South Dakota Phez.

[fourtrax]

Does anyone have any reports on Phez. hunting in South Dakota since the opener? I am heading out for 10 days worth of Phez. this Friday

[jkoehler]

Haven't really heard any reports either. Had planned to go out and hunt next Friday/Saturday/Sunday but two of our guys are backing out now so I don't know if my brother and I are going to head up or not. We have a room reserved at Winner for 6 person suite that might go to waste. We meet a couple buddies up there who have relatives that have land so we usually hunt a mixture of private and public. Hope some reports start coming back to make our decision a little easier to go up there.

[windswept]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but it hasn't been great. The problem is with all of the rain we've been getting. The farmers can't get the crops out. With all of the crops still in the birds are pretty tough to get to. I have some property in the best part of the state and I took a few guys out on opening day. There were 5 of us and we ended the day with 9 birds. That's pretty unusual for opening day. The local media is reporting somewhere between 1/2 bird per gun to 1 bird per gun on opening day so I guess we did pretty well.
Having said all that, I'm still skipping work today to go out and give it my best. The birds are still there and I only need three!

[phermes1]

Seems they had the same issue with rain last year. It worked out great for our trip, but we didn't go until the week before Thanksgiving. Most of the crops had just been harvested and folks hadn't had much of a chance to get at the birds. There were 6 of us and we got our limit within 2 hours each day. A little too quick and easy for me, and it meant a LOT more time spent at the bar than I had planned on.

[BigShooter]

A friend was just out there with a large group hunting on one of the hunter's farmstead in a good area. They've done this several years in a row & this years results were the poorest by far, between 1/3 & 1/2 bird per person per day.

[GrayDawg]

Wow.... what a bummer. SD has always been the mecca for Pheasants in my mind.

[BigShooter]

I'd be careful about relying too much on a few reports here or there. So much can affect one weekend's hunt. Temp., winds, standing crops & the particular pieces of cover you have access to. Last weekend had cool temps., high winds & lots of standing crops. High winds alone make the birds skiddish enough in the Dakotas that you get lots of wild flushes beyond gunning range and nowhere near you or your dog(s).

[gonehuntin']

They are very late getting crops out. Soybeans are still green. Only corn out is that being chopped for silage. I'd hold off until at least the 2nd week in Nov. Hunting with crops up is TOUGH.

[dugger13]

I just got back from my first trip out there. We had 10 guys, shot 65 birds in 3 days. All the crops were still on.

[SD Pheasant Slayer]

Lotta BAD reports being posted on boards like these, but I wouldn't let it get you too down. There are ALWAYS birds to find out here and if you work at it, you're sure to kill some. A friendly pointer: depending on your level of motivation, you can hunt all day and do pretty well. HOWEVER, for those that are slowing down or under-dogged, don't make the mistake of hitting it hard at noon and giving up. With the crops still in, you have to be patient and realize that you might hunt from noon to six and only see a handful of birds. If you can't or don't want to hunt all day, save yourself for the final push before sundown. I have a public spot that you can hunt everyday at noon and probably never kill more than 1-2 roosters off it at best. We hit it the other night right before dark and killed 6 and had a few blown opportunities due to inability to get off safe shots. Find some land adjacent to a standing corn field and hit wait til the last hour of shooting light - I almost guarantee you more than your 1/2 bird per gun ratio.