South Dakota pheasant success pics please

[bdg848]

I had a bland and uneventful pheasant season here in Eastern Iowa. My puppy has done great on preserves but nothing on public land but a few track-point-track-points of running birds that I never actually saw. I really wanted to kill a wild bird over her but just couldn't get it done with the huge number of three whole public land parcels within an hour of me combined with the dog's and my own inexperience in the sport (first season for both of us) . I am trying to convince a buddy to come with me to SD next year but he thinks the public land situation will be similar to what it is here which basically equates to taking your dog for a nice walk. Post some South Dakota public land success photos 2020 season and an honest description of what we can expect for SD public land. Change his mind and let me live vicariously through you!

 

[KurtR]

There is a thread on here by dukxdog called sd pheasants with photos. He also has a house to rent and there is plenty of public land to kill birds on. If winter holds this year it could be awesome next year.

 

[RSather528]

It was my first year out there and will definitely be going back. By all means we didn’t hammer them but we found some birds. Quite a bit of scouting helped and once patterned we did pretty decent. Some walks yielded birds and some walks were just that, walks. All public land. It was a lot of land to cover for two hunters. We made friends with another group our last day and the larger group walking fields helped a lot.

 

[bdg848]

Group size is good to know, we will have at least four people but only one dog (mine).

 

[RSather528]

It seemed much more efficient with a larger group. On a certain plot of land it took two of us almost an hour to cover then the following morning with 5 people blew through that in 10-15 minutes. Near Aberdeen had a ton of public land nearby but a lot more people. Mitchell still has a lot but more spread out but less pressure from our experience.

 

[bdg848]

Yeah I saw all that land by Aberdeen but wondered what the hunting pressure would be like. When in the season did you go? We would probably skip the opening week.

 

[TSAMP]

5 guys to 1 inexperienced dog? Yikes. Id reccomend u go solo with your dog and just enjoy the process of u both learning. Where abouts in eastern iowa? I feel like I might recognize your dog haha.

 

[RSather528]

Yeah I saw all that land by Aberdeen but wondered what the hunting pressure would be like. When in the season did you go? We would probably skip the opening week.

We went the first weekend of November and then second week of December. If you wanted to save some drive time western MN has birds. We drive from the Twin Cities to the SD/MN border for day hunts with success. If you stayed out there a few days you could get into birds. Not sure about the cost of out of state prices though.

 

[bdg848]

5 guys to 1 inexperienced dog? Yikes. Id reccomend u go solo with your dog and just enjoy the process of u both learning. Where abouts in eastern iowa? I feel like I might recognize your dog haha.

I'm one guy, Two of those people are my wife and my dad, they would want to come regardless of if we got birds or not. Then two buddies want to come but they are probably expecting to kill birds haha. We're in the quad cities.

 

[TSAMP]

I saw you guys out last week I think. Told you I recognized the dog. The birds are out there. Timing is as important as location right now.

 

[bdg848]

I saw you guys out last week I think. Told you I recognized the dog. The birds are out there. Timing is as important as location right now.

Haha, nice.

 

[RSather528]

I'm one guy, Two of those people are my wife and my dad, they would want to come regardless of if we got birds or not. Then two buddies want to come but they are probably expecting to kill birds haha. We're in the quad cities.

How many days would you account for hunting? After 3 straight days our dog gets pretty worn out. If you had the luxury of lots of time out there you could split of days of hunting with scouting and put some birds in the bag.

 

[bdg848]

We could do up to five days of hunting.

 

[RSather528]

We could do up to five days of hunting.

You could get into some good hunts with 5 days. We got lucky this year without having to worry about being snowed in either. A few really windy days but other than that the weather was good for putting on miles.

 

[30338]

I hunted preserve birds maybe 30 years ago. Compared to public land birds in Nebraska and Kansas, they are pretty distinctly different. For me with my dogs, there are times when you get a rock solid point on a wild rooster. Many other times I'll see he is birdy and I'll hustle to get within range. We then commence to working together as team towards either a point or a flush in range. I don't mind flushes as these birds know every trick and my goal is to be in range when they take off. So long story short, get your dog on as many birds as you can and stay close to them as the birds may simply not allow a point.

As far as hunting with others, I only hunt with my son or daughter, but 90% of the time just me and my dogs. I find that many times non dog owning hunting partners love to bark orders at a dog and offer stupid advice. I can't tolerate it and just hunt on my own. All that said, good luck and I'd go wheels up to SD next year regardless of anyone going with you or not.

 

[twall13]

I've always gone with a larger group of family and we never have enough good dogs but the larger group helps to make up for some of that. With enough people you can have pushers and blockers and work an area more efficiently. With a smaller group you'll have better luck with good dogs. The birds are wild and smart as they do get hunted but that's part of the fun, trying to figure out the best way to hunt them.

We always hit public lands and a few walk in access areas. We've also purchased a separate license and hunted some tribal ground with good success in the past but it is an added expense. Here are some photos of early December this year, all public lands (tribal lands were closed when we went). We had 10 guys and never got a combined limit this year being later in the year after the harvesting was done but we ended up averaging over 20 birds a day as a group over 3 days of hunting. We also got into some grouse and coyotes.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[Buckhunter1955]

Bagged a couple limits of birds after we filled our deer tags.

 

[tgoode]

If you enjoy pheasant hunting then make the trip to South Dakota. Plenty of public land to hunt.

 

[tclipse]

Can't speak for public land, but did a 3-day SD guided hunt on private corn a few years back and there were tons of birds. All wild birds, I think the guide was called M&N.

 

[Kevin Bogert]

Originally from eastern iowa and have hunted SD and IA both.. private and public over the years. SD public is fun and definitely worth the trip. My advice would be think and plan and scout.. set your dog up for success. Example: think about how most people have been entering the public and do it differently. Think about where most people stop on the public and go a little bit further, walk all the way to the corner/fence etc. Those birds get smart quick but can be outsmarted.
With all that being said, it sounds like iowa birds have been doing great.. this fall should be really fun. Always trust your dogs nose, throw your plan out the window if your dog takes you elsewhere!

Here's my pup at 5 months old.. she was pretty green and went just to get her on a few birds. She was still figuring it out but still managed to kill a few on public.

Find a new hunting partner if you can't talk him into going and hunting.