Last weekend of SD pheasant

[tdhusker]

I had the very good fortune of being invited on two three day weekend hunts on a private farm in central SD this season. We just got back from our last trip on Sunday which was the last day of the SD season. My 20 mo old ES has benefited greatly from some good hunts this season, none better than the SD trips.

The owner puts together these hunts with a dozen or more hunters. He manages his property for pheasant habitat and the number of birds is remarkable. I suspect my young setter had 50 or more points in three days. Mostly hens in fairly heavy cover, but I think he had around 12 roosters shot over his point. It has been interesting for the dog to sort out all of the scent and learn to ignore large numbers of flushing birds in the distance. The first drive or two he was completely overwhelmed by the hundreds of birds flushing overhead and the ridiculous amount of scent. Yet he has learned to sort through it all and look for the hot scent. The earlier hunt was really a driven bird shoot for one day, followed by some really, crazy good hunting in nice grassy habitat. This hunt, the birds were more scattered and we had some superb moments of tight-holding birds in grassy draws, low cattails and food plots. I'll try to post a pic of the last day's take as well as a shot of my pooch on point.



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[bean1031]

man I got to go to sd! Thats some good stuff!

[DSemple]

South Dakota is fantastic. You can't beat it for good quality dog cover and the sheer number of Pheasants. I live in Kansas and my buddies and I drive the extra 3 hours each way to go to South Dakota 5 or 6 times a year. You can really make a great dog when they are getting 30 to 40 points a day. I have seen days when my best dog had 70 to 80 points in one day.