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Looking at Water Town and Aberdeen to pheasant hunt. I was told that Water town had 1000's of public land to hunt is this correct as I will be looking to hunt public land. Any advice on a do it yourself pheasant hunt? Thanks.

First thing, go to This Page and request the (free) Pheasant Packet. It includes hunting regs, ringneck outlook and Hunter's Atlas which is maps by county of all public lands. You can view maps of public areas Here, scroll down to Public Hunting Maps.

Second, watch for the 2012 pheasant brood survey on the GF&P web site, should be out soon.

Pheasants in the northeast were hit hard by a couple bad winters. Last winter was extremely mild and brooding conditions were good so the population should spring back. They are resilient critters. The brood survey should tell, I haven't looked around enough to have an informed opinion.

Of course public areas close to major population centers and paved roads, particularly the Interstates, get hit the hardest. Also small areas get pretty well covered, big areas often not so much. Lazy hunters or hunters without dogs or enough people to cover thoroughly. Walking likely road ditches can be productive, we look for them when moving between areas.

The hunters atlas will show you the parcels of land that are available to hunt and it tells you what the parcel might have on it for game. A lot of the land shown may have restrictions noted regarding harvested crops and much of it may be in poor condition from the current drought conditions. A lot of places are being grazed this summer that would not have been except for the drought. If your coming during the first two or three weeks of the season and need lodging it can be difficult to find. You can find some decent public spots but some of the ground is pretty well done after the first week. A well trained dog is a must for any small group. Poorly trained dogs usually are seen disapearing over the hill chasing the flushing birds. Read up on hunting the right of way as a lot of the locals will put livestock in the right of way and that eliminates hunting within 660' of the livestock if they do that (unless that has changed since the last time I read up on it) I don't know where you are coming from but if it is a long way from eastern South Dakota you may want to see about hunting with an outfitter on private land. It is worth it most of the time. There is almost no private land with superb conditions and lots of pheasants that is not commercial these days.

You mean in a field next to a right of way? The only cows I've seen on a right of way is where a guy cheats out with an electric fence because he cheated out when planting. (Except when I stop to tell a guy his cows are out and he runs like hell to get them back. )

I shoulda said the atlas shows public access land, not just public. That includes leased Walk-In areas where you can still use lead shot. Must use steel on public owned land (with maybe an exception which doesn't apply anywhere near here). That's gotten a few guys into trouble, you don't want lead on your person where you can't shoot it.

Thanks guys, put a request in on the South Dakota pheasant packet. I hunted near Mitchell but didn't do that well last year most of the area was trampled as mentioned so we will be out during the first week of the season. Got steel shot so good to go with that. Just need some pheasants? I also need to see if grouse will be in season at that time? Thanks to all who responded.

No, I mean right in the borrow pit between the roadway and the fence. Down around Winner, where I hunt a couple of times a year, there are land owners who will put a couple of sheep in a small pen every 660 feet along their property. Here is a link that mentions it.

http://gfp.sd.gov/hunting/areas/right-of-way.aspx

GF&P site is down, will check it out later. If someone tried that stunt in Roberts County I'd personally raise hell.

1-2 times a week I have been either to the Nebr line or to ND in the western 1/3 of SD. It's very dry and the cover is light but I have seen good brood counts on sharptails and think their numbers are up. That doesn't necessarily equate to easy hunting though because of the scant cover. Magnum Man

Sounds good at least we know there are a few birds out there! ;O)

Great sharing...
Thanks for sharing this...