Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game Pheasant in the Dakotas

Just made two trips through and didn`t see a bird coming or going...but lots of corn still up in ND. Hows hunting been??

Haven' hunted, but don't know anybody that's seen any where they normally do. Supposed to be down on the order of 60% and that seems optimistic. Hard to say, you can have a good population in a relatively small area and nothing next door.

I checked the crop report too...seems like 70% corn is still up. That makes for hard hunting. Glad I didn`t go this year..and maybe not next.

Been back to extreme SW ND twice and the birds are there, just need to walk a little farther; hard concept for some.

Just got back from being there for the last two weeks. Birds are off about 50% from last year. There are still some birds to be had, but NOTHING like it normally is. Ducks were there but concentrated a lot more than normal due to lack of water.

I was in SW ND from 10/13 to 10/16. Pheasants were down a lot. Still some birds around, but almost all old smart birds. I think we only shot two roosters that were this years hatch. The only good news was that further west along the Little Missouri River the Sharptail were up. Lots of walking, but they are fun to chase.

Jerry

Walking yes...hunted in SD for close to 40 years, mostly by Redfield where the sections are easy to count...do right-of-ways..no hassel with asking permission...when birds were up 6-10 years ago shortes time walking was 5 min. and I was filled, longest was 10 sections when they were down. Always go the third week of season..crops are normally in...so lots of corn up means tought hunting.
Good Luck.

South Dakota was the worst I've seen yet for pheasants. Lots of crops up still but even so the birds were not there like in the years past. I'm going to give it a couple years before returning.

Pheasants are amazingly resilient. Reasonable winter (expected - by me anyway) and good conditions in the spring and they'll bounce back for next season. Stay tuned.

Just returned from four days around Gettysburg, not good numbers are way down.

Have only put two roosters in the bag this season so. There aren't many out there to be had.

There is a lot of corn still out and that will have some birds in it, but absolutely way down from the past couple years, which were down from the hot years around 2010.

Yea...hunted them years, some times going out twice, third week then week of Thanksgiving. Danm, that was fun. Glad my son was able to experience it.

I've been hunting pheasants for two weeks in SD. Averaging 2.65 roosters per day. More crops are coming out of the fields and hunting keeps getting better.

Most of the crops are out of the fields and in the bins. A few pheasants are showing up here and there but not a lot, and way down from normal. Its not a total bust but it's way off for sure.

Hunting with Dukxdog in SD

We got birds, not the big numbers from a good year had to work for them. Hunted 10 days.

In one 2 hr stretch on a good ditch line counted 72 birds. Mostly hens flushing beyond 100 yards.