensive ones, just run ahead and hunt for themselves. It is amazing how much a well bred, not necessarily expensive dog, can learn on their own when exposed to a lot of birds. just my opinion of course.

I'll hunt alone with no dog then with a poorly trained dog these days. If you can get a few guys who know what they are doing you can work cover quite well without a dog. Usually one guy has to bust cattails or the thick stuff.and if needed set out a blocker but of course be aware of safety. Park vehicles at least a 1/4 mile from area hunted and sneak into area hunting to minimize spooking birds.

Driving up to an area and slamming car doors wont cut it after opening day. Some gorgeous country and really nice folks in the Dakotas. Frustrating that more and more areas are tied up by outfitters but good hunts can still be had. Suggest first year call game bios, gets some good maps of hunting areass. Pick a spot and spend the first year scouting and developing contacts

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[quote=BKinSD]I drove 200 miles yesterday through the heart of pheasant country and saw exactly two birds. One mature rooster, and one chick which could just barely fly. I did see two hens flying night before last, just at dark. I would say 60% down is a very optimistic number. I presume there are pockets of birds here and there, there always are, but the lack of birds is very widespread.[/quot




thats sad

thanks for update

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Originally Posted by ribka
If you can get your dog on A LOT of wild birds at a young age it really helps. I hunted along side a number of guys with high dollar professionally trained dogs( it was obvious they did not spend much time training with them) and I witnessed again and again their dogs failing to deal with running roosters, sharpies . Most would just chase running birds a few hundred yards out and kick them up way too far away. In the meantime the owners yelling, swearing, blowing their whistles and shocking them to near death on the ecollars. It was obvious they were trained on pen raised birds.

I put my dog on 100's of wild birds the first year in the Dakotas and after a week or so she picked some of the tricks used by roosters, huns, sharptails. As soon as she picked up scent she would immediately run ahead in a wide circle a 100 yards or so, and using the wind work her way back to me. Stopping ocassionally to make eye contact with me to see I was involved. In high cover she would pogo to see my location. Both of us moving quietly, no constant yelling or tweet tweet tweet on a whistle. Does she managed to find every smart rooster? If i needed to nudge her in another direction a quick vibrate on her collar. Of course not but each time she learns more and more. Fun to watch. I see a good deal of guys whose dogs, even the very expensive ones, just run ahead and hunt for themselves. It is amazing how much a well bred, not necessarily expensive dog, can learn on their own when exposed to a lot of birds. just my opinion of course.

I'll hunt alone with no dog then with a poorly trained dog these days. If you can get a few guys who know what they are doing you can work cover quite well without a dog. Usually one guy has to bust cattails or the thick stuff.and if needed set out a blocker but beware of safety. Park vehicles at least a 1/4 mile from area hunted and sneak into area hunting


Excellent advice. Esp about getting pups involved at an early age on WILD birds.


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http://gfp.sd.gov/hunting/docs/PBR2017.pdf 2017 pheasant survey. Down 45% from last year and 65% down for the ten year average. And these #'s appear optimistic. It was a cold and wet early spring, then terrific hail storms in June in the south central part of the state, then drought in July. The Winner area especially hard hit with hail.


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I literally saw only two broods of pheasants all summer, and that was me driving tractor every day. They hatched extremely late this year, if at all. It's not going to be any fun this year. I suppose I will spend more time hunting coyotes in their prime instead.

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