SD first time question

[brianb]

I'd like to go out to SD for 4 days in early November to get my dogs on some wild pheasants. I'm on a tight budget and don't want to pay $1000's for anything guided. I'd like to hunt public land exclusively. There appears to be a lot of public land along the Missouri river south of Pierre down to the NE state line. Will I get into a few birds each day or am I wasting my time hunting public land? I don't need specific info on where to hunt but I'd like to know if it would be worth the 9 hour drive from my house and time off work. My concerns are 1) By the 2nd week of November all the public land has been hunted really hard and there aren't many birds left. 2) There are lots of other guys who have the same idea and the parking areas are full of trucks and dogs each morning. 3) The lands set aside for public land are not great hunting areas or hard to access. I'll probably go myself or with one other guy and we'll have a flusher and a pointer.

[sdsujacks]

I have lived in Chamberlain for the past 2 years which is along the river essentially between Pierre and the NE border. This is a very tough question to answer.. I hunt lots of public land in this area. Early season I probably average 1 bird per hour or 2 hunted on public land. Now some days, that may be 3 birds in 30 minutes. Then the next 4 days I don't even see one. I'm not comfortable inviting friends from out of state to hunt public land with me because its to inconsistent and I fear that they will spend $200 on gas, $100 on license, $100 on food drinks, another $100 on who knows what and just my luck they will be hunting with me on a four day stretch that I don't see anything on public land... then they leave and I see birds! Late season I can see hundreds upon hundreds of birds on some spots of public land but they are so wild that you may not even get a shot on them. If you are coming to SD to hunt on public land what I recommend is to hunt ditches. Find a ditch next to a picked cornfield, nearby water source, and I almost come away with 1 bird every half mile walked. Ditches that have cattails in them are also very good. I park my truck on the side of the road and get out walking with my dog, go up a section and back on the other side of the road, same as anybody else that hunts ditches.

[Donnytpburge]

Brian

I make the trip every year.

Research the game laws. There is a lot of public walk in areas and management areas. You can also hunt the ditches
In the public road. This was crazy sounding to me at first, it's called road hunting in the game laws. I know some guys that will drop pointers in the gravel road and just follow them in there truck, the dog goes on point & they get out of the truck and shoot the bird. Most folks that live there don't mind the road hunting because hunters boost the economy.

I always go for a 6 day hunt, I hunt public ground the first three and hunt private ground the last three.
Last year was tough, but if you locate the big three ( nesting cover,food&water) you will run into birds.

You need a bunch of dogs for a 4 day trip, I always take 6,, hunt 2 at a time and rotate them out every hour.

The local people have always been great. Meet as many folks as you can and get the down low. People there always stop to check my dogs out when they see the dog box in my truck. I have been successful getting permission to hunt slot of private ground there because the local folks want to see if my mississippi dogs can even find a pheasant.

I'm not gonna give you specific locations on the board, shoot me a pm if you want and I can narrow it down a bit.

Db

[LtsHnt]

my family and i hunt the miller area. we are lucky enough to have private ground there, however i must say you could do just as well if not better in less time hunting the ditches some days. just driving from field to field we see more than enough to fill our limits...unfortunatly this means you wont get to see the dogs work nearly as much and really, that seems to defeat the purpose to me. if i were in your shoes. i would hunt puplic land during the day, and when the sun begins to set, hit the ditches. it seems alot of birds hit the gravel before sunset then find thick cover to roost.. i also tend to see alot of birds in food plots when the sun is high...just my observations

[windswept]

You may want to consider the Aberdeen area. Pheasant numbers always seem to be good up there and there is plenty of public land.
I have lived in SD all my life and I have a little different take on the road hunters.
My impression is that the majority of the landowners out here don't like the road hunting at all. Many of us mow our ditches to keep the road hunters away. From a state tourism viewpoint I guess allowing road hunting is a good thing because there are plenty of out of state hunters doing it. From a sportsman's point of view I think it makes us all look bad. Trucks running down the road, slamming on the brakes and jumping out to shoot from the road way. Dogs running across the roads, in some cases road hunters crossing fence lines and trespassing because the temptation seems to great for them.
If the general public (especially the farming community) got to decide on road hunting I think it would have been gone long ago.
Stick to the fields and you'll have a lot more fun anyway.

[Neil]

I think In SD you are not allowed to hunt roadways within 660 feet of a structure or livestock and you cannot take a loaded gun on private land to retrieve game.

If those rules are followed all the ranchers I know welcome hunters, it is what keeps the country green.

I rarely do it.

[big_fish]

I thought you were only allowed to hunt 5 days on and had to take 5 days off is this right? or just for non residents?

[Neil]

Two 5 day periods that can be back to back for non-residents (residents can hunt ever day of the season plus some (2 weekends?) before. And non-residents can buy more than one license a season, @ $113.00 each. So if you have the time and money you, too, could hunt as much as residents, except for the pre-season.

Neil

[Meller]

I thought you were only allowed to hunt 5 days on and had to take 5 days off is this right? or just for non residents?

You can hunt the ten days straight, but the limit stays the same 15 birds possesion; that's why most split into two five day season's.

[Neil]

That possesion thing leaves me scratching my head. Does it mean you, as a resident, cannot exceed it in your freezer? I understand a non-resident can't transport above that limit out of state, though in over 40 years I have never been checked.

At any rate, we eat a good many during the ten days, leave the others with the rancher (just can't imagine SD Game and Fish checking his house for pheasant) and take only our 15 per, home.

Think I will Google it.