Late update on SD hunt.

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deke
Rank: 3X Champion
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Joined: Wed Jun 15, 2011 3:03 pm
Location: NW washington, the state

Late update on SD hunt.

Post by deke » Wed Jan 10, 2018 6:31 pm

Well we made it back all in one piece. The bird count was low, so we did not have high expectations for the hunting this year. Took a group of six guys and four dogs. 2 dogs have been multiple years and 2 were first year dogs. 3 guys had been multiple times 3 first timers. Our first day was really slow, winds in the 45 mph range all day and finally slowed down last half hour of the day. Managed to put 9 birds in the freezer day one though. Day 2 we hunted private land (pay per gun) shot our limit for the group before lunch time. Day three we got back out and tried to hunt several of our honey holes from years before, they were mowed, most of the crp we came across was mowed in fact. Ended up split the guys up to try to find some good habitat to no avail ( never go west) ended the day with 8 birds total. Day 4 split up first thing in the morning and headed out to try to find good spots, found one and shot a few birds out of it. Flushed a few hundred. Other truck did not fair as well as we did. Day 5 dogs were starting to get a little beat up so half of the guys decided deer hunting and football were the ticket for the day. Our truck took it easy as well and hit a few quick easy spots that we knew were holding birds. Then the snow fell. White out conditions and 40 mph wind put an end to day 5. Day 6 started as day 5 ended, snow and wind. We decided a good breakfast and a slow start to the day was what we were gonna do. It worked out well, and we ended up spending the rest of day 6 pounding cat tails, and came up three birds shy of a group limit. Day 7 half of the group went deer hunting in the morning and the other half went out to pound cat tails again. One of the guys shot a nice little 5x5 and we filled our limit with my truck. Day 8 was more snow and the hunting just got that much better. We found the spots that were holding birds and figured out where they were exiting the fields and cat tails. The two guys that did not bring dogs got a lot of shooting in that day. We fell one bird short of our limit day 8 but shot a few prairie chickens. Day 9 was our last day, we were all pretty worn out at this point. We rearranged the guys in the trucks and put the two veteran dogs together since we haven’t hunted them together in SD for the last three years. It was a quick day for us and we were back packing up the truck by 1:30. All in all it was a good year. We saw a few less birds in the beginning of the trip but the snow really seemed to help us out.

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deseeker
Rank: 5X Champion
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Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2010 1:38 pm
Location: Blair, Nebraska

Re: Late update on SD hunt.

Post by deseeker » Wed Jan 10, 2018 6:54 pm

glad you got some shootin' -- sounds like a lot of work, but it paid off. I bet the dogs slept most of the way home :D

Mike da Carpenter
Rank: Junior Hunter
Posts: 49
Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2017 8:55 am
Location: SE Michigan

Re: Late update on SD hunt.

Post by Mike da Carpenter » Wed Jan 10, 2018 8:40 pm

Sounds like a great hunt in my eyes. Any pics to go along with the story?

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deke
Rank: 3X Champion
Posts: 583
Joined: Wed Jun 15, 2011 3:03 pm
Location: NW washington, the state

Re: Late update on SD hunt.

Post by deke » Wed Jan 10, 2018 9:54 pm

Got some on my phone that I can’t figure out how to post. I’ll transfer some to my computer tommorow at work

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