South Dakota Upland Hunt

[JJ1179]

Looking to put together a pheasant/upland game bird hunt in South Dakota next year. Looking for any recommendations, suggestions, or outfitters that you might recommend. Thanks!

 

[thegrouse]

Mix in a day of fishing on Lake Oahe, it is always a blast.

 

[Sea Rover]

Unless you have a group of 8 or more you won’t get a call back. Been there done that.

 

[JJ1179]

Well that sucks…

 

[KurtR]

That’s not true I guided pheasants for 15 years took out lots of groups of 4.

Oahe wings and walleyes in akaska . Right on lake Oahe if you come at the right time fish in the morning hunt the afternoon.

 

[TimberRunner]

Freelance it. SD has a great app with integrated GPS. Scouting and finding public lands is enjoyable. Sure, the public ground gets pressured later in the day, but there's roosters out there. Just have to put in the miles. Of course having several guys and a few dogs help.

Finding a small town bar for a 1-2 pm lunch is great too. Get off your feet, give the dogs a break and then hunt ground again until dark.

 

[bdg848]

We went to the Lake Oahe area three years ago hoping to possibly get some bonus sharptail grouse and huns while primarily hunting pheasants. We went without any guide service. Almost everything that was public or public access was completely grazed to the dirt. Honestly, some of the worst quality habitat I've ever seen. I've literally seen better pheasant habitat in some central Illinois counties and pheasants there are an oddity. Basically, The only place we found any birds was river bottoms that had lots of cattails and brambles and crap. We killed three or four birds in four days because they were SUPER jumpy and would fly HUNDREDS of yards ahead of us. The ones we killed were the result of the hardest cattail stomping I've ever done lol. Of course all the private land had nice tall grasses and school buses full of hunters and guides lol .

The locals said they were in a really bad drought and farmers had been cutting EVERYTHING for hay. That was our problem and going too far west only made it worse. All the habitat from western Iowa through the eastern third of SD looked much better on the way out there. I'd say don't go too far west and/or call some DNR offices ahead of time to see how the weather has been. Don't be scared to completely change regions. Of course, if you go with an outfitter they will have good habitat available wherever you go so it won't matter. However, I've never gone pheasant hunting with an outfitter and I've always had a good time and when habitat is decent, I've always found plenty of birds. Doing the research and watching pay off is half the fun!!!

 

[KurtR]

Hunt either pheasants or sharpies trying to target both at the same time does not work very often around here . Getting a bonus bird while doing that is always nice

 

[TimberRunner]

We went to the Lake Oahe area three years ago hoping to possibly get some bonus sharptail grouse and huns while primarily hunting pheasants. We went without any guide service. Almost everything that was public or public access was completely grazed to the dirt. Honestly, some of the worst quality habitat I've ever seen. I've literally seen better pheasant habitat in some central Illinois counties and pheasants there are an oddity. Basically, The only place we found any birds was river bottoms that had lots of cattails and brambles and crap. We killed three or four birds in four days because they were SUPER jumpy and would fly HUNDREDS of yards ahead of us. The ones we killed were the result of the hardest cattail stomping I've ever done lol. Of course all the private land had nice tall grasses and school buses full of hunters and guides lol .

The locals said they were in a really bad drought and farmers had been cutting EVERYTHING for hay. That was our problem and going too far west only made it worse. All the habitat from western Iowa through the eastern third of SD looked much better on the way out there. I'd say don't go too far west and/or call some DNR offices ahead of time to see how the weather has been. Don't be scared to completely change regions. Of course, if you go with an outfitter they will have good habitat available wherever you go so it won't matter. However, I've never gone pheasant hunting with an outfitter and I've always had a good time and when habitat is decent, I've always found plenty of birds. Doing the research and watching pay off is half the fun!!!

That was a unique year.

2 years ago was also brutal. The winter kill was extraordinary. Stories of thousands of pheasants huddled up on the south side of barns dead. Made hunting hard.

It's part of it. Be back at it this fall.

 

[JJ1179]

Thanks for the advice. I’ll start doing some research.