Are their respective Department's of Natural Resources predicting a good season? Or, is there any news good or bad at all?
But, more importantly, any motel rooms available at a reasonable price?

Pheasants are abundant on my farm west of Bismarck. Sharptails are very few as well as partridge. The closer you get to the oil patch motel rates are rape.

Both states predicting a good season. Counts are up from last year in SD, and ND--which showed a solid increase in pheasant harvest last year over 2010--is looking at least as good this year.

Hi all, to add to what JRB said, the pheasants really came back after our very mild winter. But, the numbers are not as great as in the boom years (07-09 seasons). There will be some very good hunting, but you'll still have to work a bit for them, your not just going to step out of the truck and get a limit.

The grouse are really up in the area where I hunt them. The rancher whose land I hunt told me that he's seen more grouse this year than in the past 10 years.

Huns are a different story, down period. Maybe a slight increase in some areas, but I would not cross my fingers too much. They are now pretty much a bonus bird and that's about it.

Like in the past few years, your going to have pockets of good hunting and ones that are crappy. Best thing you can do is talk to the locals and knock on a lot of doors. The best areas are generally south of I-94 and west. But as JRB said, with the oil boom, it's going to be very tough finding a place to stay, that includes camp grounds. This boom has been a blessing and a curse, but that's another story!

The loss of CRP is going to be very telling here soon, it's not quite bad yet, but it will have a major impact in the coming years, unless Congress and the state get their Sh** together and do something to make it more attractive to put land into CRP.

The PLOTS program we have is hit or miss, some are good, but a lot is just plan crap to hunt on. Grazed or hayed over, no cover. You'll have better luck in the K-Mart parking lot. The good ones get hit hard the first couple weekends and don't improve until late in the year.

Just a reminder, the first week of pheasant season (Oct 13 to the 19)is for resident hunters only. But, this only includes state lands (PLOTS, WMA, School Lands) Private land and WPA's are still good for out of staters. So you can still hunt these lands.

If you do come out, welcome, but please be respectful of my state and the famers and ranchers.

Good Luck to all of you!

Greg

Thanks guys but it seems to me that it may be harder to find a place to stay then the birds. I usually drive up around Thanksgiving and hunt the roads and railroad lines, cricks and streams for stragglers around Chamberlain. Great time and good people and excellent hunting!!

Thank you for incuding that Greg. I want to include "respect" for the game birds. As a land owner and hunter I find it dis-heartening to see people hang pheasant heads on my barb wire fence. I also feel it is dis-respectful for people to just rip the breast out of a pheasant and leave the thighs and drumsticks for the coyotes. There is a lot of meat on the thighs and drumsticks of these big beautiful birds. I hope everyone has a good season this year.

Numbers have bounced back some on my place as well. I still think the ND game and fish were full of crap that more birds were shot last year than the previous. It was the poorest year I have seen in a while. Sharptail numbers are good from what I have observed. I just got my dog back from the trainer in Mott last night because he said it was not worth keeping her there due to all the crp had been cut in the surrounding area due to the drought and he had no where to run her on birds. He is a local with lots of connections for land so that shows how bad that area may be this fall. There are birds there, just no cover to hunt. Off to MT today to hunt Sage Grouse. Hope they are well.

SD has posted 2012 brood count survey results on their game and fish dept. website.

wburns, I think even ND Game & Fish would tell you that one reason more birds were shot last year than 2010 was also weather-related: given your mild winter, hunters were still doing their thing right up to the end of the season. Makes a big difference vs a season that ends in early Dec due to a whole lot of snow.

It wouldn't be the first time I put on a pair of snowshoes to go hunting.

Feedback from my South Dakota friends around Platte is that population is down and the drought has had a significant impact, though they are still seeing some birds. We have shifted out hunt North to the Aberdeen area where numbers are predicted to be better

Mixed report from our farmer friend up in NoDak. And fortunately for us he farms/owns a large amount of ground. Seems that the pheasant numbers are good and seeing quite a few huns but sharptail numbers are down. And even more fortunate for us we stay at his place. We are looking forward to it again.

Lots of young teal in the wetlands in SE ND. What was left of our pheasant population did OK, but I have seen no sharptail or gray partridge broods. A huge area of CRP by my place will be dug up in a few weeks after haying and the sharptail lek that has been there 23 years will go with it. Big bunches of doves not seen here for several years.

Our friend's properties in SD near Huron started a decline in pheasant a few years ago. These last few yrs have been as poor as I've seen in the 20+ yrs I've been going. Although a dedicated guy with a good dog could limit, it required a good effort and multiple fields. I'm hoping the mild winter has helped the area and the draught hasn't dampened it there.

In your opinion was 2009 considered a 'good' year? Because the last time I was there was in 2009 and I've never seen so many birds.

Treb,
09 sounds about right. Seems like our hunting got a little boost right around that year, or the year before. Overall, no matter the state reports, the highest quantities of sightings of birds was at its best 20 yrs ago, on our hunting land around Huron. Much better. The worst I've seen was last year and the year before. There were still pockets of them in decent numbers. Again, just on our friend's properties...probably 10 sections total, scattered southwest of Huron. The Chamberlain area always seems to have higher numbers reported. I'd like to hunt some of the public areas there with the new dog.

Chuck, that's pretty much what I was planning to do. In November hit the Chamberlain area first then drive to Deadwood to see how good that area is.

Keeping my fingers crossed for the birds to hold and also the weather.

I don't think Deadwood is pheasant country. I doubt you'll do any better than Chamberlain anywhere in the state.

Ah yes but there is Saloon #10!! Any birds at all in that part of the state?

Agreed about the longer season for most due to weather but our bird numbers were just not there and most visiting hunters I know never even bothered coming back. I hunt a fair amount all around the state and unless you were in the sw part it pretty much sucked except for isolated pockets. Most people are not that hardcore to keep hunting even if the weather is decent if the numbers are way down. My area is traditionally one of the top nonres spots and hnter numbers were way down.

Deadwood is in the high part of the Black Hills, all forest out there, except for some grazed meadow in the stream valleys. Lower elevations not forested are grazed. Locals know how to find a few pheasants where there's a little agriculture in outlying areas, but they are sparse that far southwest. In the NW part of SD near the ND border there are huntable pheasant and prairie grouse numbers.

Jay

Thanks, GC, but no roughed grouse in that wooded area?
And don't forget I can shoot yotes too on my license just not birds!!

This sounds familiar. We hunted around Huron in 2008 and 2009 but in 2010 we headed to Chamberlain. The hunting around Chamberlain was 'ok' and in 2011 it was very poor. We even hunted areas around Webster with similar results. In 2010 Chamberlain was a zoo with hunters. The hotel in town was not even half full in 2011. What hunters were there had similar poor results.

Either way, it's another year and we can only hope the bird situation has improved.

You can hunt ruffed grouse in the Black Hills, but they aren't numerous. Check with the Black Hills National Forest folks. The hills are mostly mature ponderosa pine forest. I think some scattered aspen can be found in northern parts. Persistent drought has made the pines vulnerable to the pine beetle, and huge areas are dying off, but I don't know if this will mean anything good for ruffed grouse habitat.

Jay