Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game Any North Dakota pheasant hunters here?

I've been itching to try pheasant hunting, and it looks like my closest opportunity is straight south in North Dakota. What all would a Canadian need for a decent pheasant hunt? Can I locate CRP lands myself using some kind of a map? Is a guide mandatory? What areas and time of year would you recommend? I know I'll need the game license in order to clear the gun on the way down; anything else? The dog would need to have all her shots up to date but would there be any other problems at the border?

Thanks for any info.

You can download PLOTS maps off the ND Game and Fish website. They show lands where you have free access to private lands and state and federal waterfowl management areas. Non-toxic shot is required on the waterfowl areas. Best hunting is in NW ND next to Montana and south of I-94, particularly in SW ND. Better check with local ND G and F people about the effects of the blizzard in SW ND three weeks ago, as my former boss was up there and he said lots of pheasants got killed.
The area around Plentywood in NE Montana is also good, with lots of Block Management lands where you have free access. You can download those, too, from the MT Game and Fish website. They are signed in both states.
As far as I know the gun permit and verification of the dog's shots are all that is necessary to cross the border.

Dr. Harju is spot on with his advice!

Good luck!

Keith

I'd think twice on the Block Management around Plentywood - half of the bird hunters in the US descend on this area come Sept. 1 each year and they don't leave until they've killed every living thing on the Block Management Lands (and any other public land in the area). Pheasant hunting was good here until it got "discovered". Now a lot of locals are buying the ND license just to get away from the crowds.

grouseman, the following national wildlife refuges are now open to public hunting: Arrowwood, Audubon, Des Lacs, J.Clark Sayler, Lake Alice, Lake Zahl, Long Lake, Lostwood, Tewauken, and Upper Souris. Certain areas of each refuge are closed to hunting and you can get a map from the refuge manager.
No guide is needed to hunt. Non-toxic shot is required on the refuges.
You can pick up a PLOTS (Private Land Open To Sportsman) Guide at any Sporting Goods store in the state as well as the local Wal-Marts. The maps are excellent but they do not show all CRP land. All Land is open to public hunting unless it is posted.
If you hunt during the week you will probably have the field to yourself. On the weekends only the hardcore hunters will be out. The upland game season is open through Jan. 4, 2009. Your best bet will be to hunt the eastern half of the state as we have very little snow. I would recommend the Teawauken Refuge in the SE corner of the state. My oldest nephew was out for an hour last night and shot 1 rooster and 1 sharptail grouse. He would have limited out on pheasants but he was using his younger brothers auto and he usually uses a pump. Needless to say he tried to pump the auto and that just doesn't work. Anyway, there are alot of sharpies around as well.
If you would like phone numbers to the refuges, just PM me and I'll send them your way. I'll be offline Thursday 4pm through Monday evening. I'll be working.
Best of luck.
Kerry

I was in the Dickinson area with my wife's family deer and pheasant hunting right after the Blizzard. The deer hunting was great, but the pheasants were very weary. We saw plenty of them, but with no cover for them to hide in, as there was 2-4 feet of snow in a lot of places; the pheasants would flush 50-60 yards out. We ended up with 7 roosters between 4 of us and some grouse, but it was somewhat of a disappointment as we are used to limiting out pretty easily.

PLOTS land is the way to go. It was very well marked where we were, and there was not a lot of hunting pressure.

WOW! Thanks guys, that's the type of wonderful information I can always count on here.

It's too late for this year, but I'm going to start making plans for next. Hell, I was hunting grouse in the snow just last weekend, so December pheasant hunting sounds like fun to me!

PLOTS land in SE ND is shot out at this time of the year. Don't bother coming down here if you want to get many birds.

Remember, people have been beating these same fields daily since early October.

30"+ snow, in Dec, wind, bitter cold is taking a rather large toll on the birds now. Winds of 30+MPH have come from the N, S, and W filling in a goodly portion of available cover. There WILL be a noticeable dip in bird numbers (as well as thousands more acres coming out of CRP) next fall.

Made my last trip for the season today. The edges of the cattails are armpit deep (I'm 5'10") and the middle where the snow has just settled in straight down is knee to mid-thigh deep. The warmest I saw while hunting today was -3F ambient, wind was 5-10. Instead of gobs of birds pouring out the end of cover like normal for this time of year, you can now walk into the middle of a big group and stand in place for 10min as they get up one by one.

Serious winter mortality is definately on the way.

It was already way down this year, and now this. We haven't had a winter around here like this since 96-97. With all the CRP being pulled, the pheasant season is looking like a bust for awhile.

Figures...I finally got a good dog this year.

I was in SW ND over New Years and it was the harshest weather I have seen there in the last five years. Hopefully there will be a warm spell to melt some of the snow so the birds don't have trouble finding food. The birds we shot were doing well up to this point. Very fat and well feathered.

January 2nd was tough. I think the high was about -5 with a 25 mph breeze. Certainly builds character!

Jerry

The 1/4" of ice that SW got last Sun/Mon was very hard on the birds. Lots and lots of rooster-cycicles.

horse is right, we were out snow shoeing for coyotes in Killdeer and and found several winter killed birds.
skitish

A drive through South Central ND on Monday has me thinking we've lost 50%-75% of our birds this winter, with lots of winter left. I was through SW ND on Wed and they've also lost at least 50%. The days of being done well before noon are gone for a while.

Sorry to read this... My son and I hunted near Dickinson right around Halloween and saw plenty of birds... Sounds like they will have some water this summer, though.
art

In Dickinson it rained from about midnight last night til 2:00, then it turned to snow, supposed to get more of the same through Thursday and then get cold and freeze again. If the snow/sleet combo comes with lots of wind tomorrow it'll kill another 50% of what's left. Gonna be ugly and we've got 7 wks of winter left.

Really sad to hear that...

Wind is 25-35MPH out there today, lots of school cancellations and road closures. Of course only time will tell how this all shakes out but the deck seems to continually stack against the wildlife here this winter.

Has the bad winter hit South Dakota pheasants as hard? How far south does the deep snow stretch?