doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com South Dakota Opening Report

I hunted in a group of five near Aberdeen SD in Brown County last weekend.

Day one was good with fourteen birds recovered in hand for five hunters. Day two nine Birds, for five hunters and day three with four hunters eight birds.

Locals told us the population was way down from the "good years" but compared to western Kansas the last few years it seemed great to me. The farm I hunted was underwater prior to last season, but this year the number of cocks and hens seemed good to me and we moved some birds on every walk. We did not limit everyday because of poor shooting by some and the lack of blockers.

Other hunters we met at local restaurants had similar success.

Sounds like a good hunting trip to me, I live on the west side and pheasants are very thin in my neck of the hills. Glad to hear you got in to them!

What's going on in western Kansas, no birds?

Our annual family hunt west of Armour, SD was much better than last year. Twelve hunters limited out both days on the opening weekend.

Most folks are attributing the better success to all the crops being harvested already due to the drought and the birds being concentrated in the few remaining CRP fields and other grassy areas rather than any increase in bird numbers.

All reports I am getting from friends out western Kansas is that Pheasant crop is worse than a bad last year. There are some good sub areas but those hot spots are limited

Just got back from hunting the first five days of the season. Five of us hunted private ground in the Winner/ Gregory/ Platte area.

Between the five of us we ended up with 40 birds total for the five days out of a possible 75. My impression is the drought has taken it's toll & they had a poor hatch. The grass is really short even in the areas that weren't hayed off or grazed. The best places we found the birds were around the few places that had some water. The area is so dry that in some places the cracks in the soil were wide & deep enough we had concerns for both the dogs & ourselves walking.

With all that said we had a great time. It sure beats working!!!

I hunted with a group on private land I've hunted steadily for the last 8 years and several times back about 20 yrs ago. The bird population on this particular farm, which isn't managed for birds, was about as poor as it has been in the last few years. About a dozen hunters/blockers managed to take 15 birds in 2 days. I was up in the Huron/Virgil area.

Our group of 10 hunters limited each of the three days we hunted, south of Pierre, S.D. We hunt on a cattle ranch; only wild birds.

Perhaps fewer birds than recent years, but there were still plenty. Drought impact was obvious, and many ponds were very low.

A few more grouse taken than last year.

JERRY

Snow was in in Dickinson ND 2 days ago when I was up there.
Went down then to Palco in Ks and had my first ever near miss with the car a huge buck came out 10ft in front crossing and I was doing 55mph, how I missed it I will never know.
Phew
Martin

Our small group of five pheasant hunters and five bird dogs did well hunting in an area just a few miles South of Hitchcock, SD.

Good bird dogs can make all the difference in pheasant hunting.

We bagged our limit 3 out of the 5 days that we hunted. If we had shot a little better we would have bagged our limit every day.

I had one crippled bird get away every day ! Most of us had one bird get away every day, some crippled some not hit at all.

I shot one roster AFTER one of my friends had already shot this same roster and with a pillow sack full of feathers left behind that roster kept right on going. WILD pheasants are tough to kill. Chips off of a clay target count as a dead bird. 20 feathers blown out of a pheasant just mean shoot again quick !!!!

We drove 5 to 10 deer out of the cattails every day that we hunted. The bucks will wait until you step on them or the dogs bite them before they will flush.

Good Hunting To You All, Jent