doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Slightly OT Any birds left in western SD

This week we contacted our guide in Pere SD. He said the wind that came through before the snow storm devestated many living things. One ranch alone lost 700 head of cattle. Said he would like to take our money, but said we should consider staying home.

This guy is one of the greats in SD, active in youth hunts, freinds with the last governor and knows his stuff.

Is anyone else hearing the same thing.

Jerry

Jerry
My friend's farm near Huron has had poor pheasant numbers for going on 3-4 yrs. There has been a steady decline in numbers on his land for about 5-6 yrs running.

Last year he said don't bother coming out. I went anyway. Our group of 12-14 bagged 15-18 birds in two days. This year he said he like to visit with us but don't bother bringing a gun. The state count for the area is a fraction of last year.

I imagine the western part of the state was pretty hard hit by the drought and that storm finished whatever was left.

Jerry, are you talking the Pierre area? I'd heard that most of the snow stopped west of there, and they had mostly rain around Pierre. Maybe I got bad information. But when we were hunting grouse on the Ft Pierre Grasslands a few weeks back, we saw far fewer pheasants than normal. We hunted 4 days and only flushed one pheasant while walking, and did not see many when driving out to hunt right around sunrise, when there are usually quite a few out along the roads.

Early season for resident opens today and my son and the pro dog trainer that got me started in dog training 3 decades ago, will be hunting one of the best farms in East River.

I will let you know tonight what they found hunting behind a FC and a Master Hunter. If those dogs don't find birds, there isn't any.

Gerald

Well my son called and they found few birds.

He and Tom hunted around Shade hill and Lemmon on both private lands and the public lands around the reservoir.

They each shot one bird and saw only three, hunting from opening hour to dusk on grounds we have hunted for two decades. I can't remember a day when we put up fewer than a hundred birds on those grounds.

Sorry tohear that maybe my guide "Wicker Bill" was right
Thanks for the report
Jerry

Hate to hear, the numbers this year are so dismal. This report as well as others I've read, have about put the nail in the coffin on making my annual trip back.

Thanks for the report RCC.

A MN hunting partner--very good pheasant hunter with two very good and very experienced wirehairs--did not see a single pheasant this weekend, hunting good private ground in western MN.

Wow, very disappointing to hear. As someone who has seen the pheasant population decimated in my lifetime in our state (PA), I hope this is not a trend elsewhere. Hopefully, just a downturn in cycle for a couple of years.

Set aside land programs are out of fashion and mother nature is putting a hurt on the few birds left. Hope the seed stock make it to breed next year, what seed there is.